The bluegrass legacy of ‘Dr. Ralph’ Stanley

Ralph Stanley was already well-known by the time the 2000 film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” came out, but it took Stanley, who played on the soundtrack, to an entirely new level of fame. The banjo player from the coal region of southwest Virginia, who died Thursday at 89, never changed, though. He and his various bands, the Stanley Brothers (with his brother Carter, who died young) and the Clinch Mountain Boys with a host of different musicians played coast to coast, in festivals with long-haired young people and in gatherings of true-blue, old-time music fans.

Bill Monroe might have been the “father of bluegrass,” but Stanley’s fast banjo style and high, rough voice were distinct, and he helped take the musical genre of the mountains to new audiences.

For a good bit of his career, he was called “Dr. Ralph Stanley” because of an honorary music degree. But somehow, the degree seemed just as credible as an earned one.

This fall, when Raleigh again hosts the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass, Stanley will be well-remembered and in evidence, really, in every banjo player in the place. They’ll copy his style of playing, a variation on the most famous style of the late Earl Scruggs.

And some will attempt to copy Stanley’s soulful, sometimes achingly sad singing. His rendition of “O Death” for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was spare and unusual for a film, but Stanley won a Grammy Award for it. As was always the case, Stanley did the song his way. As was usually the case, Stanley was right.

This story was originally published June 26, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "The bluegrass legacy of ‘Dr. Ralph’ Stanley."