Traveling The High Way Home
Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music
Interviews and eyewitness stories about a bluegrass legend
Paper – $29.95
978-0-252-06478-4
Publication Date
Paperback: 03/01/1995
Series: Music in American Life
About the Book
Reading John Wright's book is like sitting around a campfire at a bluegrass festival while old-timers weave their 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 great Ralph Stanley. They include a scholar who has known 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. The tales range from heartbreaking to hilarious and make Traveling the High Way Home a must-read for all of Stanley's fans.But Wright's portrait of the man he characterizes as "a national treasure" goes beyond oral history. He describes and evaluates Stanley's more than forty-year career with his Clinch Mountain Boys and reveals how Ralph's life and music developed after the death of his brother Carter. Twenty-one pictures illustrate Stanley's world, and an appendix covers his prolific recording activity, including forty-five albums--more than 550 songs and tunes--over a twenty-year period.
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, IBMA Industry Awards, 1995Related Titles
