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Review: Ralph Stanley performances

20 Oct 03 - 08:28 AM (#1038303)
Subject: Ralph Stanley at the Barbican
From: GUEST,Redhorse at work

Just booked tickets for Ralph Stanley at the Barbican on 7th November, after missing him last year when he got snowed in in the US. Any other Catters going?


20 Oct 03 - 09:22 AM (#1038339)
Subject: RE: Ralph Stanley at the Barbican
From: okthen

Nov. 4th Manchester Bridgewater Hall
"   5th Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
"   7th Barbican
"   8th Dublin Olympia


20 Oct 03 - 04:51 PM (#1038573)
Subject: RE: Ralph Stanley at the Barbican
From: Nerd

I think my old University friend Laura Cantrell is supporting Ralph Stanley on this tour. If you go see the gig, let me know what you think of her. I've actually never seen her perform, though I've heard some album cuts. I think you're in for a treat!


08 Dec 05 - 12:53 PM (#1622898)
Subject: Ralph Stanley & King Wilkie in NYC 4/14!
From: GUEST,ksmith@the-townhall-nyc.org

Tickets on sale now! April 14, 2006 at 8:00 PM - Ralph Stanley & King Wilkie at NYC's The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street. Tix $37.50 & $32.50, available at Ticketmaster or The Town Hall Box Office, 212-840-2824 or www.the-townhall-nyc.org.


12 Dec 05 - 03:47 PM (#1625825)
Subject: Ralph Stanley & King Wilkie in NYC 4/14!
From: GUEST,ksmith@the-townhall-nyc.org

Tickets on sale now! April 14, 2006 at 8:00 PM - Ralph Stanley & King Wilkie at NYC's The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street. Tix $37.50 & $32.50, available at Ticketmaster or The Town Hall Box Office, 212-840-2824 or www.the-townhall-nyc.org.


12 Dec 05 - 04:05 PM (#1625840)
Subject: RE: Ralph Stanley & King Wilkie in NYC 4/14!
From: Barbara Shaw

This is the best of the old and best of the new, my two favorite bluegrass acts. I'm just posting because I love these guys...


11 Jun 06 - 09:57 PM (#1757633)
Subject: Ralph Stanley & CMB's, Havelock, Ontario
From: Steve Latimer

I have never been to the Havelock Jamboree, a little too Country for me. I am a Bluegrass fan. I just happened to notice an ad in my local paper, Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys wil be there on Sunday, August 19th. Ralph is my favourite Bluegrasser. I saw him a few years ago as part of the "Down From The Mountain" show. I enjoyed it, but he only did a few songs. I am planning on going, I can't wait to see him and his band. I only wish that he still played the banjo, but Steve Sparkman does one heck of a job playing Stanley Style.


11 Jun 06 - 09:58 PM (#1757637)
Subject: RE: Ralph Stanley & CMB's, Havelock, Ontario
From: Steve Latimer

Sorry, I forgot to post the blickie.


11 Jun 06 - 09:59 PM (#1757638)
Subject: RE: Ralph Stanley & CMB's, Havelock, Ontario
From: Steve Latimer

Man, I'm slipping. Here it is.

Havelock Jamboree


12 Jun 06 - 04:33 AM (#1757774)
Subject: RE: Ralph Stanley & CMB's, Havelock, Ontario
From: CET

ARRGH! - I'm going to be out of the country. I would go a very long way to see Ralph Stanley. Charmion and I saw him play at Charlottesville, VA in 1998. I'd never heard of him, but I saw an poster for an intriguing sounding concert featuring him and the CMB, and a blues musician named (if I recall correctly) John Morgan. Ralph Stanley and his band played the first half of the show and John Morgan the second half. Later we heard Ralph Stanley perform with the Down from the Mountain tour in Ottawa. I really like his solo album, which has lots of trad ballads and gospel songs.

The line up for Havelock looks great.


27 Oct 09 - 12:46 PM (#2753705)
Subject: Review: Ralph Stanley live in L.A. 10/25/09
From: Mary Katherine

On Sunday night I went with some friends to Royce Hall at UCLA to hear Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys. The concert was billed to start at 7:00, and the opening act, Cherryholmes, started right on time at 7:00 p.m., and at 8:15 p.m. they were still playing; seemed like an unusually long set for an opening act. One of the ushers said that some of the publicity had gone out with a mistake on it, announcing the starting time as 8:00. So the opener had to play long, to make sure that all the people who arrived thinking it was an 8:00 curtain didn't miss any of Ralph Stanley's set.
Cherryholmes (a family group with mom, dad and four kids playing various instruments) were quite entertaining, bouncy, enthusiastic and tight. I had seen them about ten years ago opening for Del McCoury at a church hall in Pasadena, when they were cute little kids who could really play; now they're mostly grown up and can REALLY play. The clear star of the show for me was Cia Cherryholmes, the banjo player and singer with an extraordinary vocal and instrumental command and stage presence. The group's repertoire has drifted some, and there was a lot of non-bluegrass material, all very well executed. But although the audience was very receptive, especially to their showy intrumentals, it was clear that many were eagerly waiting for Dr. Ralph, who came onstage with his band at 8:40 to loud cheers.
For the first five or six songs he did nothing except introduce the band members (James Alan Shelton was a standout on guitar throughout the show) and give the song titles, and I was getting kind of worried - are we only getting Ralph as the emcee tonight? Surely not! Finally he took over the vocal mike, and did a string of duets with band members including his grandson Nathan Stanley and his son, Ralph Stanley II, who was making a special guest appearance that night during what was an off week for his own band. Dr. Ralph only played banjo once, as arthritis has now taken his hands to the extent that he can't play bluegrass style at all and he can only just about manage to clawhammer part of one song, which he did; Steve Sparkman, as usual, handled the regular banjo chores for the band and did a great job. Ralph soloed on two of his staples, the hair-raising a cappella "Oh Death," and "Man of Constant Sorrow," and sang harmony on a lot of other songs, including several from his old Stanley Brothers repertoire with Nathan or Ralph II taking Carter's part. The show ended with all the Cherryholmes members joing the Clinch Mountain Boys onstage for "Orange Blossom Special" and an encore of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
I always try to get out to hear the elder statesmen when they pass through town, and I am *really* glad that I went to this show. An incredible evening.


27 Oct 09 - 08:33 PM (#2754029)
Subject: RE: Review: Ralph Stanley live in L.A. 10/25/09
From: GUEST,FolkGiant

There's going to be a huge hole left in the universe when one of the last of the old-time mountain singers is gone from us. I just got done reading his autobiography, and Dr. Stanley's candor and totally unaffected mannerisms and philosophy ring true on the page.

It amazes and inspires me to read about the life of a man who has stuck to his roots. Dr. Ralph foresaw that various people's attempts to "modernize" the Stanley Sound would be failures. There is, somewhere I hope not too near the surface of any trash piles, a recording of the Stanley Brothers singing "Finger Poppin' Time". Yikes.

No, the world has too many sell-outs, and I am glad that an old soldier like Dr. Stanley is still keeping on.

Thanks for the concert review!


27 Oct 09 - 08:57 PM (#2754045)
Subject: RE: Review: Ralph Stanley live in L.A. 10/25/09
From: Janie

What FolkGiant said.

I haven't heard him live in years -in my younger days used to make what was then the Stanley Brothers Clinch Mountain Festival every year.

There is no one who can match his beautiful voice (I'll brag, my grandfather could come close, as long it was a song from the New Baptist Hymnal).

May he continue to grace this world with his glorious singing for as long as possible.


28 Oct 09 - 01:55 PM (#2754241)
Subject: RE: Review: Ralph Stanley live in L.A. 10/25/09
From: The Sandman

yes, he is good, shame he has arthritis


28 Oct 09 - 09:27 PM (#2754536)
Subject: RE: Review: Ralph Stanley live in L.A. 10/25/09
From: GUEST,Russ

All he has to do is sing.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)


28 Oct 09 - 11:07 PM (#2754577)
Subject: RE: Review: Ralph Stanley live in L.A. 10/25/09
From: Janie

Yep!