Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys

Ralph Stanley is now 82 and his voice has grown frail with age, but it still cuts with the strident twang of the most pure bluegrass music, and Stanley’s banjo playing is still fast and reckless, prone toward the higher registers. Stanley was among several roots musicians who benefited from the bluegrass revival sparked by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack in 2000. He contributed to a frills-free version of “O Death,” though he actually had a much longer history with the film’s signature song, “Man of Constant Sorrow.” It was Stanley and his brother Carter who as the Stanley Brothers popularized the traditional song with their 1950 version.