IMHO
Exactly because he..."is the embodiment of generations who took little part in the
larger world, but lived and died back in the hills of home, "far from the madding
crowd," who saved their breath to swell in song, music they played and sang only for
themselves. They sat on their back porches and sang and played for no other purpose
than to express their joy in living, and, in hard times, to make life a little easier
to bear.
And we may be thankful that this music has survived, for there is an eerie beauty in
it that can be heard nowhere else in the world today. It is the soaring spirit of the
common man, who will not be vanquished and the very best of this is heard in the voice
of Ralph Stanley."
..that he should have protected it from the misuse by Hollywood in a scene from a KKK
rally. He allowed his beautiful and spiritual music to be perverted by the film,
IMHO. Why? Either you argue that he was naive and taken advantage of by the film
makers...or he simply Sold Out. Meaning he allowed them to use his music in that way
because he wanted the film publicity and money and false fame. Can you make an
argument that that use of the song was simply ironic? I did not see that, and most of
the audience had not a clue that it might have been...
Jack Lynch
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