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Composed

More than 100 songs and instrumentals, some co-written with Ralph Stanley and others in the name of his half-sister, Ruby Rakes

  • “I’ll Take the Blame” (Billboard peak at #86, 1980 for Ricky Skaggs)
  • “Could You Love Me One More Time”
  • “The Fields Have Turned Brown”
  • “Going To the Races”
  • “Harbor of Love”
  • “I’ll Just Go Away”
  • “Lonesome Night”
  • “The Lonesome River”
  • “Nobody’s Love Like Mine”
  • “Think Of What You’ve Done”
  • “The White Dove”

Early Influences

  • Carter Family
  • Grayson & Whitter
  • J.E. and Wade Mainer
  • Monroe Brothers
  • Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys

Came to Fame With

The Stanley Brothers, 1946-1966

Performed With

  • Roy Sykes and the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys, Norton, VA, 1946
  • The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys, 1946-1951
  • Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, 1951
  • The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys, 1951-1966

Led the Way

  • Co-led the second band to achieve commercial success playing the new (and as yet unnamed) style of bluegrass
  • A major contributor to the “mountain” and “lonesome” sounds of bluegrass
  • Writer of much of the core song repertoire and some of the most affecting lyrics in bluegrass history
  • Instrumental Group of the Year, Nashville Disc Jockey’s Convention, 1955
  • First bluegrass band to play the prestigious Newport Folk Festival, in 1959
  • Bluegrass Hall of Fame, 1992

By the Way

  • Carter Stanley was an informed student of early country music, and imparted that knowledge to new audiences at his concerts during the 1960s folk music era.
  • Reportedly turned down Bill Monroe’s 1951 offer to retitle his act “Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers.”
  • In his early twenties on a radio broadcast, unthinkingly dedicated the song “Lonely Tombs” to “all you folks that’s not feeling well.”
  • An effective pitchman for Jim Walter Homes Corporation on radio and television performances from Live Oak, Florida, in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.

From the Archives

“[M]ost songs I have written at night… I remember very well when I wrote “The White Dove.” We was coming home from Asheville, North Carolina, to Bristol, Tennessee, and I had the light on because I wanted to write it down and Ralph was fussing at me for having the light on. He was driving and he said the light bothered him, but he hasn’t fussed anymore about that.”
Interview with Mike Seeger in March of 1966, quoted by Gary Reid in liner notes to The Early Starday/King Years, 1958-1961, Starday/King Records, 2003.
“Dad… couldn’t play a thing as far as an instrument but his voice was just the same as ours. He sang ‘Pretty Polly’ and ‘A Man of Constant Sorrow,’ ‘Little Bessie,’ I believe. I guess that’s where we got what little singing we know.”
Interview with Mike Seeger in March of 1966, quoted by Gary Reid in liner notes to The Early Starday/King Years, 1958-1961, Starday/King Records, 2003.
“The Stanley Brothers had a song called ‘Little Glass of Wine’ and they impressed me with the fact that they actually got a big U.S. Mail sack of letters every day requesting them to sing it, and so naturally we hopped into a session on that.”
Rich-R-Tone Records owner James Stanton, quoted in Rounder Collective, brochure notes to The Rich-R-Tone Story, 1974.
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