Ralph Two

Ralph Stanley II, son of bluegrass legend, will bring tunes from an album that's more country than bluegrass to American Legion Post 238

Friday, Dec. 11, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Ralph Stanley II started playing in his father's band when he was 16. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

He's at a Cracker Barrel in an unspecified location, in the early afternoon, when he calls on his cell phone and introduces himself. "Hey," he says. "This is Ralph Two."

To most family and friends, though, the man on the other end of the line — a guitarist with a lower singing voice than his 82-year-old father, whose clawhammer-style banjo rings as distinctively as his cut-through-your-heart mountain tenor — is simply Two.

As it happens, Stanley's newest record, released a bit more than a year ago, is "This One is Two," as in this is the music that really suits me. Or, this batch of earnest country tunes, which includes covers by the likes of Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt, Garth Brooks and Elton John; songs by bluegrass songwriters that seemed destined for his treatment; and two originals, straight-up, is me.

As music writers are wont to put it, his fifth solo album breaks away from his earlier vibe of mainstream bluegrass with traces of neo-traditional country. Flip-flop that, essentially, and you have "This One is Two," a country album featuring a smoky yet youthful voice. Although Lonesome Day Records' initial plan called for an even split between country and bluegrass songs, the final result contains only a modest splash of the latter genre.

Though his label came up with the title, Stanley says (in a modest, man-of-few-words manner that truly conjures his father) that he agrees with the statement it makes. "I guess it was a little different style from my dad's," he explains. "It's me and it was me, you know. I just changed it up a little bit. It's kind of my style in the vocal range, a comfortable range for me, so they just called it that."

At 16, Stanley joined the Clinch Mountain Boys, the group founded in 1946 by his father and uncle, Carter, who died of cancer in 1966. And he took on Carter's role, which has been filled through the years by Larry Sparks, Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs and Charlie Sizemore.

Guitar came more naturally to Stanley than banjo, he says. Guitar was also the instrument he was most interested in, as he knew from an early age what he wanted to do: Stanley wanted to sing lead for his father. And he wanted to fill in for Uncle Carter, a man he greatly admires and seemingly channels, even if he died more than a decade before Two was born.

"Just being a kid, just being influenced by his singing and wanting to be — not wanting to be him — but just wanting to do with Dad what he had done with Dad," Stanley says. "That was a big shot in the arm for me, and I just respect him because he wrote a lot of great songs. I'm proud he's my uncle. I think he was great in his own right, too, and didn't get the credit back when he was alive."

Now, almost like Whitley, who left Clinch Mountain to pursue a country career, Stanley, 31, wants to try charting his own course while he's still young enough to do it, he explains. (He still plays with Clinch Mountain when his schedule allows.)

Beginning with the releases of "Stanley Blues" and "Carrying On," Stanley's profiles and album reviews hint at his current direction. In 2008, however, Ralph Stanley encouraged his son to go for it.

Stanley II already had experience leading a band, even Clinch Mountain. Sometime after the release of the 2000 film, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," Ralph Stanley's duties for the film (in it, he sang "O Death") required him to miss a series of tour dates with Clinch Mountain. He offered his son in his place, and while some promoters canceled, more than a dozen did not. Some, in fact, did not even alter the promo fliers, and so there were people who drove great distances to see Ralph Stanley, whose popularity skyrocketed after the film's release, and were then rather upset to find some Ralph Stanley II in his place.

After the show, Stanley recalls, "They came up to say we came to see your dad and didn't know about you, but we're glad we've come to see you now." As for those who remained upset, Stanley holds no grudge: "I would be to," he admits. "But what are you going to do? You have to stay and give it a whirl."

Give it a whirl. He says the same thing in regard to his decision to try out this new music with new bandmates, all of whom are roughly his age.

Do younger country-bluegrass musicians relate differently to the genre than the older generation? "I think so, probably so," he says. "I like it all. At the same time, you have to create something a bit different."

Even still, reaching a wider audience could prove to be difficult. Small labels typical lack the reach to score their artists' airplay on commercial country radio stations, and hardcore bluegrass fans dig their fiddle tunes.

Stanley admits the album has not sold as well as he thought it would, though "Train Songs," an upbeat numbered penned by Tom T. and Dixie Hall, has had the top spot on Bluegrass Unlimited magazine's chart.

In the past, Stanley has sung passionately about certain "shoes to fill." And he does as much here in the original song "Lord Help Me Find the Way," which he started writing during an anxiety-ridden phase of the tour when he filled in for his father, as previously described. In real life, though, Stanley seems mostly easygoing about the idea of shoes to fill or the road that may or may not be waiting ahead. "It just takes a break for everybody," he says.

Honestly, has he ever felt pressure?

"No, not really," he says. "I just always want to do a good job and be good for the people. And hopefully they will enjoy what I do."

If you go Jay Armsworthy & The Sons of the American Legion will present a concert by Ralph Stanley II at 2 p.m. Dec. 13 at the American Legion, 6265 Brandywine Road, Hughesville. Tickets are $15. Call 301-737-3004.