He walks a little slower these days and spends less time on the road, but Ralph Stanley isn't ready to put away his banjo.
"I still enjoy it,' Stanley told us, "And I'm proud we did something with it."
"We" includes his brother Carter, and the band they formed in 1946. The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys built a large and loyal following with their traditional sound.
Carter played the guitar and sang lead. Ralph picked the banjo and provided the high tenor harmonies.
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Ralph learned his first licks from his mother, and received his first instrument from an aunt who was selling a banjo - and a pig.
"My aunt owns the banjo and the pig too and she wanted to sell both of them," Ralph told us. "Mom told me, said can't afford both of them, but now I'll get you one of them. Well you see what I got." "I didn't know whether I wanted to be a farmer or what, you know, but I decided to use my fingers," he said.
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Ralph met us at the museum in Clintwood that bears his name, but the exhibits at the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center also pay tribute to Carter, who died from liver disease in 1966. Ralph says he's sorry his brother never saw the bluegrass boom and roots revival that took off in the 1970s.
"I loved Carter you know. We were raised together and everything, and I missed him being by my side you know," Stanley said. "I was glad that I could continue on, but I still thought about him."
He "continued on" with the Clinch Mountain Boys, a long line of talented musicians that included Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley. His son Ralph II would join him on stage, and so would his grandson Nathan.
"I started going with him when I was two years old," Nathan told us, "and the first stage that I ever went in with him was the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. and so you know as a kid I didn't think much of it, I was just with my papaw."
Now 20, Nathan is the lead singer of the Clinch Mountain Boys, and says he's determined to carry on the Stanley tradition. "His music is so hard, it's simple," Nathan said. "Not everybody can play this type of music."
On display at the museum is the Grammy that Ralph received for his recording of "O Death," a song featured in the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou."
The movie, and the Down from the Mountain tour that followed, introduced his music to many who'd never heard of The Stanley Brothers or their signature sound.
"I never dreamed of anything like this," Ralph said. "And we've been lucky or something. Everything you know has turned out good for us. We've had good luck on everything we've ever tried to do. And it seems like it just fit, fit right in. Looks like it was meant to be."
