Carter Stanley

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Carter Glen Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) was a bluegrass music lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitar player. He formed "The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys" band together with his brother Ralph. The Stanley Brothers are generally acknowledged as the first band after Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys to play in the bluegrass genre. According to some historians, their recording of "Molly and Tenbrooks" (aka "The Racehorse Song") marked the beginning of bluegrass as a genre.

Biography

Stanley was born in Big Spraddle Creek in Dickenson County, Virginia. The son of Lucy and Lee Stanley, Carter grew up in rural southwestern Virginia. In 1946 he and his brother Ralph formed the Stanley Brothers, one of the most respected and influential bands in the new genre of bluegrass music. Carter played guitar and sang lead while Ralph played banjo and sang with a strong, high tenor voice. Their harmonies are much admired, and many consider Carter Stanley to be one of the greatest natural singers in the history of country music. Carter also composed more than a hundred songs, and many of them remain standards in the bluegrass genre. He had a particular knack for deceptively simple lyrics that portrayed strong emotion. His most famous compositions include "White Dove" and "The Fields Have Turned Brown." His arrangement of "Man of Constant Sorrow" was popularized in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?