Stanley was born, grew up, and lived in rural
Southwest Virginia—"in a little town called
McClure at a place called Big Spraddle Creek, just up the holler" from where he moved in 1936. Before that he lived in another part of
Dickenson County. The son of Lee and Lucy Smith Stanley, Ralph did not grow up around a lot of music in his home. As he said, his "daddy didn't play an instrument, but sometimes he would sing church music... I'd hear him sing songs like '
Man of Constant Sorrow,' '
Pretty Polly' and '
Omie Wise.'" They soon "found out that didn't pay off—we needed something of our own. So we started writing songs in 1947, 1948. I guess I wrote 20 or so banjo tunes, but Carter was a better writer than me." after ailing for "a year or so", He decided to go it alone, eventually reviving The Clinch Mountain Boys.
Larry Sparks, Roy Lee Centers, and Charlie Sizemore were among those with whom he played in the revived band. He encountered
Ricky Skaggs and
Keith Whitley arriving late to his own show, "They were about 16 or 17, and they were holding the crowd 'til we got there... They sounded just exactly like (the Stanley Brothers)." Seeing their potential, he hired them "to give 'em a chance", though that meant a seven-member band. His grandson Nathan Stanley became the last lead singer and band leader for The Clinch Mountain Boys. Following Ralph Stanley Sr.'s death, Ralph Stanley II reformed the Clinch Mountain Boys as a trio, which continues to tour and record as of 2025. Nathan Stanley has since toured as a solo artist.
Clinch Mountain Boys members 1967 to 2016 • Ralph Stanley (
Lead vocalist,
banjo) •
Jack Cooke (
bass) •
Curly Ray Cline (
fiddle) •
George Shuffler (
guitar,
bass) •
Melvin Goins (
bass,
guitar) •
Larry Sparks (
Lead vocalist,
guitar) • Roy Lee Centers (
Lead vocalist,
guitar) •
Ricky Skaggs (
mandolin,
fiddle) •
Keith Whitley (
Lead vocalist,
guitar) • Charlie Sizemore (
Lead vocalist,
guitar) • Hook n Beans (Buddy Moore) lead singer- guitar • Ricky Lee (
guitar) • Junior Blankenship (
guitar) • Kenneth Davis (
guitar) • Renfro Proffit (
guitar) •
Ron Thomason (
mandolin) • Steve Sparkman (
banjo) •
James Alan Shelton (
guitar) • Sammy Adkins (
Lead vocalist,
guitar) • Todd Meade (
fiddle) • Ralph 'Hank' Smith (
Lead guitar) • Ernie Thacker (
Lead vocalist,
guitar,
mandolin) • John Rigsby (
mandolin) • Dewey Brown (
fiddle),(
Vocals) • Jimmy Cameron (
Bass), (
Vocals) • Audey Ratliff (
bass) • Ralph Stanley II (
Lead vocalist,
guitar) • Nathan Stanley (
mandolin,
Lead vocalist,
guitar) • James Price (
fiddle) • Randall Hibbitts (
bass) • Mitchell Van Dyke (
banjo) • Jarrod Church (
banjo) • Alex Hibbitts (
Mandolin) • Jimmie Vaughan (
Rhythm Guitar,
Vocals)
Political career About 1970, Ralph Stanley ran for Clerk of Court and Commissioner of Revenue in
Dickenson County and said:
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Stanley's work was featured in the very popular 2000 film
O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which he sings the Appalachian dirge "
O Death". The soundtrack's producer was
T-Bone Burnett. Stanley said the following about working with Burnett: With that song, Stanley won a
2002 Grammy Award in the category of
Best Male Country Vocal Performance. "That put the icing on the cake for me," he said. "It put me in a different category." of
Harrogate, Tennessee in 1976. Stanley was inducted into the
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1992 and in 2000; he became the first person to be inducted into the
Grand Ole Opry in the third millennium. He joined producers
Randall Franks and
Alan Autry for the
In the Heat of the Night cast CD ''Christmas Time's A Comin''', performing "Christmas Time's A Comin'" with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA; it was one of the most popular Christmas releases of 1991 and 1992 with Southern retailers. He was featured in the
Josh Turner hit song "
Me and God" released in 2006, the same year he was awarded the
National Medal of Arts. On November 10, 2007, Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at a rally for presidential candidate
John Edwards in
Des Moines, Iowa, just before the
Democratic Party's annual
Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. Between renditions of "
Man of Constant Sorrow" and "
Orange Blossom Special", Stanley told the crowd that he had cast his first vote for
Harry S. Truman in 1948 and would cast his next for John Edwards in 2008. In October 2008, he performed in a radio advertisement for
Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Country singer
Dwight Yoakam said that Stanley is one of his "musical heroes". In 2012, Stanley was featured on several tracks of the soundtrack for
Nick Cave's film
Lawless, with music by Cave and
Warren Ellis. His solo track "White Light/White Heat" is prominent in several scenes of the movie. Stanley maintained an active touring schedule; appearances in his later years included the 2012
Muddy Roots Music Festival in
Cookeville, Tennessee and the 2013 FreshGrass Festival in
North Adams, Massachusetts. In June 2013, he announced a farewell tour,
Personal life and death After two previous marriages ended in divorce, Stanley married his wife, Jimmie, in 1968; he had four children. Stanley's autobiography,
Man of Constant Sorrow which was coauthored with the music journalist Eddie Dean, was released by
Gotham Books on October 15, 2009. On June 23, 2016, Stanley died from
skin cancer at his home in Sandy Ridge in
Dickenson County,
Virginia; he was 89. ==Musical style==