Pressing on: The Roni Stoneman Story

By Roni Stoneman

Book Overview

Roni Stoneman was the youngest daughter of the pioneering country music family and a woman who overcame poverty and abusive husbands to claim the title of "The First Lady of Banjo," a fixture on the Nashville scene, and, as Hee Haw' s Ironing Board Lady, a comedienne beloved by millions. Drawn from more than seventy-five hours of recorded interviews, Pressing On reveals Roni's gifts as a master storyteller. With characteristic spunk and candor, she describes her "pooristic" ("way beyond 'poverty-stricken'") Appalachian childhood, and how her brother Scott taught her to play the challenging and innovative three-finger banjo picking style developed by Earl Scruggs. She also warmly recounts Hee Haw -era adventures with Minnie Pearl, Roy Clark, and Buck Owens; her encounters as a musician with country greats like Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, June Carter, and Patsy Cline; as well as her personal struggles with shiftless and violent husbands, her relationships with her children, and her musical life after Hee Haw.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252031911
• ISBN13: 9780252031915
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

country music pioneer & funny lady

I happened to read The Stonemans: An Appalachian Family and the Music That Shaped Their Lives (Music in American Life) by Ivan M. Tribe (1993) a great book about this epic family of country music. The star of that book was Roni Stoneman, especially the stories of her bad luck with men. So I devoured this book, which is a nice companion to Tribe's masterwork. The stories are harrowing and funny and you will be reading parts of it out loud. Plus, she knew everybody in country music when they were nobodies. But she's no saint, and she discusses her own failings with a little bit of retrospection. Lots of new words appear in this book -- her family was "pooristic" for example. Makes you want to hear her banjer playin'.

A Living History of Appalachian Music

Sometimes "as told to" is a euphemism for "ghost written by." This is clearly not the case with the felicitous collaboration between storyteller-musician Roni Stoneman and writer, Ellen Wright in Pressing On. Roni is the daughter of the legendary Ernest Stoneman, who among other accomplishments organized the Bristol Sessions that in 1927 recorded musical greats including the Carter family and Jimmie Rogers. Roni's life story is also a story of Appalachian music in American culture. She is a virtuoso banjo player, an actress and a natural storyteller. In Roni's oral tradition, every story she knows connects to every other. Ellen Wright adroitly brings out Roni's narrative voice in a way that makes sense to the reader, while remaining true to the oral tradition. Pressing On a good read as well as being the amazing history of an America that has largely passed from lived experience into history. Together, Roni and Ellen bring that history back to life.

Pressing On

The clash of Roni's abundant innocence with the wild world fills the book with drama. Her spirit and humor are on display even during relatively horrible episodes in her life. She is a clever observer of her colleagues from the country music scene, and of herself. Highly recommended!