Customer Reviews

28 Big Ones

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One of the great unsung bluegrass acts, and perhaps little known outside VERY esoteric circles, The Stoneman Family got their start with one man in the 1920's.

Ernie "Pop" Stoneman, an Appalachian hillbilly and premier autoharp player, figured the music he and his family had been playing and singing for years (he was born in 1893!) could be worth something to the world, especially with that new-fangled invention, radio, gaining in popularity.

Pop Stoneman worked the same back roads and hollers as The Carter Family. He had the distinction of having two true "firsts" in what was called "hillbilly" music ("country" today). A song already done by several others, "The Sinking of the Titanic", was recorded by him in late 1924. By May 1925, it was #3 on Variety's charts (stayed on the charts for 10 weeks). This song was the first recording showcasing an autoharp, and it was the first country song to earn a million dollars (not for Pop, of course, but probably for Okeh Records, his label).

THAT great classic is here (re-recorded, but from the early 1960s) on this 28-song (!) compilation from Nashville's King Records. These people play with grit, and stamina -- their "Orange Blossom Breakdown" (an instrumental interpretation of that greatest of all bluegrass classics, "Orange Blossom Special", borders on manic!)

The songs here tell of juvenile delinquency ("Little Susie"), nostalgia ("100 Years Ago"), boozin', hillbilly fussin', train wrecks, lost loves, and a completely hilarious vamp of "White Lightning/Mountain Dew" ("White Lightning #2"). This raucous track (complete with vocal gurgling) features Stoneman vocal parodies of Opry greats Kitty Wells and Ernest Tubb, and most bizarrely, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (chiming in on the virtues of White Lightning!)

This music is fun and rooted firmly in the soul of America. Most of the original Stoneman lineup who played on these songs are deceased (Pop in 1967), but Roni Stoneman, the daughter and ace banjo player is still alive (she was a regular on "Hee-Haw" in the 1970s). Recently, she shredded my face on a televised appearance, playing Leadbelly's "House of New Orleans" double-time on the banjo and keening in a voice filled with grit and soul. It was an awesome moment.

Dedicated? Her 73-year-old's finger joints are swollen with arthritis. She SUPER GLUES her banjo finger picks to the tips of her right fingers so they don't slip off!! She wears these like some women would Lee Press-On nails. Amazing!!

And so is this material. Early American recordings like these may not have a lot of fancy studio tricks to beef 'em up, but the playing is real, the singing is sincere, and they mean every word and note. Give the Stoneman Family a listen (whether it be this compilation -- which is a great introduction, by the way -- or any of their other early recordings). Disappointment will not be an option.