waltertore
2128 posts
Mar 26, 2012
10:38 AM
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I learned this way and last night I got to hang out with the Ralph Stanley Band. Ralph still is a great singer/performer. I got to talking with the band and that was ok, but here I was just another guy saying great music...... What really made my night was what prompted it all. I was hanging outside next the Ralphs bus. It is slick Prevost with Ralph Stanley on the side. there was a young kid moving gear and I started talking to him about the bus. He was way into it and I shared I owned one at one time and we got into deep details about it. He was Ralph's Grandson, Nathan, best childhood friend. Nathan fronts the band and is Ralphs valet so to speak. this kid has been on the bus almost a year acting as roadie. He said he has been bugging Nathan for years to teach him. Nathan and the band are teaching him the Stanley repetoire (mandolin). I saw this kid of 20, with so much hope in his eyes. I asked him lots of questions about how it was to live with such players. He went on and on but mainly was focused on when he could join the band onstage. I saw myself all over again. The Ralph Stanley, bluegrass guys are the real deal. Ralph is 85, his band ranges from his grandson, 19, to about 50 year olds. They take the time to teach the young on the road just like the old blues guys did. this is real american roots music as it has been for generations. Ralph sat till the last person wanted an autograph and his son Ralph II walked him to the bus. This is how music is suppose to be done and it showed on that stage. The first 2 acts, some solo guy who should have been on hee haw and the seldom scene band, were a pure bore compared to Ralph and his band. They were so natural, lose, kind, and real. It gave me so much hope for the future.
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
3,800+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
Last Edited by on Mar 26, 2012 11:41 AM
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LIP RIPPER
572 posts
Mar 26, 2012
10:55 AM
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There is a family that I grew up around. They were poor; and now that I think about it they were the cultivated so-called poor class taking the gov. handouts when they were in fact quite able to work. There were really poor people in my county and that was another class of people that really didn't have a pot to piss in. But the family I'm thinking of all played and sang Bluegrass. They could all play instruments. Whether it was guitar, banjo, mandolin or fiddle they all played stringed instruments and sang. The old and the young alike.
LR
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harpdude61
1326 posts
Mar 26, 2012
12:29 PM
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Ralph is as popular here in Appalachia as any musician from around here, including Dolly.
I still get cold chills when he sings Oh Death.
Glad you had such a great evening.
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Diggsblues
1212 posts
Mar 26, 2012
12:56 PM
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I'm still waiting for that one student to pass it on to.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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Sarge
143 posts
Mar 26, 2012
7:13 PM
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Hey Walter, you once told me I should be on Hee Haw. I took it as a compliment, now I find out it wasn't. I'm heartbroken!! (not really)
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Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
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waltertore
2130 posts
Mar 27, 2012
12:35 PM
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Diggs: You have probably touched more than you realize.
Sarge: OOOPPPPS You would have been a good hee haw character. this guy was a rank imposter. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year.
" life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
3,900+ of my songs
continuous streaming - 200 most current songs
my videos
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