He played some remaining Stanley Brothers dates, then moved forward with the Clinch Mountain Boys, performing until not long before his own death.

Music was a part of their lives even in their early years, and they listened to the Monroe Brothers, J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers and the Grand Ole Opry on local radio.

The brothers formed a band, the Lazy Ramblers, and performed as a duo on WJHL radio in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Additional members of this early band were Darrell "Pee Wee" Lambert on mandolin and Bobby Sumner on fiddle.

[9] During this time, Bill Monroe was not particularly fond of groups like the Stanley Brothers and Flatt & Scruggs who he believed "stole" his music by copying it; they were seen as "economic threats.

As bluegrass music grew less popular in the late 1950s, the Stanley Brothers moved to Live Oak, Florida and headlined the weekly Suwannee River Jamboree radio show on WNER from 1958 to 1962.

In 2005, The Barter State Theatre of Virginia premiered an original stage production, Man of Constant Sorrow: The Story of the Stanley Brothers, written by Dr. Douglas Pote.