Jack Cooke (1936 to 2009) played bass and sang with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys from 1970 until 2009, a run of 38 years. He started out on bass with the Stanley Brothers in the mid-1950s and played guitar in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys at the end of that decade. Few bass players in bluegrass have held one job as long.
Why Cooke matters
Cooke was the bass under Ralph Stanley’s mountain sound for almost four decades. He backed the singers and pickers who passed through the Clinch Mountain Boys in those years, including a young Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley on a 1971 live record. When people talk about the Stanley sound after Carter’s death, Cooke’s bass is part of it.
Life and career
Vernon Crawford Cooke was born on December 6, 1936, in Norton, Virginia. He came from a musical family. He began on guitar as a teen and played with his brothers and fiddler Kenny Baker as the Cooke Brothers.
His first professional job was playing bass for Carter and Ralph Stanley in the mid-1950s, on the Farm and Fun Time radio show in Bristol. In 1958 he joined Bill Monroe as guitarist. He recorded on three Monroe sessions in 1958 and 1959 and filled in with the band for a few years after. He then led his own band, the Virginia Mountain Boys, which included Del McCoury on banjo. He also worked with Earl Taylor and the Stonemans. In 1963 he served half a term as mayor of Norton.
In 1970 he met Ralph Stanley at a flea market in Norton and took the bass job in the Clinch Mountain Boys. He stayed until health problems took him off the road in 2009. He shared a Grammy for Stanley’s Lost in the Lonesome Pines in 2002, received the IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2003, and released a solo album, Sittin’ on Top of the World. He died of a heart attack in Norton on December 1, 2009.
Playing style
Cooke played a plain, solid bass that put the beat where Ralph Stanley’s banjo and the band’s singers needed it. He also sang with the band. Because he had worked as a lead guitarist and lead singer for Monroe, he understood the whole band, not just the bottom end.
Influences and legacy
Cooke grew up in southwest Virginia, where his father played clawhammer banjo and old-time banjo player Dock Boggs was his cousin. He played beside Ralph Stanley, Carter Stanley, Bill Monroe, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, and Curly Ray Cline. He followed George Shuffler in the Stanley bass chair.
Signature tunes and songs
Sitting on Top of the World, the title song of his solo album.
Essential recordings
Sittin’ on Top of the World (Pinecastle) Volume 1 (Recorded Live in 1971), Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys (Stanley Tone, 1971) Lost in the Lonesome Pines, Ralph Stanley
Awards and honors
IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award (2003) Grammy Award, shared, for Lost in the Lonesome Pines (2002)
What to learn from Cooke
Put on a Ralph Stanley record from the 1970s and play only roots and fifths for a whole set. No walks and no fills. Lock your notes to Stanley’s banjo and to the guitar’s bass runs. Cooke’s lesson is that a bass player who never gets in the way can keep a band job for 38 years.
Sources
Vernon Crawford “Jack” Cooke, Wikipedia Cooke, Jack, BluegrassBios.com Jack Cooke: Blue Grass Boy, doodah.net
Related players
See the bass players hub and the bass guide. George Shuffler held the Stanley bass job before him. Ralph Stanley and Curly Ray Cline were his bandmates.