He built his
first homemade instrument at age seven out of a shoe box and thread
borrowed from his mother, and by the time he was 12 he traded a pair of
prize bantams he had raised for a real banjo. He was already making the
rounds of local dances and developing a reputation on the instrument,
but not earning a living. Akeman spent time working for the
Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads and planting
trees.
Then he entered a talent contest that was being judged by
singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin, and won. He joined
Martin's band, and during one performance the band leader stumbled over
Akeman's name and, unable to remember it, he introduced him to the crowd
as "String Beans." With his tall, lanky frame, the name was a natural
and it stuck.
At first, Akeman only played banjo in the group, but when another
performer failed to turn up for a show, he was pressed into service as a
singer and comic, and the act caught on. From that day forward, Akeman
divided his time between comedy and music, along with some success as a
semi-pro baseball player. He also broadcast on WLAP out of Lexington,
Kentucky, and played with various groups during the late '30s. At the
time, the banjo had virtually disappeared from country music, and it was
old-time players like Akeman who helped keep it alive.
Curiously enough, it was in as a sandlot ballplayer -- and not a banjo
player -- that Akeman first came to the attention of Bill Monroe, who
fielded a private semi-pro team. It wasn't too long before Monroe
learned of Akeman's other talents, and in the early '40s he became a
full-fledged member of Monroe's group, where he remained from 1943 until
1945, playing on such recordings as "Goodbye Old Pal." Akeman also spent
some of his time during this period teamed with Willie Egbert Westbrook
as "String Beans and Cousin Wilbur," a comedy duo, who often worked on
the same bills with Monroe's outfit.
Akeman left Monroe in 1945 -- his replacement was Earl Scruggs, a banjo
player with a radically different technique. That same year, he married
Estelle Stanfill. During 1946, he first began working with Grandpa Jones
(Louis Marshall Jones), a fellow old-time banjo player with a penchant
for comedy. During the late '40s, Akeman also formed a team with Lew
Childre and became a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry. By this
time, he'd adopted the costume by which he became best known to the
public, a night-shirt and pants that made him look like a very tall man
with very short legs. This kind of costume had many antecedents,
including Slim Miller, a one-time stage comedian, who was said to be
Akeman's direct inspiration.
After the war, Akeman also became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon, one of
the biggest stars of the Grand Ole Opry. Macon, who died in 1952, was a
banjo-player/comic, and one of the Opry's most beloved performers. He
took Akeman under his wing, telling him stories and jokes and playing
him songs, and toward the end of his life he gave Akeman one of his own
banjos.
Akeman was known by this time as Stringbean, and he was one of the
Opry's top stars throughout the 1950s. Oddly enough, he didn't begin
recording on his own until the early '60s, when he signed to the Starday
label. By that time, Earl Scruggs had emerged as the dominant figure in
banjo playing, especially among younger listeners, but Akeman still had
an audience for his older style of playing and his mixture of cornball
comedy and song. He had hits with "Chewing Gum" and "I Wonder Where
Wanda Went," and recorded seven albums between 1961 and 1972. The first
of those albums, Old Time Pickin' and Grinnin' with Stringbean (1961),
was one of the best of these, representing his repertory of the era --
folk songs (especially humorous animal songs), tall stories, jokes --
although several of his subsequent albums are also worth hearing, most
notably Salute to Uncle Dave Macon (1963) and Old Time Banjo Picking and
Singing (1964). Akeman and Grandpa Jones became the two biggest
exponents of old-time banjo playing during this era.
Akeman remained a star of the Opry for the rest of his life, and in 1969
he and Grandpa Jones became founding members of the cast of the
television series Hee Haw. He became an instant hit, his lanky figure
and bewildered expression, coupled with self-deprecating one-liners
making Akeman one of the most popular members of the cast.
All of this ended tragically for Akeman and his wife Estelle on November
10, 1973. They returned home from a performance at the Opry and
surprised a pair of burglars who shot the banjoman dead on the spot and
pursued and killed his wife. It was Grandpa Jones who found the bodies
the next day, and the murders sent shockwaves through the Nashville
community. The subsequent capture and life-sentences imposed on the
killers -- two brothers -- did little to assuage the anger that Akeman's
colleagues and friends felt. His memory lives on in the Bill Monroe
songs on which he played, and the relative handful of his own recordings
that have surfaced.
David "Stringbean" Akeman is featured on the following:
Salute to Uncle Dave Macon - HOLLYWOOD label
The Essential Bill Monroe (1945-1949) - Columbia recordings
The Music of Bill Monroe - MCA - A four-disc set covering his entire
career from 1936 to 1994, this is a meticulously re-mastered and
researched four hours and 20 minutes of music and features important
recordings from seven decades of recordings for RCA, Columbia, Decca and
MCA
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