A native of the Mash Fork community in rugged Magoffin County, Kentucky, Kazee's parents were mountain hymn singers and numerous neighbours played fiddle and banjo. While young Buell knew from his early teens that he wanted to become a minister, he still often played banjo and attended local entertainments with his high school principal. After graduation he went to Georgetown College (in Kentucky). He studied English, Latin, Greek, and took voice lessons. When he obtained his degree, Buell worked briefly in Oklahoma, then took a position in Ashland, Kentucky, and later held a faculty position at Cumberland College.It was there that he began to understand the significance of his family and friends' traditional songs.
Kazee formally studied singing and music in order to transcribe the old songs and make them more contemporary. Following his graduation in 1925, he gave a "folk music" concert at the University of Kentucky. He wore a tie and tails while playing the banjo and piano, sang in his specially trained "formal" voice, and gave lectures about the history of the songs. The show was a great success, so he repeated it several times over the following years.
In 1927, he was asked to record the songs for Brunswick in New York, and he was signed to the label on the condition that he sing using his high, tight "mountain" voice and forego his formal vocal training. Over the next two years, he recorded over 50 songs backed by New York musicians. Many were religious, but others ranged from traditional to popular ballads, including "Lady Gay,""The Sporting Bachelors," and "The Orphan Girl." His biggest hit was a version of "On Top of Old Smoky" called "Little Mohee," which sold over 15,000 copies.
Kazee engaged in some small businesses during his recording days but with the economy declining and his recording career ending after 1929, he took the pastorate of a Baptist church in Morehead, Kentucky, where he remained for twenty-two years. Following that sojourn he taught at Lexington Baptist Bible College for seven years.
During the folk revival of the early '60s, he made a comeback and made joint appearances with other former folk stars like Dock Boggs and Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson at the Newport Folk Festival. In addition to preaching and singing, Kazee also wrote three religious books and a book on banjo playing. Back in 1958, Buell had made some informal tapes that were released on a Folkways long play album. After retirement he played, sang and picked his banjo at numerous folk festivals and colleges some as far from his Winchester, Kentucky home as Los Angeles and Seattle. He died on 31 August 1976 at age 76. Two years later some recordings he made were assembled and released on the June Appal label.
Buell Kazee was nothing if not complex. Despite the fervour of his calling, nearly his entire life was marked by the struggle to reconcile his love and talent for music with his faith and devotion to his ministry. He disagreed with the assertion that the old mountain ballads should be exempt from sophisticated musical interpretation, as he considered them among the world’s great poetry. And though, rediscoverywas not a totally happy experience for Buell, it gave him the opportunity to tell the story of his music, to create a spell and to enjoy the ovations of audiences edified and entertained by his performances. These complexities, illustrative of a thoughtful and sensitive man, helped to make Buell Kazee the profound musician he was.
Records show that he married the former Jennie E. Turnnyre on October 27, 1950 in Cumberland, NC. Both of his two sons were also pastors, Rev. Allan J. Kazee and Rev. Philip Ray Kazee.
(Edited from AllMusic, ,Wikipedia Old Time Party and Hillbilly Music)