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Back in October, the NY Times Book Review featured a new book by Ralph Stanley, one of the founders of blue grass music:

Ralph Stanley, is one of the last, and surely the purest, of the traditional country musicians. He's such a stickler that he has no use for the dobro, let alone electrified instruments, and he's not overly fond of the term bluegrass. He prefers to call what he performs "that old-time mountain music." He plays the five-string banjo in the claw-hammer style he learned from his mother -- or he used to, until arthritis caught up with him -- and he sings in a raw, keening Appalachian tenor.

The profile continues:

Mr. Stanley is 82 and, except for a dry spell in the early 1950s when he worked as a spot welder in Detroit, he has been performing steadily since he was a teenager. He still plays more than 100 dates a year, though he travels now in a customized bus rather than in an old Chevy, the band crammed in the back seat and the bass strapped to the roof. He has even been to Japan several times, where fans learn his songs by rote.

Mr. Stanley, who has called himself Doctor ever since being awarded an honorary degree from Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee in 1976, has been so busy, traveling and collecting awards -- three Grammys (one for an a capella version of "O Death" [MP3] on the soundtrack of the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"), the National Medal of Arts, a "Living Legend" designation from the Library of Congress -- that he only just got around to writing his autobiography, with the help of the journalist Eddie Dean.

His book, "Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times," takes its title from "another famous song and is a lot like the man himself: warm, folksy, down to earth, plainspoken, a little blunt and prickly at times."

"I wanted it to sound natural," he said. "Just like me a-settin' and talking to someone -- just like it was in person." He added: "It was a lot of remembering, and sometimes it took a while to remember what happened and how, but it got done. Some of the memories maybe wasn't like I'd like to have, but I wanted it to be just like it was."

The article continues:

In the 1960s bluegrass was almost eclipsed by Elvis and rock 'n' roll: his band, Mr. Stanley writes, was like a hog standing under an acorn tree that had run out of acorns. It was probably the folk revival that saved traditional music, even though Mr. Stanley writes: "The hippie types didn't know any better; they really thought they was playing bluegrass. You'd hear a solo on electric banjo and like to murder the man a-playing it."

Gotta love his edge! And yet he's just so down to earth:

His secret, Mr. Stanley says he feels certain now, is that he never changed. "I give myself credit for being in this business for so long," he said. "I started out the way I was raised, in the old-time mountain style, and I've never wavered from it. I've always stuck to my roots. I think that means a whole lot to the audience -- the people knows exactly what to expect. I've traveled so much that I'm used to it. I would hate to completely stop. I don't hardly know what I'd do with my time."

He finishes with this:

"I may be a little prejudiced, but I like my own music," he said, and he smiled for an instant. "I guess I'm about my favorite entertainer."

At 84, Ralph Stanley is still crankin' 'em out! Make sure you pick up his music, either at Amazon or iTunes.

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