Ralph Stanley II Sets
Traditional Country Benchmark With
Stunning New Album: This One Is
Two
Features Songs by Lyle Lovett, Townes
Van Zandt, Tom T. Hall, Elton John,
Fred Eaglesmith and Stanley Himself.
Read more at
www.ralphstanleyii.com
Ralph Stanley II sets a new benchmark for traditional country music
with the September 23 release of This
One Is Two on Lonesome Day Records.
With Grammy nominations for his last two albums and a Grammy award for
his contributions to the album Lost In
The Lonesome Pines, Stanley boasts one of the most moving and
dramatic voices in country music, an instrument he polished and perfected
during his 14 years as lead singer for Ralph Stanley & the Clinch
Mountain Boys.
This One Is Two (a reference to
Stanley’s nickname) showcases 11 emotionally probing songs by
the best writers in the business, among them Lyle Lovett, Townes Van
Zandt, Fred Eaglesmith, Tom T. and Dixie Hall and Elton John. Stanley
co-wrote two of the songs: “Honky Tonk Way,” a tough, grimy,
up-close look at a country singer’s life on the road, and “Lord
Help Me Find The Way,” a cry from the heart he composed when he
was suddenly forced to stand in for his famous father.
A particular jewel in this musical treasure chest is “Carter,”
Fred Eaglesmith’s mournful valedictory to Stanley’s uncle,
the late Carter Stanley of Stanley Brothers fame. In “Cold Shoulder,”
Stanley immerses himself in the mind and heart of a lonely trucker who’s
snowbound at night miles away from his lover. He resurrects Lyle Lovett’s
chilling murder saga, “L. A. County,” a song he refers to
as “my ‘Pretty Polly.’”
Stanley turned to ace storyteller Tom T. Hall for the album’s
first single, the high-velocity, relentlessly clacking “Train
Songs.” From Elton John he borrows the lyrical and sun-loving
“Georgia.” Songwriter Elmer C. Burchett Jr. brought Stanley
the sweetest “mother” song of recent memory, “Moms
Are The Reason Wild Flowers Grow.”
Produced by Mike Latterell and A & R-ed by Lonesome Day president
Randall Deaton, This One Is Two
features background vocals by former Shenandoah lead singer Marty Raybon,
Grammy-winning Jim Lauderdale, Darrin Vincent (of Dailey & Vincent),
Dale Anne Bradley and Steve Gulley. The musicians are Tim Crouch (fiddle,
guitar), Cody Kilby (guitar), Randy Kohrs (dobro), Harold Nixon (bass),
Adam Steffey (mandolin) and Ron Stewart (banjo).
This One Is Two is Stanley’s fifth solo album. It is preceded
by Carrying On (2004), Stanley
Blues (2002, a Grammy nominee for best bluegrass album), Pretty
Girls, City Lights (2000) and Listen
To My Hammer Ring (1999).
Read
more at www.ralphstanleyii.com
Contacts:
Norma Morris / Erin Morris
Morris Public Relations
615 952-9250
norma@morrispr.biz
www.morrispr.biz
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