Traveling the High Way Home
Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music
Interviews and eyewitness stories about a bluegrass legend
Paper – $24.95
978-0-252-06478-4
Publication Date
Paperback: 05/15/1995
Series: Music in American Life
About the Book
John Wright's collection of interviews and stories about Ralph Stanley puts readers around a campfire at a bluegrass festival while old-timers weave yarns far into the night. Told by those who create, produce, stage, love, and virtually live for old-time mountain music, these tales come from the longtime coworkers, sidemen, promoters, friends, and others in the orbit of the music legend. The storytellers include a scholar who knew Stanley from the early days, the housewife who ran the Stanley Brothers Fan Club, and a souvenir seller for whom the discovery of Stanley's music was almost a religious experience.Wright also uses these invaluable oral histories as a foundation to describe and evaluate Stanley's long career with the Clinch Mountain Boys and the development of his music after the death of his brother Carter. An appendix covers Ralph's prolific recording activity through the mid-1990s, including a breathtaking forty-five albums compromising more than 550 songs and tunes.
About the Author
John Wright is the John Evans Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Northwestern University and a columnist for Banjo Newsletter.Reviews
"Praise be to John Wright for putting together the best, the most fascinating book on southern country music."--Pete Seeger, Sing Out!"Oral history makes the Stanley saga take on depth and movement. . . . [A] remarkable chronicle of a truly well spent, honorable life."--Rich Kienzle, Country Music
Blurbs
If you have any interest at all in music, where it was and where it is going, you need this book and you ought to get it. --Tom T. Hall
Awards
Winner of an International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Print Media Personality AwardRelated Titles
