Biography

Ralph Stanley II is the son of mountain music immortal Ralph Stanley. For the past several years, he has distinguished himself as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for his father’s Clinch Mountain Boys band. Called Simply “Two” by family and friends, Stanely is now signed to Lonesome Day Records, on which he will release his latest CD, This One is Two.

Stanley began learning to play guitar when he was five years old. At about that same age, he occasionally started going on the road with his dad. He did not opt for a career in music, however, until he was 12. It was then that he chanced to see an old video of Keith Whitley performing with the Clinch Mountain Boys and decided that this was what he wanted to do for life. In 1995, he became a full-fledged member of the band. From that moment forward, he has been earning his stripes, one show and one album at a time.

Stanley won a Grammy award for his work on the Jim Lauderdale/Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys album, Lost in the Lonesome Pines, and has been nominated for two other Grammys.

Critics have long praised Stanley’s vocal chops and his encyclopedic knowledge of traditional rural music. His rich, resonant voice routinely inspires comparisons to George Jones and Merle Haggard. As lead singer for The Clinch Mountain Boys, Stanley fulfills the role earlier held by such revered stylists as Larry Sparks, Charlie Sizemore, the late Keith Whitley and, of course, his uncle Carter Stanley of the trailblazing Stanley Brothers. Like these predecessors, Stanley is as much at home performing classic country music as he is bluegrass.
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