Orval Prophet – The Travellin’ Kind

As I mentioned in a previous post, I grew up listening to country music. My mother grew up in New Brunswick, listening to many local country artists like Stompin’ Tom Connors, Ned Landry, Maurice Bolyer, Wilf Carter, and Hank Snow. A few years before I started high school, one of my mother’s brothers came from New Brunswick to live with us and I recall him mentioning that he was a big fan of a country singer named Orval Prophet. My mother collected country music songbooks, magazines, and records while she was growing up, but I don’t ever recall seeing anything by Orval Prophet.

My uncle died recently and now whenever I hear “old school” country recordings I am reminded of him. He was the first thing that came to mind when I found this Point Records pressing (P219) of The Travelin’ Kind (Decca, 1963) at a local Goodwill store. Point Records was the Canadian distributor of Decca and was manufactured under license by Compo Company Ltd. in Lachine, Quebec.

The Travellin’ Kind was a lost classic until it was re-issued by the German Bear Family label in 2001. Bear Family specializes in re-issuing Canadian and American lost classics and is worth checking out online at Bear-Family.de. The CD re-issue comes with 13 bonus tracks that should cover all of Orval’s recorded material. The following track listing is for the original LP:

1. The Travellin’ Kind
2. Don’t Trade You Love For Gold
3. The Judgement Day Express
4. Another Day
5. (I’m Going To) Birmingham
6. Forget Me Not
7. Molly Darling
8. Tears On The Bridal Bouquet
9. Crown Of Thorns

The following biography was compiled from notes by John Henderson, Mark Miller, and Rick Jackson:

Ronnie Prophet’s second cousing, Orval William Prophet, dubbed “The Canadian Ploughboy”, was a self-taught guitarist born in Edwards, Ontario on 31 August 1922. His first professional job as a musician was in 1944 singing with Bill Sheppard’s country band as part of CFRA’s ‘Fiddler’s Fling’ travelling radio show in the Ottawa Valley. This stint lasted until 1949 with Prophet also moonlighting as part of Mac Beattie And The Ottawa Valley Melodeers after which fellow Canadian Wilf Carter discovered Prophet and invited him to tour the Ottawa Valley.

On Carter’s recommendation, Prophet was pushed toward a contract with Decca Records in the U.S. that resulted in the release of his first single as Orval Rex Prophet, The Canadian Ploughboy called “Going Back To Birmingham” in March of 1951 followed that same year by “Judgement Day Express”. He would then record with Grady Martin And The “Nashville Sound” before offers from The Louisianna Hayride and The Big D came pouring in, but he refused to leave Canada because of his devotion for his girlfriend.

Following a suggestion by BMI’s Harold Moon, Prophet recorded for a while under the name “Johnny Six” (1957-1961) which led to the hit single “Mademoiselle”. The success of his new identity finally convinced him to make his way down to Nashville in 1958 with his own radio show on WWVA in Wheeling, West Virginia. An offer to do radio for CBS was tabled but never panned out.

He also toured extensively throughout North America including a stint with Johnny Cash in Canada where he returned by 1959 to take up permanent residency in his birthtown of Edwards, Ontario.

He continued a long and successful career releasing singles and albums and making appearances on CBC-TV and CTV. In 1966 he recorded a tribute song to Hank Snow called “The Traveling Snowman”.

In 1967 Prophet signed a new recording deal with Caledon and the first single for that label was “Human Nature”. Prophet’s schedule began to slowdown following heart surgery in 1970, but in 1971 he released one of his biggest singles ever called “Mile After Mile”. He received a Big Country Award for ‘Outstanding Performance By A Male Singer’ in 1978.

His last live performance was was at The Hitching Post on December 31, 1983. He died four days later while clearing snow from his home driveway January 4, 1984. Prophet was posthumously inducted into the CCMA Hall Of Honor that same year and later the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1989.