Restrictions to Access

Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Reed, Ola Belle Collection #20010, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Acquisitions information unknown for original accession. Additional material received from Todd Denton in April 2003 (Acc. 99476).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Aaron Smithers, November 2002

Encoded by: Aaron Smithers, November 2002

Updated by: Anne Wells, October 2016; Anne Wells, March 2019

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Brandywine Mountain Music Convention
• Campbell, Alex (Vocalist)
• Country music.
• Dunson, Josh, 1941-
• Folk music--United States.
• Folk singers--United States.
• 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, 1916-2002.
• Rising Sun (Md.)--History.
• Seeger, Pete, 1919- .
• Sunset Park (Pa.)--History.
• WWVA (Radio station : Wheeling, W.Va.).
• Waltman, Hazel.
• Women musicians.

• Mike Seeger Collection (#20009)
• Southern Folklife Cultural Revival Project Records (#20004)

Ola Belle Reed was born in 1915 at Grassy Creek in Ashe County, N.C., 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., 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.

The Ola Belle Reed Collection consists of audio recordings and other materials of American folk singer, songwriter, and banjo player, Ola Belle Reed. Audio materials in the collection include open reel recordings, 1969-1972, 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. Additional audio materials include open reel recordings of Reed speaking about her life and music, a taped performance by the North Carolina Ridge Runners, and compact discs of live performances, 1960-1976, by Ola Belle Reed and others, including Alex Campbell, Bud Reed, and David Reed. The collection also contains 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.

Audiotapes (FT-20010/9657-9678)

Digital Folders (DF-20010/1-10)

Photographs (P-4405-4407).