Ralph Stanley

Of all the interesting, distinctive and even compelling musicians who performed at the 24th Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View CA on Oct. 23-24, the most distinctive was the country and bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley. His three songs were greeted with more than polite applause; indeed, by the time he finished the second ("Lift Him Up"), people were wildly applauding, probably as much for the quality of the music as for themselves. Why the latter? Because by witnessing, applauding and congratulating a genuine, old-time, tough-as-nails, down-home, Appalachian-based, unvarnished and pure, country boy such as Ralph Stanley, they were showing their acceptance of him, and that acceptance per se is worthy of self-congratulation. Since self-congratulation is the theme of these two essays, a word about its psychology is essential.

The culture of the mid-Peninsula moderate to liberal wealthy overachievers is not only achievement-oriented but is, at its most fundamental level, self-congratulatory. They applaud themselves for their liberality in saving things--whether it is Tibet, Darfur, East Timor or whatever other point in the world is hot enough to merit contemporary media attention. Since self-congratulation is a major part of the affluent, moderate to liberal contemporary life-style, they seek new venues to conquer, so that they can congratulate themselves yet further. One way to do so is to "incorporate" into their vision of themselves a variety of "exotica" or things that aren't normally in the tunnel vision of such a person. Four major venues of increased self-congratulatory conquest are in visiting exotic places (or those that aren't yet on the cool person's map), seeing rare and indie films, eating dishes from chic restaurants that are spelled in a variety of ways--because no agreed-upon English spelling has yet been established--and "discovering" new and exotic music from all over the world.* **

[*This is only a partial list of things that such people do. One other thing, for example, is assembling an art collection of exotic or out-of-the mainstream artists]

[**A friend has taken issue with my thesis on self-congratulation. She writes: "I certainly fall into the category, but do not believe that I am at my essence self-congratulatory for saving things. I think that many of us privileged enough to have been raised by loving, educated parents in a stunning physical environment enjoy the luxury of not having to worry about day-to-day survival, or buttoning up. So there's time to think about and act on human, liberal 'causes.'" Good observations...]

Since there is such a thirst for this music among the monied overachievers, and since cagey music producers, like the irrepressible and omnipresent T-Bone Burnett, are able to deliver rare or exotic species of musicians to slake the thirst of this crowd, we have all the makings of a money-maker for everyone. The musician can get further notoreity, the producer can get rich, the beneficiaries of the concert (in this case, Bridge School), can receive a large contribution, and the attendees can have another thing on which to felicitate themselves.

The Thesis

With these observations as background, I advance the thesis that Ralph Stanley, now Dr. Ralph Stanley, and prominently so introduced at the Bridge School concert by Neil Young, was such a creation of the past decade. Of course he existed long before the last decade. He proudly told us that he was 83 years old, and that the first time he sung the third song of his performance, "Soggy Bottom Boys" was 64 years ago. His hardscrabble origins in rural and out-of-the-way SW Virginia, where religion (manifest in his Primitive Baptst upbringing) is to living as money and pleasure are to the living of the Bay Area, are as genuine and "country" as the few roads that snake through Dickenson County VA. But, let's face it. If the Primitive Baptists really entered the Bay Area, even if the "Universalist" Primitive Baptists did so, with their doctrine of "no Hell" (at least no Hell after death--which many Silicon Valley folk naturally would sympathize with), they would be welcomed with as much eagerness as Trappist monks at a University of Oregon football game. They just don't "fit." That is why they are in rural SW Virginia.

And Ralph Stanley certainly bears the scars, sings the songs and has the looks of that culture. It has its loveliness, and its intensity, and it has a peculiar way of staying with those who have long left the culture for the brighter pastures of the "modern" world. I know because I know former Primitive Baptists from SW Virginia. They are lovely people, deeply caring and moral, insightful and honest, straightforward and sincere. I suppose they have a few sinners among them, even if they aren't going to go to Hell. But the only way they really "leave" that culture is if they are willing to do so, and if there is someone who knows how to make them "flourish" in a culture not their own.

The "Modern" Making of Dr. Ralph Stanley

One might say that the "old" Ralph Stanley, with his genuine country flavor and experience of the unmitigated pain and loss of living, went into eclipse, or began to be downplayed, about a decade ago. The "old" Ralph Stanley was characterized by a haunting array of songs that wouldn't make it in the Bay Area and a free-wheeling willingness to speak his mind about other performers. For example, Stanley's most familiar tune from the "old era" (which he still sings, of course, but not in Mountain View) is "O Death." Here is the first verse:

"O Death; O Death
Won't you spare me over til another year
Well what is this that I can't see
With ice cold hands takin' hold of me
Well I am death, none can excel
I'll open the door to heaven or hell
Whoa, death someone would pray
Could you wait to call me another day
The children prayed, the preacher preached
Time and mercy is out of your reach
I'll fix your feet til you can't walk
I'll lock your jaw til you can't talk
I'll close your eyes so you can't see
This very air, come and go with me
I'm death I come to take the soul
Leave the body and leave it cold
To draw up the flesh off of the frame
Dirt and worm both have a claim..."

And, it goes on and on. There is an air in this song of the 17th century Puritan or of the solitary slab or tombstone on which is etched, "As you are Now, So Once was I. As I am Now, You Soon Must Be. Prepare Yourselves to Follow Me." It is a haunting tune and song, a song that rattles your chakras, or scares the bejesus out of you, depending on which tradition you are more comfortable with...

Halfway through....

4288