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Ralph Stanley and Friends

Band · Active 1967–2016 · Nashville, Tennessee
Traditional Bluegrass

Ralph Stanley and Friends is the billing Ralph Stanley used for three double-album collaborations on Rebel Records that paired him and the Clinch Mountain Boys with a rotating cast of country, bluegrass, and rock guest vocalists. Together with the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, these records brought Stanley's Clinch Mountain sound to a mass audience in the 1990s and 2000s.

  • Saturday Night & Sunday Morning (Rebel, 1992) was the first of the series — a double album pairing Ralph with guest vocalists on Stanley Brothers repertoire. Its commercial success inspired the follow-up six years later.
  • Clinch Mountain Country (Rebel, 1998) is the best-known of the three — a 36-track double album recorded at Masterlink Studios Nashville in 1997 with roughly 30 guest vocalists. Features Bob Dylan on “Lonesome River” (a long-time Stanley Brothers fan, he was the first to sign up), Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Porter Wagoner, Kathy Mattea, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Jim Lauderdale, BR5-49, Junior Brown, Rhonda Vincent, Patty Loveless, Marty Stuart, Dwight Yoakam, Alison Krauss, George Jones, Hal Ketchum, Tim O'Brien, Laurie Lewis, the Kentucky Headhunters, and Diamond Rio, among others. The Clinch Mountain Boys cut the tracks live, usually in one or two takes.
  • Clinch Mountain Sweethearts (Rebel, 2001) featured an all-female guest cast: Joan Baez, Gail Davies, Iris DeMent, Sara Evans, Melba Montgomery, Maria Muldaur, Dolly Parton, Jeannie Seely, Pam Tillis, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and Chely Wright, among others. Recorded in Nashville and San Francisco.
  • The collaborative format was widely compared to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972), but in reverse — instead of rock musicians paying tribute to country legends, country and rock stars came to pay tribute to Ralph.
  • Hal Ketchum famously said, “Singing with Ralph Stanley is like painting with Picasso.”
  • Ralph Stanley II is featured as a primary vocalist on several tracks across the series, signaling the passing of the Clinch Mountain tradition to the next generation.
  • The Clinch Mountain Boys on these records included Jack Cooke (bass), Curly Ray Cline or James Price (fiddle), Steve Sparkman or John Rigsby (banjo/mandolin), and James Alan Shelton (guitar).
  • Ralph Stanley
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • James Price
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • John Rigsby
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Steve Sparkman
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Jack Cooke
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • James Allen Shelton
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Ralph Stanley II
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Dewey Brown
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Junior Blankenship
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Mitchell Van Dyke
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Nathan Stanley
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Randall Hibbitts
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Gillian Welch
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Patty Loveless
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Ricky Skaggs
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Vince Gill
    Played on recordings with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Alison Krauss
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Bob Dylan
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Buddy Miller
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Claire Lynch
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Dave Rawlings
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • David Marshall
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Del McCoury
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Dierks Bentley
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Dwight Yoakam
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Jeff Raybon
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Jim Lauderdale
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Judy Marshall
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Junior Brown
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Laurie Lewis
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Mark Fain
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Marty Raybon
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Marty Stuart
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends
  • Valerie Smith
    Played on recording with Ralph Stanley and Friends

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