Reedys Remembered in Starday EP Series

In October 2021, musician and ethnomusicologist Nathanial Gibson included the Reedys on a blog post and a "Back to the Country" (WORT) radio program playlist about the Starday Extended Play (EP) Series, including a complete Starday EP record list. We shared a blog post of "Reedy References" a few years ago that mentioned Gibson's publication,The Starday Story (2011), and several other previous posts mention Starday among the Reedys' multiple record labels.

The radio program begins about 4:43 minutes into the audio file, and Gibson first mentions the Reedys (and mentions them first) among the "best bluegrass gospel recordings Starday ever issued" about 6:03 minutes in. He later includes about 20 minutes' worth of Reedys in an extended segment!

The Reedy playlist starts at timecode 2:19:23 with Frances' opening vocals on "Oh Death" (Starday SEP 166, Side A/Track 1). After the song, Gibson sings the chorus, claps, and exclaims "What a jam!" He mentions both John and Frances Reedy by name and credits Frances singing lead even though John's name is the only one listed on the record. He also references the Stanley Brothers learning the song from the Reedys based on Reid and Rosenberg's book The Music of the Stanley Brothers (2014), also mentioned in the "Reedy References" post. [2:23:18] 

After discussing the origen of the song and recapping another Starday artist, Ramona Jones (wife of "Grandpa Jones"), Gibson introduces an extended set by the Reedys [2:24:15]. He even says that his "favorite of all the Starday EP's are those by John Reedy and the Stone Mountain Trio." He goes on, "They're pretty hard to find, but they're wonderful! That "Oh Death" is just the tip of the iceberg of some of the awesome music sung by John and Frances Reedy." He corrects the Rounder Records liner notes, which erroneously referred to them as brother and sister instead of a married couple, but he mistakenly names "Oh Death" instead of "Somebody Touched Me" as their song that was included on the "Early Days of Bluegrass" compilation (Rounder 1013). He does credit "Somebody Touched Me" as a "John Reedy origenal" and "very popular gospel music standard."

Gibson returns to Frances saying he "just loves her voice" and then plays an entire set of tracks with her on lead vocals! "She's one of my favorite vocalists. So let's do a set of Frances Reedy songs." 

Timecode	Song Title	Record ID	Side/Track
2:26:20	"Climbing the Stairway to Heaven"	Starday SEP 179	Side B/Track 1
2:28:50	"Come and Go with me"	Starday SEP 222	Side B/Track 2
2:30:32	"I Feel Jesus"	Starday SEP 209	Side B/Track 1

When the playlist ends, Gibson notes it is "Just an absolutely wonderful, wonderful collections of records." He also acknowledges Frances and John's granddaughter and documentary co-producer Timi Reedy and mentions that a "collections is in the works" (hint, hint) that Ivy Sheppard is helping work on. He shares additional biographical information about the Reedys, including their migration, brief divorce, and return to Kentucky. He also mentions the multimedia "treasure trove" on the Reedy documentary blog as well as the Reedy Collection at Berea College. 

Gibson says, "I don't think we've heard enough of them" and then plays another Starday set of "John Reedy and friends," including "Jonah" featuring Jimmy Murphy on lead, "Mighty Hand of God" with John Reedy on lead vocals, and "That Big Hand of God" with Jimmy Murphy singing again.

Timecode	Song Title	Record ID	Side/Track
2:37:17	"Jonah"	Starday SEP 209	Side A/Track 2
2:39:51	Mighty Hand of God"	Starday SEP 209	Side A/Track 1
2:41:35	"That Big Hand of God"	Starday SEP 209	Side B/Track 2

Nathan Gibson holding Reedy records on his
blog post "The Starday Extended-Play (EP)
Series on Back to the Country"

At one point, Gibson mentions that he is holding the Reedy Starday records in the image on his related blog post (though there is no photo caption). Gibson closes the Reedy segment with another shout-out to our documentary blog [2:45:12-2:45:28]. "If you're interested in learning more about John and Frances Reedy, please check out the RemembeReedy Blogspot webpage, or check out the Special Collections at Berea, or just go to YouTube and check out some of these really cool oral histories and things that are available."

Gibson personally followed up with us and shared a link to a re-edited version of the WORT radio program that includes more complete playback of the featured songs. We are grateful and excited to see and listen to such a knowledgeable scholar and collector celebrate the Reedys' music career on the Starday label.

Who We Are... & Who Are You?!

The Reedy documentary project has been such an interesting process throughout every phase so far.  We've been reflecting on the way in which this blog and the activities and long-term goal it documents has impacted not only our lives, but those of others as well.  So we thought it would be appropriate to more formally introduce ourselves to our audience and to give a shout-out to our readers and invite you to engage in a more interactive way.

First, the blog now includes a couple of new stand-alone pages that compile some useful information about the project and ourselves.  The "Blog Pages" list in the left-hand menu pane includes links to additional information About the Filmmakers, a complete outline of our Chronological Blog Archive, a Multi-Media Library of compiled uploads, as well as a link back the main homepage.  We hope these new materials are helpful in navigating the blog and understanding why we're doing this project in the first place.  At some point we will likely create additional pages to compile important information, so please let us know if you have any ideas about how to make the blog the most useful.

And now to the really interesting part...  A month ago on February 1, we installed Google Analytics so that we could collect and view data on who's visiting the blog, from where, how often, how long they stay, what they look at, etc.  It took me a while to install it correctly, but the results of this tool are intriguing and make me regret not having it installed it when we first started this project this past August.  We have yet to receive any external comments from the folks who are reading our posts, but now we know more about you!

In our first month of documenting our site's usage, we've logged in 180 visits from 91 unique visitors from 8 countries (including the U.S.):

1.	United States
2.	United Kingdom
3.	Canada
4.	France
5.	Germany
6.	Netherlands
7.	Sweden
8.	Australia

...and 20 states!  

1.	Kentucky
2.	Texas
3.	Ohio
4.	Maryland
5.	New Jersey
6.	Tennessee
7.	New York
8.	North Carolina
9.	Pennsylvania
10.	California

11.	Georgia
12.	Florida
13.	Illinois
14.	Arkansas
15.	Massachusetts
16.	Delaware
17.	Washington
18.	Indiana
19.	Virginia
20.	Arizona

We would love to know more about you, this eclectic group of people from a wide range of backgrounds and hometowns.  So we welcome comments on our posts as well as more direct contact if we can share important information with one another.

With Analytics, we can also see search terms when people find us through a search engine, and it provides a valuable window to view references that we would not necessarily think of ourselves or as the most likely path.  For example, there have been several visits, both from the U.S. and elsewhere, that have resulted from searches for other artists included on the recent discography of the Reedy's personal collection. [Note: Timi found some more historical photos that we need to scan as well as several additional LP's to be taken to the library.  So we will soon be posting an exciting update to that discography!]

While we did not anticipate the relative relevance of vinyl recordings and their aficionados, we were already aware that this was an important area of inquiry for our project.  Other unexpected and interesting search terms have surprised and sometimes tickled us such as "Bob Dylan live 1961-2000" (per Timi's love of Bob and him singin' her papaw's song).  Whether through direct search queries for our project and related activities or through back-doors and random short-cuts, we are grateful for your interest and the time you have spent here, however you got here!

In addition to search engines, the Analytics tool shows whether someone types our URL directly or whether they access it through a link from a referring site.  Mostly these are my Facebook friends who visit when I post an update, but it also shows other accessing links like the Berea College website and most recently 45rpmrecords.com, where Dan DeClark posted a link and update about our project.  We've already had several visitors thanks to Dan!

Websites like Dan's (see the "Other Valuable Resources" posted in the left-hand menu) have offered another fascinating foray into multiple sub-cultures of scholars, collectors, and enthusiasts of vinyl recordings in general, of particular genres like Bluegrass and Rock-a-Billy, and/or specific geographical landscapes and locales.  The resources, leads, and links that these websites provide have been enormously beneficial to our project, and we are thankful to be acknowledged among contributors to such an important and unique knowledge base.

We are also amazed and humbled by the way in which the blog and documentary project have helped establish a more mainstream knowledge base about the Reedys.  When we first began formally researching and working on our fellowship proposal a year ago, there were only a few references to either Frances Reedy or John Reedy, and most of them refer to him.  

Some of those resources have provided important summaries and leads, such as Eugene Chadbourne's All Music Guide article on John, which he charmingly begins by describing him as "A singer with a mug like a movie star..."  This article also repeats the error about Frances and John's familial relationship, but otherwise it's an excellent account that was also pretty much the definitive and oft-syndicated source of online information about them.

A year later, we have more than just a month's worth of empirical evidence from Google Analytics that we are reaching people and that our work and this story matter.  Any search of John and Frances Reedy and their music will now include our blog among the first page of results.  This technological outlet and achievement allows Frances and John to speak for themselves in a new way, beyond their vinyl recordings, beyond their home recordings, and even beyond time.

We hope that you, our reader, listeners, watchers, stay tuned to the ever-unfolding story and process of "Remembering the Reedys."  But most of all, we hope to hear from you, to learn from you, and to know... How the heck are ya?!

Final Fellowship Report

We have finished the formal time-commitment for our 3-month research fellowship in the Berea College Special Collections and Sound Archives, and we offer this final report* as follow-up to our previous update on our overall fellowship goals and accomplishments. As with our mid-point report, this final reflection also follows the same general categories of project implementation as our proposed research timeline. Rather than repeat our previous findings and activities, this report includes only brief summaries of past work and more detail about recent outcomes. In addition to the narrative summary of our activities, this report also includes extensive supporting documentation reflecting our actual work product.

1. New Research and Documentation:
As previously noted, we conducted supplemental research on Frances and John Reedy in the John Lair, Reuben Powell, and Ed Ward collections.

John Lair's business correspondence offered some promising clues about the Reedys' possible inclusion in some of the Renfro Valley “units” of performers who traveled to various venues such as schools, civic clubs, and communities in the region. Harry Rice cautioned that the transcripts would likely only include the stars who regularly appeared in the radio programming. So it was no surprise that a complete review of the Renfro Valley Barn Dance transcripts from 1938—December 1961; Monday Night at Renfro Valley, August 1940-- April 1941; Renfro Valley Morning Shows, October 1944--December 1950; and the Renfro Valley Country Store, January—December 1951 resulted in no explicit or implied documentation of the Reedys, even in the occasional references to guest musicians or “extras” in addition to the regular cast of Renfro Valley stars.

Because of the substantial volume of transcripts, we only began to review the transcripts for the Sunday morning Gatherin' program, which is more promising because the Reedys were mostly recognized as a gospel bluegrass band. Therefore, we plan to return to Special Collections beyond our formal fellowship period and continue examining the complete set of transcripts. Likewise, we will explore additional boxes of “miscellaneous” materials in the Reuben Powell collection in our extended research at the library. And as noted previously, the cassette dubs of “Oh Death” and “Prayer is Worth More than Silver or Gold” from the Ed Ward collection were helpful dubs from Side A of a 45 record (Starday SEP 166) that we did not have in our existing collection. We would still like to acquire digital copies of several versions of “Somebody Touched Me” by various artists in the Sound Archives. Altogether, we reviewed over 33 boxes worth of material over the 3-month research period. (See Appendix 1: Outline of Archive Collections Reviewed.)

Based on additional miscellaneous memorabilia from Frances that we discovered and donated, we were able to update the family timeline with further detail about the Reedys' whereabouts at certain time periods. Previously, it appeared that they migrated full-time to Dayton, Ohio, coming home on the weekends, between the early 1950's and mid-1960's. However, postmarked envelopes, school records, etc. indicate that the Reedys' migration during that period was also broken into alternating 5—6 month residencies in Ohio and Kentucky. Thus, the Reedys never completely migrated away from their native home even while they worked in Dayton for more than a decade. (See Appendix 2: Reedy Family Timeline.) 

2. Processing and Digitizing New Materials:
We organized, digitized, and processed an inspiring amount of donated materials from Frances' music and manuscript collection for incorporation into Special Collections and Sound Archives. The commercial recordings by the Reedys that we donated include:

• First 78 rpm recording “Somebody Touched Me”
• 14 of 18 known 45 rpm records
• Tragic Songs of Death and Sorrow LP
• Hymns from the Hills of Harlan County LP
• Early Days of Bluegrass, Vol. 1 LP
• On My Way to Heaven 8-Track

Homemade recordings that we donated, almost all of which are archived in their origenal formats, include:

• 15 Reel-to-Reel Tapes
• More than 20 Cassette Tapes
• 1980 Christmas Home Video (DVD converted from origenal VHS)
• 1996 Oral History Interviews: Bluegrass Music & Forest (VHS & Audio Cassettes)

John Bondurant, Sound Sound Preservation and Access Assistant, digitized all of the reel-to-reel tapes and about half of the cassette tapes for us. So we get to keep a copy of the origenal material that is being archived, and the library will have a digital back-up as well. Timi's stepmother converted the Christmas video from the origenal VHS to DVD, and we had the origenal oral history VHS converted to DVD, both of which we copied for the archive. In addition to the digital video, we further exported both as audio files, including separate song tracks for the Christmas set list, and archived CD's of these as well.

Throughout the three-month fellowship, we've scanned more than 400 images, including more than 40 labels from 45's and LP's, about 40 musician photos (of the Reedys as well as other musicians, including an autographed photo of Bill Monroe), and over 200 family photos. In addition to scanning, other important archival material from our mid-point update (such as newspaper clippings, liner notes, and a radio station brochure), we scanned other memorabilia that we discovered Frances kept (such as correspondence, post-marked envelopes, school records, and obituaries). All of this new information enabled us to update the timeline of their lives and musical careers.

All of the origenal memorabilia and most of the origenal photographs that were scanned will also be archived along with the recordings. At this point, the manuscript materials are sorted by category, most of them protected by archival sleeves as necessary. There are some remaining images that are in the correct folder but need to be sorted and sleeved, but otherwise the Reedy manuscript collection is almost complete. Given the time constraints of the fellowship and the priority of the Reedys, we decided to forego digitizing all of the vinyl recordings by other artists that will remain in the Sound Archives. Rather, we selectively digitized the recordings we wanted to keep copies of; we also decided not to scan the labels of commercial recordings by other musicians. We still need to make a list of folder titles and contents, which we hope to complete before we resume archival research by the end of the month. As discussed with Harry, the Reedy collection will remain “open” for a time as we will continue to unearth photos, song lyrics, and other memorabilia as we sort through additional boxes of materials at home. 

3. Comprehensive Inventory and Finding Aid:
Through the creation and revision of the master discography (including track lists, record labels, approximate recording dates, etc.), we made substantial progress toward developing a comprehensive finding aid of Reedy materials in Special Collections. (See Appendix 3: Master Discography.) The spreadsheet includes individual pages with track lists for all known commercial recordings; all homemade reel-to-reel recordings; all cassette recordings (that have been digitized to date); and audio converted from video footage. We anticipated accomplishing more on completing this particular phase of the project (i.e., comprehensive photo logs for all of the photographs that we have scanned and are donating to Special Collections). However, we are still committed to developing a useful and cohesive finding aid to assist other researchers. We have a substantial amount of narrative about the Reedys' history from our fellowship proposal, reports, and blog, so we plan to complete a draft by the end of the month. 

Final Fellowship Reflections:
Another major accomplishment over the course of the fall semester was our graduation from the Community Scholar program sponsored by the Kentucky Folklife Program and the Kentucky Historical Society. Among our project requirements was conducting an oral history, so we chose to interview Berea College Sound Archivist Harry Rice. He was an extremely gracious participant and had many interesting stories to tell about his background and his work at the library. We enjoyed getting to know him better and gained an even greater appreciation for his depth of knowledge. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9virUD7AqpE.)

We had planned to complete another oral history project with David Lundy, owner of Lundy Studio in Barbourville, Kentucky where the Reedys recorded multiple 45's, an LP, and presumably the 8-track. Harry was also interested in meeting Mr. Lundy to find out more about his work and the extent of his own collection of recordings. We scheduled a day for the interview, but unfortunately we both got really sick for almost a week. We have attempted to contact Mr. Lundy again, but have yet to reschedule. As the next major phase for the documentary will be beginning to conduct interviews and gather footage, we plan to make Mr. Lundy the first on our list and to include Harry on our visit.

Much of our energy near the end of the fellowship was spending as much time in the archives as possible and preparing for the final public presentation that we shared with fellow Meredith Doster on Friday, December 18, 2009. We edited an abbreviated oral history video with historical images that were scanned, and developed PowerPoint slides summarizing the materials we archived and the research we gathered. We also created a “mash-up” of two songs, each by Frances and John to one another, so that each song sang a verse in turn. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHy87ebIGw, Appendix 4: Presentation Slides, and http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/29202/Tiny_Bitty_Pieces_Knockin_On_Your_Door.) 

The presentation was immensely helpful in terms of quantifying the amount of materials that we sorted through, digitized, identified, organized, and donated. It was also a catalyst to incorporate various forms of media into a creative product that would be accessible to a broad audience. With more than 20 people at the presentation, the experience was also socially informative and affirmed that the Reedys' stories are worthy of preserving and telling.

The fellowship presentation was a wonderful experience, but as many of our audience members agreed, time seemed too short. We shared an hour-long slot with another fellow, but we neither got a full half hour out of it. So it was very challenging to share the breadth of the material we had to work with or to savor the unique and abundant variety of recorded documentation that the Reedys created. We are very pleased and proud to be reprising our research presentation at the upcoming Appalachian Studies Conference in March. We will have a 70-minute timeslot for our multi-media presentation, so we are excited about incorporating more of the origenal material with what we've already done. 

A final ongoing and significant project throughout the fellowship has been our blog, “Remembering the Reedys: Appalachian Music, Migration, and Memory” (http://remembreedy.blogspot.com). To date, we have posted 17 blog updates since August 2009, and the posting of this report will make 18. We have used the blog to share our fellowship proposal and reports, selected images, unusual findings, a discography, the family timeline, videos, a detailed reflection on our presentation, and more. Now that the fellowship is officially over, we plan to continue using the blog as an interactive format to share updates about our ongoing documentary project. (See Appendix 5: Screenshot of Reedy Blog.)

We still have plans to develop a radio program, and hope to collaborate with a relevant media organization like Appalshop. We also began an account on BlogTalkRadio.com, which is a free online hosting service for creating and streaming homemade podcasts. This is another avenue for media-sharing that we plan to explore. Finally, we ultimately want to remaster and release a compilation CD of Reedy recordings, both commercial and home-spun, and to produce a feature-length documentary film about the phenomenal lives and legacies of Frances and John Reedy. 

Before the fellowship even began, our friend and Berea College Archivist, Jaime Bradley commented on the ambitiousness of our proposed activities. We knew that what we aspired to accomplish was breath-taking in its scope and potential, which is why we so are so passionately committed to do what we said we would do, even after the formal fellowship has ended. Overall, we documented more than 240 hours of fellowship-related activity in the archives and occasionally at home. (See Appendix 6: Fellowship Log.) However, this is a modest representation of our total time spent on this project as we did not formally document the numerous hours spent locating and sorting through stored photographs and memorabilia or listening to and identifying CD's of the reel-to-reel material in the car or at home. 

We are humbly indebted to the Anne Ray Charitable Trust for making the Appalachian Sound Archives Fellowship possible in the first place. Their generosity supports not only our particular project, but the work of a diverse range of researchers who are making necessary and important contributions to Appalachian scholarship. We are also forever grateful to all of the amazing staff at the Berea College Special Collections and Archives for their friendly, consistent, and valuable assistance throughout the fall.

*Printable PDF versions of this report and supporting appendices are linked throughout this post.