#ralph stanley

Ralph Stanley - O Death

Song Review: Billy Strings - “A Robin Built a Nest on Daddy’s Grave” (Live, Oct. 24, 2025)

For all they do to expand and redefine the boundaries of bluegrass, Billy Strings and his band are perfectly comfortable - totally at home, even - within the genre’s traditional confines.

The truism is clear as the sound on a just-released, in-concert video of Strings and the fellers performing Ralph Stanley’s “A Robin Built a Nest on Daddy’s Grave” on Oct. 24, 2025, in Alabama.

This is complex stuff that seems simple because of the dexterity that goes into both the playing and Strings, Jarrod Walker and Billy Failing’s harmonies on the chorus. Fiddler Alex Hargreaves, mandolinist Walker and guitarist Strings are the featured soloists but banjoist Failing and bassist Royal Masat are no less essential to the song’s success; their supportive roles make the other stuff possible.

It’s the pristine quality of music like this, old-timey but with a 21st-century clarity, that makes Strings’ genre-busting all the more invigorating. There’s virtually nothing these fellers cannot do.

Grade card: Billy Strings - “A Robin Built a Nest on Daddy’s Grave” (Live - 10/24/25) - A

- bluegrass & old time ; mountain-centric

note: a lot of bluegrass is composed of standards, i’ve just chosen some of my favorite versions of these songs

appalachian joy - ricky skaggs

bile them cabbage down - don stover, b. lilly, and chubby anthony

black eyed suzie - ricky skaggs

buckin’ mul - the dillards

coal tattoo - hazel dickens

cornbread and butterbeans - carolina chocolate drops

the crawdad song - doc watson

cripple creek - flatt & scruggs

don’t think twice, it’s alright - flatt & scruggs

dooley - the dillards

foggy mountain breakdown - flatt & scruggs

going across the mountain - frank proffitt

hog eyed man - the ebony hillbillies

i’ll never see my home again - bob scott & stone ridge

ida red - lonesome river band

little liza jane - otis taylor

little sadie - doc watson

over yonder in the graveyard - ola belle reed

polly vaughn - the dillards

pretty polly - ralph stanley

rain crow - rhiannon giddens, justin robinson

raccoon and possum - peggy seeger

rocky top - the osborne brothers

roving gambler - the country gentlemen

ruby, are you mad at your man? - carolina chocolate drops

salty dog blues - flatt & scruggs

shady grove - laura love

sourwood mountain - carolina chocolate drops

there ain’t nobody gonna miss me when i’m gone - the kentucky colonels

there is a time - the dillards

tom dooley - doc watson

walk on boy - doc watson, richard watson

wayfaring stranger - bill monroe & his blue grass boys

Series Premiere

Car 54, Where Are You - Who's For Swordfish - NBC - September 17, 1961

Sitcom

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by Terry Ryan and Nat Hiken

Produced by Nat Hiken

Directed by Al DeCaprio

Stars:

Joe E. Ross as Officer Gunther Toody

Fred Gwynne as Officer Francis Muldoon

Paul Reed as Capt. Paul Block

Beatrice Pons as Lucille Toody

Ralph Stanley as Harold Conroy

Albert Henderson as Officer Dennis O'Hara

Sybil Lamb as Helen O'Hara

Nipsey Russell as Officer Dave Anderson

Hank Garrett as Officer Ed Nicholson

Jerome Guardino as Officer Antonnucci

Joe Warren as Officer Joe Steinmetz

Frederick O'Neal as Officer Wally Wallace

Duke Farley as Officer Reilly

Shelley Burton as Officer Murdock

Jim Gormley as Officer Nelson

Milo Boulton as Inspector