OLA BELLE REED FRC-203-CD

Ola Belle Reed (1915-2002) was born into the musical Campbell family in Grassy Creek, Ash County, in the New River Valley of western North Carolina. She performed with the North Carolina Ridge Runners as a teenager. As did many transplanted mountain folk during the Great Depression, Ola Belle’s family moved north to Rising Sun, Maryland. Beginning in 1949, Ola Belle and her brother, Alex Campbell, played with their Bluegrass band, the New River Boys & Girls, at New River Ranch in Rising Sun, which Alex, Ola Belle and her husband Bud Reed operated, and for 26 years beginning in 1960, at Sunset Park, in West Grove, PA. Ola Belle has become more widely known as an author of many wonderful songs about mountain life, social justice and traditional values, some of which she performs here along with other songs she learned growing up in the mountains, accompanying herself on old-time banjo or guitar, assisted by her son David and her “old man” Bud. Although Ola Belle’s extraordinary music lives on, and her homespun philosophy comes through in both her music and stage repartee, she is sorely missed. – Shel Sandler for the Brandywine Friends

1. Carl’s Introduction (0:17)
2. High on a Mountain (2:36)
3. Ola Belle’s Home (talk) (1:19)
4. I’ve Endured (2:26)
5. Wings like an Eagle (2:53)
6. Chewing Chawing Gum (2:08)
7. Only the Leading Role Will Do (5:16)
8. Wild Bill Jones (2:05)
9. My Sweet Love Ain’t Around (3:51)
10. Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow (2:09)
11. I Am a Pilgrim (4:13)
12. I’ll Fly Away (4:37)
13. Undone in Sorrow (3:14)
14. I Believe in the Old Time Way (2:29)
15. The Train that Carried my Girl from Town (1:49)
16. Rueben’s Train (1:49)
17. The Cannonball (1:54)
18. Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley (2:51)
19. Unclouded Day (2:47)
20. Sing Me a Song (3:20)
21. He’s Gone (3:27)
22. Tear Down the Fences (5:24)
23. Bringing in the Georgia Mail (2:12)