Crooked Road CD Series [Back]

Nat Reese:
Save a Seat For Me

Page [1] [2] [3] [4]

When Nat was nine, a train engineer told Thomas he had heard that Nat could play, and asked if he might be willing to perform at a local school for the then princely sum of six dollars.  Nat’s parents talked it over in front of Nat that night at the supper table.  “Ask the boy,” his mother suggested.  “Yeah! It don’t make me no difference!” was Nat’s reply, “I’ll play anywhere! Railroad, riverbank, on the train, off the train, don’t make no difference!”  This engagement led to a long string of performances at coal camps in the region such as Black Bottom, Fireco, Pineville, Welch, and others, usually as the warm-up entertainment at speaking engagements given by visiting executives of the coal companies. Nat sang songs he had learned from the itinerant coal camp musicians, his parents, radio broadcasts, and from 78rpm records played on the family’s spring-wound Victrola, such as “The Preacher and the Bear”, “Corrina, Corrina”, and “My Blue Heaven.”

About the same time, Nat took to sitting on the railroad track in front of a house where a gospel quartet comprised of miners and railroad workers gathered to practice.  When one of the vocalists was killed in the mine, young Nat was asked to join since he possessed a fine high-tenor voice, and already knew all their songs from listening in.  The three adult members assured Nat’s parents they would be responsible for their “little brother” when the group traveled the region. About the time Nat’s voice began to change, Edward Buford, the leader of the Kings of Harmony Gospel Quartet, moved from Alabama to Slab Fork, east of Beckley, and gave Nat his first formal singing instruction, greatly improving Nat’s skill as a gospel quartet singer.

Page [1] [2] [3] [4]