Rebel Records To Resume Issuing Classic Releases for Digital Download‏

Campaign Kicks Off with Two Ralph Stanley LPs Oct. 19th




Select recordings from County Records to be featured as well


This fall Rebel Records recommences its efforts to make its extensive catalog of yet-to-be reissued recordings available for digital download. The label will be releasing two albums per month for purchase through major online retailers including iTunes and Amazon.com. Releases from both Rebel Records and its sister label County Records will be counted in the campaign and will include classics from artists such as Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury and Kenny Baker among many others. Radio DJ's that receive releases from Rebel via digital download will be sent all these recordings as per usual. Unfortunately, as no physical CD's will be manufactured, DJ's serviced by mail will not receive them.

The campaign starts off with a bang October 19th with the release of two Ralph Stanley albums: Old Country Church (1972) and Lonesome and Blue (1987). Old Country Church features Dr. Ralph in what many bluegrass fans consider his best-ever lineup: Roy Lee Centers on guitar and lead vocals, Curly Ray Cline on fiddle, Keith Whitley on lead guitar, Ricky Skaggs on mandolin and Jack Cooke on bass. The album was Ralph's second gospel release for Rebel Records following his seminal Cry From the Cross LP. While Old Country Church did not yield as many hits as its predecessor, it is still filled with gems such as the upbeat classic "Honey in the Rock" as well as two a cappella hymns: "Village Church Yard" and "When I Get Home."

Lonesome and Blue is a secular album and features Ralph with his mid-1980s lineup: Charlie Sizemore on guitar and lead vocals, Junior Blankenship on lead guitar and the durable Curly Ray Cline and Jack Cooke on fiddle and bass, respectively. Having gone nearly a decade without a personnel change and with nine albums to their credit, Ralph and The Clinch Mountain Boys were a well-oiled machine by the time this record was released in early 1987. In what would be his last recording with the band, Charlie Sizemore is in peak form on lead vocals. Notable tracks include two Randall Hylton-penned numbers, the oft-requested "Room at the Top of the Stairs" and "It's a Hot Night in August," "Old Richmond Prison" (now a latter day standard for Ralph) and remakes of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and the title track, a Stanley Brothers classic originally cut for Mercury.

Stay tuned - upcoming digital exclusive releases include Del McCoury's self-titled first recording for Rebel and Bluegrass Memories, a late 1980s release from Dave Evans.

Laid-back Stanley enjoys being onstage

August 29, 2010 3:00 AM


By Charity Apple / Times-News

SNOW CAMP — Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley just takes each day as it comes.
Whether it’s playing music or spending time with family, Stanley, a young-sounding 83, has a great attitude and is thankful for every moment he’s able to make music and entertain fans. He still tours 100 dates a year, but he relishes the time he’s at home in Coeburn, Va.
He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush in 2006, is a three-time Grammy Award winner and received his honorary doctorate in music from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., in 1976, along with numerous other awards.
But this “living legend” is as laid-back and sweet as they come. Stanley’s family still attends The Primitive Baptist Church in Grundy, Va., and during the day, he’s usually “gone somewhere.”
And he doesn’t mind sitting a spell and talking with reporters, either. Late Thursday night, he took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about his career.Full story here..

Ralph Stanley brings his band to Long's Park

By RORY HESLIN, Staff Writer



The grass at Long's Park got a little bluer Sunday night when Dr. Ralph Stanley & His Clinch Mountain Boys rolled in to the amphitheater.

Stanley and his five-piece bluegrass band came out to a standing ovation from a crowd of more than 6,000.

Famous for winning a Grammy for his contribution to the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, Stanley didn't disappoint by opening the show with "Man of Constant Sorrow."

The band brought a cool breeze in with them and managed to stave off rain clouds that stayed to the north.

Joined on stage by his grandson, Nathan, the rugged 83-year-old Stanley crooned his version of "Amazing Grace" with help from the audience.

"Dr. Stanley is a legend, and we really felt we should have him here," said Stella Sexton, director of the Long's Park Amphitheater Foundation's summer music series.

"He was coming through the area, and his whole band is awesome to work with," she said. "We're lucky to have him."

Read more:

Bands gather at Paramount Center to pay tribute to bluegrass legend

BY TOM NETHERLAND
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Just a little man with a mountainous legacy.
Friends and neighbors, that’s Ralph Stanley.
Sixty-three years after he first played in Bristol with his late brother, Carter, Stanley was honored in a tribute Sunday afternoon at the Paramount Center here.
Presented by the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance to benefit the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center in Clintwood, Va., the show featured a mix of country, bluegrass and gospel music with a dash of Hollywood tossed in, too.
Call it a tribute to a titan.
Stanley’s 17-year-old grandson, Nathan Stanley, organized, emceed, and sang a pack of fine songs.
“I want to make this an annual thing, paying tribute to my papaw, Dr. Ralph Stanley,” Nathan said. More...

Musicians salute legend Ralph Stanley

TOM NETHERLAND

SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER

Published: April 8, 2010

Make way for the king of mountain music.
Ralph Stanley.
Nearly 64 years after he and brother Carter debuted on the “Farm and Fun Time Show” on WCYB in Bristol, Va., as the Stanley Brothers, Stanley will be honored with a tribute in Bristol.
“He’s one hell of a man,” said Ben “Cooter” Jones, who will appear at the show.
Scheduled for April 11, the BCMA presents “A Tribute to Ralph Stanley” at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, Tenn. Conceived by Stanley’s grandson, Nathan Stanley, the show will benefit the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center in Clintwood, Va.
“I knew the museum was having some hard times,” Nathan Stanley said last week. “So, I thought it was the least I could do for my papaw.”
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys headline. Son Ralph Stanley II, grandson Nathan Stanley, Stella Parton, Paul Williams and the Victory Trio, Ben “Cooter” Jones, Grand Ole Opry star Jack Greene and Tim Stafford round out the bill. Read more...

Happy Birthday Dr. Ralph

Yes I finally learned how to embed a vidio, there will be more.

Ralph Stanley - Still Telling, and Singing, Mountain Tales - NYTimes .com

Old-Timer, Still Telling Mountain Tales
By CHARLES McGRATH

Ralph Stanley is one of the last, and surely the purest, of the traditional country musicians. He’s such a stickler that he has no use for the dobro, let alone electrified instruments, and he’s not overly fond of the term bluegrass. He prefers to call what he performs “that old-time mountain music.” He plays the five-string banjo in the claw-hammer style he learned from his mother — or he used to, until arthritis caught up with him — and he sings in a raw, keening Appalachian tenor.

The songs tend to be about hard times, unfaithful lovers, deceased children, lonely graves. One of his most famous, “O Death,” is a pleading dialogue with the Grim Reaper himself. It used to be said that when you heard a Ralph Stanley tune, you either wanted to get drunk or...

Complete article in The New York Times

Ralph Stanley’s Life Story

Ralph Stanley’s Life Story, Man of Constant Sorrow,
Will Be Released Oct. 15 by Gotham Books

(Nashville, TN) - September 30, 2009 - The famously close-mouthed Ralph Stanley tells all—or nearly all—in his fascinating memoir named after his signature hit, Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times. Written with music journalist Eddie Dean and published by Gotham Books, the 320-page personal and career narrative will go on sale October 15.
Stanley has been a luminary in bluegrass music circles virtually since he and his brother Carter launched the Stanley Brothers duo in 1946. But he rocketed to real celebrity status in 2000 via his musical participation in the Coen Brothers’ movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? His performance of “Oh, Death” on the movie’s soundtrack album earned him two Grammy awards. (A third would soon follow.) He was also the first artist of the 21st Century to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.
Now 82 and still touring, Stanley writes in the book about his hardscrabble boyhood years in rural Virginia, abandonment by his father, the influence of folk and church music, the Stanley Brothers’ live radio shows and early records, the perils of touring in the 1940s and ‘50s on America’s backroads, Carter’s fatal drinking problem and re-inventing himself as a solo act after Carter’s death in 1966.
In telling his stories, Stanley gives the reader intimate glimpses of such fellow stars as Bill Monroe, A. P. Carter (of the fabled Carter Family), Porter Wagoner, George Jones, Dwight Yoakam, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and of King Records founder Syd Nathan and super producer T. Bone Burnett.
As a part of promoting his autobiography, Stanley will play New York’s Carnegie Hall October 06 on a bill with banjoist, actor and comedian Steve Martin.

Ralph Stanley, Shatters Sterotypes

Regardless of your political views, I feel that anyone who follows Bluegrass, will find this interesting. This is Dr. Ralph's radio/TV add for Obama. I understand it is airing in southwest Virginia. It is not my intention to turn this into a political forum, but ALL comments are welcome.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/RalphStanley