Welcome Mr. Holman.
I see you are familiar with the Carter Family. I lived near Maces Spring,
VA back in the early 1950's and A.P. Carter operated a General Store and Post
Office there. I was there when they had the family reunion. They made their
final recording then and A.P. brought a copy to our house. Didn't get to meet
any of the other family members though. First time I saw Ralph and Carter
Stanley was at WCYB In Bristol at about he same time. I still love all their
music as you do, but living in Vermont sort of keeps me from it. I do buy CD's
now and then.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 11:38
AM
Subject: BG: New Member
Hello List Members, Band Members, Members of the Stanley Family, and Dr.
Ralph Stanley,
I am so happy I found this website and this mailing list. This music (I
am listening to the streaming audio as I write) is just so beautiful that it
just keeps wanting to bring tears to my eyes. My dear mother, Rosemary Avery
nee Taylor, originally from Marionville Missouri, a member of the Carter Clan
(my grandmother was Minnie Carter, who had eight children, lived all her life
there in the Missouri Ozarks), used to sing a lot of these same songs
when I was a child, and some of these, as I hear the Stanley brothers sing
them, are the ones that just want to bring tears to my eyes. My dear mother is
79 years old and she may not be long for this world - I don't know - but her
health is not real good. But her mind just really alert. My great grandmother
lived way up into her 90's, and she knew the Bible, chapter and verse, cover
to cover, and raised her children to fear God and live a righteous life as
best she could.
My mother lost touch with her family by-and-large when her mother took
her to Oklahoma City when she was still young - I am not sure how old she was
- but she never lost touch with her roots, and she used to sing a lot of these
songs to me when I very young, and I felt like this was just part of my heart
and soul, such that when I hear Dr. Stanley and his brother Carter singing
these songs I feel I like am a part of this, and it is a part of me. It gives
me a sense of longing, and the feeling is both sad and sweet. I can play the
guitar a little bit and sing like this, and I have always admired the people
who helped bring it into the public eye back when folk music caught on in the
1960's - Pete Seeger and Joan Baez come to mind.
Right now I am playing the whole suite of songs over again for a second
time, and the song I am listening to is the "Dream of a Miner's Child", and
this is one of the songs that I think my mother must have sung to me a hundred
times when I was a child. I know that on the day I am standing there at her
funeral I will remember this song and I will think of you all. This, for me,
is a very moving experience. I think that Dr. Ralph Stanley has a certain
charisma about him that just transcends the things of this world, and that
make people feel the way I do, because this music, and the people of this
music is like - I don't know how to explain it - but there is a spiritual
quality to it that is just beyond compare. It is very simple and very
unpretentious, but I think that the humbleness and the faith and honesty are
the qualities that just make it somehow so much special than all of the fancy
modern music that you hear today.
Well, I know that I am just rambling, but like I said, I am so happy to
have found this website, to have found this group, and to be able to listen to
this music. Awhile back I saw a program all about Dr. Ralph Stanley on
the television, and I remember several scenes especially, and in one of them,
there was this woman, a well-known country music singer (I can't remember who
she was) and she was singing with Dr. Stanley in a recording studio and she
could not hold back the tears in her eyes just to hear him sing like that,
because she was so moved. Well, I want to you know that this is how feel. I am
so moved by this music, not only because of the brilliant and heartfelt
interpretations that only Dr. Stanley can bring forth, but because of how is
makes me feel with regards to my own roots and to my dear mother who
sacrificed so much to try and allow myself and my sister to have a decent life
in spite of all of the hardships she had to endure.
Okay, well, thanks for having me here and taking the time to read this,
and God bless everyone here.
Bryant Holman
Presidio, Texas
