The 1927 recording sessions of Ralph Peer in Bristol, Va., have been called "the big bang of country music," because they were the first sessions of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers and other early country stars. But the big bang might not have happened without Peer's adviser at the sessions, a southwest Virginian who had set a big match to the fuse three years earlier: Ernest Stoneman, right, later known as "Pop," the patriarch of a family that, like the Carters, still has playing members. (Wikipedia photo)Stoneman, who has been called "the unsung father of country music," is the main focus of an essay in today's Tuscaloosa News by Ben Windham, who also notes recent releases of collections by Stoneman, Rodgers and iconic folk singer Woody Guthrie. ("His music usually isn’t billed as country," Windham reports, "but the new collection shows Guthrie’s deep rural roots.")
Stoneman's "music was more purely Appalachian country than Rodgers," Windham writes, and he was "one of the first Appalachian musicians to record." In 1924, he recorded “The Titanic” about the passenger ship. The next year, "It sold thousands and thousands of copies, stunning record company executives," Windham reports, and it "sounds fabulous today." One reviewer compared "the chugging rhythm of his autoharp ... to the engines of the massive vessel."
Stoneman fell on hard times during the Depression, but mounted a comeback after World War II and laid the groundwork for other family members. Ronnie (or Roni) Stoneman, 71, left, still sings. (Roanoke Times photo by Kyle Green) Thanks to the late Elmer Goodman, my old colleague at WANY Radio in Albany, Ky., for educating me about Pop Stoneman 40 years ago.
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