Interview with Roni Stoneman, August 2, 2005
Project: Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Roni Stoneman played banjo in the Stoneman Family band, as well as the role of Ida Lee Nagger on the television show "Hee Haw." In this interview, she discusses her family's musical abilities and how the older generations taught the young people to play. She talks about her parents' music careers and her father recording the Bristol sessions. She describes the difficulty of growing up during the Great Depression in a one-room house with a tarp for a roof. She talks about the formation of the Stoneman Family band, winning contests, and learning to play the banjo. She talks about the environment of playing in honky tonks, playing on the West Coast, and playing at the Grand Ole Opry. She discusses gender roles in Bluegrass, the difficulty and struggle of trying to survive financially in the music industry, and leaving the Stoneman Family band to be on "Hee Haw."Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Genealogy Banjo players Banjos Great Depression Hee Haw (Television program) Women in Bluegrass The Bluegrass Champs (Artist) Honky tonks Grand Ole Opry Gender roles Bill Frost (Artist) Frost, Bill (Artist) Jimmy Stoneman (Artist) Stoneman, Jimmy (Artist) Stoneman Family (Artist) The Stonemans (Artist) Stoneman, Donna (Artist) Donna Stoneman (Artist) Stoneman, Ernest V. “Pop” (Artist) Pop Stoneman (Artist) Stoneman, Hattie (Artist) Hattie Stoneman (Artist) Stoneman, Scotty (Artist) Scotty Stoneman (Artist)Interview LC Subject
Bluegrass music. Bluegrass musicians Childhood Music--Instruction and study. Music--Performance. Musical ability in children. Musical ability. Musical families Musical groups. Musical instruments. Musical performance Practicing (Music) Depressions--1929 Poverty Economic conditions Marriage Women bluegrass musicians.Interview Rights
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Stoneman, Roni Interview by Ellen Wright. 02 Aug. 2005. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Stoneman, R. (2005, August 02). Interview by E. Wright. Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Stoneman, Roni, interview by Ellen Wright. August 02, 2005, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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