Celebrity can turn up in the strangest of places. When you peruse the fine vehicles of eBay Motors for blinged-up Escalades, Lamborghinis owned by adult film stars, and the chance to drive WHYI-FM Fort Lauderdale DJ Don Cox’s 1988 Corvette convertible, you might just scroll past this man’s hot-rod Lincoln.
While not a rock star per se, Ralph Stanley is a legend in bluegrass circles—known for his mastery of the claw-hammer banjo style and for his distinctive singing voice. Born in 1927, he first started playing at the tender age of 16 and went on to find success with his brother as the (recently revived) Clinch Mountain Boys. His cover of the traditional folk song “O Death” was featured in the Coen Brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? He won a Grammy in 2002 for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and performed for John Edwards at a rally in 2007. He was nominated into the Grand Ole Opry as the first new member this decade as well as the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame—twice.
And yes, you can be forgiven if you still don’t know who he is.
A good ol’ boy with a good ol’ car: how more American can you get? How more American, indeed, when the backroads of western Virginia disappear under the chrome-slabbed nose of “Dr.” Stanley’s twelve-cylinder 1948 Lincoln Club Coupe. Its gracefully sloping rear window, reminiscent of the bumpy slide at a carnival, distinguishes it from the more common Continental coupes out there (if a postwar V12 Lincoln could ever be “common”). The all-original, 83,000-mile car is in perfect working order, with the amount of rust “less than a man’s hands.”
And it’s just the ticket into the strange and wonderful world of folksy mountain bluegrass music: just drive this through Kentucky or up to the front steps of the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center in Clintwood, Virginia—not far from where he was born and where he still performs today. Once you put up the $76,000 needed in order to own a car once driven by the 2004 Distinguished Virginian of the Year, you’ll be welcomed with open arms by the curiously-named Advanced Alternatives Commission for Community Transmutation via Technology & Sustainability Strategies (AACCTTSS), which promises you that it is a legitimate foundation and not a front by Cobra Commander. They’re aiming to redevelop the Lyric Theater in sleepy St. Paul, Virginia into a cultural museum, via a well-heeled Lincoln enthusiast enchanted by “I’ll Answer The Call.”
Of course, the charity is only the icing on the cake. After all, we are talking not about a mere man but a living legend, according to the ad copy: one who was awarded the Key to the City of Garner, North Carolina, who holds an honorary Doctorate of Music from Lincoln Memorial University in sunny Harrogate, Tennessee. Stanley the man himself will even autograph the car for you, a “once in a lifetime opportunity!” Or, failing that, a photograph.
Is bluegrass celebrity worth $76,000? Will the Lyric Theater be saved? Is it worth sitting in the seat once reserved for a National Medal of Arts recipient? Let’s hope so. Because for some, this will be too good to pass up.
For everyone else, though, we’ll just play along with the music.
Ralph Stanley’s “Celebrity Memorabilia” 1948 Lincoln V12 Club Coupe
- Blake Rong
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