Pressing On: The Roni Stoneman Story

12. The Stoneman Family Band Comes Together

K N < CM < The Stoneman Family Band Comes Together During the time I was playing with the Johnny Hopkins band at Sam Bomstein’s Famous Bar and Grill, Scott had formed a new band. He called it the Blue Grass Champs because all the musicians had won contests. At first the band consisted of Scott, Donna, Jimmy, Porter Church on banjo, and Jimmy Case on guitar, but after awhile Jimmy Case left and Scott hired Van. “I want Van,” he said. “He’s my brother and he plays good enough to play with us.” They were also playing the Famous. (Sam Bomstein really loved the Stonemans.) I remember one night when my band was off and the Blue Grass Champs were on, coming down to listen to them. And they were brilliant . Brilliant. Donna was so good. She did “Rawhide”—de daddiddle di. Then Scott came in with that fiddle. And Jimmy riding the bass. And I’m looking one to the other. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to The Stoneman Family Band The Stoneman Family Band Comes Together pressing on / 79 look at, they were all so good! I sure wasn’t the only person to think that. They won the Warrenton band contest. And they got on TV, on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Show, and they won that. I didn’t think I was going to ever be able to play with the Blue Grass Champs because I had a bunch of kids and wasn’t able to “woodshed” a lot—that means practice. But Bob Bean, who was managing the Blue Grass Champs, came into the Famous one night when I was performing , because he found he couldn’t depend on Porter Church, the banjo player, unfortunately, though fortunately for me. And Bob said, “You’re playing real good, Roni. Would you like to play with the Blue Grass Champs next week at the Charles Hotel?” So Sam let me off, said that he was glad to see me go with my family. But I was very insecure because I knew how great they were. I remember sitting in the car going to our first performance, and I was just silent, didn’t say anything the whole trip, scared to death. I did okay. The first times I played with them, I was timid, but they kept pushing me to take solo breaks. Donna would say, “Roni, you’re going out there!”—and soon I got the hang of it and became a regular with the group. Then after awhile Pop joined it, and it became all Stonemans , the Stoneman Family Band. Sam Bomstein was always in the corner of the Stonemans. He was even helpful with my clothes. When he first gave me that job playing with Johnny Hopkins, he came to me and said, “Roni, you’ve got to buy you a better dress.” Because even though I would try to fix myself up, I still looked real shabby. He said, “Here’s thirty-five dollars. Go buy yourself something pretty to wear.” Well, Donna had a couple of dresses that I thought were really cute, and I knew Sam liked those. (Sam had also given her money to buy some new clothes, telling her he wanted her to look more “shapely.” He knew Donna better than to say “sexy”!) So I gave her the thirty-five dollars to buy something new, and she gave me two dresses and a necklace and a pair of earrings. We killed two birds with one stone. We really liked playing together. Donna always talks about how we had a . . . well, it was a message with our eyes. All we had to do was look at each other’s eyes, and we knew what the other was thinking. She would look, and I would look, and we just knew. We would start giggling. 80 / pressing on We had special fun with some of the husbands and wives in the audiences . Because I wasn’t the pretty one, the wives thought it was okay for the husbands to look at me. But they weren’t to look at Donna—then the wives would poke at them! “Don’t you dare look at her! I know you’re just flirting with her!” And Donna was so innocent and doing her thing, but those women were terrible to her. So I’d whisper, “Donna, see that lady over there. She really hates you. Look at her eyes, every time you move. And she won’t let her husband look over in your direction. But she trusts me. Watch this! I’m gonna flirt with him now.” The husband would look up at me, and I would wink and purse my lips. And the wife was so busy with Donna, she wouldn’t even notice me. It was a learning experience, like a college course in psychology. Donna and I had all kinds of fun. I loved performing with her. ...