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The Banjo Of Ralph Stanley: From Old-Time To Bluegrass

(Homespun ) 1992. Reissued on DVD (Homespun HL00641906) 2005.

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This is a fine video from Homespun, and will probably appeal to the majority of Stanley fans, irrespective of whether they play the banjo or not. Ostensibly a banjo instruction recording, it also includes several live performances with the CMB's, and a handful of duets with Ralph and Curly Ray Cline, plus one with Ralph picking Wildwood Flower with 13-14 year old Ralph II.

Interspersed between the music, Mike Seeger interviews Ralph, coaxing him into demonstrating how his Mother used to play the banjo, singing a verse from Brown Girl and discussing four methods of picking in the clawhammer style, plus the two-finger method Ralph learnt from listening to Wade Mainer. Ralph also discusses his musical influences, and how some of the tunes were written, giving slowed down renditions of some of the numbers.

As with other Homespun DVD's there are good split screen demonstrations of Ralph's picking technique, and the picture / sound quality on the DVD is excellent.

The latter half of the set (which lasts nearly an hour and a half) has the CMB's performing half a dozen numbers uninterrupted, including two a cappella gospel songs, which must be a first for a banjo tape; and a clawhammer medley of I've Got A Mule To Ride / Rocky Island / Little Birdie / Shout Little Luly.

The DVD came originally with a 32 page booklet of tab's transcribed by Bill Keith, although on later copies (and the instant access download) I think this is included as a 'pdf' file. Obviously, the tab's reflect what Ralph plays on the video, rather than his recorded versions of the songs, so some, like Little Maggie or How Mountain Girls Can Love differ quite a bit.

The only down-side to the tab booklet, is that the numbers indicating what fret should be fingered, are quite small and difficult to read.

For the most part, Ralph plays one of the original 'Chrome' Stanleytone banjo's, and a borrowed '30 bracket' open-back, however Worried Man Blues features Ralph on a Gold Star flat-head...

You can find a 2 min sampler of the video of the DVD on youtube as well a 6 min extract of Little Maggie.

• Ralph Stanley: banjo, vocals
• Jr Blankenship: lead guitar
• Curly Ray Cline: fiddle
• Jack Cooke: bass
• Ralph II Stanley: guitar
• Ernie Thacker: guitar, vocals