A giant of American music opens the book on his wrenching professional and personal journeys, paying tribute to the vanishing Appalachian culture that gave him his voice. He was there at the beginning of bluegrass. Yet his music, forged in the remote hills and hollows of Southwest Virginia, has even deeper roots. In Man of Constant Sorrow, Dr. Ralph Stanley gives a surprisingly candid look back on his long and incredible career as the patriarch of old-time mountain music. Marked by Dr. Ralph Stanley?s banjo picking, his brother Carter?s guitar playing, and their haunting and distinctive harmonies, the Stanley Brothers began their career in 1946 and blessed the world of bluegrass with hundreds of classic songs, including ?White Dove,? ?Rank Stranger,? and what has become Dr. Ralph?s signature song, ?Man of Constant Sorrow.? Carter died in 1966 after years of alcohol abuse, but Dr. Ralph Stanley carried on and is still at the top of his game, playing to audiences across the country today at age eighty-one. Rarely giving interviews, he now grants fans the book they have been waiting for, filled with frank recollections, from his boyhood of dire poverty in the Appalachian coalfields to his early musical success with his brother, to years of hard traveling on the road with the Clinch Mountain Boys, to the recent, jubilant revival of a sound he helped create. The story of how a musical art now popular around the world was crafted by two brothers from a dying mountain culture, Man of Constant Sorrow captures a life harmonized with equal measures of tragedy and triumph.

Beginning banjo lessons have never been more fun! Written for the absolute beginner, this FUN book is guaranteed to help you learn to play bluegrass banjo (How many books come with a personal guarantee by the author?). · Teaches the plain, naked melody to 23 easy bluegrass favorites without the rolls already incorporated into the tune. · Wayne shows simple ways to embellish each melody using easy rolls. · With Wayne’s unique method, you’ll learn to think for yourself! · Learn how to play a song in different ways, rather than memorizing ONE way. · Includes a link to download 99 instructional audio tracks off our website! You WILL learn to play: Bile ‘Em Cabbage Down, Blue Ridge Mountain Blues, Columbus Stockade Blues, Down the Road, Groundhog, Little Maggie, Long Journey Home, Lynchburg Town, Man of Constant Sorrow, My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains, Nine Pound Hammer, Palms of Victory, Pass Me Not, Poor Ellen Smith, Pretty Polly, Put My Little Shoes Away, Red River Valley, Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms, Shall We Gather at the River, Wabash Cannonball, When I Lay My Burden Down, When the Saints Go Marching In.

Finally, clawhammer banjo instruction that is for 100% beginners! Originally written in 1973, this book has taught more people to play clawhammer banjo than any other book. This brand new 40th Anniversary Edition is newly updated and improved, complete with spiral binding. It contains the same friendly, clear and simple instruction as the original book, and it will teach you to play 31 old-time classics from the ground up. You will learn to play: Buffalo Gals, Cluck Old Hen, Cotton-Eyed Joe, Cripple Creek, The Cuckoo, Cumberland Mountain Deer Chase, Darlin' Cory, Down in the Willow Gardens, East Virginia, Groundhog, Handsome Molly, Little Birdie, Little Sadie, Lynchburg Town, Muley's Daughter, New River Train, Old Holly Hare, Old Blue, Old Joe Clark, Polly Put the Kettle On, Poor Wayfaring Stranger, Rain and Snow, Red Rocking Chair, Shady Grove, Shortening Bread, Sugar Hill, Swannanoa Tunnel, Sweet Sunny South, Wild Bill Jones.

(Fretted). Perfect for beginning to advanced players, this collection contains both note-for-note transcribed mandolin solos, as well as mandolin arrangements of the melody lines for 11 songs from this Grammy-winning Album of the Year: Angel Band * The Big Rock Candy Mountain * Down to the River to Pray * I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow * I Am Weary (Let Me Rest) * I'll Fly Away * In the Highways (I'll Be Somewhere Working for My Lord) * In the Jailhouse Now * Indian War Whoop * Keep on the Sunny Side * You Are My Sunshine. Chord diagrams provided for each song match the chords from the original recording, and all songs are in their original key. Includes tab, lyrics and a mandolin notation legend.

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook). The best collection ever of 70+ bluegrass standards! Includes: Alabama Jubilee * Arkansas Traveler * Bill Cheatham * Blue Moon of Kentucky * Blue Yodel No. 8 (Mule Skinner Blues) * Cripple Creek * Dark Holler * I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow * I Never Will Marry * I Saw the Light * I'll Fly Away * The Long Black Veil * Mule Skinner Blues * Orange Blossom Special * Rocky Top * Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms * Sitting on Top of the World * Wabash Cannonball * Wayfaring Stranger * Wildwood Flower * Will the Circle Be Unbroken * The Wreck of the Old '97 * You Don't Know My Mind * and more.

The Music of the Stanley Brothers brings together forty years of passionate research by scholar and record label owner Gary B. Reid. A leading authority on Carter and Ralph Stanley, Reid augments his own vast knowledge of their music with interviews, documents ranging from books to folios sold by the brothers at shows, and the words of Ralph Stanley, former band members, guest musicians, session producers, songwriters, and bluegrass experts. The result is a reference that illuminates the Stanleys' art and history. It is all here: dates and locations; the roster of players on well-known and obscure sessions alike; master/matrix and catalog/release numbers, with reissue information; a full discography sorting out the Stanleys' complex recording history; the stories behind the music; and exquisitely informed biographical notes that place events in the context of the brothers' careers and lives. Monumental and indispensable, The Music of the Stanley Brothers provides fans and scholars alike with a guide for immersion in the long career and breathtaking repertoire of two legendary American musicians.

Kentucky Country is a lively tour of the state's indigenous music, from the days of string bands through hillbilly, western swing, gospel, bluegrass, and honkey-tonk to through the Nashville Sound and beyond. Through personal interviews with many of the living legends of Kentucky music, Charles K. Wolfe illuminates a fascinating and important area of American culture. The list of country music stars who hail from Kentucky is a long and glittering one. Red Foley, Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, the Judds, Dwight Yaokum, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, John Michael Montgomery, and Keith Whitely—all these and many others have called Kentucky home. Kentucky Country is the story of these stars and dozens more. It is also the story of many Kentucky musicians whose contributions have been little known or appreciated, and of those collectors, promoters, and entrepreneurs who have worked behind the scenes to bring Kentucky music to national attention.