RALPH STANLEY: LIVE AT THE BOTTOM LINE (June 12, 2002)
RALPH STANLEY AT THE GRAND OLE BOTTOM LINE
DR. RALPH EDMUND STANLEY (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016) was one of country music’s progenitors. The southern Virginia native was part of the very first crop of American Bluegrass musicians to emerge during the 1940s. One of the founding-fathers of country, Ralph arrived at The Bottom Line riding high on the wave of interest generated by the Cohn Brother’s unique take on Homer’s The Odyssey, with their film O Brother, Where Art Thou? One could sense that country music at large now garnered a level of importance and respect in the American consciousness that it had not imbibed since the height of its Opry radio days.
This was the first and only time that Dr. Ralph performed at The Bottom Line. However, his appearance was actually part of “A Grand Bottom Line Tradition,” in place since the inception of the club and held throughout its 30-year run, of presenting the very finest in all stripes of country music. For the established, the up-and-coming, and everything in-between of country music, The Bottom Line had become the venue of choice in New York City. As it was for folk, rock & roll, jazz, new wave, world music, and comedy, The Bottom Line was at once a proving ground for young artists growing their audience, and, a welcoming platform for established artists looking to more intimately connect with their fans. In short, they were building, in a very real way, the foundation of the scene we have today. In this way the club was very much a greenhouse, a haven, and an incubator.
Country music’s position in the pop industry of the 1970s was nothing like what we see today. Country artists and their labels were still creating that audience, and Bottom Line owner/curator Allan Pepper was a champion and a gate-watcher for the rise of country music in the New York area, and consequently the world. Allan explains: “I would go through phases of getting bored with what I was listening to, and I would always be looking for something new, to expand my tastes. My first phase with country was the little that came through in popular music, so I was aware of artists like Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, as well as Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and Earl Scruggs. But later on, I was interested in country as a special form of songwriting, you know, where the song is telling a story. To me, country songs were like little novellas, where the songwriters exhibited a literacy and dexterity that was absent in much of the pop of the time. Right from the start of the club in ‘74, we had Waylon Jennings - at the start of the whole ‘Outlaw Country’ thing. We presented The Dillards, Charlie Daniels, and hosted a Tanya Tucker record release event. Country made up about a quarter of the bookings we had, from the beginning of the club, and it was even more than that by the end.”
Many people might not realize it, but well before country music became the national and international phenomenon that we know today, there was a fertile and furtive period where its audience was being courted and grown outside of the south, brick by brick, inside of venues like the Bottom Line in New York City. During the ‘70s, Sam Hood was booking some country into Max’s Kansas City, and there were sporadic country concerts in and around Manhattan, but aside from Paul Baines radio show, Let There Be Country, the marketplace was tenuous, at best. Pepper continues: “Until The Lone Star Café started up in 1976 - that became the New York Mecca of Country Music. I noticed pretty quickly that there was a bigger audience for this than one might have expected, given the paltry coverage that country music had been receiving on the airways, and in print. The Lone Star gets a lot of credit for making me aware of the real presence and power of country music.”
As a music fan, and as a promoter, Allan saw firsthand that folks were buying tickets, buying the records, and really digging this kind of music. But there was still much work to be done. As with any music genre looking to increase its audience, the promotional machinery was a huge part of the process. Allan explains, “WNEW, which was freeform, played more of the country rock thing with bands like Poco, The Outlaws, and Asleep at the Wheel. Country rock and country pop had a small presence, but then in the ‘80s there was WYNY, finally a true country music station in New York. I got much deeper into the whole country thing, mainly through my wife, Eileen. She discovered country music on college radio, and I just fell in love with the songwriting.”
“In those days, the motivation for many of the record companies to book these acts at the club was that they were trying to reach a different audience, a younger audience, and it was all part of a very calculated promotional effort to grow the country music fan-base. The artists and labels wanted to take it beyond a purely country audience, to more of a pop or a rock audience. For instance, when Dolly played the club she was already a big star, but not the level of star that she ultimately became!”
“Within the first year or so, we had presented The Dillards, Charlie Daniels, Tanya Tucker, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Waylon Jennings, Asleep at the Wheel, Doc Watson & Frosty Morn, Vassar Clements, and Emmylou Harris - for her first New York appearance, supporting her Pieces of the Sky album. Back then, New York was the main media hub - a home to the national press’ corporate offices. You could get the New York Times, and Rolling Stone, and The Daily News, and The New York Post, all covering your gig. And the record companies would get celebrities to come to the shows, so suddenly you see Andy Warhol coming to see Dolly Parton, and there’s a picture and a big story about that.
“There was a buzz factor that played heavily into building this scene nationally. An artist could be on a morning or an evening news show, and could even do a live radio broadcast. In that way, New York was pretty big for the country music scene. Plus at our place, you could sit, and it was comfortable and intimate, and that was very important for getting the fans and press to come out. It was all part of the star-making machinery.”
Flash forward twenty-eight years later to 2002, and Allan Pepper and The Bottom Line were still seeding the garden, presenting young and up-and-coming songwriters like Keith Urban, and Brad Paisley. In June of that year, elder statesman Ralph Stanley and his boys came to town hauling a stunning set of Americana, rife with songs from throughout Ralph’s life – songs besotted with special meaning for him. Like so many of country music’s founders, it was Ralph’s father who first sang many of these traditional tunes to his son, passing them along during Ralph’s childhood. The melodies and stories clearly became embedded in his musical soul very early on – “Man of Constant Sorrow” and “Pretty Polly,” most notably.
The subjects of “Love, Life and Death” were a staple of Appalachian and American roots music, and the eerie, mournful dirge, “O Death,” had long been a calling card of Dr. Stanley. Ralph’s haunting invocation had contributed ever so much gravitas to the O Brother production, and less than two years after the film had become a critical and box office smash, Ralph was asked to record for Columbia Records, as he and other country artists were now launched into a kind of renewed relevance - part and parcel of a resurgent interest in American roots music, also enjoyed by artists like Doc Watson and Pete Seeger. At the time, Ralph was heard to say, “That put the icing on the cake for me. It put me in a different category.”
The evening was specially arranged by Columbia Records, to celebrate and promote that brand new Columbia release, Ralph Stanley. The eponymous album was produced by T. Bone Burnett, who was not only the music director for O Brother, but also a repeat Bottom Line performer - as both sideman and bandleader. This live set features many of the songs, and the same bandmates captured on that wonderful 2002 studio album, showcasing Ralph’s 56 years in music. Ralph Stanley was a huge commercial and critical success, and in addition, Ralph’s O Brother soundtrack recording of “O Death” won him “Best Male Country Vocal Performance” at The Grammy Awards that year.
We lost Ralph last year at the age of 89, making this live recording his first posthumous release. It is a document of considerable weight and importance - and irreplaceable authenticity. As the old-garde leave us, we have these very precious documents to show for it, and each time we hear them, as if for the first time, they make us rightly proud of the heritage and the roots of American music. These rich, uniquely American gems accrue in value from year to year, and we are so very lucky to have them.
Please welcome Dr. Ralph Stanley and his band, performing live on The Grand Ole Bottom Line stage.
