Traveling the High Way Home: Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music (Music in American Life)

Wright, John (Author)

ISBN 10: 0252020243 / ISBN 13: 9780252020247

Published by University of Illinois Press, 1993

About this Item

Signed by Ralph Stanley on front endpage. Book has light smudges and foxing to textblocks, light fading/smudging to top edges of covers, smudging to back endpage, a subtle inward bend to outer top corner of front cover. otherwise in very good condition, strong binding, clean and unmarked text with crisp pages; some signs of aging/cosmetic wear but an overall sturdy, well-kept copy. Dust jacket has faint rubbing to covers with light smudges to back side, light bumps/scuffs to top edges, smudging to edges of inside flaps. in very good condition, now in archival cover.

Seller Inventory # 989051

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Traveling the High Way Home: Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music (Music in American Life)
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252020243
• ISBN 13: 9780252020247
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Counter Box

About this title

Synopsis

This portrait describes and evaluates Ralph Stanley's more than 40-year career with his Clinch Mountain Boys. Wright also reveals how Stanley's life and music developed after the death of his brother, Carter. An appendix covers Stanley's prolific recording activity, including 45 albums over a 20-year period. 23 photos.

Reviews

This is not a formal biography of Ralph Stanley--"America's finest traditional singer," according to country music historian Bill C. Malone. That's too bad, because Wright may be the best writer, technically, writing about country music; we need vernacular music biographies and histories by such as he rather than by the press agents manqu{‚}e and stilted scholars who usually write them. But then, Wright renders the set of depositions (which is what this is instead of biography) from Stanley, fellow bluegrass musicians, and other Stanley associates into a reading experience far smoother than most examples of oral history. As the subtitle suggests, the big subject here is not the man Ralph Stanley or his career (though we learn much about the latter; as for the former, Stanley is a model of the famous deep reserve of the mountaineer about matters deemed personal); it is the culture that gave rise to Stanley's particular artistry, which Wright characterizes as "impersonal" and "classical, not romantic" and which Stanley himself says is "the old-time style of what they call bluegrass." Stanley is an instinctive archaist, Wright argues, as unique and important in his musical domain as Sinatra in his or Caruso in his. This book begins to give the man's measure. Ray Olson