The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music That Shaped Their Lives (Music in American Life)

Arts & Photography

Tribe, Ivan M.

Music

University of Illinois Press

The Stonemans is an eye-opening slice of Americana---a trip through nearly twenty years of country music history following a single family from their native Blue Ridge Mountains to the slums of Washington, D.C., and the glitter of Nashville. As early as 1924 Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman realized the potential of what is now known as country music, and he tried to carve a career from it. Successful as a recording artist from 1925 through 1929, Stoneman foundered during the Great Depression. He, his wife, and their nine children went to Washington in 1932, struggling through a decade of hardship and working to revive the musical career Pop still believed in. The Stoneman Family won the Country Music Association's Vocal Group of the Year Award in 1967. After Pop's death a year later, some of the children scattered to pursue their own careers. Ivan Tribe relies on extensive interviews with the Stonemans and their friends in this chronicle of a family whose members have clung to their musical heritage through good times and bad.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Jamboree! To many country music fans the word conjures up memories of Saturday nights around the family radio listening to live broadcasts from that haven of hillbilly music, West Virginia. From 1926 through the 1950s, as Ivan Tribe shows in his lively history, country music radio programming made the Mountain State a mecca for country singers and instrumentalists from all over America.Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Little Jimmy Dickens, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Red Sovine, Blaine Smith, Curly Ray Cline, Grandpa Jones, Cowboy Loye, Rex and Eleanor Parker, Lee Moore, Buddy Starcher, Doc and Chickie Williams, and Molly O'Day were among the many who came to prominence via West Virginia radio.Wheeling's "WWVA jamboree," first broadcast in 1933, attracted a wide audience, especially after 1942, when the station increased its power. The show's success spawned numerous competitors, as new stations all over West Virginia followed WWVA's lead in headlining country music. The state also played an important role in the early recording industry. The Tweedy Brothers, Frank Hutchison, Roy Harvey, Blind Alfred Reed, Frank Welling and John McGhee, Cap and Andy, and the Kessinger Brothers were among West Virginians whose waxings contributed to the state's reputation for fine native musicianship. So too did those who sought out and recorded the Mountaineer folksong heritage.As Nashville's dominance has grown since the 1960s, West Virginia's leadership in country music has lessened. Young performers must now seek fame outside their native state. But, as Ivan Tribe demonstrates, the state's numerous outdoor festivals continue to keep alive the heritage of country music's "mountain mama."

Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia

University Press of Kentucky

Univ Pr of Kentucky

University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College (Campus History)

Bapst, Jacob L.

PHD.

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

Beginning in the mid-1920s, radio stations that catered to rural audiences sponsored programs featuring country music, generically termed "barn dances." Ranking second in terms of longevity and perhaps in significance to the Grand Ole Opry from WSM Nashville came the Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia. It became the springboard for such country stars as Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Hawkshaw Hawkins, the Osborne Brothers, Doc and Chickie Williams, Lee Moore, Big Slim the Lone Cowboy, and most recently, Brad Paisley. Under slightly varying names, the Jamboree flourished from 1933 through 2005 over the airwaves of 50,000-watt WWVA 1170 AM and now airs on WWOV 101.1 FM.

The Jamboree in Wheeling (Images of America)

For nearly two centuries, Meigs County has occupied the near-center of the Buckeye State’s frontage on the beautiful Ohio River. After British and German pioneer farmers initially settled the area, the founding fathers of Meigs County took advantage of river commerce and developed an industrial base by mining for salt and coal, which found markets downstream. In the 1880s, when railroads crossed the county, Hobson Yards and Hobson provided employment for hundreds of “Iron Horse” workers. With the demise of both steam locomotives and the agrarian economy, Meigs languished for a time until a 1970s coal revival ushered in three decades of renewed growth. Through prosperity and hard times, Meigs Countians in river communities and hilly hinterlands have fostered camaraderie by demonstrating pride in their schools, churches, athletic teams, and organizations.

Meigs County (Images of America)

Pickens, Jordan D.

West Virginia has been known for a century as a rich repository of traditional country music and musicians. Beginning in the mid-1920s, phonograph recordings and radios brought this music to a wider audience. With the passing of time and the influence of commercialization, this music developed into what became first known as "hillbilly" and then into the more refined "country" because of its long appeal to those of rural background. Although modernization has caused the traditional element to recede considerably, much still remains. Many folk still cling to the older sounds exemplified by the "raw" traditionalists and the neo-traditional bluegrass style that emerged in the 1940s. From the earliest recording artists, such as the Tweedy Brothers and David Miller, who was blind, to contemporary stars like Kathy Mattea and Brad Paisley, West Virginians and others have held their musicians in high esteem.

West Virginia's Traditional Country Music (Images of America)

Humor & Entertainment

On September 13, 1876, the bell on Atwood Hall rang, students assembled, and Rio Grande College began its 140-year search for identity and its struggle for existence. Ira Haning, a Freewill Baptist minister, conveyed the idea of a college to a prominent couple, Nehemiah and Permelia Atwood. Nehemiah passed away in 1869, and supposedly, his last words were "Permelia, build the college." Permelia deeded 10 acres and financed Atwood Hall and the Boarding Hall, and Rio Grande College became a reality. Upon Permelia's death in 1885, Rio Grande faced the first of many financial pitfalls. Her estate was willed to the college, but the heirs of her second husband contested it in an action that would be resolved by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1896. As a college, junior college, community college, and currently, as a university, Rio Grande continues to seek a definitive identity.

Born in rural Ohio in 1897, Beryl Halley was educated at a strict Freewill Baptist school. After briefly teaching in a one-room schoolhouse, she joined the navy in 1918 before her unlikely path led her to Broadway, then to the Ziegfeld Follies (1923-1925). She also appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities and other revues, as well as in films, and had a widely publicized brush with the law (over alleged nudity) in 1926. 
 She retired from show business in 1930, married an insurance executive and had a family, later reappearing in the public eye as an officer in the Ziegfeld Girls' Club. Making her home in Houston in the 1950s, she worked as legal secretary for a large law firm. Her death at age 90 was unpublicized. Her story is told here for the first time.

Beryl Halley: The Life and Follies of a Ziegfeld Beauty, 1897-1988

McFarland

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tribe, Ivan M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tribe, Ivan M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tribe, Ivan M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music That Shaped Their Lives (Music in American Life)

The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music That Shaped Their Lives (Music in American Life)

Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia

Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music in West Virginia

University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College (Campus History)

The Jamboree in Wheeling (Images of America)

Meigs County (Images of America)

West Virginia's Traditional Country Music (Images of America)

University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College (Campus History)

Beryl Halley: The Life and Follies of a Ziegfeld Beauty, 1897-1988