"Aunt" Samantha Bumgarner (October 31, 1878 - December 24, 1960) was an American early country and folk music performer and singer from

Dillsboro, North Carolina Dillsboro is a town in Jackson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 232 at the 2010 census. Dillsboro attracts tourists traveling to the Great Smoky Mountains. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad begins in Dillsboro and follo ...

. She won much praise for her work with the fiddle and banjo. In 1924, accompanied by guitarist Eva Davis, she traveled to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and recorded about a dozen songs for Columbia Records.Country: The Music and Musicians, The Country Music Foundation, New York, , page 320. The recordings are also notable for being the first use of a

5-string banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

on a recording. She was a yearly staple at

Bascom Lamar Lunsford Bascom Lamar Lunsford (March 21, 1882 – September 4, 1973) was a folklorist, performer of traditional Appalachian music, and lawyer from western North Carolina. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the Appalachians." Biography B ...

's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival from 1928 until shortly before her death. Folksinger

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

attended Lunsford's festival in 1935 at the age of 16 in the company of his father, musicologist and composer

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 ...

, then working for the music division of the WPA, and his stepmother, noted modernist composer

Ruth Crawford Seeger Ruth Crawford Seeger (born Ruth Porter Crawford; July 3, 1901 – November 18, 1953) was an American composer and folk music specialist. Her music was a prominent exponent of the emerging modernist aesthetic and she became a central member of a g ...

, and would have heard Bumgarner perform there. Seeger has credited Bumgarner as his inspiration for wanting to learn the five-string banjo. "He learned (he says) to play the banjo after first hearing one played by a mountain girl named Samantha Bumgarten ic��came from the Great Smokies"

Royal command performance

Bumgarner was also among the artists Lunsford assembled to play before

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of In ...

and Queen Elizabeth of England in June 1939 at the invitation of

President President most commonly refers to: * President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

and Mrs. Roosevelt at a

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 180 ...

concert of American music arranged by Charles Seeger and Adrian Dornbush (of the WPA) for the benefit of the first visit by a reigning British monarch and his consort on American soil. Among the other (racially integrated) performers were American concert artists

Marian Anderson Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to Spiritual (music), spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throu ...

Lawrence Tibbett Lawrence Mervil Tibbett (November 16, 1896 – July 15, 1960) was an American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera in New York ...

, and

Kate Smith Kathryn Elizabeth Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; ...

, singing classical and light popular music; and folk performers Lily May Ledford and the Coon Creek Girls;

Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the South ...

; the

Golden Gate Quartet The Golden Gate Quartet (a.k.a. The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) is an American vocal group. It was formed in 1934 and, with changes in membership, remains active. Origins and early career The group was founded as the Golden Gate Jubilee Singe ...

; Sam Queen and the Soco Gap Square Dance Team, who demonstrated clog dancing; and

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

, singing cowboy songs. According to Judith Tick, Professor of Music at Northeastern University, "It was a singular moment of glory for the Washington WPA folklorists."Judith Tick, ''Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music'' (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 257.

First female Country recording artist

Bumgarner and her friend, Eva Davis, recorded the same year as another female country singer, Roba Stanley.Women in early Country Music: A Tribute to the First Female Recording Artists
Stanley, whose recordings were made in July, 1924, is believed by many to have been the first female to record country music, but Bumgarner and Davis' recordings were made three months earlier, in April. The pair recorded both in duet and as singer and accompanist and thus qualify for the distinction of having been the first female country solo recording artists.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bumgarner, Samantha 1878 births 1960 deaths American women country singers American country singer-songwriters Old-time musicians Singer-songwriters from North Carolina People from Jackson County, North Carolina 20th-century American singers American fiddlers Women violinists 20th-century American violinists 20th-century American women singers Country musicians from North Carolina