Something Like the Real Thing
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The high, lonesome, and keening harmony singing of Carter and Ralph Stanley is among the greatest sounds this country has ever produced. Amid plenty of terrific brother teams–the Blue Sky Boys, the Delmore Brothers, the Osborne Brothers, and later, the Louvin Brothers–Virginia’s Stanley Brothers stood alone. Their slightly raw, soaring harmonies brought a dusky flavor to the then-blossoming bluegrass movement.
The issue of cultural appropriation is, indeed, a touchy one. Just ask Eric Weisbard and Ann Powers, a pair of New York rock critics who also happen to live together. In recent issues of Spin and Rolling Stone, respectively, they summarily dismiss Welch as a hollow pretender. Weisbard is the more unforgiving of the two, claiming that Welch cares “more about set design than self-expression,” while a less vitriolic Powers accuses Welch of “manufactur[ing] emotion rather than express[ing] it.” Just what these two want from Welch is hard to fathom.
