Folklore: Bascom Lamar Lunsford

Subject: Folklore: Bascomb Lamar Lunsford
From: voyager
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 06:52 PM

As a collector of OLD LIFE MAGAZINES and a fan of MUDCAT MUSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY I thought Forum readers would enjoy the NORTH CAROLINA
TRAVEL AD from LIFE - April 8, 1966

NORTH CAROLINA'S GRAND OLD MAN OF FOLK MUSIC
--------------------------------------------
South Turkey Creek - For more than a half century, 83-year-old Bascomb Lamar Lunsfor has presied over North Carloina's large and lossely-linked
fraternity of authentic folk music artists from the picturesque Blue
Ridge community.

As an attorny by profession, but a minstrel at heart, the patriarch of
Tar Heel folk singers has devoted much of a long life to the
preservation of the music of America.

Lunsford long ago lost count of the number of songs he has written,
but thousands throughout the nation still hum such memorable tunes of
his as "Old Mountain Dew".

A generation ago, this scholarly banjo-picker began the Mountain
Dance and Folk Festival at Asheville. Since then, North Carolina
has becomre a veritable folk festival state.

One of the most widely known folk festivals in the nation is the
Singing on the Mountain held annually on top of Grandfather
Mountain....Other nationally-acclaimed folk festivals include
the Old Time Fiddlers' Conetnion at Union Grove in North Carolina's
foothills, the Old TIme Gospel Sing in the small farming town of
Benson, and the State Fair Folk Festival directed each year in
Raleigh by the Grand Old Man of Folk Music himself. Tar Heel folk
artists Frank Proffitt of Pick Britches Road and Arthel (Doc)
Watson usually attend these annual festivals.....

---------------------end of LIFE advertisement ------------------

When I researched Bascomb Lunsford on MUDCAT I found his adaptation
of DRY BONES. Ok so this has been recorded as recently as 2003
by Norman and Nancy Blake -->
Morning Glory Ramblers - Dry Bones

Now that's staying power!
-voyager