Lyr Req: Dry Bones (Bascom Lamar Lunsford)

Subject: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From:
Date: 03 Aug 02 - 12:53 PM

This song is also called "I saw the light come down". It is not the usual "Dese Bones" song. I believe that the song is on the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music. If you have the lyrics, please email them to me at [e-mail] Thanks, Mitch

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Aug 02 - 01:02 PM

This version is here as html and here as PDF. I couldn't get it to copy and paste. I'll send an e mail.

Subject: Lyr Add: DRY BONES (Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Aug 02 - 02:38 PM

DRY BONES
As sung by Bascom Lamar Lunsford

Old Enoch he lived to be three-hundred and sixty-five
When the Lord came and took him back to heaven alive.

CHORUS: I saw, I saw the light from heaven a-shinin' all around
I saw the light come shining; I saw the light come down

Oh, when Paul prayed in prison, them prison walls fell down.
The prison keeper shouted, "Redeeming love I've found!"

When Moses saw that-a burning bush, he walked it 'round and 'round,
And then the Lord said to Moses, "You's treadin' holy ground."

Dry bones in that valley got up and took a little walk.
The deaf could hear and the dumb could talk.

Adam and Eve in the garden under that sycamore tree—
Eve said to Adam, "Oh, Satan am a-temptin' me."

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 03:46 AM

"Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882-1973), "The Minstrel of the Appalachians" was a banjo player, fiddler, country lawyer, and an avid collector of Appalachian folk songs. Lunsford traveled extensively around the area collecting and memorizing songs from his neighbors. Ever the Southern gentleman, Lunsford's father fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War. Lunsford was from South Turkey Creek near Leicester, North Carolina and in 1928 founded the Mountain Dance and Folk Song Festival in Asheville. It was a festival he was involved in for his entire life.
"Lunsford was also the composer of a number of songs, the most famous of which was the song "Old Mountain Dew." He had an incredible memory for songs and frequently recorded them for others. In 1949, he recorded his "Memory Collection" for the Library of Congress. Before each song he enthusiastically told the history of the song, the identity and frequently the address of the individual he collected it from. He recorded 350 songs for the library, but if this sounds extreme it should be pointed that twice before he had recorded over 300 songs for other collectors. His first recordings were on wax cylinders in 1922 and 1925. Lunsford lived to the ripe old age of 91 and could always be found at his festival each year until his death.
"Lunsford claims to have first heard "Dry Bones" from a travelling black preacher named Romney who came through his area (from the intro to his Library of Congress recording)." (Supplemental Notes to "DRY BONES" by Bascom Lamar Lunsford)

~Masato

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 04:55 AM

Check out the superb Smithsonian CD of his work: Bascom Lamar Lunsford - 'Ballads,Banjo Tunes and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina' Smithsonian/Folkways 40082. It is a mix of his classic 1928 Brunswick recordings and his 1949 Archive of American Folksong contributions -balladry, dance tunes and hymns. It includes 'Dry Bones', but also very lovely performances of 'Swannanoa Tunnel', 'Little Turtle Dove', 'In the Shadow of the Pines' and many others. A gem of an album!

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 02:09 PM

Help from a JOECLONE needed on my post above...

My keyboard messed up the artists name!!!

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 10:24 PM

e mail recieved by requester

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: open mike
Date: 05 Aug 02 - 10:29 PM

I always remember John McCutcheon's story about Bascom Lamar Lunsford. He heard many traditional songs from his albums he checked out of his school library. Much later, when he was invited to play at the Mountain Dance and Folk Song Festival in Asheville he introduced a tune "dedicated to the memory of the dear, departed Bascom...." only to find that he was the white haired gentle man sitting there on the stage....

Subject: RE: Req: Dry Bones by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Aug 02 - 12:21 AM

Loyal Jones's Minstrel of the Appalachians: The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford (Boone, NC: The Appalachian Consortium, 1984) was reprinted this year by The University Press of Kentucky. CLICK HERE.

~Masato