Retired from the music business, Statler Brother Don Reid finds new creative outlet

STAUNTON — For 25 years, this would be the week that Don Reid and his fellow Statler Brothers would be gearing up to entertain their hometown fans with a Happy Birthday, U.S.A. concert.

Starting in 1970 and lasting through 1994, the Statlers put on the free show, usually with a special guest, at Gypsy Hill Park for the Fourth of July. It was a way to thank the community in which they grew up for years of devotion. Massive audiences would fill the baseball stadium, with estimates one year reaching 100,000 people who set up lawn chairs early in the morning to watch the show.

"I'd start about now and I could feel an excitement building," Reid said during an interview June 19. "You could always feel it building in town."

Then, around the first of July he began worrying about the rain. In those days there were no smart phones or weather apps to check, so Reid would watch the weather forecast on television or have someone call the National Weather Service. The group, not to mention all of their fans and the vendors at the event, would worry if dark clouds were anywhere near Staunton on the Fourth.

Only once in those 25 years did a show get rained out. That was 1975 when the Statlers and their guests, Johnny Russell and Charlie McCoy, ended up performing the following day.

Over the years, legends of country music including Johnny Cash, Reba McEntire, Barbara Mandrell, Conway Twitty and Charley Pride, performed at the show.

"And they all loved it," Reid said. "They all loved Staunton. It was amazing. They would always come in and they'd have a day or two to spend, walk the streets, ride around. Everybody just fell in love with Staunton as we did growing up."

Six years ago Don's son Langdon Reid and Don's nephew Wil Reid, who make up Wilson Fairchild, revived the Fourth of July concert at Gypsy Hill Park, 23 years after the Statlers, the group founded by their fathers, ended it.

The first cousins brought back that free concert in 2017, setting up a stage in the parking lot the first year before moving it to the stadium in 2018. This year, right before Wilson Fairchild takes that stage at 7:30 p.m., another generation of Reids will perform at 6 p.m.

"Now my grandson Davis and great nephew, Jack, they're singing," Don Reid said. "So we see all that coming down and they're all doing a lot of our music and it just touches my heart deeply. I can't tell you what it means to me."

A different kind of writing

Don Reid wrote or co-wrote a lot of the songs performed by the Statler Brothers. According to his website, he has had more than 250 songs recorded by either the Statlers or other artists.

It was a different kind of writing that Reid wanted to pursue once the group retired from performing in 2002. He wanted to write books. So far he's written 12, ranging from a book he co-wrote with his brother Harold about the Statler Brothers to religious books to novels.

He just turned in his latest to the publisher in mid-June and said it will probably be a year before it is available. It doesn't even have a name yet.

"It's about a small town in the 50s," Reid said. "Wouldn't you know? Everything I write it comes down to a small town in Virginia in the 50s. A minister and a sheriff are the two main characters. And it's just what they run into and what life deals them in a particular summer in 1958."

He loves the process, one that is much different that writing songs. He found that out the very first book he authored; Reid was used to telling a story in three minutes and much of the time it had to rhyme. His publisher told him that now he had to fill 350 pages. He could go more in depth telling a story than he ever could with a song.

"I found it to be fun," he said. "It was not nearly as restricting."

The freeing aspect of writing a book has been a fascinating experience for Reid. He usually doesn't have the ending in mind, only an idea of where to start. Then, as he's writing, a character may end up playing a different role in the book than Reid had anticipated. Something that happens may lead the tale down an entirely different path. Reid said books sort of take on a life of their own and take him someplace he never expected.

"Sitting in a room with a computer in front of you and your keyboard, it's all in your imagination," Reid said. "You don't have any control sometimes as to where you go. And the only judge you have is 'I think it's OK,' until somebody takes a red pencil to it."

Enjoying retirement

It would make sense that Reid enjoys the creative process involved with writing. Toward the end of his singing career with the Statlers, he said it was the recording, the creating part, of the business he enjoyed the most. Being on stage was always a fun time, but the travel got old. Recording, though, that never got old.

"It was kind of like a writing," he said. "You're there, you can say, hey, wait a bit, instead of doing it that way let's try this."

When it was time to retire, Reid was satisfied with what he and the other members of the Statlers — Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Jimmy Fortune as well as the Lew DeWitt — had accomplished. The group won Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, had their own top-rated television variety show. It was quite a ride, but Reid hasn't missed that part of his life, saying he does look back with fond memories, though. Most recently he was able to do that with a new exhibit at THE SPACE in downtown Staunton that has Statler Brothers memorabilia on display this summer.

Now it's time for the next generation, and the generation after that, to take over. Reid doesn't provide input to the music created by Wilson Fairchild or Jack and Davis Reid Music unless they ask.

"They do share it with me," he said. "You know, here's a song, here's something I'm working on and that sort of thing. And I'm always anxious to hear that. And we love sitting around and talking and telling each other stories. But yeah, they're on the right track. I feel so good about that."

Don Reid is looking forward to being at the park on Tuesday, listening to all of the music. He's not as stressed as he was this time of year 35 years ago, but he does still worry about the rain.

"I'll be in a sweat about July first, second," he said, "Thinking, 'I hope it doesn't rain."

Standing in the background during the interview, Langdon Reid said, "Me too."

That got a laugh from his dad.

"I feel for you," Reid said. "I say I don't have to worry about that anymore, but that's not true. I worry more about them than I ever worried about me."

Staunton's Happy Birthday America schedule:

Sunday, July 2

• 1 p.m. – Happy Birthday America Beauty Pageant (recreation building by golf course)

Monday, July 3

• Noon – Vendors open for business (on the main lot)

• 6:30 p.m. – Vesper Service begins (main stage on baseball field)

• Keynote speaker – Chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Tinsley

• 8 p.m. – Heaven's Mountain Band (main stage)

Tuesday, July 4

• 6 a.m. – Gates open to bring in lawn chairs

• 7:30 a.m. & 9 a.m. – Firecracker 5K run by Sole Focus (Gypsy Hill Park)

• 10 a.m. – Parade begins (Gypsy Hill Park)

• Noon – Main lot open with food, vendors and carnival

• Noon – U.S. Army National Guard 29th Division Rock Band (bandstand stage)

• 2 p.m. – Stonewall Brigade Band concert (bandstand stage)

• 3 p.m. – Kentucky Just Us (main stage)

• 4:30 p.m. – Spencer Hatcher & The Ol' Son Gang (main stage)

• 6 p.m. – Jack & Davis Reid Music (main stage)

• 7:30 p.m. – Wilson Fairchild concert (main stage)

• 8:30 p.m: – Gene Watson concert (main stage)

• 9:45 p.m. – Veteran salute (main stage)

• 10 p.m. – Fireworks

More: High school football: Shenandoah District schedules released

More: CDBG projects, venomous snakes as pets, and other takeaways from Waynesboro City Council

— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Retired from the music business, Statler Brother Don Reid finds new creative outlet