Anthology of American Folk Music
Volume 2: Social Music, Track 51
DRY BONES
Bascom Lamar Lunsford 
Recorded Ashland, KY: February, 1928
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, vocal and banjo
Origianlly released on Brunswick 367
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 he founded the Mountain Dance and Folk Song Festival in Asheville -- an event he was to be involved with for the rest of his 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, as well as the identity and frequently the address of the individual he collected it from. He recorded 350 songs for the Library of Congress, but if this sounds impressive 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).
FOR ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS of Lunsford see:
Ballads, Banjo Tunes and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina (SF 40082c); Minstrel of the Appalachians (RVR 12-645a); Music from South Turkey Creek (with George Pegram and Red Parham)(RND 0065a); Smoky Mountain Ballads (FW 2040c); The Appalachian Minstrel (Washington 736a); and the collections Collection of Mountain Banjo Tunes and Songs (CTY 515a); The Asch Recordings (FW AA4c); 37th Old Time Fiddler's Convention (FW 2434c); Anglo-American Ballads (LC AFSL20/1a); Songs and Ballads of American History and the Assasinations of Presidents (LC AFSL29a); for a video segment of Lunsford see Times Ain't Like They Used to Be (Yazoo Video 512).
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on Lunsford see Loyal Jones, Minstrel of the Appalachians (Boone, NC: The Appalachian Consortium, 1984); Pete Gilpin and George Stephens, Minstrel of the Appalachians (Asheville, NC: Stephens Press, 1966); JEMF Quarterly No. 9 (Spring 1973); and the notes to Smithsonian Folkways 40082.
