Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman
BY IVAN M. TRIBE Ernest V. Stoneman – born in Monarat, Virginia, [Carroll County] May 25, 1893; died June 14, 1968 – was the Patriarch of a legendary musical family. Ernest Van “Pop” Stoneman helped …
The Wreck of the Old 97
BY KINNEY RORRER— The Wreck Though it was referred to as “Old 97”, the fast mail train that crashed into a ravine not far from the north bank of the Dan River in Danville, Virginia …
Henry Whitter and the Creation of Country Music
By JOSH BECKWORTH— Henry Whitter’s role in early country music has often been to serve as an easy punchline. The tale is often retold of Ernest Stoneman hearing Whitter’s early recordings for the first time …
The Great Wagon Road
The heavily traveled Great Wagon Road was the primary route for the early settlement of the Southern United States, particularly the “backcountry”. Although a wide variety of settlers traveled southward on the road, two dominant …
A Brief History of Blue Ridge Music
By JOE WILSON and WAYNE MARTIN— Settlers in the Tidewater region of the New World did not anticipate the flowering of new musical styles in the mountains that lay to the west. The powerful Cherokee …