>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
>> Henry Glassie: I'm Henry Glassie.
>> Douglas Peach: I'm
Douglas Alan Peach
>> Clifford Murphy: And I'm
Cliff Murphy and we're here today
with a group of musicians from
the Maryland, Pennsylvania,
Delaware tristate region
along the Mason-Dixon Line.
Everybody that we're here with
today is part of a musical tradition
and legacy of the Appalachian
Migration and I would love
for everybody to introduce
yourselves.
We know how you all fit together
but if you wouldn't mind introducing
yourselves and kind of helping us
to understand who you are and what
this tradition is that you come
out of and I guess a good place
to start maybe would
be with Mr. Dave Reed.
>> David Reed: My name
is David Reed.
>> Dan Paisley: I'm Danny Paisley.
>> Ryan Paisley: Hi.
I'm Ryan Paisley
>> Michael Paisley: Hi.
My name is Michael Paisley.
>> Hugh Campbell: My
name is Hugh Campbell.
>> TJ Lundy: Hi.
I'm TJ Lundy.
>> Clifford Murphy: So Dave, tell
us a little bit about yourself
as a musician and maybe
about your family as well.
How did you get it all to play?
>> David Reed: Start to play.
>> Clifford Murphy: Yeah.
>> David Reed: Well this story might
be, might be a little different
than what you might expect.
One day I was at home
and my brother's electric
guitar was setting
on the couch so was his amplifier.
So since he was since my brother
was not there I picked up the guitar
and I said well I'm going to
play around with this thing
since he ain't here, so
I can do what I want.
So I picked it up started
playing with it.
Next thing I know I thought hey
I think I can do this then I made
up a song and then I started
playing the rock music
and for about four years.
Then one day at Campbell's Corner
where mom and Alex had the store,
the grocery store this
was about 1969.
I seen a young man at
the back of the store
where they used to have music.
They used to have Bluegrass
groups and so forth in the back
of the store I seen him
playing Bluegrass guitar.
So just for fun I thought I want,
I'm going to take a
guitar off the wall
because they used to sell guitars.
So I took advantage
of that, you know,
I got free leeway to
get what I wanted.
So I took the guitar.
I started playing around
with it and I thought well,
hmm maybe I can play this music.
The next thing I knew somehow
or other mom and I got together,
you know, Ola Belle
and she had her banjo
and I happened to have a guitar.
Somehow I don't know
exactly how we got together
but I remembered where it was.
There was a meat case where
they used to slice lunchmeat
and right back of there we got
together and we started playing.
Mom never criticized me for
playing my rock music never
or anything else.
That was one of the best
things she ever done
for me is not knock me
and dad didn't either.
They left me and let
me run my course.
Jimmy Hendricks and all this
other kind of stuff, you know,
but anyhow we started playing
together so I automatically took
to her music right then and there.
That was 1969 just before they
were invited to the Festival
of American Folk Life in 1969 and
I remember mom was playing a song
that John Hardy so he
was playing her style
and then I was finding myself
playing the same similar notes
that she was playing
and she got so excited.
John Miller he was there.
He was there back of the meat case
also and you know, on down further
and she said, "Hey
John come listen here.
Come listen to this."
And she was so happy.
She didn't know how to --
she was beside herself so
and the next thing you know
we were playing together
and I still had my
Rock and Roll band.
I was playing from the
oldest to the newest music.
I enjoyed it so that kind
of hung around, you know.
>> Clifford Murphy: For people who
don't, who didn't know your mother
or your uncle can you
kind of introduce us
to them to Ola Belle and Alex?
>> David Reed: Oh as a team, as a
team you could not separate them.
The Campbell's are
very family oriented.
There's nothing wrong with that but
them two it's either talk each other
or do their music and so forth.
You could not separate them.
The rest of the family was, you
know, they wasn't into the music.
Their brothers and sisters wasn't
into the music except my Uncle Herb
and he wrote some "Don't You Call
My Name" and some other songs
that Don McCoury recorded in
1972 and it was released in 1973
but you couldn't separate them two.
It didn't make any difference if it
was Sunset Park, New River Ranch;
Campbell's Corner the band
couldn't separate them at all.
>> Clifford Murphy: Danny if you
wouldn't mind kind of telling us
who you are and how you
fit into this picture.
>> Dan Paisley: I'm Danny Paisley
and I have a Bluegrass Band
that I've been a part of for
close to 40 years or over.
It was originally started
with Ted Lundy and Bob Paisley
and Bob Paisley being my father
and that's how I got started
playing Bluegrass music with them.
Over the years as it developed along
Ted passed away and dad kept playing
and I traveled the United States
and Canada and Europe with my father
and he passed away in 2004
and I've still keeping at it.
>> Clifford Murphy: Now your
father had a connection to --
>> Dan Paisley: My father's uncle
played in a group of musicians
up in Maryland and Pennsylvania
called the North Carolina
Ridge Runners.
They were a group of southerners
pretty much how it got started
from North Carolina.
They all were transplants
so they named the band the
North Carolina Ridge Runners.
My Uncle Wally played in that band.
So dad would go to
hear them practice
and David's mom Ola Belle Reed
was the banjo player and singer
and the guitar player and Ola
Belle would take dad and sit him
up on his knee and she
had a repertoire of a lot
of old cute songs and she would sing
to him and we have a picture at home
of dad sitting on a very
young Ola Belle's lap.
>> Wow.
>> Dan Paisley: And so over the
years we all played music together,
became friends, hung out at
Sunset Park and folk festivals all
across the United States.
>>You better believe it.
>> Dan Paisley: So we didn't
really play in a band together
but we all enjoyed each other's
music, really respected each other
and then now comes my son.
>> Clifford Murphy: Yes and so
now history is repeating itself a
little bit.
Ryan, tell us about yourself.
>> Ryan Paisley: Well
my name is Ryan Paisley.
I'm a mandolin player.
This is my dad Danny and
I started playing music
because I just heard it all around
the house with my grandmother.
When we were there she would always
have some type of music playing
if she was not playing the piano
and that's really I just fell
into the -- because being so used to
hearing music I wanted to play music
so my grandmother gave me a
rolling pin one time and I sat there
and just did like that and acted
like I was playing a fiddle
until someone gave me a cardboard
fiddle that had no strings
and I would sit there with the
little bow had no horsehair
or anything on it just do like that
and then one day I just remember
watching my dad's concert
and I heard his mandolin player at
the time Donnie Eldreth was playing
and I just looked and fell
in love with the mandolin.
My uncle on my mom's side gave me
one and I played it ever since.
>> Clifford Murphy: All right.
Michael, Uncle Mike.
>> Yeah. There you go.
Sounds good anyway.
>> Michael Paisley: Yeah.
I got started with dad and Danny
at a time when they were looking
for a bass player and
I agreed to try.
I never played.
I always listened to the music,
traveled with them to festivals
and all so I kind of had an idea
of what it's supposed to sound like
but could I make it sound that way?
It took a little while and a
lot of on the road practice.
I think the first job I
played was in Belmont Park
at New York at horse track.
I was scared to death.
I don't know I never got off
that trail and just kept on going
until recently I decided
to retire from music
and spend more time
with my grandchildren.
But they all too have interests
and some day they might play.
We'll find out.
>> Sure.
>> Michael Paisley: Yeah.
>> Clifford Murphy: And now Hugh
you've got a family connection here
as well right?
>> Hugh Campbell: We grew up here
in music of all kinds really.
Ola Belle was my aunt, my
father's younger sister
and Alex was his younger brother.
Many of them played music but
Alex and Ola Belle were more
out there actually
doing it for a living.
But my brother and I, Zane
we started writing songs
and playing music early on.
We came along in the mid to
late 1960s when you know,
there were a lot of singer, song
writer people out doing their thing
and we also had the Bluegrass old
time influence and also the Rock
and Roll influence so it was
just a very natural thing
and by the time the '60s
came around it was, you know,
many years before you generally
played traditional songs
in Bluegrass music but we kind
of got permission from Ola Belle
and Alex and Herb and lots
of folks in our family
to just write your own songs which
we started doing and enjoyed it
and I got away from
music for some times.
Zane stayed in it in New
York and later when I was
in my early 30s I moved to
Austin, Texas, lived down there
and tried the troubadour, troubadour
routine for a while until I was
about to starve to death of
course and came back up here
and then started get back into
old time and Bluegrass music again
and we just sort of
wound up here today.
When that was going on
up in our little place
in Child's Cliff you started
coming around showing some interest
and of course that sparked more
interest in us and we continued
on and here we are today.
>> Clifford Murphy: All right.
Now TJ you're again the
family connections here.
Tell us. Tell us.
>> TJ Lundy: Yeah.
>> Clifford Murphy: It's going
to be a similar story I sense.
>> TJ Lundy: Yeah.
Hi. I'm TJ Lundy.
Like Danny was saying earlier
my father was a banjo player
from Galax area came up to Delaware
following his brother for work back
in oh probably mid-'50s came up,
you know, looking for, you know,
for work to begin with but he also
found other people around this area
that had come up before him
like David's mother used to go
to Sunset Park and got connected
up with Ola Belle and Alex
and played some with them back
early on, you know, the early '60s
of course, you know, me being a
little boy he'd always bring the
kids around.
We grew up at Sunset
Park every Sunday.
That was you know we looked
forward to that every Sunday.
We saw all the big
country stars come through
and seen George Jones not
show up how many times.
>> Am I right David?
>> Yep sir.
>> TJ Lundy: But yeah it
was like a family outing
for us, you know, every Sunday.
So, you know, it's just being around
the music all the time it just kind
of wore off on us naturally
and they would play music
and they would set
their instruments down
and here us kids would pick them
up beat and strum and bang and --
>> That's what it was
>> TJ Lundy: Burn and bang
and we do that still today.
But we had fun and we all
got connected up that,
through our music you know.
If wasn't probably for the music
we might not know each other.
It's worked out real good for me
and I hope for the rest of the guys
and that's how I got here.
>> Clifford Murphy: All right.
Well Henry I'm going
to turn it over to you.
>> Henry Glassie: Things
are moving so smoothly I'd
like to just continue you
all talking this same way
that you are now but let me imagine
a slightly different inflection
and that is you're first asked
to talk about connections.
I'd really like to
hear each of you talk
about how you became
as good as you are.
Ryan, I'm looking right at you and
saying how did you get this good?
And what I'm thinking about
is teachers and I'm thinking
about inspiration maybe some record
that just burned your brain but I'd
like people to think about
just who were those people
or who were those inspirational
people
that helped you get
where you are today?
>> Ryan Paisley: Well,
I would say after back
like when I was saying
earlier when I heard.
I call him Uncle Donnie
Eldreth once I heard
that mandolin sound I just started
I looked anywhere else I could hear
that and I found Bill Monroe
and I got the homespun Bill Monroe
teaching DVD with the tablature
and learn the tablature
and then after I did
that I Ronnie McCoury probably
my biggest mandolin hero of all
and every day I would just sit down
and try to figure that out and try
and turn that and see how I
could make that into my own
and see how I could transform
it and I just did that every day
and just continued to do it
every time I can when I'm sitting
around the house whether it's 8:30
in the morning or 11:30 at night.
If I've got an extra second I will
be with the mandolin or the banjo
or the guitar or something.
>> Henry Glassie: I think
that's a wonderful answer.
I'd like everybody to think
in exactly those terms
because if you have one shot I
remember I once met a great poet
and I had one question.
Who is your favorite poet and
there's all kind of information
so you say Ronnie McCoury.
That's a wonderful answer.
I wish Burl Kilby were here today.
We miss Burl but I asked him
that question and he said,
JD Crowe so that's
just really helpful.
It's really insightful.
Danny, would you take
it away from that point?
>> Danny Paisley: For me
truly it was my father.
When he sang real high pitched
much in the style of Bill Monroe
but he had sort of a
mountain edge to it.
>> Henry Glassie: Yeah.
>> Danny Paisley: And he
played with a thumb pic.
>> Henry Glassie: I
noticed that you do too.
>> Danny Paisley: Yeah and I do to
this day and it was just around home
but my father I always
thought was the greatest singer
because he sang these tunes
real high like Bill Monroe.
We only had a few records
around home when we were young
because you had to save your money.
It was special thing to buy a record
so to hear him and TJ's father,
Ted Lundy that was my inspiration
and from the time I was a little kid
like talking four or five I sat
in the middle of a practice circle
that they would have in
somebody's living room.
I'd be in the middle of it just
amazed and to this day I hear
that music right in my face and
that's what gets me excited.
I appreciate music
today but that's music
of that era back in the early '60s.
It just to me just grabs
me so that was mine.
>> Henry Glassie: That's great.
I'd love to say that that's
exactly the thing Ola Belle told me
but she'd said she would sit
when she worked real hard all day
in Campbell's Corner and she'd come
home and she'd be worried and worn
out and she'd just
go back in her mind
and she'd hear the
music of her childhood.
>> Dan Paisley: Yes.
Yes.
>> Henry Glassie: Yeah,
she said that sustained her
and kept her sane for life.
>> Dan Paisley: Yes.
We can go today and something
will be, somebody will talk
about something or say
something or mention a song
and I can immediately go back
to hearing our fathers play it.
It would be someone else's song but
I can immediately that's my base
and that's my inspiration.
I just love that sound
and I'll never capture it
but I'm constantly trying to.
>> Henry Glassie: Well,
I think it's the way of
and Danny I'm including
you in this group.
I think it's a way of great artists.
You never quite get there but
you've got a star in front of you.
>> Dan Paisley: You got it.
Music constantly evolves
but you like for me,
the music of like Galax, I call
Galax Bluegrass I love that.
That's what gets me excited.
It's based on mountain hoedowns
and the banjo style
and that's what I love.
>> Henry Glassie: Got that
old sound still inside of you.
>> Dan Paisley: And like
Ola Belle singing one of her
"I'm Longing for a Love."
One of her old songs like
that just to hear her
in her voice almost crying for
something she can't have and out
of respect for that couple of not
going too far out of the bounds
and keeping loyal, you know, but to
hear that in her voice I love that.
That's music to me.
I love that.
It's not whether they're
on key perfect pitch.
I love that.
>> Henry Glassie: Full of heart.
>> Dan Paisley: Yes.
>> Henry Glassie: It's real human.
Dave.
>> David Reed: Well, as
being the son of Ola Belle
who else could I say but my
biggest inspiration was my mom.
She was my mother but we had a
relationship I don't want to go all
up into this but we had between
us two was a relationship
and I'll say it.
I was a mama's boy and I know
I was the apple of her eye.
That means to me more than even
all her music but she inspired me
but I was also inspired when I first
learned how to play rock and roll.
I don't know if I want to go
all off but you asked a question
so I'm going to give you an answer.
>> Henry Glassie: Yeah, we want it.
>> David Reed: But I was inspired
by groups like the Beatles.
I was inspired by groups
like the Beach Boys,
inspired by guitar players before
I started playing Bluegrass.
Now this is before so this is where
I got my start and by guitar players
like Eric Clapton, Jimmy
Hendricks and Jimmy Page as far
as it were electric guitar but then
I was introduced this good friend
of ours by the name of [inaudible].
He got me into introduced
to playing Bluegrass
but I was playing the rock music
and I was also playing with my mom
which is the old timey and there
is a difference in the sound
but to me you can't hardly
separate their styles.
They need to be together
because it's too similar.
Just because they're
played differently the cords
and changes are basically
the same mostly the same.
It's just the tempos may be a little
bit different but anyhow Victor put
on a Ralph Stanley and the
Clinch Mountain Boys 1971 "Cry
from the Cross" and when I heard
that I thought oh that guitar,
I love that guitar with Keith
Whitley and I was also --
but you talk about you were going to
the banjo I was inspired of course
by my mother the claw hammer and
you go to the three finger style.
Of course Mr. Earl Scruggs is the
man who just got it going for all,
the three finger style banjo players
and also Alex influenced
me a whole lot.
I'd go down to his house
and we would sit down there.
We'd be kidding and
teasing and having a blast
and then we'd go get serious.
He'd start talking
about Bill Monroe.
We'd start talking about him
and he'd go to Flatt and Scruggs
and start talking about them.
He'd go Donnie Eldreth and Smiley.
They're high influential Bluegrass
groups and The Stanley Brothers.
I think those four groups are
the most influential groups
to ever be a Bluegrass music.
That's just my opinion but that
influenced me in the Bluegrass way.
Of course with my mother inspired me
to -- she'd get in front of a crowd
and I'd been doing churches
for years and what I have found
that what has worked for me
is singing these gospel songs,
these older gospel songs to these
older people they'll just set back
and they just act like
they want to sing.
That's the most rewarding part
out of it, you know what I mean?
Well watch my mother do this.
I thought man that's
what I'd like to do.
I didn't know if I could
do it or not, you know,
and I got into a church one day and
we to praising the Lord and stuff
and the next thing you know
everybody started singing.
That changed my life.
Well, I'll tell you something else
that really inspired me to want
to do something more like on my own.
1976 and Danny remembers.
He remembers we shared a room at the
Festival of American Folklife 1976.
Mom wasn't feeling well and so
Ralph [inaudible] asked my father
to come do like a Jimmy Rogers style
-- Blues or whichever one it was.
So we go there and it was
just him and I minus my mother
and I thought let dad
do all the talking.
I ain't saying anything.
I ain't saying a word.
Let him take care of this
whole beat and we got going
and then I played a banjo
tune and then I thought hey,
let's just do a little
[inaudible] circle like mom does.
We did that and the people started
singing along and I'm going,
wow this is an incredible feeling.
I thought well so dad turned me
loose and I just kind of learned
to play the banjo and
so I'll never forget it.
To end that show we got up
there and we did Sally Goodin
and the people started drifting
in more and more coming in more
and more so I looked
up there I said,
"Where in the world did all
these people come from?"
And everybody laughed at me.
I go, oh wow this feels good and
then so we started that Sally Goodin
so I'm watching other people I
though I'm going to kick this thing
into high gear before I get
done just to see what they do.
So I kicked that thing in high gear
and everybody just went
crazy and that was it.
That was it.
I fell in love.
That was 1976.
I'll never forget it.
That was one of the most fun
times in my entire life ever.
I better shut up and
let somebody else talk.
>> Henry Glassie: You
are your own inspiration.
>> Dan Paisley: Well, you know.
>> Henry Glassie: That's
wonderful though, great.
>> Dan Paisley: That was fun.
>> Henry Glassie: TJ would you
like to kick into this story?
>> TJ Lundy: Well, yeah.
I have a lot of inspirations but
it all started with my dad and Bob
and like Dan was saying just being
around as a little kid just being
inspired by just being around it
and feeling it you can't get there
anywhere off a record player.
>> No.
>> TJ Lundy: So just that vibration
being in my head right in that banjo
and that guitar it was like beaten
into my brain and you can't get it
out and you're not going
to get it out of my head.
But, you know, with dad
being a musician and all
of course he had inspirations
himself and kind of, you know,
pushed him not pushed
him but, you know,
introduced me to other music
country music, old time music.
Dad he like all kinds of music
just like I do today, you know,
I can only play one kind but I
respect everybody's musical taste
and abilities because
I like Rock and Roll.
I like jazz.
I like old time.
I like Bluegrass.
I like it all.
It's only -- I like it all.
But as a kid growing up I had like
Kenny Baker as a fiddle player,
of course, Bill Monroe and Stanley
Brothers and Flatt and Scruggs
and it just kind of
just goes on and on here
like Tommy Jarrell, [inaudible]
>> Yeah.
>> TJ Lundy: Dad was always, you
know, he was friends with them
so when they would get together I
would hear that and that was some
of my inspiration, you know, just
playing some old time fiddle tunes
or like I said, I like all music.
I wish I could play other styles
but I can't and I accept that
and I'll just do what I do as best
as I can and enjoy what I have.
So like I said I love
Bluegrass and I love to play it.
Can't get it out of me.
Can't nobody can take it from me.
>> Henry Glassie: That's it.
Nobody would want to
man, you got it.
>> Right.
>> Henry Glassie: But
I think it's wonderful
to hear just hear the names,
you know, Tommy Jarrell
and Kenny Baker just to hear
those names because it's important
for these people who
have gone before them.
>> TJ Lundy: Yeah.
>> Henry Glassie: To still
be a part of our minds
and still be more of a thought.
I love your saying you play one kind
of music but you love all kinds.
>> TJ Lundy: I do.
>> Henry Glassie: Ola Belle
said exactly that same thing.
It was an interview with her after
she and Alex had played at WASA
in Havre De Grace for 10 years.
It was an interview of the two of
them and they asked Alex what kind
of music do you like he said,
"I only like Bluegrass."
They said Ola Belle what kind do you
like she says, "I love all music."
It was a wonderful answer.
She had her own music but
it was right in the center
of an entire universe
of musical possibility.
>> TJ Lundy: Yeah.
>> Henry Glassie: Did you
want to say something Dave?
>> David Reed: Nope.
I'm listening.
I'm agreeing with you.
I'm amening you.
>> Henry Glassie: Yeah,
we can get a witness.
We're going to shift on to Hugh now
but you have a wonderful diversity
of music in your background
a little bit.
That's really the fact.
You've come into this country
music but at the same time you were
in Austin and experienced all
these different things and out
of it you've seemed to have
created a really wonderfully highly
individual sense of poetry
as well as music and I'd love
to tell us a little bit about that.
>> Hugh Campbell: Like TJ
I like all kinds of music.
I listen to all kinds of music.
Coming up there was
always Rock and Roll
and even all the way
back to "Hootenanny."
We used to look at
that on television.
But I loved those folk songs
you know and as it went on,
as the lyrics, the poetry came to
me far sooner than the music did.
In fourth grade I have a distinct
memory of a teacher of ours
when it came to grammar and
English she would give each student,
she would give the students a
list of words, say a dozen words.
The homework was to write a
quick story using those words
and not only did I find it
fun and fascinating I realized
at that early age that
I was very good that.
She brought it to my attention
more than once saying,
"Do you notice how quiet
your fellow students get
when you start reading your story?"
Everybody would write their story
and we would go around in a circle
and everybody would
read it and in class.
That's the first time I noticed I
had a little bit of a gift for words
and then as I went on it
still is the dominant feature.
If I try to write a song
it's more about the words
and conveying a feeling and image
and emotion in three minutes
or a little longer
and a short story.
I like short stories.
Novels I get lost in but short
stories and songs is a challenge
to try and convey an idea
just in three minutes and then
when I got older and I started
putting a little music to it,
it took on another dimension
but that's the way we've always
been more focused I think.
I say we, my younger brother and
I as writing the songs and then
of course we were influenced
by the '60s and '70s
with you know Jim Croce and
John Prine and all those names
that people of my era recognize
and you know we were
youngsters ourselves.
We wanted to be like those guys
writing those songs and then that's,
those people and that
kind of a take on songs
and music were always
what inspired me.
If I could you know the first
time I went in front of a crowd
and actually presented a full set of
my own songs and taking that crowd
from you know, from multiple
emotions, from laughing and hooting
about something stupid I was just
doing on the guitar and matching it
up with words to something
that could bring folks
to a tear that's what inspired
me to continue on with music.
If you can do that, if people
are actually interested
in hearing you do that and
give them that I can do it.
I like to do it.
I like to go and give them that.
But as far as the music goes I think
these guys will all attest I've got
a ways to go yet.
Am I right?
>> Ah.
>> I'm telling you he's okay.
>> We ain't saying nothing.
>> Hugh Campbell: They've
been humoring old Hugh
for the last two weeks.
>> Henry Glassie: Not a bit.
I think it's really important
to bring up the words
because for Ola Belle
those were crucial.
She was much more, I think
she was if you compared her
to the normal let's say Bluegrass
musician she cared a great deal more
about enunciation,
being very, very clear.
She cared greatly about the poetry
in the songs and when she began
to in the mid-' 60s began to
turn back to old music it was not
out of some sentimental
interest in old music so much
as it was an interest
in very fine poetry.
>> Yeah.
>> Henry Glassie: And
the fact is that poetry,
it was the same thing
with gospel songs.
One of the reasons she loved gospel
songs was for the religious reason.
The second was philosophical
that wasn't religious.
The third was poetic.
She talked very elegantly about
how beautiful the poetry was
in many great gospel songs
and that's just true.
So if you're, I think
so your emphasis
on the words is a very important
fact of our appreciation
of Ola Belle and this
whole tradition is that one
of the things is that you all
are a bunch of great musicians
without question but it's also true
that this tradition has a
fantastic axis of poetry
and that you've worked in that.
>> David Reed: What you've said,
mom wasn't an educated person.
She never finished high school.
I'll just stop there but I
wanted everybody to know that.
It came natural to her.
I think listening to
these old songs.
She listened to the old
songs and she wrote songs,
learned those songs that style.
She said she wrote write
the songs in the style
that you don't hear anymore.
>> Henry Glassie: That's right.
So she could pick up that old
style and make it her own.
I mean she only lacked one year of
graduating from high school, though.
She got real close.
But she said the one
thing she could always do
as a child was memorize poetry.
So I think for Ola Belle that
it's maybe more like Hugh.
I think that maybe the
words might have come first
and then the music began to
sort of sing the tune that went
with the words when she
was composing her songs.
>> David Reed: I believe
you're correct
because you captured that on the CD.
I believe it's Ivan [inaudible]
where they were talking the words
and practicing together and
mentions about the words, the music
and they do it two or
three different ways
and like the words
are way more important
than the melody of the song.
>> Henry Glassie: I think that
for Ola, not for everybody
but I think that's just important to
remember the complexity of the whole
that this is a threading together
of wonderful music
but wonderful poetry.
>> David Reed: Right.
Right.
>> Henry Glassie: You're at the end
and you play the bass which is --
>> Michael Paisley: I
can make this short.
I concur with all the others.
>> Henry Glassie: Is there a
great bass player in your mind?
>> Michael Paisley: I like Riddle.
I played trumpet or
cornet in high school.
>> Henry Glassie: Oh, so
see that's real interesting.
>> Michael Paisley: And the
instrument but when I got
to play the bass the rhythm
when you've got two guitar
players standing in front
of you'd better learn quick.
You'd better have some power or
you're going to have this look.
And Earl Yager, bill Grable
they were a big influence,
the selection of their
notes, what they play.
>> Henry Glassie: Yeah.
>> Michael Paisley: And I always
listened to the old country music,
traditional country music and
some of the I don't know all
of the bass players' names
but you hear it in your head
and when you play a song maybe the
first time you're thinking what you
want to play you might not
be playing it at the time
but eventually in time it comes to
you and it just works into the song.
But there's something about
rhythm, it's powerful.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Michael Paisley: Yeah, you can
feel pretty bad some days playing
but once you get started this
music just makes you feel
pretty wonderful.
That's pretty much it.
>> Henry Glassie: That's wonderful.
Doug, do you want to have a line
of grilling of these gentlemen?
>> Douglas Peach: Oh
yeah, let's grill away.
So we've talked a little bit
about you as individuals.
And we've talked about your
influences and one of the things
that we've just touched on a little
bit about and that I'd like to talk
about more is your audiences and I'm
really interested in this phenomenon
of we're talking about
Ola Belle and being raised
in the southern mountains and
moving to the tri-state area
and Ola Belle stayed in
that area and would perform
around a little bit but
particularly you guys
and the other touring musicians have
had the chance actually to go back
down and play in places like
[inaudible] and play in places
like Ash county, so I'm really
interested in the audience reaction
into you coming and playing
that music in that place.
>> Dan Paisley: We go
South quite a bit to play
and you'll always get a comment
sometime you Yankees can play pretty
good music.
It's meant as a joke but people
don't understand I always say
there's probably more Bluegrass in
that Rising Sun, Maryland, Elkton,
Maryland, Wilmington, Delaware,
Pennsylvania all stretching
out across Chester County in
Pennsylvania to York County,
Pennsylvania in that border area,
there's probably more Bluegrass
and old time music than they have
down South and a lot of places
because it being far away from the
South we don't take it for granted.
We take great pride in knowing
these songs and playing.
We foster friendships with people.
People say I think we're
proud of that but as far
as us traveling I've been to Europe
and Japan playing and it amazes me.
We can go someplace in the
Bavarian Alps in Germany
and somebody has got a CD
or record and you think how
in the world do they --
you know and of course
with the Internet now
that's all opened up
but years back I was
always amazed at that,
that somebody could hear you play
this kind of music and know it.
Sometimes know more about
you than you know about you.
>> That's about right.
>> Michael Paisley: But that's
quite an honor that somebody cares
that much to take that time out
of all of our busy schedules
to really dig into the music and
learn these songs and are very proud
to play them for you when you're in
a different country and even here.
We go to California and they'll
know all our material before we
get there.
>> Douglas Peach: One of our
colleagues a folklorist like Henry,
Cliff and myself, his name is
John Kay and then John came
and he's the state folklorist
in Indiana and he thinks
about Bluegrass particularly
as being a music of diaspora.
It's folks leaving the mountains,
leaving that area therefore it's a
diaspora that's how it's connected.
>> It's true.
>> Douglas Peach: It's
really interesting.
>> You've got to have
Bluegrass in Detroit
or else you'll kill yourself.
>> Michael Paisley:
They're on the Internet.
Much like here they moved
there for employment
and they had to have a cash income.
Unlike down South where
things were based
on a I always said a barter system
where they were based on trades
and things and there wasn't cash.
A lot of them like my grandparents
they moved to Pennsylvania
because they needed a cash income.
They were sharecroppers but
got a little income which led
to leaving the sharecropper
to having your own farm then
you had money to buy records
so you could hear Gid Tanner and
all these old you know stars.
>> Douglas Peach: As a part of
this project we went to Ash County
and did some field work with John
Miller and John and got to see him
and we went to a restaurant
there and they still had IOUs
at the restaurant at Ash County.
Amazing.
>> You could never do that up here.
>> Huh-uh.
>> Douglas Peach: Anybody else
like to speak about audiences?
About reactions to your music?
Dave
>> Dave Reed: In your local
area this is what I have found.
They don't pay that a whole a lot of
mind and I remember there was a day
when my mother, there was
people that liked her music
but I think she would just -- as
a matter of fact my brother used
to get into fights because
different one's at school
and teachers would poke fun
of mom for being a hillbilly,
so he would get into
fights over that.
Now since he has a name
it's like oh Ola Belle,
Ola Belle, Ola Belle you know.
That's what it is but I have found
this that doing my music there
in the local areas you show up
most but like a lot of churches
and things and you know they'd
have me come in and sing but seems
like when I get away from
home it's a different reaction
and that's exactly
what happened Henry
when you introduced
her to the folk crowds.
It was a totally different world
of people and like mom says
on her records now that the hippie
people of the day and I don't mean
that in a bad way because I'm
definitely one, yeah, young people
and we started doing these.
As a matter of fact when
we come to these Festival
of American Folklore 1969
it's like a different world.
These people really appreciated it.
I'm going wow and I know we're
supposed to speak about ourselves
but if you're talking about
audiences I remember this was right
around about 1970, a man by the name
of Josh Dungston wrote my mother.
Of course dad and I were
there and Alex was there
and a few other people were
there we had played in this hall.
I don't know what it was called.
I was 17. When we got done these
people flocked around my mother
like she was a Nashville star.
The first time I'd ever seen that.
It was the first time I'd
ever seen it like that,
never seen it like that
and I'm going Mom, Mom,
these people around you
like, I was thinking this.
These people are around you like
a Nashville star and we could be,
I'm not saying this in a
bad reflection about people
of Sunset Park because the people
[inaudible] were just great.
We could be playing up there,
the band, be right in the middle
of Orange Blossom Special or
whatever, we could be playing,
now we could all see all the way up
to where the booth was, ticket booth
and I could tell when the main star
for the day would be coming down
and as they'd go down through there
and sometimes the thing
would be filled
because you had a big time
country star coming in.
As soon as somebody got eye of it
about 90% of the people would run
out to go where the star was and
we could be right in the middle
of a song and I mean the band
up there I suppose
what it was you know,
we were up there played three
times a Sunday for years and years
and years but now I just think
what would this crowd give
if God could allow mom and Alex and
the band to come back like they were
at that time how much, how many
people would show up for that?
I have a bunches, I guess literally
hundreds, hundreds of people tell me
about I remember New River Ranch.
I remember Sunset Park.
I remember Campbell's Corner.
I remember the stage in the
back where they used to play.
I remember the Broadcast.
It's almost -- it's just over and
over and over again and again.
It's just sometimes people just
don't realize and it took somebody
like you to come along Henry, come
along discovered her and put it
in new places, new spaces.
That he was the best,
most appreciation my mother ever
got thanks to you and you too Cliff
and you too Doug for
doing this book.
I'm going to tell you.
This is being recorded and I'm going
to tell you three right now how
much I appreciate this very much.
It means to world to me
for you three doing this
book and it's a great book.
I think it's the best project
that's ever been done on my mother.
Now that's my opinion but
that's just the way I feel.
Thank you all very much.
>> Well thank you very much.
Appreciate that.
>> Dan Paisley: I'll, shut up.
>> Henry Glassie: No, no.
That's wonderful.
I think it's interesting to
think about this good question
that Doug had about audience
because you mentioned Earl Scruggs
a little bit earlier and I happened
to be when Earl gave a talk at
the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It was kind of a wonderful moment
and he said the greatest
audience he ever had
in his life was in Dublin, Ireland.
>> Wow.
>> Henry Glassie: And he said it
was because it was a deep connection
between Ireland and the mountains
that just came right up like that.
He said the people didn't know
anything about Bluegrass or nothing
about the banjo but when he walked
into Dublin he said he'd never had
an audience like that because it was
like he had gone down to the
roots that connected Ireland
with the South and he
just pulled them right
up brought them into the sun.
So that it seems to me like
there are certain moments
like Earl's moment in Dublin
that probably all of you had
like one great performance moment.
I think that would be a great way
to answer that kind of audience.
Like TJ can you think of some time?
I mean your fiddling is so good can
you think of one time that you kind
of took off in a special way?
>> TJ Lundy: I must have been about
seven and out come Bill Monroe
with his mandolin played this
tune with us and I just got
so star struck I couldn't play.
[Laughter]
>> Henry Glassie: That's
a great memory.
>> TJ Lundy: I couldn't
play, I didn't hear anything.
I couldn't even see the audience.
There was just this giant
man standing right there
and I was just my mouth
was wide open and I was
like what am I supposed to do?
I couldn't do anything.
But I do remember people
coming up and just like oh,
you got to play with Bill Monroe.
Well I got stand next to him and
can't remember anything after that.
That was probably a good
memory as far as me and being
in the audience of
him being on stage.
So I'll just say that.
>> Henry Glassie: I think
that's such as a good --
when Dave was talking about
the Smithsonian Folk Festival
and when I asked Johnny Miller
about the Smithsonian
Folk Festival he said,
"I got the play with Kenny Baker."
Who cares about the Smithsonian?
Who cares about Washington, D.C.?
Who cares about any of this?
"Man, I got to play
with Kenny Baker."
That made the whole
stupid thing worth it.
>> Hugh Campbell: Good for me.
When I first moved down to Austin,
Texas you know there were a lot
of great songwriters living down
there and playing and pitching songs
and you know nobody had ever heard
of me but I started going out
and hitting some of the places
and playing and a couple
of the songs were getting
some attention
and the next thing I know I was
featured on a show and there turned
out this huge crowd to see
this new person in town
and it was just I don't
even know how to explain it
but there was just a real
connection and being in a town
where song writing is very,
very important Austin,
Texas if you can get more than
three people out to listen
to you you're doing pretty good.
So I was very flattered by
it all and inspired by it all
and I just kept doing what I
was doing, kept writing songs
and pitching them around and of
course at the time country music
which I was shooting for was
coming back to new country.
It was more like it didn't
sound anything like the '60s
and my songs were just more folkie
than country so but I stayed
and hung out and I was
already in my early thirties.
So, you know by the time you're
sweating all week to trying
to make the rent payment
and buy some groceries.
I was just getting tired of
it but that one night I felt
like that was enough to
keep me going a little bit
but you know there have been
a lot of fun nights since then
but that was the first
one I remember being
so inspired to continue on.
When a town like Austin
accepts you as one
of their new people it's a certain
qualifying feeling about it.
>> Henry Glassie: Since this
is an interview could I ask you
to maybe remember because you were
in the last public
performance by Ola Belle?
>> That's right.
That was in Raleigh, North Carolina.
>> Henry Glassie: So I think
for the record it might be
good for you to recall that.
>> That's right.
>> Clifford Murphy: Wait.
I feel compelled to point
out there's a hardy debate
between the two of you, you
and Dave on this one but --
>> David Reed: Well,
it's in the book.
My dad told me that it doesn't
really make any difference.
>> Henry Glassie: It
does make a difference.
>> David Reed: It really don't
to me because my dad told me
that the last performance
that she done was
at the Nazarene Church
of Rising Sun.
That's all I know.
>> Henry Glassie: I think, let's see
but I don't think there's any
conflict because I think that's true
but the one that Hugh was part of
was a big kind of faraway deal.
So I think that you can
have two last concerts.
>> Absolutely.
>> Henry Glassie: One
for the home folks.
>> Hugh Campbell: And that
was not long after she had won
to American Heritage Award.
She was awarded that.
>> Right.
>> Hugh Campbell: And she
was getting bigger shows
and I think it was sponsored
by, I forget who put the show on
but it was in n a theater in Raleigh
and she called me on the phone
and said I'm going, we're
going down to play this show.
Do you want to go?
I was living in Baltimore
at the time.
This was before I went down to
the southwest and I said yeah,
and she said, well come
on down to Raleigh.
It's down in there.
You'll find it.
Come on down to the campus.
>> Well, that's characteristic.
>> Hugh Campbell: So I did though.
I went on down and stayed back stage
until she, they did their main show.
I think it was Bud, I think
it was just Bud and Ola Belle.
Were you there Dave?
>> David Reed: I wasn't there.
>> Hugh Campbell: But
anyway I stayed back stage.
They did most of their show and they
brought me out for, she brought me
out for three or four
songs and then we did
like we did tonight we
did you know a little bit
of the a gospel medley
together and as it turned
out that was the last show of any
real significance that she did not
to diminish the Nazarene church.
She did that.
She did a couple of
those but she began
to have the health issues then then
she had a pretty serious episode
that was pretty well it.
But Ola Belle was also a
great influence in my life,
not only my life but my brother's
life as far as writing songs
because she was doing it in the '40s
and '50s in a setting where old time
and even Bluegrass there
weren't many new songs.
You played mainly traditional
songs but she was doing,
she was writing her own songs not
only in that period but as a woman
and I think thanks to her
brother Alex who led he the band
and kept the wheels rolling
and managed everybody
if he said this is the song we're
going to do it didn't matter
who wrote it but he knew
Ola Belle songs were good
so he would teach them to the band.
The band had to learn them and
they always were successful.
But the fact that it was just
like a regular day to us,
I mean as a kid writing songs
was just something you did.
If you felt moved to do it you did
it and there were lots of writers
in our family at various levels
of you know out in the public.
My mother was first published when
she was I think she was 80 years old
but she was always
interested in writing.
She kept a journal every day and
words were important, you know.
If you're sitting around the
living room and TV or the radio
or whatever you were
always bantering back words,
word play of one kind or another.
Now I'm the one rambling on Dave.
>> Henry Glassie: No you're
not rambling on a bit.
You're doing a wonderful job.
Would either of you like to
talk about a performance at all?
I mean the reactions and --
>> Ryan Paisley: I think though
speaking as reactions when you go
to a place you almost have to
take the first couple of songs
and gauge how your audience is.
Like we'll go some places and he'll
say we don't usually use that list
but we have an idea of what --
we'll normally start with the first
three songs and so on and so forth
but sometimes he'll say no, out here
they really like those folk tunes
or down here they really like
those hard driving fast one
and we're going to do those.
So you almost to make
sure that you're going
to have a good show you have to
know how they're going to react
and what they want to hear
otherwise you're just going
on you know going with the flow.
>> Dan Paisley: For me I think like
you were saying Earl Scruggs was
in Dublin, Ireland that was
the greatest show for him.
For me the biggest thrill
was when we all got to part
of the Bluegrass Music Awards we
got play the Ryman Auditorium.
>> Henry Glassie: Oh
see, that's great.
>> Dan Paisley: Yeah, Mother
Church of Country Music so to speak
but to walk on that
stage and play man,
that's the probably the highlight
of -- we had to play three songs
and that would probably be
the highlight of my life
when we all got to do that.
>> The same stage which
Earl got play
for the first time [inaudible]
Monroe, Lester Flatt.
Roy Acuff.
>> Yeah, just think of it.
>> Dan Paisley: Yeah at
the Ryman Auditorium.
>> Henry Glassie: Yeah,
yeah, Great Speckled Bird.
>> I have to agree with Danny.
I think the Ryman was the highlight.
>> Henry Glassie: Wait
so you were there?
>> Yeah.
>> Henry Glassie: Oh man.
>> TJ --
>> Henry Glassie: What was it
like standing out on that stage?
>> TJ Lundy: But as they touched
on it was kind of a funny crowd
or maybe it's an ego
thing or a feeling you get
when one night you can
play the same set of songs
and get a great response.
Go down the road a hundred
miles play the same set of songs
and it feels like what's wrong?
>> Oh yeah.
>> TJ Lundy: Why can't I get that
feeling, that feedback from them?
It always weirded me
out a little bit.
>> Henry Glassie: You know
the big stars always talk
about a good audience but there's
such a thing as a good audience.
>> A good audience feeds the band.
You feed off the band.
>> Dan Paisley: Ninety percent of
the time for me it's a small place.
It's a little folk club,
maybe holds 150 people
where the crowd is
right up next to you.
Not these big music festivals.
They're fun.
I love them but to get a that real
good feel you have a good PA system
and they're yelling songs at you.
Play this song and
there's no better feeling.
That feeds your ego.
You come out of there walking
on a cloud and I always say,
tell Ryan the old cliche always say,
I guess it sounds old but my job is
if I left today I'm happy
and if somebody else smiled
and maybe just made their day
a little better to me I'm done.
I'm feeling pretty good.
Life is good.
It can be simple.
>> Henry Glassie: Job done.
>> Dan Paisley: Yeah.
>> That's a perfect end.
>> I would agree.
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.