Stagecoach 2009: Ralph Stanley*

Backstage at Stagecoach

Mountain music patriarch Ralph Stanley just arrived at the traditional-music themed Mustang Stage sporting a nastily bruised right eye, bandaged above and below.

I asked if he's OK, and the 82-year-old quipped, "You should see the other guy!"

Ricky Skaggs, having just wrapped a scintillating set with his band, joined the conversation and extended a heartfelt, "I'm real sorry to see you like this, Ralph."

The claw-hammer banjo master said he'd been standing on a stool cleaning an air conditioner back home in Virginia when the stool slipped, sending him to the floor.

That was Saturday, yet he still boarded a plane for the transcontinental flight west to make his Stagecoach return appearance. Talk about a trouper.

-- Randy Lewis

*Update: An earlier version referred to Stanley's home in West Virginia. He lives in Virginia.

Comments

[BluegrassFan]

Thanks for the post. I would like to point out that Ralph Stanley is from - and currently resides in - Virginia, not West Virginia.

[Rich Brotherton]

Ralph Stanley is not known as a clawhammer banjo player, but rather as a Scruggs-style bluegrass banjo player. Clawhammer is an old-time style of banjo playing (like frailing and drop-thumb) that preceded the three-finger rolling style perfected and made famous by Earl Scruggs and adopted by almost every other bluegrass banjo player, including Dr. Stanley.