MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW

As half of the musical band the Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley played an enormous role in helping to popularize bluegrass music worldwide. His memoir is a fascinating chronicle of a life in music. Narrator Ed Sala delivers Stanley’s homespun narrative with a brusque drawl that befits the accounts of hard knocks—and eventual success. The book covers more than 50 years of American musical and cultural history as well as personal history, including the untimely death of Ralph’s brother, Carter. As Stanley—transmogrified through the hickory-smoked voice of Sala—makes clear, long before rockers rampaged like unholy juggernauts, country musicians were seasoned road warriors. J.S.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2011]