Listening to Craig's recording, he definitely says gunstick laurel. I've found evidence of a place in the NC mountains by that name, but all references seem to point back to Horace Kephart. My copy of the otherwise-expansive North Carolina Gazetteer does not include a location named Gunstick Laurel, and a search of Tennessee gazetteers doesn't have a town by that name either.

So it seems to be some sort of tree or another, but which, I'm not sure.