Biography
Husband-and-wife duo E.C. and Orna Ball never reached the commercial heights of acts such as the Carter Family, yet their understated efforts left a lasting mark on old-time and gospel traditions. Rooted near the Virginia-North Carolina line in Rugby, Virginia, the couple ran a general store and service station and rarely traveled beyond that immediate area, in contrast to more mobile contemporaries. At age twelve E.C. Ball (1913-1978) picked up fingerstyle guitar and became a member of the Rugby Gully Jumpers. His encounter with Alan Lomax at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention, situated only thirty miles from Rugby, resulted in a 1941 recording session—possibly begun as early as 1938 inside the Balls’ own home. County later issued those sides in 1997 under the title E.C. Ball, featuring numbers such as “Sweet Bye and Bye” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” After returning from England, Lomax captured both E.C. and Orna, who played accordion, during 1959 and 1960; Frank Weston’s liner notes to E.C. Ball With Orna Ball recalled hearing the performances on the BBC and remarked, “I couldn’t understand how a musician of that caliber should have to drive a bus for a living.” The Balls returned to the studio for County in the late 1960s on E.C. Ball With Orna Ball & the Friendly Gospel Singers and again for Rounder in the early 1970s, the latter set incorporating secular songs. Subsequent interpreters including Peter Rowen, Jerry Douglas, Ginny Hawker, and Robin & Linda Williams revived many of E.C. Ball’s compositions. E.C. Ball passed away in 1978. “Husband and wife, E.C. and Orna Ball are one of the great singing duos of old-time and traditional music,” wrote Steve Gardner in Music Hound Folk.