LUMBERTON — Sonya Pickard Stead left Lumberton in 1981 as an accomplished athlete and will be returning Thursday as an accomplished singer.
Stead will be performing at the Carolina Civic Center alongside her “sweetgrass” band, Sweet Potato Pie, at 7 p.m. The performance is brought through a partnership with the Robeson County Arts Council as part of its annual Bluegrass on the Blackwater series.
Tickets are $15 and $10 for students.
“I’ve been back from time to time to visit friends but not to perform. I’m excited,” Stead said. “I’m very glad to go back and share the talent of our group with people I love.”
Stead, now a 55-year-old mother of three, said that performing in Lumberton will be a new experience for her.
“Interestingly enough, when I was there (Lumberton) I basically was involved only in athletics. That’s what I did,” Stead said. “In fact, most people didn’t even know I played music and I didn’t really get into that until I was in my 30s.”
She lived in Lumberton between 1975 and 1981. During that time she was an all-conference athlete at Lumberton High in volleyball, basketball and softball, and the Most Outstanding Female Student Athlete in 1981. She received a basketball scholarship to play at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she scored more than 1,000 points during her career.
Stead said that the idea of forming a band came when she and two other friends were learning and playing together as a hobby. Through word of mouth, the women were asked to perform at an event and decided to come as formal band. Stead, who was pregnant with her third child at the time, had food on the mind, which led to the band’s name, Sweet Potato Pie.
“We just wanted to learn how to play instruments. We had no thought that we would be forming a band,” Stead said.
Stead’s band is said to be the longest running all-female band in the U.S., having been established in 2000. It came as a surprise when nearly 40 years after leaving Lumberton, she found herself returning.
“We have been playing at lots of great wonderful venues and so the chance to come back and play in front of my hometown crowd is going to be a very sweet experience,” Stead said.
Stead’s performance will be like a reunion with many old friends in attendance.
“My junior high coach is going to be there, friends from school, friends from church, friends from my neighborhood and I’m hoping that a lot of wonderful people can just come out and see what a band made up of all girls is all about,” she said.
Stead’s band includes four other women — on guitar, Crystal Richardson; on banjo, Sandy Whitley; on bass, Tori Jones; on the fiddle; and Madeleine Baucom on the mandolin and guitar.
The band incorporates a blend of Americana, bluegrass, country and gospel music in what they call “sweetgrass.” Their show revolves around three-part harmonies, hard driving instrumentals and down-home humor.
