Estil C. Ball

From the mid-1950s until 1975, Ball performed with his wife Orna and their Friendly Gospel Singers in churches and on the radio, especially on WKSK (AM) in West Jefferson, North Carolina and WBOB in Galax, Virginia. Ball's first recordings were made by John A. Lomax on behalf of the Library of Congress at the 1937 Galax Fiddler's Convention in Galax, Virginia, where E.C. performed with his Rugby Gully Jumpers string band (named after Paul Warmack's Gully Jumpers).{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/folklife/guides/Banjo.html |title=A List of Banjo Recordings |first1=Robert|last1=Clayton|first2=Greg C.|last2=Adams|date= August 26, 2005|work= The American Folklife Center|publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=May 28, 2009}} Lomax recorded the string band and several duets by E.C. and Orna. John's son Alan Lomax recorded Ball three years later, in 1941, at E.C.'s home in Rugby, Virginia, and there again in 1959.{{cite news |title= E.C. and Orna Ball|first=Frank |last= Weston |url= http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/ball.htm|newspaper= Musical Traditions Internet Magazine|date= March 14, 1997|access-date= May 28, 2009 }}

County Records released Ball's first LP in 1967, as E.C. Ball and the Friendly Gospel Singers. Two more LPs followed in the 1970s on Rounder Records: E.C. Ball and Fathers Have A Home Sweet Home.{{cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/folkindex/pf_frset.htm |title=Folk Music Performer Index – Balf to Bari |first=Jane|last=Keefer|date= November 11, 2008|work= Folk Music – An Index to Recorded Resources|publisher=ibiblio |access-date=May 28, 2009}} Ball was also recorded by John Cohen for his 1975 compilation album High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina.

E.C. Ball's most famous composition was a piece he called "Tribulations," based, as he told Alan Lomax in 1959, "on the last book in the Bible: Revelations [sic]." It has been frequently performed and recorded by other musicians as "Trials, Troubles, Tribulations."

Ball died in 1978 in Grassy Creek, North Carolina, and is buried at Corinth Baptist Church in Rugby, Grayson County, Virginia.

{{cite web

| last = Weaver

| first = Jeffrey

| title = Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery

| publisher = New River Notes

| year = 2007

| url = http://www.newrivernotes.com/graysoncems/corinthcem.htm

| access-date = May 17, 2009}}

In December 2009, a tribute album was released entitled Face A Frowning World: An E.C. Ball Memorial Album, on the Tompkins Square label, produced by Nathan Salsburg. Singers interpreting songs from E.C.'s repertoire include Jolie Holland, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Jon Langford, the Handsome Family, Rayna Gellert, and Catherine Irwin, among others.{{cite web |url=http://roothogordie.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/face-a-frowning-world-an-e-c-ball-memorial-album/ |title= Face a Frowning World|first= Nathan |last=Salsburg|date= October 31, 2009|work= Root Hog or Die|access-date=March 20, 2010}}

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• {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p591|label=Estil and Orna Ball}}

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Category:1913 births

Category:1978 deaths

Category:People from Grayson County, Virginia

Category:Folk musicians from Virginia

Category:Old-time musicians

Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters

Category:Singer-songwriters from Virginia