Bobby Reed - Pipelining Man / Battle of Pickett Line (Modco 1000-1), unknown year
(Courtesy of Western Red from "If That Ain't Country")
Among the several Bobby Reeds in the music business, this singer was presumably active in the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area. First because he recorded for several Arkansas based record labels, some of them even from the northwestern corner of the state, and second because one of the songs he wrote and performed was called "Fort Smith Arkansas Women".
However, Reed started his career in Texas. He was also quite a songwriter, as BMI lists 32 compositions by him. He made his debut in 1961 with a band called "The Vallants" on the Texas based Rainbow label with two songs, "Honey Bee" and "This Love of Mine". Both songs were published by Pappy Daily's Glad Music. At that time, Reed was performing rock'n'roll music. He followed up with two more singles on the Texas based Van and Cyclone labels in 1964 and 1965 respectively. Van was owned by Charles and Bobby Vanmeter and located in Lake Jackson near Houston, while Cyclone was based in Bryan or Houston.
It seems that Reed moved north at some point between 1965 and 1968 to the Fort Smith, Northwestern Arkansas, area. In 1968, he began recording for Wayne Raney's Rimrock label with a single disc and even an album in 1970. In between, he recorded for John Capps' K-Ark label from Nashville. This session produced his song "Fort Smith Arkansas Women".
Our selection was recorded for the Modco label from Lincoln, Arkansas, a small town that is located between Fort Smith and the Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers region. "Pipelining Man", produced by a certain R. J. Reed, is the top side from that single and features some nice fills by lead and steel guitar as well as piano.
I don't know what happened with Bobby Reed after 1970. My research turned up a certain Bobby D. Reed who was born in 1938 in Phoenix, Arizona, and died in 2016 in Bald Knob, Arkansas (three hours away from Fort Smith). His obituary mentions that he "would spend his time visiting the nursing homes always taking his guitar so he could sing to the residents. His favorite song was 'God is Love.'" So this guy could be the same Bobby Reed.
If anyone has more information or recollections on Bobby Reed, please feel free to share them via e-mail or leave a comment!
Sources
• Discogs
• BMI
No comments:
Post a Comment