Stanley Lorton was born on May 10, 1919 in Radford, Virginia. Stanley began to pay attention to music when he was thirteen years old. There was no radio and what he learned was passed to him by his father, Joe who could tune a guitar and play the chords C, F, and G.

His Uncle Bob Lorton, (seventy years of age at the time) taught him the only three songs he knew. Uncle Bob also gave him a beat-up fiddle to repair. At age sixteen Stanley got his first good guitar.  Songs came from friends and later from the Grande Ole’ Opry. Stanley assumed the responsibilities of a family and after serving in Germany during World War II, he moved to Willis, Virginia in 1946. He worked until his retirement in May 1981, as a carpenter and farmer.

Stanley returned to his love of music by learning to craft instruments which paid homage to the sweet sounds of mountain music:  guitar, dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, mandolin, dobro, and fiddle. Stanley played music with The Over The Hill Gang for fifteen years and

He continues at the age of 87 to combine the sound of the instruments he has crafted with the music he loves.