An in-depth look at the life of a groundbreaking artist and 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 hardcover, cloth-bound book 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.

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 written by Reed herself. He 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.

58 tracks in total with a lot of Ola Belle, plus Alex Campbell, Burl Kilby, John Miler, Hugh Campbell, Dave Reed, Danny Paisley, Ryan Paisley, T.J. Lundy, DeBusk-Weaver Family and more.

256 pages, co-published with Maryland State Arts Council and Indiana University.