‘Hee Haw’ star to headline 39th annual Dock Boggs and Kate Sturgill festival Sept. 8

Roni Stoneman, star of the television classic “Hee Haw,” will be the featured performer at this year’s Dock Boggs and Kate O’Neill Peters Sturgill Festival. Stoneman will join a host of other bluegrass musicians to perform during the 39th annual festival, set for Saturday, Sept. 8.

Veronica Loretta “Roni” Stoneman achieved national fame in the 1970s as a cast member of “Hee Haw,” one of the most successful variety shows in television history. In addition to picking her banjo from time to time, Stoneman portrayed the unforgettable Ida Lee Nagger, the nagging wife of Laverne Nagger (portrayed by Gordie Tapp). Before Stoneman’s time with “Hee Haw,” she performed with her father Ernest and other relatives as the Stoneman Family, who were named Vocal Group of the Year by the Country Music Academy in 1967.

Stoneman shares a special connection with both Southwest Virginia and the frontman for Dale Jett and Friends, also scheduled to perform at this year’s festival. Jett, the son of Carter Family Fold founder Jeanette Carter, is a descendant of the original Carter Family, who, with Stoneman’s father Ernest and others, held the 1927 Bristol Sessions, now considered the birth of country music.

Other scheduled performers include the Highway 11, Sigean, Whitetop Mountain Band, Dixie Bee-Liners, Fire in the Kitchen, Sapling Grove, Tamara Hurd, Mountain Empire Music School Graduates, the Lonesome Pine Cloggers and “Papa” Joe Smiddy, chancellor emeritus of The University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

The festival begins at 10:15 a.m. at Country Cabin II in the Josephine section of Norton. Admission for adults is $10, and admission for children 12 and under is $1.

The festival originally debuted in December 1969 as part of a class project conducted by Jack Wright, a student at what was then Clinch Valley College (now The University of Virginia’s College at Wise). Engaged in a study of local culture and music, Wright, who will perform at this year’s festival, discovered two rare mountain gems: Dock Boggs and Kate O’Neil Peters Sturgill. The Dock Boggs Festival, first held at the College’s picnic grounds, has become legendary in the region and across the country.

Since Norton native Moran Lee “Dock” Boggs (1898-1971) first traveled to New York to record his music in the late 1920s, his haunting vocals and "melody plucking" style of banjo playing have experienced two periods of resurgence. The first came in the 1960s when noted folk musician Mike Seeger traveled to Norton to record Boggs’ music and learn more about his singular style.  Thanks to the attention, Boggs, a retired coal miner, briefly became a star on the folk circuit.  He’s even credited with influencing musicians like Bob Dylan.

The second wave of interest in Boggs’ music, and that of other traditional mountain musicians, began in 1997.  That year, Seeger released a sampling of his collection of recordings of Boggs and other mountain musicians made between 1952 and 1967.

The festival’s second namesake, Kate O’Neill Peters Sturgill, is a celebrated ballad singer and songwriter. During her lifetime, Sturgill formed a string band called “The Lonesome Pine Trailers” and performed on Norton radio station WNVA. She also worked with A.P. Carter in collecting music and performed in one of Carter’s music programs in Jellico, Tenn.

The Dock Boggs and Kate O’Neill Peters Sturgill Festival is sponsored by Appalachian Traditions, Inc. and co-sponsored by The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, with partial funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission. Appalachian Traditions, Inc. is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation, promotion and perpetuation of traditional Appalachian culture. The Dock Boggs and Kate O’Neill Peters Sturgill Festival is one of Appalachian Traditions’ major projects.

For more information, contact the UVa-Wise Office of College Relations at 276-328-0130 or Bill Jones, president of Appalachian Traditions, at 276-679-2632.

The following is a complete schedule of events:

10:20 a.m.          Mountain Empire Music School Graduates

11 a.m.               Dale Jett and Friends

Noon                   Highway 11

1 p.m.                 “Papa” Joe Smiddy

2 p.m.                 Sigean

3 p.m.                 White Top Mountain Band

4 p.m.                 Roni Stoneman

5:30 p.m.            Tamara Hurd

5:50 p.m.            Lonesome Pine Cloggers

6:15 p.m.            Dixie Bee-Liners

7:15 p.m.            Fire in the Kitchen

8:15 p.m.            Sapling Grove

Posted Semptember 3, 2007