Junior Blankenship

Musician · Haysi, Virginia
Best known for Guitar

Junior Blankenship is a Southwest Virginia flatpicking guitarist whose long association with Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys — spanning two formal tenures and a fill-in return decades later — has made him a steady voice of the deep-traditional Stanley sound.

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  • Flatpicker from Haysi in Dickenson County, Southwest Virginia — the heart of Stanley country.
  • Started in his father's band, the Rocky Mountain Boys, in early 1974 as a teenager.
  • Joined Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1977; first appeared on record on Curly Ray Cline's "Who's Gonna Mow My Grass" LP, recorded January 5, 1978.
  • Initial Clinch Mountain Boys tenure ran through April/May 1990; rejoined in autumn 1991 and stayed until early March 1994.
  • Returned to help Stanley's band again in 2014 during James Alan Shelton's illness.
  • Co-led a band with fellow Stanley alum Ernie Thacker after leaving in 1994, recording the album "Old Virginia."
  • Currently leads The Junior Blankenship Band, based out of Haysi, Virginia.

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