Ava Marlene Barber is an American country music singer and performer. She is best remembered for her performances on The Lawrence Welk Show throughout much of the 1970s and early 1980s. She is also known as a recording artist, her best-known hit being the song, "Bucket to the South", which peaked at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs list in 1978. She has done many reunion specials on PBS for The Lawrence Welk Show over the past number of years.
Early life and rise to fame
Barber was born on June 28, 1954, in Knoxville, Tennessee, named after actress Ava Gardner and singer Marlene Dietrich. While growing up, Barber often played in her brother's band. Barber began listening to country music when her father would turn on the radio to a country music station every morning. Soon, every Saturday night, Barber would go to the auditorium of WNOX Radio, where "The Tennessee Barndance" was performed. She began singing professionally at age 10. She started performing, and recorded records for some local labels. Her mother was an avid fan of a popular television show at the time, The Lawrence Welk Show, and suggested that her daughter write to Welk. Barber wrote to Welk in 1973, and he responded, suggesting that if she was on the West Coast, she should be on the show. About this same time, she married singer and musician Roger Sullivan.
''The Lawrence Welk Show'' and success as a country singer
Soon, Barber was hired as a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show, and found herself performing on his television series on the West Coast. At the same time, Barber was trying to get her country music career off the ground. Chart success didn't come initially, but she released her first charting single in 1977 with the song, "Waitin' At the End of Your Run", a truck-driving song. The song was only moderately successful, though, reaching only No. 70 on the country singles charts that year. Barber's 1978 release, "Bucket to the South", turned into a big country hit, peaking at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs list in 1978, and reached No. 12 in Canada. Being a country singer brought her instant fame, and she soon appeared on many of its television shows, like Nashville Now, Crook & Chase, and made two appearances on the Grand Ole Opry as well. Barber's success on the country charts tapered off after the success of "Bucket to the South". She was off the country charts, until 1981, when she made a comeback with the single "I Think I Could Love You Better Than She Did". When The Lawrence Welk Show ended in 1982, Barber and her husband Roger returned to Knoxville, where they purchased their own bus and formed their own band, Sweet Apple. They toured the United States and Canada singing and performing.
Career in the 1990s and life today
In 1990, Barber and Sullivan went into business with Dick Dale and leased a theater located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which they operated until 1996. From 1997-2000, Barber worked at the Welk Theatre in Branson, Missouri. Since 2000, she has toured with former members of The Lawrence Welk Show and performed on her own. She does reunion specials with previous members of the show on PBS. She is working on a new show in Branson called The Grand Ladies of Country Music. Her husband acts as her agent.
