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Mini Biography

David Akeman, the country musician known as "Stringbean," was a legend at the Grand Ole Opry and one of the stars of television's "Hee Haw" (1969). Along with his long-time partner and "Hee Haw" (1969) co-star Grandpa Jones, he was one of the premier traditional-style banjo players in country music. Though Stringbean primarily performed as either a sideman or as part of a comedy duet, he began recording his own records in the 1960s and had achieved superstar status by the time the decade of the '60s closed.

Born on June 17, 1915, to a farm family in Annville in Kentucky's Jackson County, it was natural for Akeman to become a musical prodigy as his family loved and lived music. His father was a banjoist who played at local dances, but more importantly, Annville was full of talented musicians possessed of considerable skill, all of whom, including his father, helped the young David him master the instrument. When he was seven years old, David Akeman reputedly crafted his first banjo out of a shoe box strung with thread. Five years later, he bartered a pair of chickens for a real banjo, with which he began playing gigs at local dances, earning himself a reputation as a virtuoso on the instrument, which was an adaptation of a gourd-based string instrument introduced to America in pre-colonial times by African slaves. The banjo, as adapted and played by white folk, became one of the central instruments of country music before the 20th century.

During the Depression, when money was scarce and jobs were hard to come by, Akeman joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, where he was engaged in road-building and tree-planting. As a musician, he was discovered by country singer-guitarist Asa Martin, who was the judge at a talent contest Akeman had entered. Martin awarded the contest to Akeman, who thereupon joined Martin's band. It was Martin who gave Akeman his moniker, when during one performance, he forgot the banjoist's name and introduced him as "String Beans," a reference to his lanky, 6'5" physique. The name stuck.

Akeman went from a sideman who only played banjo to a leading performer, doubling as a singer and engaging in comic repartee. His comedic shtick became popular and he began dividing his time between musicianship and comedy. He also played some semi-pro baseball player in sandlots throughout the South, which he toured with various bands throughout 1930s. Akeman also was broadcast over the radio. "Stringbeans" and his future partner Grandpa Jones were two of the relatively few banjo players in mainstream country music during the '30s, as the instrument by that time had virtually disappeared from the repertoire.

It was Stringbean's association with country legend Bill Monroe that made his reputation. Monroe, who fielded his own semi-pro baseball team, discovered Stringbean on the playing field, and the banjo player became a member of Monroe's band in 1943. Stringbean stayed with the band for two years as Monroe's first banjo player, playing in the traditional claw-hammer style, as well as engaging in two-finger picking. It was with Bill Monroe who he first appeared on records. In this period, Akeman had additional gigs, teaming up with Willie Egbert Westbrook as "String Beans and Cousin Wilbur," a comedy duo that worked on the same bills with Monroe's band. He also played on one recording session as a Blue Grass Boy, laying down eight tracks in February 1945.

Stringbeans left Monroe's band in the fall and was replaced by another legendary banjo player, the great Earl Scruggs, who had a radically different technique than the old-style favored by Akeman and Grandpa Jones. Stringbean, who married Estelle Stanfill in 1945, first began working with Grandpa Jones, another comic-banjo player, in 1946. He later teamed up with Lew Childre to create a comedy-musical duo act in the late 1940s, and they became regulars at the Grand Old Opry. At the Opry, Akeman became a prot

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