The Farmville Herald And Farmer Leader

'Shenandoah Sweethearts' Pick Sing, and Look For That Hit Song

Bill and Mary Reid are in the country music business to stay! It's something they like and they can't quit And what's more there's always the chance they'll come across that hit song that will put them right up there at the top

Since 1942 when Bill and Mary joined forces matrimonially and theatrically speaking they've had their sights set on finding that lucky tune the ambition they say of all people in show business

But it's a long hard pull to get there Right now the Shenandoah Valley Sweethearts and their outfit are kept hopping with six radio shows a week at the Farmville station three TV shows out of Lynchburg countless personal appearances at night plus all their own corresponding and managing to do

"If we didn't love it so much it would really be hard" the couple confesses

Bill a Lexington Va boy met Mary at her home town radio station in Harrisonburg in 1941 Bill had been with a number of different outfits having got his start under his father an old-time theater man Old Mr Reid knowing the value of musical ability had seen to it that the youngster learned the guitar

Mary the bass-beater and singer with the group and two-time queen of Virginia Hillbillies at the Annual Folk Music Festival was then singing duets with her sister at Saturday night barn dances

Working with a number of different outfits the young couple picked and sang all over the Southeast portion of the United States in Arkansas Maryland Tennessee Virginia Missouri and so on They appeared with "Salt and Peanuts" Buddy Starcher and other acts famous in the hillbilly world

Their Own Outfit

But they wanted an outfit of their own

"It's just like any other business" they explain "You get more satisfaction out of it and you can run the type of outfit you want though the number of headaches increase"

In January 1950 they got the green light in Farmville and here they have been ever since with the exception of one summer they spent in radio at Lynchburg

Richard "Curley" Lambert of Broadnax joined the couple a few months after they arrived in Southside Virginia A man who picks a mean mandolin Curley played on amateur shows and for dances before going with Bill and Mary In 1951 Uncle Sam got him for a two-year hitch part of which he spent as a member of Special Services in Germany Upon his release he beat it back to Farmville and the Shenandoah Valley show

Besides these three the outfit includes Burke Barbour fiddle player and old-time show man and Claudine Bill's sister who joined forces about a month ago to play the guitar and sing duets with Mary Jimmy Tate a 16-year old whiz on the electric straight guitar will have to go back to school this fall after spending a successful summer with the team

The regular routine of the outfit includes a variety of folk tunes popular numbers throughout the country of their own compositions sung by solo duet group or played strictly instrumental They devote a good bit of their air time to hymns which they themselves love especially "because of the harmonizing we can do" and which net a big percentage of their fan mail

Folk music as explained by Bill is music that appeals especially to country people though he adds that there are plenty of fans everywhere

"It is simple music covering every subject that the average person can understand and sing right along with us" he comments "It has gotten to be a big business with a place in the nation's music and with its own stars"

Bill Mary and Curley figure that they all know around 200 tunes by heart They would probably remember a lot more if someone would jog their memories And week by week they are constantly picking up the newest songs to add to their repertoire

The most amazing feature about these folks is that not a single one of them can read a note of music And yet they say they learn a new song in just a few minutes This they accomplish by listening to a recording picking out the tune and learning the words either from the record or from the sheet music that publishers are constantly sending

Perhaps even more remarkable in light of the above is the fact that the outfit has made two records featuring four original songs: "Honeymoon Waltz" their most popular composition "The Bloom Left the Roses" "Or Didn't You Know" and "Except In Dreams" And there are more originals to come

Bill and Mary say that they have never seen an area more faithful to them than the Farmville-Lynchburg one they cover Their fan mail they say is always very good and they have even received letters from folks living in Dunmore W Va Henderson N C and Norfolk who have seen their television shows They have had Canadians real "country music fans" write them about their recordings

Last year Mary told the listeners she was going to start a friendship quilt and asked them to send her in knitted pieces

"I received over 200 pieces on which names and addresses had been embroidered That's enough for two quilts and two pillows" Mary confesses

The only trouble she adds is that she has never had time to put the pieces together

Busy Life

It's not surprising however that she hasn't had time

The young couple seldom get to relax at their apartment in the W F L O transmitter tower on the outskirts of Farmville They even find little time for formal rehearsals This important feature of show business they often accomplish on trips to and from an engagement

"It's gotten so that any few minutes we have free we right away think of some tune we can be harmonizing over" grins Bill

Yup it's a busy life One filled with song and laughter Even when the flu's got you One filled with making and keeping appointments and working with split-second timing Of relaxing after a television show or personal appearance over a "hillbilly steak" which is the Sweethearts slang for a "hamburger" Of making countless new friends and keeping countless old ones Of a-picking and singing and doing some more picking and singing and waiting for that lucky tune

Until one of these days they hope they'll be a-picking and a-singing right up there with the stars