Michael Roux, publicist at the University Of Illinois Press, recently shared some exciting information about the forthcoming book about Hazel Dickens that is due to be published in June.Working Girl Blues: The Life And Music Of Hazel Dickens is a new volume in the University Of Illinois Press Music in American Life series.

The book is co-written by singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens and country music historian Bill C Malone, a professor emeritus of history at Tulane University and author of Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’: Country Music And The Southern Working Class, Southern Music/American Music and Country Music USA, as well as the writer of the biography and detailed notes for The Blue Sky Boys: The Sunny Side Of Life, the Bear Family Records 5-CD box-set.

Malone discusses briefly Hazel’s life, her musical career, and her development as a songwriter in the first written biographical study of the West Virginia native.

The core part of the 120 page book comprises a section, entitled Songs And Memories, in which Hazel Dickens comments about 40 of her original songs, explains how she came to write them and tells what they meant and continue to mean to her.

The songs in question are ………………..

The November/December issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles is out, and is their second annual Women In Bluegrass edition.

The cover story is on Roni Stoneman and includes discussion of her new book, Pressing On - The Roni Stoneman Story. The article also covers her many years as a cast member on Hee Haw, and what she has been doing of late.

Publisher Kevin Kerfoot describes this issue as chock full of bluegrass ladies.

“Other women featured include Rhonda Vincent, Donna Hughes, Amanda Smith, Laurie Lewis, Uncle Earl’s Rayna Gellert and Abigail Washburn, Ola Belle Reed, and MasterShield Records’ Verna Rodes. Other features include Shop Talk with Cia Cherryholmes, Carrie Hassler’s Bluegrass Favorites, a DJ Profile with Gracie Muldoon, a Promoter Profile with Shorty Jobe, and a Songwriter Profile with Louisa Branscomb.”

Kerfoot says that they intend to highlight Women In Bluegrass with their final issue each year.

This post is a contribution from Richard Thompson, a semi-regular contributor here at The Bluegrass Blog. He is also a longstanding contributor to British Bluegrass News, a quarterly print publication where he also briefly served as editor.

The University Of Illinois Press has announced the forthcoming publication of Pressing On, The Roni Stoneman Story as told to Ellen Wright.

The book, scheduled for publication in May, recounts the fascinating life of Roni Stoneman, the youngest daughter of the pioneering country music family, and a girl who, in spite of poverty and abusive husbands, eventually became “The First Lady of Banjo,” a fixture on the Nashville scene, and, as Hee Haw’s Ironing Board Lady, a comedienne beloved by millions of Americans nationwide.

Ellen Wright shares a few comments about the work involved in writing the book and tells of some of the fun moments that took place in the process.

“As co-author of Pressing On, I was very lucky in that Roni has led a fascinating life, has terrific recall of wonderful details, and is a gifted and very very funny storyteller. We taped more than 75 hours of recollections, which I then formed into a narrative. The book is told in Roni’s voice, in Roni’s words. There are chapters describing her family’s early musical history, how Scott learned the fiddle (’Just listen to that mockingbird,’ said his grandfather at one point), how Scott taught Roni and Donna their instruments (’Don’t play like a girl!’), and their first experience at the Grand Ole Opry (they were told not to play ‘too good, just play normal,’ advice to which Scott had a predictably violent reaction). There are also chapters describing Roni’s stint on Hee Haw (how she got the job is a particularly moving story), Roni’s adventures with famous country music stars (shopping with Loretta Lynn, traveling with Faron Young), and Roni’s personal life, her five very different husbands and her numerous dating experiences. The stories connected with the men in Roni’s life were to me as interesting as the stories connected with the music. The marriages were both sociologically and psychologically extremely revealing. (more…)

Marion, VA is a town you might miss, unless you are traveling on I-81 through Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. The area has a rich musical heritage, however, and is now the home of Song Of The Mountains, a live concert series which is recorded for broadcast television from Marion’s restored Lincoln Theater.

The show is the brainchild of Tim White, a well-known performer and radio personality in East Tennessee (Troublesome Hollow and The VW Boys), and Andre Burroughs, Production Manager at Blue Ridge Public Television in Roanoke, VA. They launched in the summer of 2005, drawing a local audience and filming several of the shows for airing on BRPTV.

These shows were also offered to PBS affiliates all over the US, and 26 picked the show up over the course of that first season. In 2006, shows were recorded for the 2007 broadcast season, and the show received a Telly Award for their work in season one.

The 2007 broadcast season will include live shows featuring Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, The Lost & Found, Roni Stoneman, The VW Boys with special guest “Tater” Tate, Mike Seeger, Paul Williams & the Victory Trio, Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen, Wayne Henderson & Jeff Little, Heather Berry & Dominion Grass and many others.

Tim White tells us that they have 50 PBS affiliate stations carrying the show now, and that it is distributed for broadcast to members of the National Educational Telecommunications Association through the NETA Program Service.

Stations wishing to contact Tim for more information can do so by email.