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Name: Ralph Stanley II
Date: Friday January 16th, 2009
Time: 1:00pm EST
Website: www.ralphstanleyii.com
Interviewer: Gracie Muldoon
Description:
Great record albums evolve in their own direction at their own speed, indifferent to the best-laid plans. Had it followed the original schedule, Ralph Stanley II’s This One Is Two would have been out a year or more ago. And, given the talents behind it, it would have been a good album. But it would not have been the remarkable musical achievement it has now become.
During the album’s additional year of growth, new songs were found and older choices laid aside, new musicians were added to the already sparkling lineup and new arrangements were ventured. Every element in the project was sharpened. The result is an album that stands on even ground with the best country recordings ever made.
Stanley, who’s known as “Two” to his friends (and thus the album title), has spent nearly half his 30 years as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for his father’s fabled bluegrass band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. But like the great vocalist Keith Whitley, who preceded him in that position, Stanley has always had a passion for hardcore country songs, the ones that never wear thin from repeated singing.
“I’ve always wanted to do something more traditionally country,” he says, “because that’s the music I really admired growing up. When I first signed to Lonesome Day Records, we talked about me doing a half-and-half album, half country and half bluegrass. But the country part turned out so well that we decided to do a whole album of it, nothing but country. And I’m so glad we did.”
Those who cherish a direct, unadorned and emotionally honest sound will be glad as well. Stanley’s voice resonates with the same sensitivity and conviction we hear in such masters as George Jones, Merle Haggard and John Anderson. His song choices in This One Is Two are equally persuasive. Besides the two solidly country pieces he co-wrote himself, he interprets memorable lyrics from the pens of Lyle Lovett, Tom T. and Dixie Hall, Townes Van Zandt, Fred Eaglesmith, J. P. Pennington and Elton John, among others.
In this sweep, Stanley ruminates about life on the road (“Honky Tonk Way,” “If This Old Guitar Could Talk”), homicidal jealousy (“L. A. County”), the excitement of the rails (“Train Songs”), the beauties of the Peach Tree State (“Georgia”), the agony of separation (“They Say I’ll Never Go Home,” “Cold Shoulder”), his legacy as the son and nephew of the trailblazing Stanley Brothers (“Lord Help Me Find The Way,” “Carter”), |
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