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Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center

The Crooked Road’s Mountains of Music Homecoming is a nine-day festival staged in 19 counties and four cities across Southwest Virginia. But for some people, including Ralph Stanley Museum director Tammy Hill, the work of preserving mountain music and mountain culture goes on all the time. 

The Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Centerused to be a law office. Then it was a boarding house. Then a funeral home. Ralph Stanley’s brother, Carter, and his mother, Ms. Lucy, lay in the building before their funerals. Now it’s a gateway to learning about the Stanley Brothers and the music and culture that made them. Tammy Hill, the museum’s director, greets visitors just inside the door.

The first week I was here, I had people from Iceland. I just recently had a tour group of over a hundred from England, Scotland, Ireland. You know, we have had forty-nine countries walk through the door and all fifty states. You can hear them upstairs dancing and I always say that’s what brings me joy is hearing Dr. Ralph and his music bring other people joy, as he does me.”

Visitors to the museum, Hill says, are as varied as the places they come from.

You don’t have a set stereotype here. It’s everybody. He has blessed everybody with his music.”

Though it’s called theRalph Stanley Museum,the second part of the name – Traditional Music Center – is important, too.

“You’re going to see a lot of things from Ralph and Carter’s career. Ralph’s career, but not only them, a lot of our heritage is here in the Ralph Stanely Museum. I think this is very important that we have this so people will realize we’re keeping this tradition alive. We want generations on, beyond to know our heritage and our music.”

Visitors will see a lot about Carter Stanley and the songs and radio programs the Stanley brothers listened to before they were famous, but Ralph Stanley’s name is in the museum’s title. He’s the reason a lot of people find their way to Clintwood.

A lot of people come in here and ask me why I love Dr. Ralph so much, what his music does for me. It, again, reminds me of my heritage. I grew up here in Clintwood. I grew up in Dickenson County so it keeps that heritage alive, that Appalachian tradition alive for me, for my children and, later on, for my grandchildren. So that is keeping us grounded in our roots. Second of all, if you have heard Dr. Ralph and he has not moved you, then you were obviously born without a soul. Because, whether you like bluegrass or not, there is something about the rich, unique voice that just brings you to emotion. And there is just way other to describe it and there will be no one else like Dr. Ralph Stanley.”

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