Billy Edd Wheeler
| Billy Edd Wheeler | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Billy Edward Wheeler |
| Born | December 9, 1932 |
| Origin | Whitesville, West Virginia |
| Genres | Folk, Country |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, Playwright |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1964–2012 |
| Labels | Kapp, United Artists, RCA, Radio Cinema, NSD |
Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler[1] (born December 9, 1932, Boone County, West Virginia) is an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist.
His songs include "Jackson" (Grammy award winner for Johnny Cash and June Carter) "The Reverend Mr. Black", "Desert Pete", "Anne", "High Flyin' Bird", "The Coming of the Roads", "It’s Midnight", "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Coal Tattoo", "Winter Sky", and "Coward of the County" (which inspired a 1981 television movie of the same name) and have been performed by over 160 artists including Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Hazel Dickens, Florence and the Machine, Kathy Mattea, Nancy Sinatra, and Elvis Presley. "Jackson" was also recorded by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon for the movie Walk the Line. His song "Sassafras" was covered in the folk rock era by Modern Folk Quartet and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.
Wheeler is the author-composer of eight plays and musicals, a folk opera (Song of the Cumberland Gap), commissioned by the National Geographic Society, and three outdoor dramas: the long-running Hatfields & McCoys at Beckley, West Virginia, Young Abe Lincoln at Lincoln City, Indiana, and Johnny Appleseed, at Mansfield, Ohio. He has authored six books of humor, four with Loyal Jones of Berea, Kentucky: Laughter in Appalachia, Hometown Humor USA, Curing the Cross-Eyed Mule, and More Laughter in Appalachia, and two as sole author: Outhouse Humor, and Real Country Humor / Jokes from Country Music Personalities. His first novel, Star of Appalachia, was published in January, 2004, and his second, co-written with Ewel Cornett, Kudzu Covers Manhattan, in 2005. Song of a Woods Colt, a book of poetry, was published in 1969. Travis and Other Poems of the Swannanoa Valley (With Some Poems and Prayers by Dr. Henry W. Jensen) was published in 1977. He was the featured author in Appalachian Heritage magazine’s 2008 winter issue, which included 16 of his original paintings. North Carolina’s Our State magazine featured him in its December, 2007 issue.
Biography
He was born on December 9, 1932. Wheeler graduated from Warren Wilson College in 1953, and Berea College in 1955. After service as a student pilot in the Navy, he served as Alumni Director of Berea College, and from 1961 to 1962 he attended the Yale School of Drama, majoring in playwriting. He is married to the former Mary Mitchell Bannerman. They have two adult children, Lucy and Travis, and live in Swannanoa, North Carolina.
Discography
Albums
| Year | Album | Chart Positions | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | |||
| 1961 | Billy Edd: USA | — | — | Monitor |
| 1962 | Billy Edd and Bluegrass, Too | — | — | |
| 1963 | A New Bag of Songs | — | — | Kapp |
| 1964 | Memories of America | 6 | 132 | |
| 1965 | The Wheeler Man | — | — | |
| 1966 | Goin' Town and Country | — | — | |
| 1967 | Paper Birds | — | — | |
| 1968 | I Ain't the Worrying Kind | — | — | |
| 1969 | Nashville Zodiac | — | — | United Artists |
| 1971 | Love | — | — | RCA |
| 1972 | Some Mountain Tales About Jack | — | — | Spoken Arts |
| 1979 | Wild Mountain Flowers | — | — | Flying Fish |
| 1995 | Songs I wrote With Chet | — | — | Sagittarius |
| 2001 | Milestones (A Self Portrait) | — | — | |
| 2006 | New Wine From Old Vines | — | — | |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | |||
| 1964 | "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back" | 3 | 50 | Memories of America |
| 1968 | "I Ain't the Worryin' Kind" | 63 | — | I Ain't the Worryin' Kind |
| 1969 | "West Virginia Woman" | 51 | — | single only |
| "Fried Chicken and a Country Tune" | 62 | — | Nashville Zodiac | |
| 1972 | "200 Lbs. O' Slingin' Hound" | 71 | — | singles only |
| 1979 | "Duel Under the Snow" | 94 | — | |
| 1979 | "Ring the Bells of Freedom" | — | — | |
| 1980 | "Humperdink, the Coon-Hunting Monkey" | — | — | |
| 1981 | "Daddy" (with Rashell Richmond) | 55 | — | |
Awards
Wheeler was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001, the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2007, and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2011.[2] He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his two alma maters: Berea College in 2004, and Warren Wilson College in 2011.
He has received 13 awards from ASCAP, the “Best Appalachian Poetry” from Morris Harvey College, and Billboard Magazine’s “Pacesetter Award for Music and Drama". In June, 2005, Country Music Television voted "Jackson" one of the Ten Greatest Love Songs of Country Music.
Bibliography
- Song of a Woods Colt, Droke House (Anderson, SC) 1969
- Travis & Other Poems of the Swannanoa Valley, Wild Goose, Inc.
References
- ↑ Spencer Leigh interview Archived June 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "2011 Inductees". North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
External links
- Billy Edd Wheeler, official web site