Biography
Susan Reed ranks among the overlooked figures who shone briefly in the music landscape following World War II. During the latter half of the 1940s this singer, harpist, and zitherist, still barely twenty years old, drew enthusiastic crowds to leading New York nightspots, maintained a steady presence on radio and the recently launched television format, and drew attention from the leading labels Columbia Masterworks and RCA Victor. She belonged to a fresh wave of folk-rooted performers, alongside Burl Ives, Pick Temple, and others who rose to notice late in the Second World War and in the years immediately afterward.
Although her popularity never matched that of Ives, Reed produced a body of recordings now valued by collectors, spanning traditional Irish and American material as well as reworkings of classical pieces. Born in 1927 in Columbia, SC, to Daniel Reed, an entertainer, actor, theatrical director, and playwright, she grew up steeped in performance life because of her father’s profession. She toured widely with him, and their household regularly hosted musicians, singers, and dancers; among the visitors were poet, author, and singer Carl Sandburg and Leadbelly, both of whom opened her ears to American folk music. Her exposure to Irish folk traditions came through her father’s ties to members of Dublin’s Abbey Theater Company, who stayed at the family home during American engagements.
Reed also accompanied her father to folk song festivals and attended services at African-American churches, where gospel music with strong folk elements attracted her. Drawn to the sonic character and heritage of these songs, she adopted the Irish harp; by her teens she had command of that instrument as well as the autoharp and zither. After the Reed family relocated to New York City, she performed during the Second World War for wounded soldiers in hospitals. Those appearances, aided by a local music critic, prompted the proprietor of Cafe Society to seek her out; she received an immediate booking and, given her strong audience appeal, became a quick success. This success led to radio and early television spots, followed by her formal concert debut at Town Hall in 1946 at age nineteen. A national tour soon ensued, also featuring her brother, musician Jerry Reed, who died shortly afterward.
Her initial recordings appeared on RCA Victor 78-rpm discs. In 1948, at twenty-one, Reed made her sole feature-film appearance, co-starring as Jennie Higgins, a backwoods singer of folk songs brought to the city, in the low-budget Sam Katzman production Glamour Girl for Columbia Pictures, which also featured Gene Krupa & His Orchestra. In 1949 Columbia Masterworks engaged her for a broader repertoire that included an adaptation of Joseph Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne; the resulting 10" LP appeared in 1950 and she performed the material at Town Hall. By the early 1950s she enjoyed a flourishing career that included a second 10" album of traditional American songs on Columbia and stage appearances with Lena Horne and Josh White. Chicago Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy observed, “She creates a pool of enchantment and...is the heroine of every song she sings.”
Reed gained recognition for her singing and harp playing as well as her zither work; together with Ruth Welcome she benefited from the American vogue for that instrument sparked by the 1950 U.S. release of the film The Third Man. She later recorded for Jac Holzman’s Elektra Records and remained active through the early 1950s, yet never attained broad popularity and found only limited acceptance among dedicated folk audiences. In part her eclecticism proved limiting: she had performed some pop material early on, and her treatment of folk songs was more refined than many serious listeners preferred. She fit neither camp—too pop-oriented for strict folk followers, too folk-oriented for mainstream tastes. How she might have navigated the late-1950s folk revival, with its competing strands of pop influence, topicality, and authenticity, remains unknown; Reed never had the opportunity to discover.
Like other folk artists who resisted prevailing currents, Reed encountered blacklisting in the latter 1950s. She thus joined Pete Seeger and fellow members of the Weavers, along with singers such as Jo Mapes, in finding most major venues closed to them. Consequently her broadcasting and recording work ceased, and her performing career eventually followed. Her recordings largely faded from memory in subsequent decades, surviving chiefly among devoted collectors and those with long recollections. In 2006 her Elektra albums were reissued on CD, reviving interest in Reed and her output; one can only hope that her RCA Victor recordings will also reappear someday. In later life Reed resided in Nyack, NY, where she operated a handicraft shop. Though long retired from professional music, she continued occasional performances at fundraising events into the late 2000s. Susan Reed died at a nursing home in Greenport, NY, on April 25, 2010, at the age of eighty-four.
Although her popularity never matched that of Ives, Reed produced a body of recordings now valued by collectors, spanning traditional Irish and American material as well as reworkings of classical pieces. Born in 1927 in Columbia, SC, to Daniel Reed, an entertainer, actor, theatrical director, and playwright, she grew up steeped in performance life because of her father’s profession. She toured widely with him, and their household regularly hosted musicians, singers, and dancers; among the visitors were poet, author, and singer Carl Sandburg and Leadbelly, both of whom opened her ears to American folk music. Her exposure to Irish folk traditions came through her father’s ties to members of Dublin’s Abbey Theater Company, who stayed at the family home during American engagements.
Reed also accompanied her father to folk song festivals and attended services at African-American churches, where gospel music with strong folk elements attracted her. Drawn to the sonic character and heritage of these songs, she adopted the Irish harp; by her teens she had command of that instrument as well as the autoharp and zither. After the Reed family relocated to New York City, she performed during the Second World War for wounded soldiers in hospitals. Those appearances, aided by a local music critic, prompted the proprietor of Cafe Society to seek her out; she received an immediate booking and, given her strong audience appeal, became a quick success. This success led to radio and early television spots, followed by her formal concert debut at Town Hall in 1946 at age nineteen. A national tour soon ensued, also featuring her brother, musician Jerry Reed, who died shortly afterward.
Her initial recordings appeared on RCA Victor 78-rpm discs. In 1948, at twenty-one, Reed made her sole feature-film appearance, co-starring as Jennie Higgins, a backwoods singer of folk songs brought to the city, in the low-budget Sam Katzman production Glamour Girl for Columbia Pictures, which also featured Gene Krupa & His Orchestra. In 1949 Columbia Masterworks engaged her for a broader repertoire that included an adaptation of Joseph Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne; the resulting 10" LP appeared in 1950 and she performed the material at Town Hall. By the early 1950s she enjoyed a flourishing career that included a second 10" album of traditional American songs on Columbia and stage appearances with Lena Horne and Josh White. Chicago Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy observed, “She creates a pool of enchantment and...is the heroine of every song she sings.”
Reed gained recognition for her singing and harp playing as well as her zither work; together with Ruth Welcome she benefited from the American vogue for that instrument sparked by the 1950 U.S. release of the film The Third Man. She later recorded for Jac Holzman’s Elektra Records and remained active through the early 1950s, yet never attained broad popularity and found only limited acceptance among dedicated folk audiences. In part her eclecticism proved limiting: she had performed some pop material early on, and her treatment of folk songs was more refined than many serious listeners preferred. She fit neither camp—too pop-oriented for strict folk followers, too folk-oriented for mainstream tastes. How she might have navigated the late-1950s folk revival, with its competing strands of pop influence, topicality, and authenticity, remains unknown; Reed never had the opportunity to discover.
Like other folk artists who resisted prevailing currents, Reed encountered blacklisting in the latter 1950s. She thus joined Pete Seeger and fellow members of the Weavers, along with singers such as Jo Mapes, in finding most major venues closed to them. Consequently her broadcasting and recording work ceased, and her performing career eventually followed. Her recordings largely faded from memory in subsequent decades, surviving chiefly among devoted collectors and those with long recollections. In 2006 her Elektra albums were reissued on CD, reviving interest in Reed and her output; one can only hope that her RCA Victor recordings will also reappear someday. In later life Reed resided in Nyack, NY, where she operated a handicraft shop. Though long retired from professional music, she continued occasional performances at fundraising events into the late 2000s. Susan Reed died at a nursing home in Greenport, NY, on April 25, 2010, at the age of eighty-four.
Albums
Singles
