Ernest Stoneman

Oh, yeah

... hometown of Ernest Stoneman and discovers, uh, Jimmie Rodgers and Sara Carter and the Carter family.

But, and so like I was saying, they, they laid the background of what is country music, defined it as working class music.

You know, this mix of labor songs, parlor songs, fiddle dance tunes, Sunday hymns, both Black and white, uh, smoky saloon music, barrio music, wide open western range cowboy songs.

And it was really true that in the same weekend, he discovered Jimmy Rogers and the Carter family as a result.

But he also discovered a bunch of other people and he already had The Stoneman family recording very successfully for him.

One of the things that really brought the rush on was when a local newspaper reporter sat in on a recording session by the Stoneman family.

And it was noted that Pop Stoneman had made about $2,500 in the past year just in royalties from RCA.

And not an unimaginable amount of money in those days, especially for, you know, hillbillies.

So a whole bunch of people came down there, and among them were the Carters from Mesa Springs, Virginia.