"Won't you spare me over for another year?"
Last night I saw Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys at the Barbican in London. I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t a sell-out, considering that it was only the third or fourth time he has played in the UK in the 63 years he has been performing.
The support (Diana Jones) was ok, but I’m not sure that the space did her any favours, I think her act would have down a lot better in a more intimate space and probably would have fit nicely in to a more varied bill.
If you don’t know who Ralph Stanley is, you might recognise him from the soundtrack to ‘O Brother where Art Thou?’, performing the song “Oh, Death” - you would have seen and heard even more of him had you watched the companion DVD to the film. This is called ‘Down from the Mountain’ and is a recording of a live concert at The Ryman Theatre of a lot of the music from the film by the original performers - if you haven’t seen it but like that sort of music, I recommend it very highly, it’s one of the few live DVDs I’ve ever watched that actually capture the atmosphere of the live performance.
Ralph Stanley’s musical style is referred to these days as ‘Bluegrass’ but he has been performing since that genre label existed and himself refers to what he does as ‘Old time mountain style’ His band consisted of a banjo player, a fiddle, guitar and a double bass. In the traditional style they managed the sound mix by moving closer or further away from their microphones (all instruments were fully acoustic and unamplified as far as I could tell).
It’s a style from a different time, a gentler more respectful sort of show and it was a privilege to get to see it (I was lucky enough to see one such show before back when Steve Earle toured his Bluegrass album ‘The Mountain’ with the Del McCoury Band).
Last night was a great performance, as well as some crowd pleasers from ‘O Brother’ there was a lot of other traditional music including some gospel numbers. Late in the performance I was particularly happy to hear their version of ‘Orange Blossom Special’ a favourite of mine. My only complaint was that I would have liked it to have gone on all night.
The support (Diana Jones) was ok, but I’m not sure that the space did her any favours, I think her act would have down a lot better in a more intimate space and probably would have fit nicely in to a more varied bill.
If you don’t know who Ralph Stanley is, you might recognise him from the soundtrack to ‘O Brother where Art Thou?’, performing the song “Oh, Death” - you would have seen and heard even more of him had you watched the companion DVD to the film. This is called ‘Down from the Mountain’ and is a recording of a live concert at The Ryman Theatre of a lot of the music from the film by the original performers - if you haven’t seen it but like that sort of music, I recommend it very highly, it’s one of the few live DVDs I’ve ever watched that actually capture the atmosphere of the live performance.
Ralph Stanley’s musical style is referred to these days as ‘Bluegrass’ but he has been performing since that genre label existed and himself refers to what he does as ‘Old time mountain style’ His band consisted of a banjo player, a fiddle, guitar and a double bass. In the traditional style they managed the sound mix by moving closer or further away from their microphones (all instruments were fully acoustic and unamplified as far as I could tell).
It’s a style from a different time, a gentler more respectful sort of show and it was a privilege to get to see it (I was lucky enough to see one such show before back when Steve Earle toured his Bluegrass album ‘The Mountain’ with the Del McCoury Band).
Last night was a great performance, as well as some crowd pleasers from ‘O Brother’ there was a lot of other traditional music including some gospel numbers. Late in the performance I was particularly happy to hear their version of ‘Orange Blossom Special’ a favourite of mine. My only complaint was that I would have liked it to have gone on all night.