On the Road — Byard Ray & Obray Ramsey
I was lucky enough to be discovering music at a time when Byard was living in Sodom Laurel because he loved to take young folk under his wing and show them how to play different musical instruments and sing the local ballads.
–Interview with Joe Penland, July 2010
One of the Mitchell Wallin descendants who was “discovered” during the resurgence of interest in folk music in the 1960s was Byard (pronounced Bard) Ray (1910-1988) whose great uncle was Mitchell Wallin (the fiddler who played for Cecil Sharp).
Byard Ray Photo copyright Rob Amberg 2010
Byard Ray grew up in the area known as Sodom Laurel surrounded by the tradition of music, stories, and ballads being passed along orally among family members and friends in the community, playing the fiddle from the age of seven.
He recorded some albums with his cousin, Obray Ramsey, in the 1960s and a few more as a solo musician, as a studio musician, and with groups (Laurel Mountain Boys and Appalachian Folk) in later years. In his career, he received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and also taught banjo and fiddle at Berea and Warren Wilson College. When a New York producer discovered Byard and Obray, they became the first musicians from Madison County to travel all over the world playing our traditional Madison County music. Byard lived long after he recorded and toured and Joe Penland wrote a song about Byard called “After the Fame is Gone” which describes some of his memories of this great talent after he retired from touring.
Obray Ramsey, cousin to Byard Ray also grew up in the fertile Madison County land with talented musical relatives. He learned the guitar at a young age but became most famous for his style of banjo playing. He played, toured, and recorded with Ray as White Lightnin’ and, like his cousin, played with many other groups and on his own.
Music Gallery
Obray developed a two-fingered style of picking that is a unique way of playing the banjo and I can only name one musician today who can do this—Jerry Adams.
Interview with Joe Penland, July 2010
