Music community remembers the ‘Sons of Staunton’

 Happy 83rd birthday on Aug. 8 to Phil Balsley, one of the original members of The Statler Brothers of Staunton, Va.

Phil Balsley

 

The group continues to influence country and gospel music, even though being down a man. It’s sad but true.

 

Harold Reid, who formed legendary quartet, died in April 2020 in Staunton, Va., following a long battle with kidney failure. The group had officially retired from performing in 2002. 

Throughout their career, much of The Statler Brothers’ appeal was related to their incorporation of comedy and parody into their musical act, due in large part to the humorous talent of Harold with his Basset Hound eyes. Harold’s deep bass voice still resonates in the heart and head of fans of all ages.

Harold Reid

Lead vocalist Don Reid, 76, who is Harold’s younger brother, offered this tribute: “Harold was funny. Everybody knew that. Hundreds of friends. Millions of fans. He was my brother, my best friend, my business partner, my confidant. And as I begin this new world I’m living in…without my brother in it…I’m proud of and thankful for the teacher and the example I had all those wonderful years.”

 

The vocal group’s “farewell concert” at the Salem (Va.) Civic Center was in October 2002. The arena, with a seating capacity of 6,820, “was the biggest place close to home,” Don said. Salem is a shade under 90 miles from Staunton.

 

“When we came home…it was the first time I completely unpacked my suitcase in 35 and-a-half years,” Don said. He is now pursuing a second career as a book author and public speaker. Don has had 17 books published since retiring from the music business.

 

Phil Balsley, sang baritone and handled the business and administrative affairs of the group. He still enjoys singing in the choir at his home church.

 

Harold and Phil formed a vocal group in 1955 and sang gospel songs at local churches, along with Lew DeWitt, a tenor, and lead singer Joe McDorman. The group was first named The Four Star Quartet. McDorman left the band in 1960 and was replaced by Don Reid. The group took on a new name – The Kingsmen

 

In 1963, a song titled “Louie, Louie,” came out. It was recorded by a garage rock band, also known as The Kingsmen. That single shot to the top of the pop music charts.

 

The gospel-singing Kingsmen saw the writing (and flowers) on the wall and regrouped. The Statler Brothers’ name was born from a box of facial tissue that the group noticed in a hotel room, labeled Statler. (Statler Industries Inc., based in Medford, Mass., was in the business of turning logs into paper napkins, facial tissue, bathroom tissue and paper towels.) 

The long-standing joke was: “We could have been the Kleenex Brothers.” 

The Statler Brothers’ star began to rise in 1964, when the group began singing backup for the legendary Johnny Cash.

 Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Don Reid and Jimmy Fortune

Journalist Edward Morris, who is a frequent contributor to CMT.com, recalled that “before the Statlers’ career bloomed, Harold sold men’s clothing. It was a job that, coupled with his skills as an artist, inspired him in the years ahead to design costumes for his group. Harold designed the black frock coat that became Johnny Cash’s trademark.” 

“It just tickled him,” Harold said. “Up to that time, Johnny Cash just wore a shirt and pants that were black. This sort of added to his image and looked good for television.” 

The Statlers’ first major hit was “Flowers on the Wall,” composed and written by DeWitt, which was released in 1965. 

For Roseanne Cash, daughter of Johnny and Vivian Cash, what made that song special was Harold Reid’s “great low voice that comes in a beat early” on the word “Kangaroo.” 

When DeWitt’s health began to fail, he left the group in 1982, after recruiting Jimmy Fortune from Nelson County, Va., to succeed him as tenor. Fortune, 66, now lives in Nashville, Tenn., and has delved into a solo career. He continues to tour and is writing songs for other artists. 

(Sadly, Lew DeWitt died Aug. 15, 1990, at age 52. He succumbed from complications associated with Crohn’s disease.) 

The Statler Brothers were voted Country Music Association Vocal Group on the Year nine times, and the group has won three American Music Awards. The Statlers were inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in 2007 and inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008. 

Along the way, the group has “paid it forward” in a sense. Morris wrote: “The Statler Brothers became famous for nourishing new performers by using them as opening acts – upstarts such as Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs and Suzy Bogguss. Another beneficiary was Garth Brooks.”

The first guest star on The Statler Brothers new television show in 1991 was Barbara Mandrell. Their show ran for seven seasons on The Nashville Network (TNN).

Harold once joked that he can’t remember how much they paid Garth Brooks when they took him on the road, but he thought it was “too much for an act nobody had heard of.”