Ralph Stanley, bluegrass music legend, dies at 89

He was often introduced as “Dr. Ralph Stanley”.

Bluegrass pioneer Ralph Stanley has died.

2016 has taken another musical legend.

A short retirement later, Stanley reformed the Clinch Mountain Boys, providing a proving ground for some great bluegrass and country talents. And Stanley said he never sang the same line twice.

Ralph Stanley, who died Thursday, was an acclaimed bluegrass musician. After decades of honing the Appalachian sound, Stanley entered the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 1992.

His publicist, Kirt Webster, confirmed Stanley’s death but did not have details.

Stanley was already famous in bluegrass and roots music circles when the 2000 hit movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” thrust him into the mainstream. Their father would sing them traditional songs while their mother, a banjo player, taught them the old-time clawhammer style, in which the player’s fingers strike downward at the strings in a rhythmic style. “Carter’s romantic songwriting professed a deep passion for the rural landscape, but also reflected on lonesomeness and personal losses”, the statement said.

They signed to Columbia in 1948, recording songs including “The White Dove”, “The Lonesome River” and “The Fields Have Turned Brown” for the label. Then, in 1998, Stanley joined with an array of music superstars, including George Jones, Bob Dylan, Vince Gill and Dwight Yoakam, to release “Clinch Mountain Country”, which soared up the country and bluegrass charts and won the Recorded Event of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association.

“Ralph Stanley was elemental”. The album featured duets with many artists, inspired by Stanley, including Dierks Bentley, Lee Ann Womack, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello and Ricky Skaggs. The band went on to perform before huge audiences and were the first bluegrass act to play the Newport Folk Festival.

Carter Stanley died in 1966 from complications of cirrhosis, leaving Ralph Stanley with a dilemma: continue on as the new bandleader, or retire to civilian life.

Whitley left the group briefly, but returned in 1975 as a lead singer and guitarist.

After serving in the Amy in World War II, Stanley and his older brother Carter formed The Stanley Brothers, but changed their name to The Clinch Mountain Boys after Clinch Valley Insurance Company sponsored a 15 minute show on radio station WNVA. “Ralph found it in the music of the mountains, in the hollows, in the people and in the churches”. His music was not slick, but he was no primitive-and certainly not immune to the blandishments of fame: he plainly treasured his honorary doctorate, to the point that he preferred being addressed as Dr. Ralph Stanley.