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Roni Stoneman || Watch

Veronica Loretta “Roni” Stoneman is the youngest daughter and probably the best-known member of the Stoneman Family, the pioneering country music family headed by her father, Ernest “Pop” Stoneman, one of the first recorded country artists. The Stoneman Family won the Country Music Academy’s “Vocal Group of the Year Award” in 1967. After Pop’s death a year later, Roni Stoneman, known as a virtuoso banjo player in both country music and bluegrass, pursued a musical career on her own. Roni earned the distinction of being the first female banjo player to record a bluegrass tune
when she appeared on the 1956 album “American Banjo Scruggs Style” and she achieved national fame in the 1970s as a cast member of “Hee Haw,” one of the most successful variety shows in television history. Last year, the University of Illinois Press published Stoneman’s memoir, Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story. The story, told through a series of interviews with Northwestern University writing professor Ellen Wright, includes tales from a lifetime in country music, chronicles Stoneman’s problems with abusive husbands and examines her relationships with her children. Roni celebrated her 70th birthday this year and shows no signs of slowing with regard to her performing schedule or her lightning-fast three-finger picking.

with:
Mike Stinson || Listen
David Serby || Listen
Dave Gleason || Listen

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