An Interview With Toni Doman: Women in Old-Time Music

Check out this full video interview featuring Old-Time museum and BCMM staff member Toni Doman, recorded and produced as content for the special museum exhibit "I've Endured: Women in Old-Time Music" developed by Birthplace of Country Museum!

This project involved interviewing over 18 contemporary female musicians and old-time music industry professionals who shared their personal stories, challenges, experiences and perspective of women in the old-time music industry. Clips from these interviews are found throughout the exhibit, full video interviews will be uploaded throughout 2023 while the exhibit is on display at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

About Toni Doman
Toni Doman-Vandyke has had various roles at the Birthplace of Country Music, Inc. and currently works as Curatorial Specialist. She is a 2023-2024 Fulbright recipient, earring a Fulbright Canada Student Award for her project "Contemporaries Technologies and the Traditional Music of Cape Breton", where she researched and documented the traditional musical communities of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada and observed how contemporary technologies interact within this community. From 2018-2023 she produced and hosted the WBCM-LP Radio Bristol program Mountain Song & Story, which showcased influential Appalachian artisans and traditions through in-depth interviews, music, and storytelling. She earned her Master’s Degree in Communications and Media Arts and Studies from Ohio University focusing on Appalachian music and culture as the core of her graduate research. She is also one of the few students to earn the world’s first four-year degree in traditional bluegrass music offered at Glenville State University in West Virginia. Toni is also a musician performing in the folk and country music duo Virginia West. Through all of her creative outlets, Toni aims to promote arts and culture for a greater understanding of the Appalachian region.

The "I’ve Endured: Women in Old-Time Music" exhibit highlights the many women who have been integral to the old-time music genre, exploring the challenges they’ve faced making a career in the field, the ways they have impacted the genre, and their vision for the future of old-time.

Special thanks to the numerous individuals who shared their insights, experiences and knowledge with us through these conversations! Video interviews for this project included: Alice Gerrard, Amythyst Kiah, Cathy Fink, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Emily Spencer, Ivy Sheppard, Kalia Yeagle, Martha Spencer, Roni Stoneman, The Reel World String Band: (Karen Jones, Bev Futrell and Sue Massek) Sheila Kay Adams, Suzy Thompson, Toni Doman, Tatiana Hargreaves and Allison de Groot, and Trish Kilby Fore.

You can learn more about the exhibit by visiting www.WomenInOldTimeMusic.com or at www.BirthplaceOfCountryMusic.org.