Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys Concert

Helen (aka the Bluegrass Widow) and I booked a short getaway package with our friends Ed & Becky Betts to go see Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys in a little town called Brownfield, Maine on Sunday, July 8, 2007. The concert was held at the Stone Mountain Arts Center, a humble 200 seat timber frame music hall nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains. We stayed at a quaint little place called Inn at Crystal Lake in Eaton, New Hamshire, about 15 minutes from the Stone Mountain Arts Center. It was a good 6 hour or better drive from our starting point of Saint John, New Brunswick - Canada.

I figured if I was ever going to have an opportunity to see Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, this might very well be as close as they would ever get to my part of the world, so a few months earlier I asked Ed and Becky if they might be interested in going as well and they said yes.

Ralph Stanley is a living legend and a pioneer of Bluegrass music - mountain style. Among the many awards that have been bestowed upon him, he did actually receive the Living Legend Award, two years ago if memory serves. I had never seen Ralph Stanley in a live performance so I jumped at the opportunity when it came along. I'm real happy Ed & Becky decided to go as well, for Helen and I might not have made the trip on our own. Thank you Ed and Becky.

We checked in at the Inn at Crystal Lake. It was a real old place with tons of "old stuff." Everyting seemed old. The building was old, the pictures on the walls were old, all of the ornaments and decorations were old. The owners were not old however, but everything else was definitely old or old fashioned. Actually, it was very nice and I would stay there again without hesitation, although I must admit I didn't care for the separate cold and hot water faucets in the bathroom.

The getaway package included a meal at the inn before the concert. We had a small amount of time to pass before dinner so Ed and I decided to practice a few tunes in my room for about 45 minutes while the ladies suffered it out. Well, they should have known better!

Near the end of our little jam session as Ed was finishing up Banks of the Ohio, out of our window we saw a turquoise colored bus go by the inn. We noticed the letters "RS" on the back and concluded that it must be Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys on the way to the arts center. Quite the detectives aren't we?

The inn served up a beautiful meal. The menu was printed just for the occasion and read Ralph Stanley Menu at the top - a nice touch. Helen, Becky and I had salmon with some kind of "special rice" while Ed opted for some kind of pork dish. I do remember the meal being very satisfying, something I don't often experience in a restaurant setting.

Okay, a small mention about the photos in this post is in order. The first photo at the top is one of Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys on stage near the beginning of the performance. The next picture is Dr. Ralph Stanley putting his autograph on what I call the banjo head of fame. It's a banjo head that I purchased at the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival two years ago especially for collecting the signatures of great banjo players. I was able to get two signatures on this trip - Dr. Ralph Stanley himself and Steve Sparkman, Ralph's current banjo player.

The third photo is one of Ed & Becky Betts standing in front of Ralph Stanley's tour bus, and the next photo is of my wife, Helen, in front of the same bus.

I took a few group pictures of Ed, Becky and Helen in front of the bus, but Helen decided to close her eyes for most of the pictures. In the one picture where Helen decided to keep her eyes open, Becky decided she would close hers. I just thought I'd explain that in case you were wondering why you don't see the three of them together. Now that I think about it, I'm feeling quite confident those thoughts never crossed your mind at all.

The next photo is Ed Betts posing with Ralph Stanley in what you might term "not the ideal lighting conditions" for taking a photo. Picture #6 is the great Steve Sparkman, a master of Stanley style banjo picking. Interestingly enough, Steve did not play a Stanleytone banjo at the concert, but instead was playing a Gibson archtop banjo with a neck made by Frank Neat.

The last picture is in fact a picture of Helen, Ed, and Becky standing on the stage after the concert was over. By the way, you can click on each image to view a larger version of the same.

Back to the subject at hand. The getaway package also included a shuttle service from the inn to the concert and back, but we decided to forgo the shuttle service. We had different plans for after the concert, like getting to know Dr. Ralph Stanley and Steve Sparkman a little better. We didn't want to be forced to leave early because of the shuttle service.

Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys put on a great performance. Dr. Ralph's voice was exactly like I've heard him on television several times before. He's got an old sounding, yet smooth voice that reminds you of the mountains themselves. One thing to note about Dr. Ralph Stanley is that even though he may be getting on in years, he is always on key when singing, at least that's what I've noticed.

Ralph's 14-year old grandson, Nathan Stanley filled in on guitar for the missing James Shelton whose mother had passed away the day before. Nathan did a great job and he's quite a singer and songwriter in his own right, and at a very young age.

Of course, one of my key interests was in Steve Sparkman, the banjo player. I was watching every move he made as he played all of the signature Stanley style licks on his archtop banjo. Like all other great players, he makes it look so easy.

Playing fiddle was Dewey Brown, a very good fiddler indeed and a good harmony singer as well. I was really impressed with the bass playing of Jack Cooke who has been with Ralph Stanley for an amazing 37 years! Jack really adds life to all of the tunes with his bass style and his onstage antics.

During the concert, Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys played several of the most popular tunes in the Ralph Stanley repertoire, of which there are many. I was very surprised when they ended the show with Orange Blossom Special, simply because I had never heard Ralph Stanley do a rendition of that tune before.

We were able to speak with the band members both before and after the show. I found Ralph Stanley to be very humble and obliging and Steve Sparkman was equally so. We didn't really spend much time with the other band members. I guess you have to be a banjo player to get any attention.

Before the show I had asked Steve Sparkman about a lick used in Pretty Polly and he said "come see me after the show and I'll be happy to show you how it's done." That's exactly what I did, and it's for reasons like that opportunity that we opted out of the shuttle service. I didn't realize it at the time, but Becky captured the Pretty Polly lesson on video with her digital camera. Becky sent a copy of the video to me and I have received permission from Becky and Steve to post the video. The Pretty Polly video (8 MB) is on the Bluegrass Friends web site.

The following morning we had a nice breakfast at the Inn at Crystal Lake before departing. We packed up our belongings and prepared for the 6 plus hour drive home, listening to the sweetest sounds on earth all the way home - Bluegrass music. We had a good time.