Biography
15 June 1880, Floyd, Virginia, USA, d. 17 January 1956. Born blind, but gifted with a fine singing voice, Reed, who was a very religious man, learned to play fiddle as a means of making a living. After marrying, he raised six children and spent most of his life around Princeton, West Virginia. He played on street corners and with other musicians for local dances. He also had a penchant for writing songs, often about special events, and had them printed on cards, which he sold for 10 cents. In August 1927, at the same sessions that started the careers of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, he recorded a song that he had just written about a train crash, ‘The Wreck Of The Virginian’, and three gospel numbers for Ralph Peer. He made further recordings in December in New York, this time accompanied by the West Virginia Night Owls (actually his guitarist son Arville and fiddler Fred Pendleton). He recorded his last session in November 1929, again with...
Read the Full Biography of Blind Alfred Reed
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