Biography
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, working as collector, musician, and impresario, ensured that traditional folk songs and buck dancing from the Southern mountain regions of the United States survived. Across nearly three-quarters of a century gathering material throughout the Appalachian Mountains, he created the basis for conserving and reviving old-time folk music and dance. Although he wrote enduring pieces such as "Old Mountain Dew" and "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground," he is chiefly known for the hundreds of songs he gathered and documented for Columbia University and the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Song.
The child of a teacher, Lunsford started collecting shortly after finishing college at the beginning of the twentieth century. Journeying on horseback, he held various positions, among them selling fruit trees, practicing law, and serving briefly with the FBI. He maintained that he "spent nights in more homes from Harpers Ferry, North Carolina to Iron Mountain, Alabama than God," devoting the greater part of his time to folk song collection. Clad in a white starched shirt and black bow tie, he challenged the "hillbillies" stereotype and employed music and dance to showcase the worth of Southern mountain culture.
Called "The Minstrel of the Appalachians," Lunsford advanced the vigorous Southern buck dancing style, a foot-rhythm method that merged Scottish, Irish, African-American, and Cherokee influences. He began with dance contests in North Carolina, often at his own home where he added a dedicated dancefloor, and gradually turned buck dancing into a nationwide craze. The decisive development occurred in 1928 when he was engaged to arrange a folk music and dance program at the Rhododendron Festival in Asheville, North Carolina; the event drew more than 5,000 spectators, became annual, and stood among the first folk festivals in the United States.
Although criticized for omitting political songs, labor conflicts, Black cultural material, and bawdy pieces, Lunsford’s work proved indispensable to preserving the heritage of "the true Southern mountaineers" and inspired performers ranging from Mike and Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. While his main focus remained collecting others’ songs and dances, he toured internationally as performer and lecturer.
The child of a teacher, Lunsford started collecting shortly after finishing college at the beginning of the twentieth century. Journeying on horseback, he held various positions, among them selling fruit trees, practicing law, and serving briefly with the FBI. He maintained that he "spent nights in more homes from Harpers Ferry, North Carolina to Iron Mountain, Alabama than God," devoting the greater part of his time to folk song collection. Clad in a white starched shirt and black bow tie, he challenged the "hillbillies" stereotype and employed music and dance to showcase the worth of Southern mountain culture.
Called "The Minstrel of the Appalachians," Lunsford advanced the vigorous Southern buck dancing style, a foot-rhythm method that merged Scottish, Irish, African-American, and Cherokee influences. He began with dance contests in North Carolina, often at his own home where he added a dedicated dancefloor, and gradually turned buck dancing into a nationwide craze. The decisive development occurred in 1928 when he was engaged to arrange a folk music and dance program at the Rhododendron Festival in Asheville, North Carolina; the event drew more than 5,000 spectators, became annual, and stood among the first folk festivals in the United States.
Although criticized for omitting political songs, labor conflicts, Black cultural material, and bawdy pieces, Lunsford’s work proved indispensable to preserving the heritage of "the true Southern mountaineers" and inspired performers ranging from Mike and Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. While his main focus remained collecting others’ songs and dances, he toured internationally as performer and lecturer.
Albums
Singles
