Bascom Lamar Lunsford

Bascom Lamar Lunsford

(Banjo, "Mandoline", Fiddle, Lawyer, Folklorist)

• Date of Birth: 1882
• Place of Birth: Mars Hill College, North Carolina (Madison County)
• Married: Nellie Triplett, 1906
• Date of Death: September 4, 1973

Bascom Lamar Lunsford, born 1882 at Mars Hill College, North Carolina. His father bought a fiddle for he and his brother Blackwell to share. Blackwell later bought a banjo. The brothers played for social occasions (weddings, school engagements, square dances). He went to Rutherford College and later to Trinity College (Duke University) from which he received a law degree. He began practicing as a solicitor in 1913.

He lectured on folklore always in white tie and tails. He recorded "Jessie James" and "I Wish I was a Mole in the Ground" for the General Phonograph Company in 1924 and re-recorded "I Wish..." (his most famous song)in 1949 for the Archive of American Folksong.

In 1927 the Asheville, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce engaged him to invite musicians and dancers to their newly organized rhododendron festival. The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival was the first to be known as a "folk festival". This festival continues today. Lunsford continued to play at this festival until 1965 when he suffered a stroke.

Many of his recordings were made by the Library of Congress in an effort to preserve Appalachian culture.