John L. "Bunt" Stephens (February 2, 1879 — May 25, 1951), known as Uncle Bunt, was an American
Old-time fiddle player. After rising from relative obscurity in 1926 to win a nationwide fiddle contest hosted by automobile magnate
Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
, Stephens went on to record several tracks for
Columbia Records and made several guest appearances on what would later become the
Grand Ole Opry in
Nashville before retiring to his farm near
Lynchburg, Tennessee
Lynchburg is a city in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is governed by a consolidated city-county government unit whose boundaries coincide with those of Moore County. Lynchburg is best known as the location of Jack D ...
.
[Don Roberson,]
John L. "Uncle Bunt" Stephens
. Retrieved: 12 December 2008. His style of fiddle playing is believed to resemble a style that was popular before the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.
[Andrew Kuntz,]
Sail Away Ladies
" Retrieved: 12 December 2008.
Life
Early life
Stephens was born in
Bedford County, Tennessee on February 2, 1879 (although some sources suggest he was older). He was orphaned at a young age and raised by his aunt in Flatcreek, a small community located about halfway between
Lynchburg and
Shelbyville.
[ When he was 11, he bought a fiddle from a ]tramp
A tramp is a long-term homeless person who travels from place to place as a vagrant, traditionally walking all year round.
Etymology
Tramp is derived from a Middle English verb meaning to "walk with heavy footsteps" (''cf.'' modern English ''t ...
, and taught himself how to play. He began performing at local square dances in 1896, and played regularly at various events throughout the early 1900s.[
Over the years, Stephens' repertoire grew to include folk tunes such as "Sail Away Lady", " The Arkansas Traveler", and "Mississippi Sawyer." Others included "Candy Girl", "Left in the Dark Blues", and "Louisburg Blues", all of which he later recorded. His favorite tune was probably "Old Hen Cackled," which is believed to have won him the blue ribbon at the Ford fiddlers' contest in 1926.][
]
The Ford contest
In early 1926, Ford Motor Company executives attempted to improve sales by capitalizing on the phenomenal media success of Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham's visit in December 1925 to Henry Ford and in the thousands who came to a Tuesday evening appearance at a Detroit ballroom of Ford's own old-time dance orchestra. During the second week of January, the orchestra broadcast from the Ford showroom on Broadway in New York. An experimental network of radio stations around the country was organized. Local Ford dealers were to participate by getting loudspeakers and inviting the public in to dance to the broadcasts. The two broadcasts were on Tuesday and Friday. However, the Cincinnati station did not operate on Friday. To get around this situation, Ford dealers in Kentucky quickly organized fiddlers' contests, as did those in Tennessee and southern Indiana, all areas covered by the Cincinnati station.
After capturing first prize at the Ford dealership in Lynchburg, Stephens proceeded to the Tennessee statewide contest in Nashville, which began on the morning of January 19, 1926. Stephens survived the first round of the state contest, and with five other finalists, was selected to play at a sold-out Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium (also known as Grand Ole Opry House and Union Gospel Tabernacle) is a 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in Nashville, Tennessee. It is best known as the home of the ''Grand Ole Opry'' fr ...
that night to decide which three fiddlers the state would send to the Southeast regional contest. Stephens won third place behind Uncle Jimmy Thompson
Jesse Donald "Uncle Jimmy" Thompson (1848 – February 17, 1931) was an American Old-time music, old-time fiddle player and singer-songwriter. He is best remembered as the first performer to play on Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville's Grand Ole Op ...
and a one-armed fiddler from Hartsville named Marshall Claiborne.[
The "Champion of Dixie" contest took place at ]Brown Theatre
The W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre, originally called the Brown Theatre, is a restored theatre dating back to 1925 that seats approximately 1,400 patrons in Louisville, Kentucky. It is ones of three venues owned by Kentucky Performing Arts.
History
T ...
in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
on January 26–27, 1926. The three finalists from Tennessee competed against three finalists from Kentucky and two from southern Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. Stephens won second place behind Indiana fiddler W.H. Elmore, and, being in the top three, earned a trip to Detroit. On February 9–10, 1926, Stephens, along with Elmore and Claiborne, played at a banquet in Dearborn that was held during a convention of Ford dealers from around the country. Henry Ford was present. No contest was held.[Gifford, "Henry Ford's Dance Revival and Fiddle Contests"]
Recording and performing career
After his appearance in Detroit, Stephens went on a tour in an attempt to replicate the commercial success of Mellie Dunham. Stephens played at various venues across the Eastern United States, which included a radio guest spot in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and several guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry (then called the WSM ''Barn Dance'') in Nashville. In March 1926, Stephens traveled to New York to record several sides for Columbia Records. They remain his only known recordings.[ In conversations with reporters, Stephens exaggerated the nature of his appearance before Ford, making himself out to be the winner of a series of national contests, when in fact Ford never held any such contest.
Stephens died at his home near Lynchburg on July 25, 1951. He is buried at the Hurricane Church Cemetery just outside Lynchburg.][ After his death, his recording of "Sail Away Lady" was analyzed by ethnomusicologist Harry Smith, who believed it to be played in a style that pre-dated the ]American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.[
]
Discography
*''Nashville - The Early String Bands, Vol. 2'' (County
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
CO-3522, 2000) — contains the track "Candy Girl"
References
External links
Juneberry78s.com — Uncle Bunt Stephens
— mp3 recording of "Louisburg Blues"
Smithsonian Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music
mdash; contains sample of "Sail Away Lady"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Bunt
Musicians from Tennessee
Southern old-time fiddlers
People from Lynchburg, Tennessee
People from Bedford County, Tennessee
1879 births
1951 deaths