Letterman has dubbed this week as Country Music Week on The Late Show, with musical performances each night from prominent Nashville entertainers. Stanley will close out this theme week talking about his very personal book, written with Eddie Dean. It covers Ralph’s life from early childhood with his brother, Carter, through their time together as The Stanley Brothers, and his own musical career after Carter’s passing in 1966.

We’ll have more to say about this deeply moving autobiography soon.

The Late Show airs on CBS television at 11:35 p.m. (ET/PT).

UPDATE 10:30 a.m. – We just got an update from Norma Morris, of Morris Public Relations, who handles publicity for Ralph Stanley:

“Letterman will mention the book, open it up and make some comments, but Ralph will not have the opportunity to sit down and discuss it. So he will perform one song, Room at the Top of the Stairs. The Letterman people have been just great.”

The show can be heard on WAMU online and is syndicated on 150 NPR affiliate stations all over the US. The segment with Ralph is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. (EDT).

Audio archives are maintained on the WAMU site, and today’s show will be available in the archive approximately one hour after the program ends.

UPDATE 1:00 p.m. – We just heard from WAMU’s Bluegrass Country host Katy Daley, who sent along a couple of photos from today’s visit from a number of bluegrass legends.

While Dr. Ralph Stanley was being interviewed (and line singing) with Diane Rehm, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen were across the hall on the air with Lee Michael Demsey on Bluegrass Country.  Hillman and Pederson sang a few songs live — Wait a Minute, Love Reunited among them — and talked their 45-years in the music business — Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Desert Rose Band.

They’re in town to play the Birchmere tonight with The Grascals.  Chris Hillman is giving a lecture on his career at the Library of Congress on Friday from Noon to 1.

It was originally released as Sixteen Years on cassette tape in 1985 on Stanley’s Rivertracks label, intended for regional distribution, and then re-released ten years later on Copper Creek. Accompanying Ralph was one of the choice editions of The Clinch Mountain Boys, with Charlie Sizemore on guitar and lead vocals, Junior Blankenship on lead guitar, Curly Ray Cline on fiddle and Jack Cooke on bass.

Gary Reid of Copper Creek, an historian of the music of Ralph Stanley, speaks quite highly of this recording, and had at one time planned a repacked reissue on his label.

“I always thought this was one of the best efforts Charlie Sizemore did with Ralph.”

Rounder has now remastered the original recording and will release it yet again on September 22. Songs include:

Charlie Sizemore contributes some remembrances of this session in the liner notes, saying that it was recorded in the “old time way.” All the tracks were cut live on a single day in the studio, with all mixing completed on the next. He then tackles the question of why this recording succeeds so well in capturing the Stanley sound.

“While not entirely comfortable with the recording process, during the making of this record he almost seems to be having fun. Curly Ray Cline and Jack Cooke, veterans both, are on top of their game. Nevertheless, the configuration of this band is relatively new. Despite the long hours, complacency is not an issue. And if it has any designs on this recording session, Ralph makes short work of thwarting it ‚Äì not only by example, which is customary, but also with direct, spoken exhortations and admonitions, which is rare. At times he urges the band, in so many words, to stay alert. So part of the answer may lie here.

Or it could matter that Ralph produced and initially released this recording on his own rather than for a record company. Under no deadline and with no one looking over his shoulder, so to speak, he has no one to please but his fans and himself. Perhaps this freedom provides a lack of self-consciousness, at once energizing and relaxing him.”

This is one I will be eagerly anticipating.

CMT.com News ran a story last week detailing these remarks, which was removed from the site within a few hours.

They say that the publishers had contacted them about the story after it ran, leading to the following correction:

In copies of the book sent to critics in early July, Stanley criticized McGraw for his song selections and for perceived slights of Stanley at the 2002 Grammys. Earlier this week, CMT.com received confirmation from Gotham Books, publisher of Stanley’s autobiography, that the comments about McGraw remained in the author’s final edits of the book.

Far be it from a book publisher to send out review copies with inflammatory content to generate interest, so we presume that Dr. Ralph’s editor was successful in convincing him to tone things down a bit.

We’ll have our review copy soon, and will reserve comment further until we go though it ourselves.

The book covers Stanley’s entire musical career, from his start in 1946 as the younger member of the Stanley Brothers through to his emergence in 2000 as a solo superstar following the release of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack album.

The forthcoming book has already caused a stir in Nashville with some criticism of country singer Tim McGraw. CMT News published a piece earlier today, which has now been taken down, that carried the following paragraph:

He takes on Tim McGraw, both for his music (”He wouldn’t know a real country song if it kicked him in the ass”) and for being disrespectful toward him when he beat out McGraw and others in 2002 for the Grammy for best male country vocal performance. Stanley also admits he still holds a grudge against the late John Duffey of the Seldom Scene for playing demeaning pranks on other bands. Oddly enough, the 82-year-old singer has nothing but fond memories of Bill Monroe, one of his early idols, even though he acknowledges Monroe quit Columbia Records in protest when that label signed the Stanley Brothers. His book is full of colorful details, such as the fact that the late Keith Whitley, while in Stanley’s band, used to style his boss’ hair before they went onstage.

CMT said that Stanley also reflects on what some might view as his own shortcomings, including his failed first marriage, his tendency to treat music primarily as a business and his refusal to hire Yankees to play in his the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Man of Constant Sorrow was written with Eddie Dean and will be published by Gotham Books. We will have many more details about this book shortly.

Pre-orders are already enabled at Barnes & Noble.

Ralph’s grandson Nathan Stanley, who plays mandolin and sings with the band, fiddler Dewey Brown, and his wife Leslie, were returning to the Browns’ home in North Carolina after a show at the Bean Blossom Festival when they were struck by a drunk driver, sending their vehicle into a ditch.

Nathan broke both his legs, and Leslie suffered a broken leg and serious bruising, causing great concern as she was six weeks pregnant at the time. Fortunately, it appears that they are all expected to recover fully, but their recuperations will be long ones.

James Alan Shelton, guitarist and road manager with Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, sent along this update on how everyone is doing.

Nathan and Leslie are recuperating at home and both seem to be doing OK. It is just going to take a lot of time for them to heal.

I think Leslie is walking a little bit but Nathan can only put his full weight on one of his broken legs. He is not able to walk and is using a wheelchair to get around. He is exercising his legs quite a bit and seems to be doing remarkably well. Nathan actually performed while sitting in his wheelchair last Thursday night at our show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, but it will be awhile before he is able to go back full time.

Dewey wasn’t as seriously injured as the other two so he is doing just fine. I saw pictures of the car and they are all very lucky to be alive. Everyone appreciates the cards, letters and prayers they have received and the concern that has been shown by the bluegrass community since the accident.

Cards and letters can be sent to the following addresses:

Galofaro spoke with Brown about the accident, and he and Leslie’s concern about their unborn child.

The Browns are worried about their first baby.

“We haven’t heard any bad news, but they keep telling up all kinds of things that could go wrong,” Dewey Brown said. “It’s a miracle we didn’t end up upside down and trapped and drowning. It could’ve been a lot worse.”

He only returned to the scene to retrieve his fiddle from the broken-down SUV.

Nathan Stanley was recovering in the children’s intensive care unit.

“He’s been around to a lot of places, he’s way beyond his years,” Brown said. “But he is just 16. That’s young for this.”

Ralph Stanley was on his way to the hospital to visit his grandson Tuesday evening.

“Oh, gosh, I didn’t sleep all night,” said Leslie Brown’s grandmother, Anna Lee Vandyke, of Abingdon, Va., who rushed four hours to the hospital Monday morning. “I’m just thankful they weren’t killed. We’re just so lucky.”

Read the full article on the Bristol Herald web site.

Here is his report…

A speeding drunk driver is blamed for a hit and run accident involving Leslie Brown, Dewey Brown and Nathan Stanley. Dewey and Nathan are members of bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley’s band, The Clinch Mountain Boys. Here is the story as I know it, from phone conversations I have had with Dewey Brown.

Dewey, Nathan and Dewey’s wife Leslie were all traveling in a Nissan Murano. They were on the way to Dewey’s home in Snow Camp, North Carolina when the accident occurred at about 12:30 am Monday morning June 22. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys had just gotten in Sunday morning from the festival at Bean Blossom, IN and Nathan was riding home with Dewey to work on songs for a duet album that they were planning to record.

They had stopped for dinner in Abingdon, VA at the home of Leslie’s grandparents and were continuing on to Snow Camp. They were approaching a bridge within about five miles of Dewey’s home when a 23 year old in a Chevy Camaro who was intoxicated hit them from behind at approximately 80 miles an hour. They were knocked into a creek but landed upright in about four feet of water and large rocks.

Dewey suffered a hard blow to the face but suffered no broken bones. According to Dewey, the airbags deployed and probably saved their lives. Nathan and Leslie were airlifted to the hospital at Duke University in Durham. Nathan suffered two broken legs and Leslie had a broken leg and a badly bruised collarbone. Both were in surgery on Monday to repair the broken bones.

Leslie, who is about six weeks pregnant with the couple’s first child, is in a lot of pain because they cannot give her strong medication due to her pregnancy. Although it is too early to tell for certain, Dewey said that Leslie may be released later in the week but he had not been able to see Nathan since they arrived at the hospital. It is not known when he might be released but both seem to be doing as well as could be expected.

Nathan’s mother Tonya and her husband Jason Armes are with Nathan at the hospital. Anyone wanting to send a card can do so at the following addresses:

According to police reports, the driver of the Camaro, Alejandro Sosa was charged with felony hit and run, DWI (blood alcohol level of 0.14%), speeding and careless and reckless driving.

Please keep Dewey, Leslie and Nathan in your thoughts and prayers.

We are still collecting information, and will update as we can confirm further details, but it appears that Nathan, Ralph’s grandson and mandolinist with the road show, suffered two broken legs in the crash. He underwent surgery earlier today at Duke Medical Center and is said to be resting now.

Dewey suffered a broken nose and his wife, Leslie, has a broken leg as well, plus injuries to her collarbone.

Hopefully we will have more details in the morning – and some encouraging news!

Written by Randy Lewis, it recalls a backstage encounter at Stagecoach 2009, held in Indio, CA.

Mountain music patriarch Ralph Stanley just arrived at the traditional-music themed Mustang Stage sporting a nastily bruised right eye, bandaged above and below.

I asked if he’s OK, and the 82-year-old quipped, “You should see the other guy!”

Ricky Skaggs, having just wrapped a scintillating set with his band, joined the conversation and extended a heartfelt, “I’m real sorry to see you like this, Ralph.”

The claw-hammer banjo master said he’d been standing on a stool cleaning an air conditioner back home in West Virginia when the stool slipped, sending him to the floor.

UPDATE 4/30: James Allen Shelton, Ralph Stanley’s lead guitarist and road manager posted this correction in the comments.

This report is all wrong. Ralph was trying to adjust the heat in his motel bathroom in Vacaville, CA last Saturday morning. He got up on a chair with rollers under it and it slipped out from under him. He hit hard on the tile floor. He took seven stitches over his right eye but was able to perform that night at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley and the next day at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, CA.

Already released (on April 1) is the companion soundtrack CD entitled Appalachia: Music From Home (on Lonesome Records).

The CD features such artists Ralph and Nathan Stanley, Art Stamper, James Allen Shelton, Jean Ritchie, Dock Boggs, Carl Martin, and contemporary songwriters Darrell Scott, Robin and Linda Williams; and Blue Highway; and youthful artistes such as The Midnight Ramblers, Molly Slemp, Clack Mountain String Band, Evan Carawan and Mitch Barratt.

Some of the tracks – Pretty Saro (Jean Ritchie), Midnight on the Water (Art Stamper), Soldiers Joy (James Allen Shelton), Union Man (Blue Highway), Gloryland (the Stanleys) and Don’t Let Me Come Home A Stranger (Robin and Linda Williams) – included have been taken from earlier projects. Others – such as The Blackest Crow (Molly Slemp), Shady Grove (Mitch Barrett) and Banjo Clark (Darrell Scott) – are recent recordings apparently done for the film.

Appalachia: Music From Home is funded in part by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, The Appalachia Regional Commission, The C Bascam Slemp Foundation and the Wise County, Virginia Board of Supervisors.

Check your local stations for more details regarding broadcasting times for Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People.

Stanley’s appearance at the Pavilion, Bath, during the five-day event will be accompanied by several other interesting bluegrass-related including the showing of the films That High Lonesome Sound, an historic music documentary of rural Appalachia, the remarkable three hour PBS film The Appalachians and the Coen Brothers comedy, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, with T-Bone Burnett’s bluegrass, gospel and country blues soundtrack.

Also appearing are storyteller, banjo player and singer Jerry Harmon; and Will Kaufman (accompanying himself on guitar, fiddle and banjo), who will talk about and perform the songs of Woody Guthrie.

The Festival has a fringe element that will feature the Handsome Family, a Chicago based husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks, who blend traditional country, bluegrass and murder ballads.

Details and booking arrangements can be found at the festival website.

Footnote: While in the UK, Ralph Stanley will make an appearance at the Barbican Hall, in London, May 27.

Other dates may be added in due course.

An abridged version of the story will appear in a forthcoming edition of British Bluegrass News magazine.

On this date (1 March) 60 years ago the Stanley Brothers recorded the now classic The White Dove for Columbia Records.

It was a song that Carter Stanley wrote while on the road according to what he told Mike Seeger, shortly before he passed away,

"I have done the most songs that I have written at night. A lot of times travelling; you know, nobody saying much, your mind wanders, one thing to another. I guess  you’d call it imagination. I remember very well when I wrote ‘The White Dove’. We was coming home from Ashville, North Carolina, to Bristol, Tennessee, and I had the light on because I wanted to write it down and Ralph was fussing at me for having the light on. He was driving and he said the light bothered him, but he hasn’t fused any more about that."

About 10 years later Ralph confirmed that, when speaking to Bob Cantwell,

"It was one of his first songs. He was in the back seat of the car writing that and by the time we got to the radio station near home we had a verse and chorus worked out. I don’t know what caused him to think of the white dove except that he was studying on it, how it could affect you‚Ķ"

The White Dove was the second song recorded, among eight that they did that day during a session at Castle Studio, in the Tulane Hotel, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Three out of the four, including The White Dove, were given different treatment from the normal Stanley Brothers’ approach to their trio arrangement.  At the suggestion of Art Wooten, they introduced a high baritone vocal, with Pee Wee Lambert and Ralph Stanley singing above Carter Stanley’s lead.

The White Dove was paired with Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet on a Columbia 78, No. 20577, released on 4 April, 1949. In addition to Carter Stanley (guitar), Ralph Stanley (banjo) and Lambert (mandolin), the recording featured ‚ÄòJay’ Hughes (bass) and Bobby Sumner (fiddle).

We know from symbolic traditions that white doves are associated with love and devotion, peace and unity. They mate for life and strive to return home. Although we’re not sure exactly what Biblical reference Crarer Stanley may have had in mind in writing the White Dove, there are several connections with scripture from the Holy Bible.

We learn in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 8, that after forty days of the great flood, Noah was still on the ark when he first released a raven to search for land.  Then Noah sent forth a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set her foot and returned to the ark.  Noah waited another seven days and again sent out the dove.  This time the dove returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf, a sign the waters were receding.  Noah waited another seven days and sent forth the dove again and she did not return, an indication of having found land.

In the New Testament, the book of Mark, Chapter 1, we are told John the Baptizer met Jesus in the Jordan river and baptized Jesus.  When Jesus came up out of the water the heavens opened and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove.  This image is contained in the lyrics of Sweet Holy Spirit by Joe Isaacs and recorded by the Isaacs on their project Heroes.

Joe writes:

From newadvent.org we find reference to two doves on a funeral monument sometimes signifying the conjugal love and affection of the parties buried there.  Perhaps Carter Stanley was thinking of that symbol when he wrote:

The New Advent website noted above also reflects that doves on a sarcophagus signify the peace of the departed soul, especially if it bears an olive branch in its beak.  In the "White Dove" perhaps Carter Stanley was mourning in sorrow, as the white dove, since mother and daddy are dead, an image associated with home and family in the Clinch Mountains where the brothers were born and raised.

Jeanie Stanley, Carter’s ‚Äòbaby girl’ shared her thoughts about The White Dove  ‚Ķ..

"My father wrote this particular song one night while he and Ralph were travelling. Ralph was aggravated because my father had the light on and it was bothering him. Then Ralph got miffed because my Dad had killed off their mother and father in the song when he heard it.  Needless to say, it became one of my father’s most well-known songs. The words just touch your very soul and are like darts to the heart.  It is probably Carter Stanley’s ’signature song’ so to speak. I think it tells of a mournful yearning for what becomes lost to some in their quest to find themselves. The person my father refers to in this song has come full circle. It is basically autobiographical in nature.  It was always one of my favorites."

It has been a song, as Ralph Stanley noted, that is “the backbone of the Stanley sound”. [Gary B Reid]

Recorded Sources -

• Columbia Master CO 40507 The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys 1949-52 (Bear Family BCD 15564 AH)
• The Stanley Brothers – Clinch Mountain Bluegrass (Vanguard 77018-2) Recorded at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival
• The Stanley Brothers Stanley Series Volume 4 Number 1 (Copper Creek CCCD 5513) Recorded at New River Ranch, Rising Sun, Maryland – July 29, 1956
• The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys The Essential Gospel Masters (Varese Sarabande 302 066 669 2) includes the 1959 King version of  White Dove [King single 5233]

We found a couple recently with bluegrass themes or content.

CMT.com compiled a list of 10 Indie Albums You Might Have Missed, which includes Melonie Cannon’s And The Wheels Turn CD.

One of the most expressive singers in Nashville, and not merely in bluegrass circles, Cannon compels you to listen to these stories of everyday life, whether she’s consoling a new friend or stumbling into love after swearing it would never happen.

Dave Royko has also submitted his annual list of the top bluegrass/newgrass releases of the year for The Chicago Tribune, published yesterday (12/14).

Dave chose:

• Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled
• Punch Brothers: Punch
• Corbett/Chrisman/Tice, self-titled
• Ralph Stanley: Old-Time Pickin’‚ÄîA Clawhammer Banjo Collection
• Bela Fleck & the Flecktones: Jingle All the Way

You can read Dave’s comments about each project online.

His suggestion as to who should wear the crown? Ralph Stanley.

His reasoning for recognizing Stanley is certainly sound, but his premise is wrong.

If Monroe was the King of Bluegrass, the fact remains that the king is dead and the throne can’t remain empty, the crown unworn. Perhaps it’s time to coronate a new King of Bluegrass, and if so the only true heir is Dr. Ralph Stanley.

Two errors of understanding on Baker’s part inhabit this suggestion.

First, succession to the crown just doesn’t happen that way in the music world. No one is suggesting that because Elvis is dead we should crown someone else as the King of Rock-n-Roll. That suggestion would be met with great protest by true Rock-n-Roll fans. The crown is the King’s and he lives on in his recordings. So too in bluegrass, the King may have left us, but his music has not.

Secondly, but just as important, Monroe was never considered the King of Bluegrass. That distinction falls to Jimmy Martin. Baker has just shown his lack of familiarity with the genre, to engage in a discussion concerning the royalty of bluegrass, and mistake the King.

He does acknowledge Monroe’s rightly deserved, and highly honored, title as the Father of Bluegrass, and gives Dr. Ralph perhaps a very fitting title at the same time.

Bill Monroe is widely recognized as the Father of Bluegrass, and so, in that context, perhaps we can consider Ralph Stanley as the genre’s kindly Uncle ‚Äî the guy who teaches us about life and ourselves without inflicting the unflinching discipline and judgmental subjectivity of our old man.

Baker should have stopped there with the giving of titles. I think most of us bluegrass fans would be perfectly OK with Uncle Ralph. But then, that wouldn’t have worked with his angle: The Bluegrass of King, The King of Bluegrass.

Still, it’s not Stanley’s sizable global accomplishments that will be honored at Sunday night’s Cincinnati Entertainment Awards but his local connection to King Records on the occasion of the label’s 65th anniversary.

The recognition of King Records’ 65th anniversary, and Ralph Stanley’s connection to the label, are worth celebrating. I love Dr. Ralph’s music as much as the next trad-bluegrass fan, but let’s not be so quick to attempt the coronation of a new King. Jimmy’s music is alive and well.

All hail the King! Honor your Father! And enjoy hanging out with your Uncle!

The latest Rebel release, a Ralph Stanley compilation CD called Old-Time Pickin’, is one of Dave’s recent projects. Freeman culled through the label’s extensive back catalog of Stanley’s music and selected 18 tracks that highlight the good doctor’s clawhammer banjo plying. This is a side of Ralph that fully emerged when he starting working as a solo artist after his brother’s death in 1966, and most Ralph Stanley albums in the 1970s contained at least one track with the old time style banjo.

Serious Stanley collectors will recognize these title: Rocky Island, Shout Little Lulu, Little Birdie, Bound To Ride, Shady Grove, John Henry. All feature the mountain roots of the Stanley sound, both with his voice and the banjo – the way he initially learned to play as a child.

This new CD offers a great way to have all these old time Stanley songs in a neat little package, with three tracks never before released on CD. Audio samples are available in iTunes.

UPDATE 6:00 p.m.   Mark Freeman at Rebel has told me that not all of the tracks on Old Time Pickin’ are from back catalog projects.

“Half of the songs on the collection are previously unreleased cuts that Ralph only recently recorded. Most of them come from an aborted clawhammer album he was working on for us back in 2001. After the success of O’ Brother he signed his deal with Sony and the clawhammer project went unfinished. We took the strongest tracks from those sessions and combined them with the material from his older Rebel albums.”

This One Is II may come as a surprise to fans who have enjoyed his previous recordings, offering a stylistic departure as sudden as it is stark. I saw “II” only a few weeks ago with the Ralph Stanley show, and while he did perform one song from the new CD, there was no hint from the stage how much of a change he is pursuing.

Hopefully bluegrass fans will give this new project a fair hearing, as the music – if not strictly bluegrass – is very appealing, and well-suited to Stanley’s voice. The sound is a mix of bluegrass and acoustic country, and the instrumentation is all acoustic, without percussion. The most striking differences from his prior releases come in the song choices and the production (by Mike Latterell). Even using the standard bluegrass ensemble (and familiar bluegrass super-pickers), the arrangements are fresh and thoughtful, giving each song the treatment suggested by the melody and lyrics.

For example, the opening track (a cover of Garth Brooks’ Cold Shoulder) uses Tim Crouch’s twin fiddles and Randy Kohrs’ gritty resonator guitar much as a country producer might, and Ralph’s vocals are as reminiscent of Keith Whitley’s early Nashville sound as anything The Stanley Brothers ever cut.

Other strong tracks include a nice version of Lyle Lovett’s, L.A. County (a modern murder ballad), Tom T. Hall’s Train Songs, and Loretta, from Townes Van Zandt. That last – a paean to an idealized girlfriend – makes a very convincing grass tune, and Ralph’s mountain-edged vocals really sell the story.

Randall Deaton of Lonesome Day Records, who will be releasing This One Is II on September 23, tells us that Stanley started this project looking for a change, but wasn’t completely clear where he wanted to go.

“When I first spoke with Ralph on the phone I had never had a conversation with him in my life. The one thing I got from this first conversation was that he wanted to do something else. I didn’t know exactly what it was, and I don’t think he knew what it was either. There was a mix of restlessness, excitement, and fear all rolled into one.

The record evolved after the production began. I think that we all got more and more excited as the process went along because things were turning out better than we had anticipated.”

Stanley describes that evolution thusly…

“It started out as a record that would be half acoustic country and half Stanley sounding. The more we got into it, the more we realized we were making two separate records rather than two halves of one record. We continued in the acoustic country direction.”

Ralph gives a lot of credit for the album’s sound to producer, Mike Latterell.

“Mike started out as the engineer only and became a defacto producer as the album evolved.

I was introduced to Mike by Randall Deaton. Mike had worked on several previous Lonesome Day releases as well as records by Rhonda Vincent, Randy Kohrs, and Jim Lauderdale. He was also an intern for Bill Vorndick when we recorded the Clinch Mountain Country CD.

He also had quite a bit to do with the musical arrangements. Mike was there for every note so he got what he wanted from the musicians.”

In addition to Tim Crouch and Randy Kohors (who also sings harmony vocals), This One Is II has Cody Kilby on guitar, Ron Stewart on banjo, Adam Steffey on mandolin and Harold Nixon on bass. Steve Gulley, Darren Vincent, Marty Raybon and Dale Ann Bradley also provide vocal backup.

The packaging of the CD is also a departure from previous Ralph Stanley II or Lonesome Day projects. It is a fold-out Digipack, and as Brance highlighted last month, follows the new trend of packaging without liner notes or a insert booklet.

Deaton explains…

“The decision was made in part by the graphics designer Jami Anderson. We wanted the packaging to be bright and vivid but fairly simple. We wanted more visual images in the packaging rather than a lot of words. All the essential information (credits, track listing) is hidden behind the CD. This record is such a departure for Ralph that we knew he would be talking about the songs quite a bit so it didn’t seem nesassary to include a bunch of words in the design.”

This One Is II has shipped to both country and bluegrass radio, so you may be hearing cuts on the air or online soon. Lonesome Day has hopes of seeing the album make waves in a variety of markets.

“We think this is good music that is appealing to a lot of different people. It is very hard to label this CD, played with the traditional bluegrass instruments but sounding a lot like an old country record. We are pushing this album to the country and Americana audience as well as bluegrass.

It has been added to over 50 secondary country stations in the last three weeks. Those are just the ones that our radio promoter is working. We are confident that there are several other stations playing the song but are not on the promoter’s list.”

For his part, Stanley is moving on as a solo artist and as he turns 30, leaving the comfort and security of his dad’s music behind.

“I am putting together a new band as we speak. A very talented musician from Nashville named Todd Livingston is the band leader and he is filling out the remaining members right now.

We have played a couple shows already. I have two more shows to do with the Clinch Mountain Boys and then I am on my own.”

This One Is II should go a long way towards establishing a new musical identity for Ralph Stanley II. Great songs, warmly recorded, with top-notch performances… what more do you need?

Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine recently announced 10 winners for the Governor’s Award for the Arts this year and Dr. Ralph was the only individual musician among them. The presentation ceremony will take place at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

Governor Kaine explains the purpose of the awards.

These awards recognize outstanding achievement and excellence in the arts. They call attention to the creative spirit that contributes to the quality of life throughout the Commonwealth.

Ralph Stanley has been performing since 1946 when he, and brother Carter, began touring as The Stanley Brothers.

Congratulations Dr. Ralph, for a well deserved honor!

I was able to attend last Friday’s (7/25) show where I enjoyed music of Grasstowne, Jimmy Bowen & Santa Fe, The Bluegrass Brothers and Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys – and was flat blown away by my first live experience of Dailey & Vincent!

Jenny Slaughter, the official FiddleFest photographer, shared a number of images she captured at the festival, which we share with our readers forthwith.

Case sees the situation from the perspective of a booking agent trying to book, schedule, and route shows for bluegrass artists. He talked about the increased price of fuel for tour busses, the increased cost of airfare and the decreased availability of flights, and the increased cost of rental vehicles.

Case relates the story of a recent short, three show tour, for Ralph Stanley.

He went from home [in southwest Virginia], played three dates that were all closely routed in Texas. He came back and his [roundtrip] fuel bill was almost $2,000.

Since these dates were all booked a year or more ago, the artists are really feeling the financial crunch from these fuel costs. My own conversations with artists indicate that many acts are unable to increase their asking price for a festival date because the promoters are simply unwilling to invest more in artist fees for next year while uncertain what attendance will look like a year from now.

Case ties a decline in CD sales to the increase fuel costs as well. Indicating that it not only costs the band more to get to the show, it also costs the fans more. Having spent much of their available cash on gas, the fans are buying less once they reach the festival.

…people are spending so much to go to festivals, as far as fuel costs go, that they are not spending as much at the festivals.

Interestingly, the author of the article then converses with a tour buss rental company manager concerning attendance at a couple of country music festivals. He then returns to bluegrass with Skaggs and Sharon McGraw.

Sharon shared that her research indicates no noticeable decline in bluegrass festival attendance, this year.

I think people have been a little more selective in how far they’ve gone [to attend festivals]. But attendance-wise, from what I’ve seen, it seems to be steady.

I think next year is when it’s all going to trickle down, when artists will say, ‘Well, we were just going to bite the bullet. Now we’ve bitten it, and it’s biting us.’ That may be where some of it comes apart.

We’ve run two polls this year, one at the beginning of the festival season, and one just recently, asking our readers if increased fuel costs would have an affect on their festival attendance this year. The results show 60% of readers indicating they are/have attending fewer festivals this year as a result of the increase in fuel costs.

If Ralph Stanley and Ricky Skaggs are feeling a financial crunch, it must be even more difficult for bands with lower booking fees, as fuel costs eat a larger percentage of their revenue. What all this means for he future of bluegrass is yet to be seen. Perhaps more bands and fans will take some advice from the title of the new Grascals CD!