Ballads, Banjo Tunes, And Sacred Songs Of Western North Carolina | 
 enlarge | Artist: Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $11.84
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Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 20377
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.6 x 0.5
MPN: 40082
UPC: 093074008225
EAN: 0093074008225
ASIN: B000001DJR
Release Date: April 23, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Tracks:
| • | Swannanoa Tunnel | | • | The Mermaid Song | | • | Ten Steps | | • | Little Turtle Dove | | • | In the Shadow of the Pines | | • | Swing Low | | • | Bonny George Campbell | | • | I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground - Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Traditional | | • | On a Bright and Summer's Morning | | • | To the Pines, to the Pines | | • | Dry Bones - Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Traditional | | • | The Last Gold Dollar | | • | Rye Straw | | • | Old Mountain Dew | | • | Italy | | • | Death of Queen Jane | | • | Old Stepstone | | • | Drinking of the Wine | | • | Dedication |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
This "Minstrel of the Appalachians" performed hundreds of traditional songs and tunes that he learned from family members, neighbors, and other residents of western North Carolina. The breadth of Lunsford's huge repertoire is represented, including ballads, folk songs, spirituals, 19th-century popular songs, and banjo and fiddle tunes. All tracks were recorded by Brunswick Records in the 1920s or the Library of Congress in 1949. Includes Old Mountain Dew, an original composition which found its way into both oral tradition and popular culture, Swing Low, and To the Pines, To the Pines. 55 minutes. "[Hits] faster and sweeter than a jug of corn liquor." -New York Post
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Powerful and fascinating music. March 26, 2008
R. Bennett (England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This record presents some of the most captivating music I have ever heard. That may sound like overstatement but it's true! I can't recommend this record highly enough, particularly to anyone who enjoys Bob Dylan and other artists who tap into early American music.
The lyrics to these songs are profound and deeply moving. The themes are universal: love, heartbreak, elation, and loss. But these experiences are approached in a way that makes other music sound very contrived. Bascom Lamar Lunsford's voice is not dramatic but rhythmic and mellow. The music is uplifting, fine and delicate. The record seems to transcend time in the way that the songs of Blind Willie Johnson do. Buy this record and give your ears over to it. You will not be disappointed.
Living history preserved by the Minstrel of the Appalachians March 24, 2005
Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is much, much more than a music CD; this is history, and tradition, and an echo of life as it once was. Having been born and raised in the North Carolina foothills, this music is especially significant to me. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, music was a way of life in the North Carolina mountains; thanks to Bascom Lamar Lunsford, that old way of life and culture is not completely lost to us in this modern age. Lunsford had many professions during his long life, but the music he grew up with was his passion. He recorded many songs that would almost certainly have been completely lost to us; not only that, he described each song, talked about where he heard it, who played it, etc. He was called "the Minstrel of the Appalachians" because he collected songs from all over western North Carolina and preserved them. He played the fiddle, banjo (in two distinctive styles), and mandoline (sort of like a mandolin), and he sang, recording hundreds of the living tunes of his friends, neighbors, and neighborly strangers over the years - all sorts of songs, including ballads, folk songs, gospel songs, fiddle tunes, and banjo tunes. He also wrote a few songs of his own, including the classic Old Mountain Dew. No American contributed more material to the Archive of Folk Song than Lunsford, and all but five of the recordings on this album come from his "memory collection" recordings made at the Library of Congress in 1949 (the "memory collection" actually consists of no less than 318 songs); the other five were recorded for Brunswick Records in 1928.
I can't really describe all of these tunes and do them justice; they are all so much more than just songs. How do you describe the lone voice of a culture that no longer exists? You have to hear it for yourself. Lunsford does describe many of the songs on his recordings, and the accompanying CD booklet features a lot of valuable information about each tune. The only one of these recordings I was at all familiar with was Old Mountain Dew, but Grandpa Jones' recording didn't include all of the verses of Lunsford's original version.
After listening to this album, one has to ask where all of the other 300 or so Lunsford recordings are. This music is so pure and historically important, it seems a shame that Lunsford's entire "memory collection" of tunes is not available in a box set. Lunsford recorded these songs so that they would never be forgotten, and I for one would love the chance to listen to every single recording Lunsford ever made.
A truly unique voice in folk song February 11, 2005
Josh (Toronto, Ontario Canada)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
After first hearing "mole in the ground" and "dry bones", I needed to hear whatever other recorded output was available by Lunsford. It is quite unfortunate that this is the only thing available on cd; on the other hand, it's a real treasure of american folk song. I feel like I somehow ripped off the cd store and record company, because I can't understand how the beauty of these recordings can even be associated with a monetary value. While I was doubtful I would like the other songs as much as the two aforementioned, I could not pick one that I like less. In the shadow of the pines still gives me shivers, the same as the first time I heard it. Please release more of this amazing stuff.
Don't even hesitate - hit the "one click" button October 6, 2004
Ryan McNabb (Ooltewah, TN USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
What a gift he gave the world. Bascom Lunsford did the near-impossible: he saw and heard this music as both an insider and an outsider. As an insider he knew exactly how it should be played, because he never learned it any other way. He knew the music, the people, the nuances and turns of phrase, as completely as he knew his own name. His voice was as ragged and unschooled as any miner or hill country farmer who never cracked a book. As an outsider, he understood this music for what it was - the last exhalation of a great American culture, the tangible sound of a people and a place that were, if not vanishing, then certainly in the process of changing permanently into something very different. He understood how important it was to save as much as he could, as fast as he could. And we are all deeply in his debt.
A Fascinating Figure December 3, 2003
D. B Pepper (Plainview, NY United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a fascinating figure, who in his 91 years on this earth managed to record more American folk songs, British ballads, Negro spirituals, breakdowns, reels, topical songs etc. than probably anyone else who ever lived. He was a jack-of-all-trades and a very educated man of a middle class background. On this particular album, "Old Stepstone" is the masterpiece, in my opinion. Its lyrics are simply breathtaking! Lunsford's greatest strength is not in singing or his banjo playing, but rather in his huge repertory of songs and the laid-back way in which he plays them. His vocals are also easier on the ears than those of a Dock Boggs or a Roscoe Holcomb. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the thousands of songs that the man recorded are not available on compact disc, and that's a tragedy. In conclusion, this is an excellent album of Old-Timey and American folk music which is very easy to listen to and is extremely rewarding and heartfelt.
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