Inventory of the Ola Belle Reed Collection, 1969-1979

Collection Number 20010

unc seal
Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
block Descriptive Summary
block Administrative Information
block Online Catalog Headings
block Biographical Note
block Collection Overview
plus Detailed Description of the Collection
block Items Separated
block Related Collections
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
Processed by
Aaron Smithers
Date Processed
November 2002
Encoded by
Aaron Smithers
Date Encoded
November 2002
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Descriptive Summary

Repository
Southern Folklife Collection
Creator
Reed, Ola Belle.
Title
Ola Belle Reed Collection, 1969-1979
Call Number
20010
Extent
About 160 items (3.5 linear feet)
Abstract
Musician Ola Belle Reed was born in Grassy Creek, N.C. As a teenager, she performed with an early version of the North Carolina Ridge Runners. In 1949, she married Bud Reed. They formed the New River Gang, with Alex Campbell, and operated New River Ranch, a popular country music park near Rising Sun, Md. In the early 1960s, they moved to Sunset Park, Md., and broadcast a weekly show from their store in Oxford, Pa. During the 1970s, Ola Belle Reed and family performed at many folk festivals. The collection consists of audio recordings and other materials of Ola Belle Reed. Included are recordings of traditional and original songs sung by Reed; family members, Bud Reed, David Reed, Ralph Reed, Herb Campbell, and Alex Campbell; and friends and neighbors, including Hazel Waltman. There are also tapes of Reed speaking about her life and music; taped performances by the North Carolina Ridge Runners; a copy of High on the Mountain, Reed's unpublished autobiography; lyrics, handwritten sheet music, and lists of traditional songs and original compositions by Reed; clippings about Reed from various publications; a program from the Foothills Festival 1977; a promotional flier from Sunset Ranch; and three photographs. Correspondents include Josh Dunson, Pete Seeger, and John McGuigan.
Language
English.


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Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access
No restrictions.
Usage Restrictions
Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.
Provenance
Unknown.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Reed, Ola Belle Collection #20010, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
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Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Campbell, Alex.
Dunson, Josh, 1941- .
Folk music--United States.
Folk singers--United States.
Campbell, Herb.
Country music.
McGuigan, John.
Musical groups--Maryland.
Musical groups--North Carolina.
Musical groups--United States.
Musicians--Maryland.
Musicians--North Carolina.
Musicians--United States.
New River Ranch (Md.).
North Carolina Ridge Runners.
Radio programs--United States.
Radio stations--West Virginia.
Reed, Bud.
Reed, Ola Belle.
Rising Sun (Md.)--History.
Seeger, Pete, 1919- .
Sunset Park (Pa.)--History.
Waltman, Hazel.
Women musicians.
WWVA (Radio station : Wheeling, W.Va.).
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Related Collections

Mike Seeger Collection (#20009);
Southern Folklife Cultural Revival Project Records (#20004).
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Biographical Note

Ola Belle Reed was born in 1915 at Grassy Creek in Ashe County, located in the New River Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina, to Arthur Harrison Campbell and Ella Mae Osborne. One of thirteen children, she came from a musical family and learned to play both guitar and clawhammer banjo at as a young child. Suffering the effects of the Depression, her father moved the family out of the Blue Ridge and settled near Rising Sun, Md., just south of the Mason-Dixon Line on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. While still a teenager, Reed began performing with her brother Alex Campbell and with an early version of the North Carolina Ridge Runners. Performing old time and country music around their home in Maryland and Pennsylvania, Reed and her brother paired up again after he returned from World War II. For many years, they could be heard live and in syndication over much of the country on a variety of stations, including WWVA in Wheeling, W.Va. During the early 1960s their weekly show, "Campbell's Corner," broadcast live from their country store in Oxford, Pa., of the same name, was heard over much of the eastern United States.

In 1949, Ola Belle married Bud Reed, himself a noted country musician, and with Alex they formed the New River Gang. Together they opened and operated New River Ranch, a popular country music park near Rising Sun. In the early 1960s, they closed New River and moved their operation north on US Route 1 to Sunset Park near Jennersville, Pa., where they performed regularly for the next 26 years. During the 1970s, the Reed family, now including sons David Reed and Ralph Reed, found enthusiastic audiences at many folk festivals, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Brandywine Mountain Music Convention. In 1986, Ola Belle Reed was recognized for her contributions to American folk music and culture when she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship. A prolific songwriter, her best-known songs are "I've Endured," "The Springtime of Life," and especially "High on a Mountain." Del McCoury, a regular performer at Sunset Park, made "High on a Mountain" a bluegrass standard. Many others recorded the tune, including Nashville musician Marty Stuart.

In the late 1980s, Reed suffered a severe stroke that abruptly ended her career as a performer and songwriter. Ola Belle Reed died on August 16, 2002 in Rising Sun.

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Collection Overview

The collection consists of audio recordings and other materials of musician  Ola Belle Reed. Included are recordings of traditional and original songs by Reed; family members, Bud Reed, David Reed, Ralph Reed, Herb Campbell, and Alex Campbell; and friends and neighbors, including Hazel Waltman. There are also tapes of Reed speaking about her life and music; taped performances by the North Carolina Ridge Runners; a copy of "High on the Mountain," Reed's unpublished autobiography; lyrics, handwritten sheet music, and lists of traditional songs and original compositions by Reed; clippings about Reed from various publications; a program from the Foothills Festival 1977; a promotional flier from Sunset Ranch; and three photographs. Correspondents include Josh Dunson, Pete Seeger, and John McGuigan of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Organization of Collection

1. "High on a Mountain"
2. Songs
3. Clippings and Publicity
4. Photographs
5. Audio Recordings
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Items Separated

Items separated include audio tapes (FT-9657 to FT-9678) and photographs (P-4405 to P-4407).

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Detailed Description of the Collection

1. "High on a Mountain," ca. 1977-1979.

About 25 items.
Documents related to "High on the Mountain," the unpublished autobiography of Ola Belle Reed, written with the assistance of David Reed and Josh Dunson. Correspondents include Josh Dunson, Pete Seeger, John McGuigan of the University of Pennsylvania, and Max Mandel of Midstream Music.
Folder 1
Manuscript
Folder 2
Research
Folder 3
Correspondence

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2. Songs, undated.

About 90 items.
Typed song lyrics, handwritten sheet music, and song lists referring to audio tapes not included in the collection. Songs are original compositions by Ola Belle Reed as well as traditional songs that seem to have been known and performed by Reed.
Folder 4
Lyrics
Folder 5
Sheet music
Folder 6
Song lists

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3. Clippings and Publicity, ca. 1970-1978.

18 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Articles about Ola Belle Reed from various newspapers, including a Sing Out! article by Josh Dunson and a piece by Nick Spitzer. Also included are a program from the Foothills Festival 1977 in Tennessee and a promotional flier from Sunset Park.
Folder 7
Clippings and publicity

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4. Photosgraphs, undated.

3 items.
Folder 8
P-4405: Ola Belle Reed, Bud Reed, David Reed, and Alex Campbell with instruments.
P-4406, P-4407: Ola Belle Reed and an unnamed man sitting in front of microphones. They seem to be outside at a festival.

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5. Audio Recordings, 1969-1972.

22 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Open reel audio tapes that seem to be recordings made by Ola Belle Reed at home in Maryland. Tapes include traditional, popular, and original songs performed by Reed; family members, Bud Reed, Ralph Reed, Herb Campbell, and David Reed; and friends and neighbors, including Hazel Waltman. Tapes also include Reed speaking about her life and her feelings about music, family, performing, school, Nashville, welfare, politicians, religion, children, taxes, rock, festivals, Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, New River Ranch, and other topics. The final tape contains performances of the North Carolina Ridge Runners.
FT-9657: Ola Belle Reed I and II. Side 1: 11/22/69. Side 2: 12/06/69.
FT-9658: 12/06/69. Ola Belle Reed IIa. Side 1: Traditional and original songs. Side 2: Original songs.
FT-9659: 12/06/69. Ola Belle Reed III. Traditional songs.
FT-9660: 12/28/69. Ola Belle Reed IV. Side 1: Ola Belle Reed, Ralph Reed, and Bud Reed performing music. Side 2: Taxes story.
FT-9661: 12/28/69 and 02/01/70. Ola Belle Reed V. Side 1: 12/28/69 Ola Belle Reed performs traditional and original songs. Side 2: 02/01/70 Ola Belle Reed sings original songs and is joined by Hazel Waltman for traditional songs.
FT-9662: 02/01/70. Ola Belle Reed VI. Side 1: Singing with Hazel Waltman and talk.
FT-9663: 02/21/70. Ola Belle Reed VII. Side 1: Talk about Ralph, party-fraternity house, poems, taxes, sex (education) and love. Side 2: Talk about Ralph, sex, welfare and family. She sings original and traditional songs.
FT-9664: 02/21/70. Ola Belle Reed VIII. Side 1: Talk about Methodist-Baptist. Songs performed by Reed and Linda Blackman. Side 2: Talk about pollution and a picking session.
FT-9665: 04/18/70. Ola Belle Reed IX. Side 1: Talk, including Nashville, book, and Bud-memories. Side 2: Reed performs songs solo and with Bud Reed, including "High on a Mountain".
FT-9666: 04/18/70. Ola Belle Reed X. Side 1: Talk, including space, Vietnam, tots, politicians, Pentecostals. Side 2: Songs performed by Herb Campbell, people from home, Ralph Reed. Talk about book, money, "Land of the Soul".
FT-9667: 04/18/70. Ola Belle Reed XI. Side 1: Talk, including letter from Mike in Aberdeen, painting, Washington (May 1970), Nashville music publishing. Side 2: Talk, including change, business, hospital, communism, ghetto.
FT-9668: 05/16/70. Ola Belle Reed XII. Side 1: Talk, including neck pains, a policeman in Oxford. Songs performed with David Reed and Linda. Side 2: All Linda, "For God's sake let me go."
FT-9669: 08/08/70. Ola Belle Reed XIII. Side 1: Talk, including Primitive Baptists, raising a child, hemp sacks of clothes, fan club. Side 2: Talk, including credit cards, cars, children, black snakes, and old cherry and chestnut trees.
FT-9670: 08/08/70. Side 1: Talk, including Nashville selling songs, rock festivals, Oxford. Side 2: Talk, including Oxford rock festival, Ralph, festival, drugs.
FT-9671: 10/03/70. Ola Belle Reed XIV. Side 1: Talk, including rock festivals, Brother Ed's Hippie Thing, Victor and girl, new song, quilts, church, grandad, Israel-Jewish people. Side 2: Methodists, revival meeting, outsiders in the mountains, progress's price, New River, Dr. Mayer, city life, and record.
FT-9672: undated. Ola Belle Reed XV. Side 1: Older records, programming, Roy Acuff, drugs. Side 2: Songs performed by Reed and Linda. Talk, including Primitive Baptists, Ola's writing.
FT-9673: 11/11/70. Side 1: Talk, including school, hillbilly, Dave's school, girls, and meeting Bud. Reed performs traditional songs. Side 2: Reed sings and reads lyrics to songs talks about New River Ranch and Bill Monroe.
FT-9674: 11/11/70 and 11/22/70. Side 1: Talk, including job, Nashville, and David. Side 2: David at school and food stamps.
FT-9675: 12/30/70. Side 1: Talk, including tongue twisters, woman writer, mountains, granny, and photographs. Reed performs songs by Fanny Blackburn. Side 2: Talk about taxes, helping neighbor. Reed performs traditional, original, and popular country songs.
FT-9676: 12/30/70. Side 1: Reed performs original and traditional songs. Side 2: More songs and Bud and David Reed play banjo pieces.
FT-9677: 1972. Side 1: Songs performed by Ola Belle Reed, David Reed, Bud Reed, and Alan Reed. Side 2: More songs by Ola, David, Bud. and Alan; some just by David and Bud.
FT-9678: undated. North Carolina Ridge Runners.

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