Marriage of the “Royals” — Lee Wallin & Berzilla Chandler
Berzill had such a sweet, clear voice that if she couldn’t make your heart flutter when you listened to her, something was wrong with you. Bertha Wallin McDevitt is the last of Lee and Berzilla’s children living and she still invites me onto the porch of their cabin home to sing and remember.
–Interview with Joe Penland, July 2010
Berzilla Wallin Photo copyright Rob Amberg 2010
Lee Wallin
On his journeys through Madison County in 1916 collecting music, Cecil Sharp had met one of the premiere families of traditional music in Mitchell Wallin. When one of Mitchell’s nephews, Lee Wallin (1889-1973), married Berzilla Chandler (1893-1986), two of the greatest musical families joined together. As farmers, Lee and Berzilla raised their twelve children with a small income from their tobacco crop. Both of them played the banjo and sang but Berzilla also enjoyed telling stories of growing up in the mountains.
In 1963, folk musician John Cohen recorded Lee, Berzilla and several relatives including Lee’s brother Cas Wallin for the album, Old Love Songs and Ballads. Cohen made subsequent field recordings of Wallin family members and another cousin, Dillard Chandler, many of which were released by Smithsonian Folkways on the 2005 album, Dark Holler: Old Love Songs and Ballads. They passed on their musical talents and legacy to their children–most notably Doug and Jack.
