Bluegrass Legend Ralph Stanley Cuts Ad for Obama
VIA TMP, a great ad. More than great: incredible.
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A lot of my readers aren’t bluegrass fans, or don’t know that much about the genre. Take it from me: Ralph Stanley is a living legend, not only in the bluegrass community but in the broader country music genre. He and his brother Carter started playing professionally in 1945, and never looked back. When Carter died, Ralph (who was never the frontman) briefly considered retiring, but within days was back on the road.
You can’t really compare it to a Bruce Springsteen endorsement, because Bruce has been a big-time left wing icon forever: no one’s surprised by a Springsteen endorsement. But you can’t compare it to, say Ted Nugent either, because Ralph’s been a Democrat his whole life; he’s no winger.
Ralph is a huge musical icon to the conservative, Christian (primitive Baptist) white, rural underclass (I use that word with a lot of trepidation) in the southeast, the kind of people elitist Republicans like to laugh at as “hillbillies” and “white trash”, while they’re convincing these same working Americans to vote against their own interests.
Ralph looks and sounds like those Appalachian people, because he is ONE OF THEM, a true Virginian who’s brought honor and respect to his home state, including the mountain people: there’s a good reason Stanley calls music “the old time mountain style of bluegrass”. The guy doesn’t have more than an 8th grade high school education, he grew up on a farm (he continues to farm, I believe), and he’s lived in the region his entire life. He’s not a terribly political person (although he did run for Mayor of McClure once, and lost), and so the fact that he’s doing ads for Obama is huge. Not to put too blunt a point on it, but as a commenter at Talking Points Memo wrote, “”An 80 year old bluegrass legend from Southwestern Virgina endorsing a black man for President of the United States. Think about that.”
The best part is that it gives me an excuse to post some Ralph Stanley youtubes!
Stanley Brothers, “Jacob’s Vision”
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, 1987: not sure what the first song is; “I’m Willing to Try” (pardon that feedback blast at 2:46 or so); “The Room at the Top of the Stair”
Not sure what year: but featuring Junior Blankenship, Charlie Kline and Curley Ray Cline. “So Blue”
I feel really proud to be a bluegrass fan today.
