Bascom Lamar Lunsford (March 21, 1882 – September 4, 1973) was a
folklorist, performer of
traditional Appalachian music, and lawyer from western
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the
Appalachians
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
."
Biography
Bascom Lamar Lunsford was born at
Mars Hill,
Madison County, North Carolina in 1882, into the world of traditional
Appalachian folk music
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles (particularly Scotland), ...
. At an early age, his father, a teacher, gave him a fiddle, and his mother sang religious songs and traditional ballads. Lunsford also learned banjo and began to perform at weddings and square dances.
After qualifying as a teacher at
Rutherford College, Lunsford taught at schools in
Madison County. In 1913, Lunsford qualified in law at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, later to become
Duke University. He began to travel and collect material at the start of the 20th century, often meeting singers on isolated farms. Lunsford has been quoted as saying he spent "nights in more homes from
Harpers Ferry
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...
to
Iron Mountain than anybody but God".
Appalachian music
Lunsford gave lectures and performances while dressed in a starched white shirt and black bow tie. This formal dress was part of his campaign against the stereotyping of “hillbillies”.
In 1922
Frank C. Brown, a song collector, recorded 32 items on
wax cylinders
Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylinder, cylind ...
from Bascom. In 1928, Lunsford recorded
"Jesse James" and "
I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground" for the
Brunswick record label.
Harry Smith included "Mole" on his ''
Anthology of American Folk Music'' in 1952. Smith's anthology also includes Lunsford's performance of the gospel song "
Dry Bones", recorded in 1928.
Lunsford played in a style from Western North Carolina, which had a rhythmic up-stroke brushing the strings. It sounds similar to
clawhammer
Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music.
The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direct ...
banjo playing, which emphasises the downstroke. He also played a "mandoline", an instrument with mandolin body and a five-string banjo neck. He occasionally played fiddle for dance tunes such as "Rye Straw". He censored himself, avoiding obscene songs or omitting verses. His repertoire included
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...
,
negro spiritual
Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the ex ...
s and
parlor song
Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and piano, pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a resu ...
s. A CD collection of Lunsford's recordings, from the Brunswick recordings of the 1920s to the recordings for the Archive of American Folk Song at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
in 1949, ''Ballads, Banjo Tunes and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina'', was released by
Smithsonian Folkways Records in 1996.
The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival
In 1927 the
Asheville
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...
Chamber of Commerce organized a '
Rhododendron Festival' to encourage tourism. The Chamber asked Lunsford to invite local musicians and dancers. 1928 was the first year of the
Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, often claimed as the first event to be described as a "
Folk Festival
A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods.
Handicra ...
". After a few years the rhododendron element disappeared but the festival continues to this day. He was the organiser and performed there every year until he suffered a stroke in 1965.
Lunsford cofounded the Bascom Lamar Lunsford "Minstrel of Appalachia" Festival, taking place at Lunsford's birthplace at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, North Carolina, just 20 minutes north of Asheville.
Politics and fame
Bascom was involved in the politics of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
. He managed the campaign for Congressman
Zebulon Weaver
Zebulon Weaver (May 12, 1872 – October 29, 1948) was an American lawyer and politician who served 14 terms as a Democratic U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1917 and 1929 and again between 1931 and 1947.
Early years and education
...
for North Carolina. From 1931 to 1934 he was a reading clerk of the
North Carolina House of Representatives.
Charles Seeger
Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919–2014), Peggy Seeger (b. 1935), and Mike Seeger ( ...
employed him in the mid-30s to promote singers in "Skyline Farms", as part of the "
New Deal". Lunsford was invited to the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
by
President Roosevelt in 1939, when he performed his music for
King George VI.
Personal
Lunsford married Nellie Sarah Triplett (1881-1960). They had six daughters (Sarah, Ellen, Lynn, Nellie, Merton & Josefa) and one son (Blackwell). After Nellie's death Lunsford married Freda English nee Metcalf (1913-1974). Bascom Lunsford died on 4 September 1973.
[Jones, ''Minstrel'', pp. 111-112, 138.] Fifteen months after Bascom's death, Freda took her own life.
Influence
In 1964, the
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
fantasy and horror writer
Manly Wade Wellman
Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903 – April 5, 1986) was an American writer. While his science fiction and fantasy stories appeared in such pulps as '' Astounding Stories'', '' Startling Stories'', '' Unknown'' and ''Strange Stories'', Wellman ...
dedicated his book "
Who Fears the Devil?
''Who Fears the Devil?'' is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by American author Manly Wade Wellman. It was released in 1963 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,058 copies and was Wellman's only book released by Arkham House. The c ...
" to Lunsford. Wellman's fictional protagonist,
Silver John
Silver John is a fictional character from a series of fantasy stories (1963–84) by American author Manly Wade Wellman (1903–1986). Though fans refer to him as ''Silver John'' or as ''John the Balladeer'', the stories simply call him John. He ...
, was an Appalachian folk singer, like Lunsford.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, who listened to the ''Anthology of American Folk Music'', echoed a line from "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground." Lunsford sang, "'Cause a railroad man they'll kill you when he can / And drink up your blood like wine," which is echoed by Dylan's line "Mona tried to tell me / To stay away from the train line / She said that all the railroad men / Just drink up your blood like wine" on his song "
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" (also listed as "Memphis Blues Again") is a song written by Bob Dylan that appears on his 1966 album ''Blonde on Blonde''. The album version also appears on 1971's ''Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits V ...
", recorded in 1966 for the album ''
Blonde on Blonde''.
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus (born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics.
Biography
Marcus wa ...
discussed the meaning of "I Wish I Was a Mole In the Ground" both in his liner notes to Bob Dylan and
The Band's album, ''
The Basement Tapes
''The Basement Tapes'' is the sixteenth album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed b ...
'' (1975), and in his book ''
Lipstick Traces''.
Lunsford's original recording of "
Good Old Mountain Dew" was used as the first advertising theme for the newly created
Mountain Dew soda. He sold the rights to the song for a train ticket home.
In 1964 Lunsford was the subject of a documentary film, shot with a
16mm
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...
hand held camera, by New York City filmmaker, David Hoffman.
Discography
* ''Song and Ballads of American History and of the Assassination of American Presidents'' (1952)
* ''Smokey Mountain Ballads'' (1953) (
Folkways)
* ''Minstrel of the Appalachians'' (1956) (Riverside: RLP 12-645)
* ''Bascom Lamar Lunsford'' (1956) (Riverside)
* ''Music from South Turkey Creek'' (1976) (
Rounder Records)
* ''Ballads, Banjo Tunes and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina'' (1996) (
Smithsonian Folkways
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fo ...
)
Notes
References
* Jones, Loyal. ''Minstrel of the Appalachians: The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford'' (Appalachian Consortium Press, 1984; Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002).
* Jones, Loyal. 2017. ''My Curious and Jocular Heroes: Tales and Tale-Spinners from Appalachia.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
External links
Listen to "Dry Bones" at the Internet Archive's Open Source Audio collection (30 - second sample)Listen to "I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground" at the Internet Archive's Open Source Audio collectionListen to "Mountain Dew" at the Internet Archive's Open Source Audio collectionListen to "Lost John Dean" at the Internet Archive's Open Source Audio collection (30 - second sample)*
* by David Hoffman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lunsford, Bascom Lamar
1882 births
1973 deaths
People from Mars Hill, North Carolina
American fiddlers
American banjoists
American folk-song collectors
American folklorists
Old-time musicians
20th-century American lawyers
Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni
North Carolina Democrats
Appalachian old-time fiddlers
20th-century violinists