Dust-to-Digital is excited to present the first in-depth look at the life of Ola Belle Reed, a groundbreaking artist who is one of the all-time greatest performers of authentic, old-time music. Ola Belle Reed’s 1960s recordings, some of the earliest she ever made and available here for the very first time, are counter-balanced by a disc of modern-day field recordings of her descendants and those within her Appalachian community that she inspired. This deluxe edition highlights Ola Belle’s deep repertoire – folk ballads, minstrel songs, country standards, and originals – and traces the impact her music made and is still making today.

About this release:
In 1966, folklorist Henry Glassie traveled from Philadelphia to the town of Oxford, Pennsylvania to see Alex & Ola Belle and the New River Boys and Girls play their exciting brand of Southern mountain music live, on the air, in the back of the Campbell’s Corner general store.

Over the next two years, Glassie would record the deep repertoire of Ola Belle Reed – folk ballads, minstrel songs, country standards, and originals like “I’ve Endured,” penned by Ola Belle herself. Glassie also chronicled the remarkable story of the migration of communities from the Blue Ridge Mountains toward the Mason-Dixon Line prior to WWII.

Some four decades later, Maryland state folklorist Clifford Murphy struck out to discover if this rich musical tradition still existed in the small Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania towns where it once flourished in 2009. Murphy, amazed by what he encountered, began making audio recordings to document the descendants of Ola Belle’s musical legacy. Ola Belle Reed died in 2002 yet her influence is still reverberating throughout old time and traditional music.

About Ola Belle Reed:
Born to a musical family in the mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina in 1913, Ola Belle Reed became a prolific songwriter and performer. Known for her unique style of banjo playing and singing, Ola Belle Reed inspired many musicians throughout her life. Thirteen years after her death in 2002 yet her influence is still reverberating throughout old time and traditional music.

In January of 1966, folklore graduate student Henry Glassie made the first professional solo recordings of Ola Belle Reed. Glassie would go on to become one of the most celebrated folklorists in the United States, a distinguished professor, and a renowned scholar throughout the world. Reed would go on to become one of the leading lights of the Folk Music Revival and winner of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship. Glassie’s landmark collection of early Ola Belle Reed recordings were recently deposited in the Archives of Traditional Music, an ethnographic sound archive located at Indiana University in Bloomington.

This project is a co-production between Dust-to-Digital, Maryland State Arts Council and Indiana University.

Disc One
1. Ola Belle Reed – Uncloudy Day
2. Ola Belle Reed, Alex Campbell and John Miller – My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountain
3. Alex Campbell, Ola Belle Reed and Burl Kilby 
- Bringing in the Georgia Mail
4. Ola Belle Reed – Train 45
5. Ola Belle Reed – The Worried Man Blues
6. Ola Belle Reed and Burl Kilby – The Worried Man Blues
7. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – The Ranger’s Command
8. Ola Belle Reed, John Miller and Burl Kilby – Big Kid’s Barroom
9. Ola Belle Reed and Burl Kilby 
- The Miller’s Will
10. Ola Belle Reed and Burl Kilby 
- Black Jack Davy
11. Ola Belle Reed, Alex Campbell and John Miller – John Hardy
12. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – Single Girl
13. Ola Belle Reed and Burl Kilby 
- Kitty Wells
14. Ola Belle Reed, John Miller and Burl Kilby 
- The Orphan Girl
15. Ola Belle Reed and Burl Kilby – I’ve Always Been a Rambler
16. Ola Belle Reed 
- Undone in Sorrow
17. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – You Led Me to the Wrong
18. Ola Belle Reed – Absalom My Son, My Son
19. Ola Belle Reed and John Miller
- Amazing Grace
20. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – Six Feet of Earth
21. Ola Belle Reed – All the Dark Places
22. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – I’m Going Through
23. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – I’ve Endured
24. Ola Belle Reed, Burl Kilby and John Miller – I’ve Endured

Disc Two
1. Hugh Campbell – Undone in Sorrow
2. Dave Reed – Plucking the Strings
3. T.J. Lundy, Danny Paisley, Ryan Paisley – Cherokee Shuffle
4. Danny Paisley, Ryan Paisley, T.J. Lundy – I’m Longing for a Love I’ll Never Know
5. Burl Kilby – Sally Goodin
6. Hugh Campbell – Story of Tom Moore, the Gravedigger
7. Hugh Campbell – Footprints Left Below
8. DeBusk-Weaver Family – Leave It There
9. DeBusk-Weaver Family with Dave Reed – Six Hours on the Cross
10. Dave Reed – John Hardy
11. Zane Campbell – Cherokee Eyes
12. Burl Kilby – High on a Mountain
13. Hugh Campbell – Fiddle on the Wall
14. T.J. Lundy, Ryan Paisley, Danny Paisley – Rachel
15. 
Danny Paisley, Ryan Paisley, T.J. Lundy – The Old Swinging Bridge
16. Dave Reed – John Hardy/John Henry
17. 
Zane and Hugh Campbell – Stolen Love
18. 
Burton DeBusk – The Buzzard and the Monkey
19. 
Burton DeBusk – The Pussycat and the Bulldog
20. Dave Reed – Preacher and the Bear
21. Burl Kilby – Turkey in the Straw
22. T.J. Lundy, Danny Paisley, Ryan Paisley – Ryestraw
23. Hugh Campbell, Dave Reed – The Butcher Boy
24. Dave Reed – Simple Man
25. Dave Reed – 1,000 Light Years Away
26. DeBusk-Weaver Family with Hugh Campbell – I Feel Like Traveling On
27. Danny Paisley, T.J. Lundy, Ryan Paisley – New River Train
28. Ryan Paisley, T.J. Lundy, Danny Paisley – Salt Creek
29. Burl Kilby – Cumberland Gap
30. Hugh Campbell – Boxes Full of Memories
31. Hugh Campbell – Father, Listen
32. Danny Paisley, Ryan Paisley, T.J. Lundy – My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
33. Zane Campbell – Family Graveyard
34. Zane and Hugh Campbell, Dave Reed, the DeBusk-Weaver Family – Over in the Gloryland

Read an interview with Henry Glassie about these recordings.

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