Ralph Stanley, the elder statesman of bluegrass, who died Thursday at age 89, never went out of favor with young people.
When the AJC spoke with him in 2013, he was headlining an Athens show featuring the Honeycutters and other performers the age of his grandchildren, many of whom learned how to play by listening to recordings of Ralph Stanley and his brother Carter playing in the Clinch Mountain Boys.
“They like what I do,” he said simply.
At that point he had performing for almost 70 years. Stanley’s influence spread beyond the world of bluegrass and encompassed all American music.
When the EDM artist Pretty Lights recorded a dance number featuring Stanley’s vocals on “Wayfaring Stranger,” the octogenarian confessed that he didn’t remember seeing the video, but was glad to be included. “Any time you’re putting something out and people are still listening to you, you know you’re still around, you know you’ve not done too bad.”
He helped keep his music on the front burner playing 100 gigs a year into his 80s, traveling in a custom bus with his own sleeping quarters.
The 2000 movie “Brother Where Art Thou” brought Stanley to an even broader audience. The soundtrack, which topped the Billboard 200 chart, was highlighted by his chilling a cappella performance of “O Death,” with its haunted lyrics:
Well what is this that I can’t see
With ice cold hands takin’ hold of me
Well I am death, none can excel
I’ll open the door to heaven or hell
Stanley acknowledged that the song was frightening. “I wanted it to feel that way. I put everything I had in it.”
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