Catching Up With Ralph Stanley

• See Ralph Stanley on two Great American Country Shows
  --"The Edge of Country w/ Kylie Harris," Sat., May 20, at 1 p.m. Eastern (check your local guide for other air times) - Ralph and John Carter Cash talk about the Carter family and Ralph's new album of Carter Family songs, A Distant Land To Roam.
  --"Master Series w/ Bill Cody," Wed., May 24, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern (check your local guide for other air times).

• Ralph Stanley's 2006 Festival To Open With Musical
  (May 24-27 Event Concludes with Clinch Mountain Boys Reunion)
  The Barter Theatre production of Man Of Constant Sorrow, a musical play about the Stanley Brothers, will open Ralph Stanley's 36^th annual Memorial Weekend Bluegrass Festival on Wed., May 24, at the Hills of Home Park in Smith Ridge, Virginia.  The festival will continue through Sat., May 27, and conclude that evening with a reunion performance by former members of Stanley's fabled Clinch Mountain Boys band. Go to http://www.drralphstanley.com/ for complete schedule.

• Ralph Stanley Sings The Carter Family
  DMZ/Columbia Unveils 13-Song Tribute Album May 30
  The tie-in between the Carters and the Stanleys-two of Virginia's most influential musical clans-will be spotlighted on May 30 with the release of Ralph Stanley's A Distant Land To Roam-Songs Of The Carter Family on DMZ/Columbia Records.
  
   In his appraisal of the new CD, Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion remarked, "Ralph Stanley is like an uncle to us and now that all my uncles are gone, Ralph's singing is even more precious. This album of classic folk songs is one of his best."

David Gates, a senior editor of Newsweek who also profiled Stanley for The New Yorker, says "A Distant Land to Roam is indispensable: [Here is] the foremost interpreter of traditional country music singing some of the great canonical songs. . . . [This is] one of his most moving recordings."  Notes Jon Weisberger, contributing editor to No Depression:  "Ralph's stirring, mournful voice is a perfect match for the Carter Family's songs."