Ralph Stanley

Ralph Stanley's high, lonesome voice and clawhammer-rooted banjo defined the mountain sound of bluegrass. With his brother Carter he led the Stanley Brothers, and late in life a new generation found him through the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Life

Stanley grew up in the mountains of southwest Virginia, where his father sang church music and his mother taught him to play banjo in the old clawhammer style. After a short spell in the Army, in 1946 he and his older brother Carter formed the Clinch Mountain Boys and began broadcasting on WCYB in Bristol. As the Stanley Brothers they became one of the great early bluegrass acts, recording for King Records from the late 1950s.

Carter died in 1966, and Ralph carried on leading the Clinch Mountain Boys for another five decades. Lincoln Memorial University gave him an honorary Doctor of Music in 1976, which is why he was known as "Dr. Ralph Stanley". He died in 2016.

O Brother and late fame

In 2000 Stanley sang the unaccompanied "O Death" on the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?. It won him the 2002 Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance, and the same year Lost in the Lonesome Pines, with Jim Lauderdale, won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. He received a National Heritage Fellowship in 1984 and the National Medal of Arts in 2006.

Songs to know

• "O Death", his Grammy-winning a cappella performance.
• "Man of Constant Sorrow", recorded by the Stanley Brothers long before the film made it a hit. Read its history.
• "Pretty Polly" and "Shout Little Luly", a tune he learned from his mother.

Selected albums

Want to play in his style? Start with our banjo guide and the bluegrass section.