Ernest Stoneman

Ernest “Pop” Stoneman Biography- 1924

Inspired by local recording artist Henry Whitter, Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman traveled to NYC and waxed his first records for Okeh on September 4, 1924. This would begin an active and successful recording career that lasted until the depression hit in 1929.

Racked by extreme poverty in the early 1930s the Stoneman Family lost everything, only to ride a wave of renewed popularity and be finalists for "Vocal Group of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1967. Several of his children would go on to have successful careers including Scotty, one of the finest bluegrass fiddlers in the 1950s and Veronica (Roni) Stoneman, who joined the cast of the "Hee Haw" television series in 1973 as the snaggle-toothed comedienne and banjo player.

In the recording hey-day of the 1920’s Pop Stoneman recorded solo, with his family, with Uncle Eck Dunford, with The Sweet Brothers, with Fields Ward (Grayson County Railsplitters), and with Frank Jenkins Pilot Mountaineers. A multi-instrumentalist with an outstanding voice, Ernest sang lead on most of his recordings.

Early Years
Ernest Stoneman was born on May 25, 1893 near Galax (Carroll County) in southwestern Virginia, an area steeped in traditional folk songs, and now hosts one of the largest bluegrass festivals. Ernest was the oldest of three brothers born to Elisha and Rebecca, who died during childbirth in 1896. Principally a farmer, the stern Elisha was also a Baptist preacher who traveled the region giving sermons. When Ernest wasn’t attending his one-room school he was busy hunting rabbits or fishing down at the creek.

When he was 10 years old his grandmother taught him “Molly Hare” on the autoharp. He next played the banjo and learned “Cripple Creek” from his stepmother’s singing around the house. Then he played Jew’s harp, harmonica, fiddle and eventually learned the guitar. Vocal leads were his strong point usually accompanied by the guitar. He learned many popular songs from the 1890’s as well as the ballads from the Blue Ridge.

When Stoneman was twenty, he met his future wife, Hattie Frost, who was the daughter of Bill Frost, a fine fiddler and banjo player. Hattie, who was just twelve at the time, was courted by Earnest until she turned eighteen and they married in 1918. Because Hattie sang, read music and played the organ, banjo and fiddle, she became Ernest’s musical partner as well. Her younger sister Irma Lee Frost, also a church organist, was photographed playing mandolin and her twin brother Bolin banjo as part of the Stoneman family group. Many of the hymns the Stonemans recorded came from Irma Frost’s collection of shape-note hymnals.

Recording Career
While doing carpentry work in Bluefield, near the New River Valley, Stoneman went into a furniture store and heard a record of local musican Henry Whitter on a phonograph. Ernest, who had played with Whitter on occasion at country dances, told Hattie, “I know I can out sing Henry Whitter any time, if I couldn’t I’d quit.” Hattie replied, “Why don’t you go out and make one?”

He wrote two phonograph companies Columbia and General whose Okeh label Whitter had done his recordings and receive offers to audition. Stoneman made a harmonica rack and thought strumming his autoharp would make a different accompaniment for his singing. He took a job in West Virginia to earn extra money and saved $47 for his trip. Arriving in New York City he first auditioned for Columbia on Sept. 1, 1924 who offered him a flat fee of $100 to record about 20 songs. He probably had a good idea what Whitter was making at Okeh and felt $5 per song to be an insult, because he said, “I may see you next Christmas or I may never see you.”

The next day he went to Okeh studio where he played five songs for Ralph Peer who invited him back to wax two songs on Sept. 4th, “The Face That Never Returned,” a version of Henry Clay Work’s song “The Ship That Never Returned” and “The Titanic.” Peer paid Stoneman $50 for the two songs and $60 for travel expenses (an amount of around $1,500 today). More importantly, Peer paid royalties on the based on the amount of records sold.

A month after returning home to his carpenter work, Stoneman received a letter from Ralph Peer: Okeh executives thought the recordings were done at too rapid a tempo. Ernest agreed to come back and redo the recordings if Peer paid for two more sides.

On Jan 8, 1925 Stoneman returned to NYC and re-waxed the first two sides at a slower tempo and also recorded two songs his friend Joe Hopkins of The Hill Billies wrote; “Me and My Wife” and “Freckle-Faced Mary Jane.” It was the song, “The Titanic” that would become his first major hit when it was released a few weeks later. With encouraging record sales, Peer called Stoneman back for another session on May 27 and signed him to a five-year contract. Peer was now working for Victor and the company now paid $50 per song (about $700 today).

Stoneman played once with Charlie Poole and did some shows with his cousins George and Burton but he mostly made money recording and doing carpentry work. In May of 1926 Ernest, trying to “follow Dalhart” by recording for as many companies as possible, contacted Edison who agreed to record some sides at $75 per side plus $60 in expenses. On June 21-23 he recorded 10 songs, playing by himself, with autoharp, guitar and harmonica. With $750 in his pocket, Hattie and Ernest and their five children became optimist about their future.

Ernest learned some of his songs in the mountains, but others, like “John Hardy,” he learned from published folk song books. He claimed his biggest hit, “The Titanic” was written from a *poem he found in a newspaper. Ernest and his daughter Donna once checked into who the copyright of his biggest selling song was at the copyright office. They found that someone copyrighted the song in Maine [probably New York] named, “E.V. Body.” In fact Carson Robison, copyrighted it. Carson knew it as a public domain “folk” song and copyrighted all traditional songs in the 1920s as composed by E. V. Body (everybody).  I have Carson’s 1929 songbook with many songs by E.V. Body in it. “The Titanic” was a huge hit at the time and reportedly sold more than 500,000 discs [Joseph Murrells included it in his “Million Selling Records” book].

After recording for Okeh, Stoneman and Hattie traveled back to New York to record Gennet in Late August. In September they were back recording this time for Victor and Peer with his full band- the Dixie Mountaineers. Ernest continued his hectic recording schedule and in May became a field representative for Peer suggesting local artists for Peer’s upcoming Bristol recordings.

Bristol Sessions 1927
“I remember when Mr. Peer wrote me a letter and wanted me to find a place in town, in Galax, so he could hold auditions,” recalled Stoneman. Peer had planed a recording session in late July in nearby Bristol, a city that is divided by two states Virginia and Tennessee. Peer traveled to Galax in July of 1927 to audition local talent Ernest had found. “I took so many of them down there but he didn’t care about any except old Uncle Eck Dunford and Iver Edwards, a young boy from Ward’s Mill that played harmonica and ukulele.”

Alex “Uncle Eck” Dunford was born in Carroll County about 1878. Uncle Eck was well educated and after becoming a photographer married Hattie’s distant kin, Callie Frost, in 1908.  Dunford, who was an excellent fiddler and guitarist, spoke in a deliberate drawl commonly found in the mountains around Eden and Galax. His slow drawl was later featured in four skits recorded by Peer later that fall in Atlanta with Stoneman playing accompaniment in the background.

Peer left Galax around July 21and traveled directly to Bristol where he set up a studio on State Street on the second floor of an abandoned warehouse. The Stonemans (also as Stoneman’s Dixie Mountaineers) were first to record on Monday July 25, 1927. They recorded ten songs mostly gospel from Irma Lee Frost’s hymn collections that took all day to record. Lee “Kahle” Brewer, was a member of the gospel group, who had recorded with Ernest and Bolen Frost before. He was born on June 12, 1904 near Fries and had been playing the fiddle since he was eight. He had absorbed the style of Joe Hampton and learned from other area fiddlers like Emmet Lundy and Isom Rector.

On Wednesday Peer invited the editor of the local paper, The Bristol News Bulletin to attend, do an interview and take photos. He first recorded duets with Hattie and then included fiddler Uncle Eck Dunford and finally his band The Dixie Entertainers, which also featured Dunford. Another family band was called The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers recorded Stoneman’s his first musical skit (music with dialogue) entitled “An Old Time Corn Shuckin’ Part 1” and they did a second version called “An Old Time Corn Shuckin’ Part 2.” Part 1 featured Kahle Brewer playing “Mississippi Saywer” on the fiddle; Stoneman’s uncle George playing “Home Sweet Home” on banjo and Ernest singing “Roving Gambler” backed by Jew’s Harp and banjo. The skits which feature the Stoneman’s passing a jug around while playing and talking were an attempt to rival the Skillet Lickers immensely successful 14 part skits, “A Corn Licker Still in Georgia.”

The next day a newspaper article appeared on the front page featuring the Stonemans: “This morning Ernest Stoneman and company from near Galax Virginia, were performers and they played and sang into the microphone a favorite of Grayson County… namely “Love My Lulu Bell.” Eck Dunford was the principle singer while a matron [Hattie Stoneman], 26 years of age, and mother of five children, joined in for a couple of stanzas.

The synchronization is perfect: Ernest Stoneman playing guitar, the young matron [Hattie] the violin, and a young mountaineer the banjo and mouth harp [Bolen Frost]. Bodies swaying, feet beating perfect rhythm, it is calculated to go big when offered to the public.”

 The song the reported called “Love My Lulu Bell” is in reality “What Will I Do When My Money’s All Gone” and categorized by Meade as “Cold Icy Floor.”

Stoneman performed in and helped organize the famous 1927 Bristol Sessions, nicknamed the “big bang”
of Country Music, that led to the discovery of The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. The initial sessions, which Stoneman suggested be held in Bristol, Tennessee, were a bust (not many country musicians came to make records) so Peer invited a newspaper reporter to cover the event. The next day an article featuring the sessions appeared and reported that Stoneman made $3,600 in royalties that year (around  $50,000 today) which was several times more than the average salary for the region. Suddenly word got out and Peer received calls from around the region. The next day the schedule was full and included Jimmie Rodgers (future Father of Country Music) and the Carter Family.

Recordings with Uncle Eck Dunford
At the Bristol Session Stoneman recorded the first of four sessions with fiddler Uncle Eck Dunford that his wife Hattie also played on. Ernest sang lead and played banjo or guitar.

Discography: Angeline The Baker; Barney McCoy; My First Bicycle Ride; Old Shoes And Leggin’s; Savingest Man On Earth; Skip To Ma Lou; Sleeping Late; Sweet Summer Has Gone Away; Taffy Pulling Party; Uncle Joe; What Will I Do For My Money All Gone; Whip-or-will’s Song;

Recordings with Sweet Brothers
In July 1928 The Sweet Brothers (Also listed as Herbert Sweet or Virginia Mountain Bloomers) recorded sessions for Gennet in Richmond Indiana. Stoneman (listed as Justin Winfield) shared the vocals with Earl Sweet and played guitar. At the same session he recorded two songs under the name Willie Stoneman; “Katy Lee” and “Wake Up In The Morning.”

Discography: Cousin Sally Brown; East Tennessee Polka; I Got A Bulldog; My Mother And My Sweetheart; Once I knew A Little Girl; Prisoner’s Lament; Ramblin’ Reckless Hobo;

Recordings with Fields Ward- Grayson County Railsplitters
In March 1929 Stoneman again recorded with Gennett as Justin Winfield in a band with Fields Ward (Wade Ward’s father and Crockett Ward’s son) named Grayson County Railsplitters. Also performing were Eck Dunford- fiddle and Sampson Ward-banjo.

Discography: Ain’t That Trouble In Mind; Alas My Darling; Birds Are Returning; Goodbye Little Bonnie; In Those Cruel Slavery Days; My Only Sweetheart; No One Loves You As I Do; Sweetest Way Home; Tie Up Those Broken Cords; Watch And Pray; Way Down In North Carolina; You Must Be A Lover Of The Lord;

Recordings with Frank Jenkins
 Another group Ernest Stoneman sang and played guitar with was the Frank Jenkin’s Pilot Mountaineers (originally Oscar Jenkin’s Mountaineers). Frank and Oscar Jenkins recorded two sessions for Paramount with Stoneman in August and then Sept in 1929.

Discography: Burial of Wild Bill; I Will Be All Smiles Tonight; Message From Home Sweet Home; Old Dad (Jackfish); Railway Flagman’s Sweetheart; Sunny Home In Dixie; When The Snowflakes Fall Agin;

Depression Years
The financial trouble began in 1929, when Stoneman, who was waxing around sixty sides a year plus receiving royalties, had trouble finding work. Victor had new stars in Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family and Edison was going bankrupt largely because their discs could only be played on Edison phonographs. Stoneman didn’t get paid for his session in March at Gennett when the Ward boys (Grayson County Railsplitters) had an argument with the company, which prevented release of the sides.

The Stoneman’s would have 23 children (only 15 survived early childhood), many of whom were musically gifted. The children recalled the 1920s as a time of prosperity. All that would change when the Great Depression hit in late 1929. Record sales, which were an important part of the Stoneman’s income, fell flat. He couldn’t record, perform or find work as a carpenter either.

Ernest’s debt began in 1929 and by the early 1930’s he was broke with rising debt and a large family to provide for. “Daddy had a grocery bill,” remembered Gene Stoneman, “it came to a little over $500 (which equals around $10,000 in Depression dollars today) and back then that was a lot of money so he lost the house over that much money.” The Stoneman’s had other mounting bills and their creditors put a lien on their house, sold the house while they lived in it, then came and took the furniture. In late 1932 when the sheriff came for their car, the family fled to the Washington DC area (Alexandria).

The family settled into an abandoned old house with broken out windows on 1205 King Drive. Ernest could find only sporadic work as a substitute postal work and the family lived in abject poverty. He and his son Eddie did a series of sessions for ARC in January 1934 and only six sides were released. Things got so bad after Ernest lost his part-time job with the Railway Mail Service that Hattie and the nine younger children went back to Galax for most of a year and lived in an old log cabin her grandfather owned. In the spring of 1935 Ernest moved to a house in D. C. and brought the family back from Galax.

Ernest, Hattie and their son Eddie occasionally played on WJSV but not much work could be found. The family couldn’t pay the rent and moved around the Washington Area. The Stoneman’s with their eleven children finally settling in Carmody Hills a Maryland suburb of D. C. by World War in 1942. After the War the elder Stoneman children worked and got married. Ernest worked odd jobs until he finally found work at a munitions factory, the U.S. Naval Gun Factory. The dire poverty eased by 1950 and the following is an excerpt from Stoneman’s letter to his old friend Ralph Peer:

“I have 15 in my family and 10 of them play and sing and we are now playing a show in Wash. DC. Played 27 weeks in Constitution Hall. Was on station WNBW television, we have a big following here. I have lived in Wash. DC for 15 years and have the largest family of hillbillys on radio, television and stage in the country.”

Scotty Stoneman began winning fiddle competitions and played with the best msucicans in the area including Chubby Wise. [Chubby told how he and Scott used to trade licks and technique information and tell the other one that “he was the best in the world.”]

Blue Grass Champs
In the 50s the Stoneman Family Band began performing at the Hotel Charles in Hughesville, MD. Roy Clark and his band had just played an extended engagement at The Famous, a club in D.C., and the owner Sam Bomstein had Scotty put together a family band called "The Blue Grass Champs." The Champs played six nights a week and won the band contest at the Warrenton National Championships. Ernest sometimes performed with his children’s band but grabbed the family headlines when he was accepted to appear on “The $64,000 Question” a popular TV game show in 1956, winning $10,000.

The Blue grass Champs appeared on the popular CBS “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” TV progam with each member receiving $680 for playing “Salty Dog Blues” on the air. The Champs became regulars on the Godfrey daytime show and received national recognition. They also worked with Charlie Waller, John Duffy and Bill Emerson the nucleus of the bluegrass group, Country Gentlemen.

As the youngest of all the Stoneman children, Van had learned to play and sing from “Pop” (Ernest’s newly aquired nickname) and later joined Scotty in the Blue Grass Champs as a lead singer and guitarist. They were regularly featured on WTTG Chnnel 5 in Washington DC through the 60s. The band played the better known bluegrass and country favorites by Porter Wagoner and Johnny Cash as well as songs by Bill Monroe.

The Stonemans
Pop Stoneman’s second recording career began in 1957 when rediscovered by Mike Seeger, a folk researcher and musician. An album, “Old Time Tunes Of The South,” marked the first time in 27 years the they had recorded. Some of the Stonemans early recordings were released again and they remained popular during the late 1950s-1960s folk music boom. In 1962 they debuted at the Grand Ole Opry and in 1963 cut an album for Starday. They backed Mac Wiseman on a tour out west and billed now as “The Stonemans” and the band included Pop. They cut a single “Big Ball in Houston” (Big Ball in Town) backed by “Little Maggie” on another western jaunt.

Following the success of their single, they cut an album for world-Pacific, “Big Ball in Monerey” which featured a live sound. MGM released a single “Tupelo County Jail” in 1966 which charted for three weeks making in to number 40 and followed up with an album, “Those Singin’, Swingin’, Stompin’, Sensational Stonemans.”

 The Stonemans moved to Nashville and in 1967 after their second MGM album, “Stoneman’s Country” they were finalists for Country Music Association’s “Vocal Group of the Year.” Besides their syndicated TV program “The Stomenas” they appeared in two B movies “The Road to Nashville” and “Hell on Wheels.”

 By 1968 “Pop” Stoneman, now 75, began showing the strain of being on the road. In April had an operation removing his gall bladder and part of his stomach and after complications improved somewhat by June. Pop underwent another operation and worsened, dying before noon on June 14, 1968.

After Pop Stoneman died in 1968, Roni appeared on Hee Haw in 1973, and Patsy, Donna, Van and Jimmy Stoneman kept the group together in one form or another until the early 1990's. The last important album was “The First Family Of Country Music” released in 1981.

Complete Early Recordings by Earnest Stoneman: All Go Hungry Hash House; All I've Got’s Gone; Angeline the Baker; Are You Angry With Me Darling?; Are You Washed In The Blood?; Asleep at the Switch; Bad Companions; Banks of the Ohio; Barney McCoy; Beautiful Isle O’er The Sea; Black Dog Blues; Blue Ridge Mountain Blues; Boil 'Em Cabbage Down; Bright Sherman Valley (Red River Valley); Broke Down Section Hand;  Broken-Hearted Lover; Buffalo Gals; Bully Of The Town; Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow Tree; Careless Love; Cider Mill; Cindy; Claude Allen; Cousin Sally Brown; Cripple Creek; Cumberland Gap; Dixie Parody; Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down; Down To Jordan; Dying Girl’s Farewell; East Bound Train; (The) Face That Never Returned; Fallen by the Wayside; Fancy Ball;  Fatal Wedding;  Fate of Talmadge Osborne; Flop Eared Mule; Freckle Face Mary Jane; Gentle Annie (When the Springtime Comes Again); Girl I Left Behind In Sunny Tennessee; Going Down The Valley; Going Up Cripple Creek; Going Up The Mountain after Liquor (Dialogue: Part 1 and Part 2); Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone; Great Reaping Day; Hallelujah Side; Hang John Brown; Hand Me Down My Walking Cane; He Was Nailed On The Cross For Me; He's Coming After Me; He’s Going To Have a Hot Time By and By; Hop High Ladies; I Am Resolved; I Know My Name is There;  I Love My Lulu Bell; I Love To Walk With Jesus; I Remember Calvary; I Will Meet You in The Morning; I Would Not Be Denied; Ida Red; I’ll Be Satisfied; I'm Alone, All Alone; I’m Gonna Marry That Pretty Little Girl; In The Golden By and Bye; In The Shadow of The Pine; It's Sinful To Flirt; I've Got a Bulldog (I Got a Bulldog); Jack And Joe; Joe Hoover’s Mississippi Flood Song; John Hardy; John Henry; Joseph and Bohunkus; Katy Cline; Katy Lee; Kenny Wagner’s Surrender; Kicking Mule; Kitty Wells; Lightning Express; Little Black Moustache; Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane; Lonesome Road Blues; Long Eared Mule (Flop Eared Mule); Lover's Return; Me And My Wife; May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister; Midnight on the Stormy Deep; Mother's Grave; Mountaineer's Courtship; My First Bicycle Ride; My Little German Home Across The Sea; My Mother and my Sweetheart; My Only Sweetheart; My Pretty Snow Deer; New River Train; Nine Pound Hammer; No More Good-byes; No Sir, No (Spanish Merchant's Daughter);  Old Dad; Old Fashioned Picture; Old Hen Cackle; Old Hickory Cane; Old Joe Clark; Old Maid and The Burglar; Old Time Corn Shuckin’ Party (Two parts: 1 and 2); Once I Had A Fortune (Fortune); Orphan Girl; Pass Around The Bottle; Peek A Boo Waltz; Piney Woods Girl; Polly Put the Kettle On; Poor Tramp has To Live; Possum Trot School Exhibition Part 1 (Part 2); Pretty Mohee;  Pretty Snow Dear; Prisoner’s Lament; Puttin’ On The Style; Raging Sea, How it Roars; Railroad Tramp (Remember, the Poor Tramp Has to Live); Reckless Rambling Hobo; Religious Critic; Remember, the Poor Tramp Has to Live; (The) Resurrection; Road To Washington (Whitehouse Blues); Round Town Girl (Buffalo Gals); Roving Gambler; Sailor’s Song; Sally Ann; Sally Goodwin; Say, Darling, Say; Serenade in the Mountains (Part 1 also Part 2); Silly Bill; Silver Bell; Sinful To Flirt; Sinless Summerland; Sinking of The Titanic; Skip To My Lou; Soldier's Joy; Sourwood Mountain; Spanish Merchant’s Daughter;  Stoney's Waltz; Story of the Mighty Mississippi; Sugar Hill; Sugar In The Gourd; Sweeping Through The Gates; Sweet Bunch Of Violets; Sweet Summer Has Gone Away; Tell Mother I Will Meet Her; Texas Ranger; There’ll Come A Time; There’s A Light Lit Up In Galilee; There's Somebody Waiting For Me; Till the Snowflakes Fall Again; (The) Titanic; Too Late; Two Little Orphans; Uncle Sam And The Kaiser; Unlucky Road To Washington; Wake Up In The Morning (Midnight Special); Watchman Ring The Bell; Watermelon Hanging On The Vine; We Courted In The Rain; We Parted by the Riverside; West Virginia Highway; Western Country; What Will I Do For My Money’s All Gone; When My Wife will Return To Me; When the Redeemed Are Gathered In; When The Roses Bloom Again; When The Work’s all Done This Fall; Wild Bill Jones; Willy We Have missed You; Wreck of Number Nine; Wreck Of Old Ninety-Seven; Wreck on the C & O;
Folkways Recordings 1956: Bile Then Cabbage Down; Black Dog Blues; Cumbralnd Gap; Hallelujah Side; hang John Brown;  New River Train; Say Darling Say; Stoney’s Waltz; When the Springtime Comes Again; Wreck of the Old 97;

Blue Grass Champs 1957-58: Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home; Bluegrass Breakdown; Daddy Stay Home; Haunted House; Heartaches Keep A-Coming; Little Tim; Wine Bottom Blues;

Blue Grass Champs With Pop Stoneman 1960: Hand Me Down My Walking Cane; Jubilee March;

Folkways- Earnest Stoneman with Mike Seeger 1961: All I Got’s Gone; Bile Them Cabbage Down; Great Reeping Day; I’m Alone All Alone; Stoney’s Waltz; Wreck of Number Nine;

Stonemans; Gulf Reef 1962: Guilty; My Greatest Friend; Sadness; White Lightning;

The Stonemans Starday Albums 1962-63: Family Life; Girl From Galax; Going Home; Guilty; Heroes of Bataan; I Want To Wander Down Yonder; In The Sweet Bye And Bye; It’s Rain; Life’s Railway To Heaven; Little Susie; On The Banks Of the Wabash; One Hundred Years Ago; Orange Blossom Breakdown; Out Of School; Sinking of The Titanic; Snow Deer; Somebody’s Waiting For me; Springtime in The Mountains; That Pal Of Mine; Turn Me Loose; When The Snowflakes Fall Again; White Lightning No. 2; Wild Bill Hickok; Will The Roses Bloom Again; Wreck of Number Nine;

The Stonemans “Big Ball in Monterey” World-Pacific 1964: Big Ball in Monterey; Dark As A Dungeon; Darling Corey; Domininque; Fire On The Mountain; Ground Hog; I Wonder How the Old Folks Are At Home; Little Maggie; Lost Ball in the High Weeds; Sunny Tennessee;

The Stonemans MGM recordings with Ernest Stoneman 1965-68: Ashes of Love; Baby Is Gone; Baby-O; Back To Nashville Tennessee; Blue Ridge Mountain Blues; Bottle of Wine; (Going Back to) Bowling Green: Christopher Robin; Cimarron; Cripple Creek; Dirty Old Egg Sucki’ Dog; Don’t Think Twice; Early Morning Rain; Five Little Johnson Girls; Girl From The North Country; Got Leaving On Her Mind; Hello Dolly; He’s My Friend; It Ain’t Me Babe; Katie Klein; It’s a New World Everyday;  Love I Left Behind; Message from Home; Mule Skinner Blues; My Lowdown Dirty Rotten Cotton Pickin’ Little Darlin’; Nine Pound Hammer; Old Slew-Foot; Remember The Poor Tramp Has To Live; Ride, Ride, Ride; Rita Put Your Shoes Back On; Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms; Spell Of the Freight Train; Shady Grove; Tell It to My Heart Sometime; That’s A Chance I’ll Have To Take; There Goes My Everything; Three Cent Opera; Tupelo County Jail; West Canterbery Subdivision Blues; Winchester Cathedral; World Is Waiting For Sunshine; You’re Gonna Be Sorry;

Ernest Stoneman Stonehouse recordings (unreleased): Are You Washed In The Blood; Endless Day; Great Reaping Day; He’s Calling For Me; How Will It Be For Your Soul; I’ll Live on; In The Golden Bye And Bye; In The Land Beyond The Blue; Royal Telephone; Uncloudy Day; When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder; Where the Soul Of Man Never dies; Where We’ll Never Grow Old;

Stoneman Family: Best Of Their TV Shows: Blues Stay Away From Me; Busted; Everybody Loves A Nut;  I Am The Grass; It Ain’t Me Babe; May I sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister; Nine Pound Hammer; Rawhide; Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms; Roving Gambler; Ruby; Under The Double Eagle; Weeping Willow;

*The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. Clearly Stoneman didn’t write the song, the poem he had was probably a ballet (printed sheets with lyrics only) although he said he got it from a newpaper. Versions of the song appeared in ballets between 1912-1915 with similar verses and the same chorus form. Bill Smith’s “Destruction of the Titanic,” which sold for 5 cents, was collected in Durham NC circa 1912-1915 and has a similar chorus. A Blankenship ballet also appears from the same time period. Brown collected another similar version from W.O. Smith of Oxford, NC in 1920.