Stonemans
Bands / Ensembles
The Stonemans was a country and bluegrass family band from Washington, D.C., led by Ernest "Pop" Stoneman, who had recorded at the 1927 Bristol Sessions. Driven from Virginia by the Great Depression, Pop and his wife, Hattie Frost, relocated to the capitol area. Pop restarted his career in 1956 after winning $10,000 on an NBC quiz show. That same year, the Blue Grass Champs, a group made up largely of his children, won Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The Champs eventually went full-time as the Stonemans. Roni Stoneman joined on banjo in 1957 around the same time as Peggy Brain (aka Peggy Peterson) on Dobro. Peggy would marry and later divorce Jimmy Stoneman. The band made its Grand Ole Opry debut in 1962, moved to Nashville and hosted its own syndicated TV series, Those Stonemans, from 1966 to 1968. During the TV years the lineup was Pop on autoharp and guitar, Scotty Stoneman on fiddle, Van Stoneman on guitar, Donna Stoneman on mandolin, Roni on banjo and Jimmy Stoneman on bass. The band won the inaugural CMA Vocal Group of the Year award in 1967. Pop died in 1968, and his daughter Patsy Stoneman, an autoharp player, took over leadership of the group. The IBMA gave the family its Distinguished Achievement Award in 2000 and inducted the Stoneman Family into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2021.