We here at Americana Roots endure to present the best music available, even tracing it back to its original lineage. Well, this music certainly represents everything we stand for here, and more.
Smithsonian Folkways has released an outstanding tribute to the legendary Ola Belle Reed entitled “Rising Sun Melodies”. This 19 song CD presents 11 classic songs previously released by Ola Belle, plus 8 additional unreleased live recordings of her performing at festivals.
Ola Belle Reed grew up in western North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains. She was a woman with a big heart and big voice. Her music has been covered by many including Marty Stuart, The Louvins, Tim O’Brien, and Del McCoury. Her songs have withstood the test of time, all still great classics today. Her music of the Appalachians mixes the traditions of the immigrants who settled there, along with spirituals and hymns known by generations of families.
Born Ola Wave Campbell in 1916, and one of 13 children, she learned to sing and play her style of clawhammer banjo from her father and family in the early 1920s. Her first band was a group called the North Carolina Ridge Runners. A musical family to this very day, she played in bands with her brother, Alex Campbell, along with her husband Bud Reed whom she married in 1949. That musical tradition carries on even today through her nephews, Zane and Hugh Campbell.
The Campbells moved to northeastern Maryland in 1934 to escape the Great Depression. In 1945, Ola Belle was offered more than $100 per week, quite a good sum in those days, to join country music legend Roy Acuff’s band and backup group. Ola Belle declined the offer.
In 1951, brother Alex along with the Reeds opened a country music park near Rising Sun called the New River Ranch. This historic place has featured Nashville stars such as Hank Williams, The Carter Family, Grandpa Jones, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn along with bluegrass acts like Flatt and Scruggs, Bill Monroe, and the Stanley Brothers.
When Alex returned from the war where he was injured at Normandy, they began their own group known as the New River Boys and Girls. They were considered the house band at New River Ranch. They also opened Campbell’s Corner, a legendary country store in Oxford, Pennsylvania. The store sold food, supplies, musical instruments and records from regional Southern record labels. In the back of the store was an area where musicians were recorded and later broadcast over the radio. Many great shows were performed here. Alex and Ola Belle also wrote over 200 songs and played hundreds more traditional songs that were featured over many other radio stations in the United States.
In 1978, the University of Maryland presented Ola Belle Reed with an honorary doctorate of letters, and in 1986, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded her a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor an American folk artist can receive. A year later, Ola Belle suffered a debilitating stroke, and for the next fifteen years was confined to bed and a wheelchair. She passed away one day before her 86th birthday in 2002.
Ola Belle became a role model, especially for women in bluegrass and old-time music circles, as the trailblazer who paved the way for women writing songs and fronting a band. She can best be summarized by her classic song “I’ve Endured”:
I’ve worked for the rich, I’ve lived with the poor
I’ve seen many heartaches and I’ll see many more
I’ve lived loved and sorrowed, been through success’s door
I’ve endured, I’ve endured, how long must one endure.
This collection is certainly essential if you are a fan of traditional music. Many roots sprout from this music and this wonderful performer. Do yourself a favor and hear where it all began.
Ola Belle Reed, ‘Rising Sun Melodies’ Track Listing
- I’ve Endured
- Ola Belle’s Blues
- Springtime of Life
- Bonaparte’s Retreat (Pee Wee King & Redd Stewart)
- Foggy Mountain Top (A.P. Carter)
- Fortunes
- High on a Mountain
- Sweet Evalina
- Sing Me a Song
- Tear Down the Fences
- My Epitaph
- Look Down That Lonesome Road (Traditional) **
- Undone in Sorrow **
- I Believe in the Old Time Way (Charlie Moore/Bill Napier) **
- Nine Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) **
- I Am the Man, Thomas (Ralph Stanley) **
- I’ve Endured **
- Ranger’s Command **
- I Saw the Light (Hank Williams) **
** previously unreleased
CLICK HERE TO FIND THE CD AND PLAY SAMPLES
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=3281
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A GREAT DVD ABOUT THE NEW RIVER RANCH
Rochester, New York is home to yet another excellent Americana artist I discovered on Von’s excellent podcast Americana RockMix, found right here on our site. Von played two tunes I really dug , Summerville and the title track off Brian’s new cd, Esperanza.
