It's important to note that it's the 3rd of August, 2012. I purchased the above book on 25 February 2012 and I bought it from the hands of the Man Himself at a special birthday performance in Sheperdstown, West Virginia. I mention today, because it's taken me this long to finish it. In the meantime I've finished other books while I set this one aside. I'd read a few snatches and then move on to things more appealing, and easily read. This is not an easy book to read. Co-written by Eddie Dean, Dean tries to get everything down in the style you would expect from a simple man telling a simple story. The dialogue is real; what Ralph Stanley has to say about his life and times is real. It sometimes bogs down terribly and you want to get into the good stuff about how he reached fame and his interactions with other famous musicians. The boring sections of course are there for a very good reason. You have go back and read that sentence again so you can get the full measure of why such a simple man rose to the heights of musical fame that he did. He's still going strong at the time of this posting. I was fortunate to catch one of his performances in February and wasn't disappointed. There are two entertainers I want to see before I die: Ralph Stanley and Tony Bennett. One of the wishes has been granted.
Man of Constant Sorrow, by Dr. Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean, was originally published in 2009 after several years of reaping national fame and recognition from his role in contributing the musical touch to the Coen Brothers' movie O Brother Where Art Thou. Much about Stanley's involvement in the movie and what it did to heighten the general population's interest in, and rebirth of mountain music and bluegrass music is left for the final chapter. So it should be. In the simplest and most wonderful way, Dr. Stanley remains humble about the whole process of "doing my music because that's all I ever really could do, or wanted to do." Along the way are other stories about the process that brought him his fame, other practitioners of the kind of music he prefers not to call bluegrass, and a good background on the geographical environment of Appalachian Virginia that gave him birth and upbringing.
More important is his basic philosophy of believing in something and then sticking to your guns. Nearly every page is devoted to trying to explain his music and why he never believed in changing it. He talks a lot about fellow-musicians who didn't make it, failures, and practitioners who weren't true to their craft or calling. There is a lot to be learned here from the Master. Every picker or singer whoever thought they could make it 'in the business' should read this book and learn from it. Stanley's basic philosophy of "simpler is better" rings throughout the whole book but an explanation is about as elusive as the tenets of Tao. He keeps talking about people who were "touched."
In other words, naturally gifted enough to one day really make it in a cut-throat world. He also praises a few who worked hard to get where they got. No great lover of Elvis and rock and roll, Bob Dylan surfaces at eerie times in the unfolding of the story and some other surprising names show up in Stanley's list of people he respects.
I'm glad it took me so long to finish this work. It's a story about endurance and remaining true to yourself and what you believe in. We've lost some truly great people since the beginning of 2012. This story is also about Ralph Stanley contemplating his own eventual demise as he sees other great men fall by the wayside. It's a stoic picture at best, filled with thanks for what God has granted him in his life-time. It's nice to read a story about a humble man who got famous and did good. Simple is better - and as Ralph concludes, "Simple is the hardest thing to do in life."
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