IMPORTANT RELEVANT UPDATE: - Looks like McCain is pulling OUT of Michigan, and INTO Virginia. So, this endorsement is even more vital now.
UPDATE: PLEASE go and give mojo to the first diarist, NHct, to catch this news. S/he has more tidbits, and more substance. I'm leaving mine up, because I included the entire transcript (straight from my speakers).
A sign of the End Of Times, possibly???
Dr. Ralph Stanley, MORE than a Bluegrass music legend, has gone and cut a radio ad FOR BARACK OBAMA!!, to be run in Southwest Virginia!!! Thanks to TPM for the story and link to the audio!
You may think you've never heard him, but you have if you watched the Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou." He sings the tune "O, Death" during the KKK Rally.
UPDATE II - Looks like I knew Ralph's music, but not his politics. The endorsement shouldn't have been a surprise to me. Thanks to daser for the info (I stand humbly corrected).
Ralph Stanley is a life-long Democrat
Dr. Ralph Stanley is amazing, but this endorsement is far from unbelievable like some of you are acting.
In addition to his seemingly non-stop recording and performing career, Stanley has long been active in Democratic Party politics. He ran unsuccessfully for commissioner of revenue and circuit court clerk in the 1970s, and was appointed to the county school board in 1992, serving a four-year term. During the 2004 presidential elections he stumped for candidate John Kerry
Text of ad (spoken over some choice banjo pickin'):
Howdy Friends, This is Ralph Stanley, and I think I know a little somethin' about the families around here. And after the last eight years, I know we all need a change.
Now, nobody's lookin' for a handout, but I think we could use a leader who's on our side. And I believe that leader's Barack Obama.
Barack'll cut taxes for everyday folks, not big business, so you'll have a little more money in your pocket at the end of the year. He understands that our kids shouldn't have to leave our communities to find work. That's why Barack'll make it easier to send your children to college, and help create five million new jobs, by investin' right here at home.
I also know Barack is a good man, a father and a devoted husband. He values personal responsibility, and family first.
So please join me, Ralph Stanley, in supporting a true friend of the people who live right here in South-west Virginia. Barack Obama is the Change We Need.
I am informed by snorfbat, that the song being played on the ad is "Rank Strangers to Me"