Remembering Ralph Stanley, a bluegrass great

He played regular shows here from the late 1990s through 2014, his last show here at Fox Tucson Theatre with his Clinch Mountain Boys. He was the genteel guardian of the genre, a driving force behind the resurgence of bluegrass that heralded a new generation of purveyors. These were artists who hailed from beyond the coal mountain towns and hollers of Stanley's lineage to America's big cities and small towns, including Tucson which is home to rising stars Run Boy Run. 

Run Boy Run, comprised of brother and sister Matt Rolland (fiddle, guitar) and Grace Rolland (cello, vocals), and sisters Bekah Sandoval Rolland (Matt's wife who plays fiddle and sings) and Jen Sandoval (mandolin, vocals), and bass player Jesse Allen, is  making a strong run for a national career, touring around the country.

In a Facebook post late Thursday night, the band thanked Stanley "for all your music and inspiration over the years. You'll be missed!" Run Boy Run opened for the iconic singer at Fox Tucson Theatre in 2014. 

The band's post came hours after news broke that Stanley had died at his home in Sandy Ridge, Virginia. He was 89.

Stanley's Tucson shows were rich with the music that Stanley and his late brother Carter had been playing since they formed the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946. When his brother died 20 years later, Ralph Stanley continued on, going sol at first, then reviving the band.

His Tucson shows were legendary beyond the stage for the way Stanley interacted with the audience. And if you liked what you heard on stage, you could take some home — for a price.

At a Berger Center show in early 2001, Stanley transformed the hall's lobby into a Ralph Stanley music and memorabilia store during intermission. He sold CDs, cassettes, videocassettes — DVDs were still fairly new — T-shirts, posters and Stanley’s own line of banjos. And when he wasn’t acting as his own cashier, Stanley generously signed autographs.

Stanley told the Star in 2012 that his music career and merchandising prowess wasn't necessarily fun; it was his job.

"It's always been a job. It's like you going to school and teaching school all day. It's a job for me and I like to do it. But it's business and it's a job," he explained. "As long as I stay able and feel like it, it's a good pastime. I hate staying at home and doing nothing."

Two of Stanley's final shows were at venues downtown, which was new for Stanley. He had played the bulk of his low-key, folksy Tucson gigs at Berger, the modest hall on the campus of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

In that 2012 Star interview, Stanley, who was 85 at the time, wasn't ruling out retirement, but he wasn't signing up for it, either.

"I know I'll have to one day," he said. "When the time comes I'll know it. Now I don't know when, but I'll know it some day. The good man upstairs has blessed me and gave me the strength and ambition and power to (continue)."