Texas Anna Gladden (née Smith, March 14, 1895 – May 23, 1966)[1] was an American folk singer, best known for her traditional Appalachian ballad style of singing, which she began to record in the 1930s.
[4] She started to gain a public audience through singing at the White Top Festival in Smyth County in the mid-1930s,[2][3] and made some early recordings for the Virginia Folklore Society.
[2] In September 1941, along with her brother, musician Hobart Smith, she began to record with pioneer folk archivist and musicologist Alan Lomax.
The largest collection of her work, which includes 37 tracks of songs and interviews, is compiled on the album Texas Gladden: Ballad Legacy, which Lomax produced as part of his Southern Journey series.
This album contains traditional ballads of Anglo-Saxon/Celtic origin, such as "Barbara Allen", "Mary Hamilton", and "Lord Thomas", as well as regional songs and even a Civil War-era ghost story.