IN THE SPOTLIGHT – WILSON FAIRCHILD

When Langdon Reid called me a week ago for our scheduled interview, his first question was, did we have any snow. I said we had a foot of snow, and the temperature was below zero. He told me they’d had an unexpected snowstorm in Staunton, Virginia, the previous night, and he’d spent that morning shoveling his driveway. Cousin Wil was not on the call with us because he was snowed in and still shoveling.

Langdon Reid and Wil Reid, sons of Don Reid and Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers, make up the musical duo Wilson Fairchild. The name comes from their middle names–Harold Wilson Reid II and Langdon Fairchild Reid.<!–more–>

NEWS

Vintage Guitar Magazine reports that rockabilly guitar great Larry Collins, 79, died January 5 at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, California. He was 10 and his sister Lorrie was 12 when they joined the cast of Los Angeles television’s Town Hall Party as the Collins Kids in 1954. The Collins family had moved from Tulsa to Southern California the previous year, on the advice of Leon McAuliffe of the Texas Playboys, after Lorrie won a talent contest. In 1956, the Collins Kids appeared as guests on the first televised broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry. Joe Maphis mentored Larry and gave him the double-neck Mosrite guitar Larry played throughout his life. Lorrie and Larry reunited at a British rockabilly festival in 1993 and continued to perform occasionally. Lorrie retired in 2012 and died in 2018. Larry co-wrote hit songs “Delta Dawn” (Tanya Tucker) and “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” (David Frizzell/Shelly West), as well as writing songs with Mac Davis.