Ralph Stanley II is the son of Dr. Ralph Stanley, the Clinch Mountain patriarch whose banjo playing and high lonesome vocal style made him one of the defining figures in bluegrass history. Growing up within that tradition, Ralph Stanley II developed as a performer and bandleader in his own right, continuing the Stanley sound and carrying the family's association with the Virginia coalfield country and the hard-driving, modal Clinch Mountain style that his father and uncle Carter Stanley established beginning in the late 1940s.

Stanley has led his own band and recorded as an independent artist, working to sustain the tradition his family represents while establishing his own identity as a performer. In 2022, he released "Glendale Train" on RBR Entertainment — a recording of the New Riders of the Purple Sage song that became a bluegrass standard through J.D. Crowe and the New South's celebrated 1975 Rounder recording. That version introduced a generation of musicians to the song and made it a touchstone of the progressive bluegrass movement, giving Stanley's recording a clear lineage of bluegrass interpretations to engage with. The release on RBR Entertainment reflects his position as an active recording artist working within and extending the tradition he inherited.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.