University of Virginia Library

'Downhome,' 'Uptown,' Mountain Music

Ralph Stanley, of the original
Stanley Brothers, is one of the few
professional old time country musicians
playing today. He writes,
records, and meets a heavy schedule
of personal appearances around the
country. Born in rural southwestern
Virginia, Ralph learned to play banjo
from his mother, who was from a
banjo-playing family of twelve.

It was her inspiration and a great
natural talent that led Ralph and
his guitar-playing brother, Carter,
to form the Stanley Brothers in the
early 1940's. The two played on
local radio stations and were soon
in demand for appearances throughout
the South, the rest of the
country, and later the world.

The Stanley Brothers' appeal
was that they performed the material
that was closest to the hearts of
mountain people. The death of
Carter during the mid- sixties put
Ralph on his own with the Clinch
Mountain Boys, carrying on the
Stanley family music with great
success.

Years Of Tradition

Mr. Stanley's music differs from
the often slick and gaudy Nashville
sound in that it is based upon and
fully conscious of hundreds of
years of tradition. The rich heritage
of the ballads, the sacred music of
the his people, and the fiddle and
banjo used for dance music are all
present in the music of Ralph Stanley,
which is closely related to the
popular bluegrass form.

Ralph is known as one of the
most outstanding banjo players today.
Combining his playing with a
plaintive voice that recalls all of the
joys and pain and sorrow that is
universal to all mankind, he has
gained a reputation as both a skilled
musician and a well-loved personality.

Dave and John Morris grew up
in the midst of folk music from the
day of their birth. In their home of
Ivydale, West Virginia, everyone either
plays or sings mountain music.

John began playing banjo at the
age of six, learning from his grandfather
Amos Morris, and shortly
afterwards picked up the guitar and
the fiddle. Dave had always enjoyed
singing the old songs and melodies
he heard around him, but until
he went to college in Glenville,
W.Va., he never realized that other
people valued them as much as he
did.

Morris Brothers

The Morris Brothers play a variety
of instruments, including banjo,
fiddle, dulcimer, and auto harp.
They have performed a number of
years at festivals such as the W.Va.
Folk Festival and the Ohio Hills
Folk Festival, as well as at college
concerts and coffeehouses. They
have organized their own music
festival, the Morris Family Oletime
Music Festival, held at Ivydale each
September. In 1969, they traveled
for the Yablonsky UMW campaign,
singing the music of the coal mines
and of the working men and women
of Appalachia.

The Oletime Mountain Music
Show, a troupe of 'downhome' and
'uptown' mountain musicians, will
be presented at the University on
Saturday, Oct. 31 by The Virginia
Weekly. The event will take place in
Cabell Hall Auditorium at 8:00 PM.

The performers featured in the
show include: Ralph Stanley and
the Clinch Mountain Boys, one of
the most accomplished and
well-known bluegrass bands in the
country; the Morris Brothers, Dave
and John, two young, versatile musicians
from West Virginia; Anne
Romaine, a country singer and

songwriter from North Carolina;
and Hazel Dickens, a ballad singer
and songwriter from a West Virginia
coal mining family.

Fourth Year

The Oletime Mountain Music
Show is in its fourth year of touring
mountain communities throughout
the southeast. The uniqueness of
the program comes both from the
diversity of performers who have
come together from many different
backgrounds, and from the different
types of music presented —
ballads, fiddle tunes, buck dancing
sacred songs, mountain blues, bluegrass,
and topical songs from the
coal mines and the cotton fields of
the 20th century southern mountains.

Many young people are familiar
with this music largely through the
performances of some of the new
rock musicians from outside the
mountains and are unaware of the
traditions out of which this music
flowered. The musicians with the
1970 Oletime Mountain Music
Show — who include a former coal
miner, a bluegrass singer form
southwest Virginia, two brothers
who sang for the Yablonsky campaign
for president of the United
Mine Workers — are widely known
for the honesty and integrity with
which they interpret their music.
All have joined the show in order to
help focus attention on the various
forms of musical expression which
have made the Appalachian mountains
one of the great sources of
folk music in America.

Unique And Natural

There music is unique and natural,
ranging from lonesome, sad
songs, to humorous children's
songs, from the old fiddle tunes to
contemporary mountain music, and
they are always interested in encouraging
other young people to
learn the music of the mountains.

Hazel Dickens grew up in the
coal camps of West Virginia in a
family where music was a tradition.
Singing old English ballads or Carter
Family tunes, her plaintive voice
is able to bring forth the sorrow
and the hope that is the fabric of
her music and the experience of her
people. She is a topical songwriter
as well, and she accompanies herself
on guitar.

Anne Romaine is a young singer
and songwriter originally from Gastonia,
North Carolina. She sings
mountain ballads and topical songs
from the cotton mill and coal mining
South, as well as more contemporary
country ballads, Anne, who
will serve as MC for the evening,
accompanies herself on guitar and
Auto harp.

The Oletime Mountain Music
Show will feature a free workshop
with these performers as well as
local talent at Cabell Hall at 3:00
PM on Oct. 31. Area performers
who would like to participate in
expressing the culture of the Appalachian
mountain area are encouraged
to bring their instruments and
join in. The main concert will begin
at 8:00. Admission will be $1.50.
Tickets are on sale in advance at the
main desk in Newcomb Hall at the
University, and at various music
stores in the Charlottesville area.