The main purpose of this channel is to conserve and share authentic recordings of all kinds of traditional music. If you support this goal and appreciate this channel's content, consider subscribing and exploring what this channel has to offer! I have already uploaded several videos about Appalachian music: How the Appalachian Mountains preserved ancient British ballads (with 36 historical recordings) ruclips.net/video/mUGoWwGKwSA/видео.html Where did Appalachian music come from? ruclips.net/video/WRIkXGlttyg/видео.html Appalachian Ballad Singing (1969) | Dillard Chandler, Dellie Norton, Berzilla Wallin ruclips.net/video/11id9wkfvwI/видео.html Appalachian musician George Landers performs old ballad "The Scotland Man" (c.1960s) ruclips.net/video/TR-jlH7Qs3A/видео.html Appalachian ballad singer Texas Gladden (1947) | "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" [Child 278] ruclips.net/video/eaFDmp4IgaQ/видео.html Here are several rare videos I uploaded of the Appalachian ballad singer and dulcimer player Jean Ritchie: ruclips.net/video/phseXZaPoo8/видео.html ruclips.net/video/SCbNTbJKqMI/видео.html ruclips.net/video/piV-BGDHLF4/видео.html ruclips.net/video/TMBqoeCTcQE/видео.html
If your purpose were actually to conserve you wouldn’t have added that awful colorizing. This absolutely ruins the footage. It looks horrible. Just stop.
Wonderful to see them dancing and smiling from so long ago. I bet they won that 1st prize down at Big Sandy. A lot of great little things in this video too.
Watching this made me think about my house that’s built in 1926. This was two years after that and what else has happened during the time the house has been here? Few wars, Elvis born and die etc etc… and the walls are still standing in shape for next 100 years
Our Great Uncle,Luther Ramsforth, is third from the left. He always wore those leather gaters on his shins to protect against rattlers and copperheads while traveling about. Uncle Luther lived to the ripe old age of 79 and played the banjo till the day he passed.
@kingdoc3262 gaiters are an article of clothing worn from the shoe or boot to the knee. They serve lots of purposes not least of which is they keep water out of your shoes.
I was looking at those gaiters! My mind was imagining him wearing them to travel, so that he could take them off and dance in his shoes if he wanted. Thanks for sharing about your great uncle.
I grew up in the Appalachians where MD and WV meet. We went to an old country church with a four member band like this who would play most Sundays. It is interesting how part of the signature of this style of music is that the fiddle *must* be played a little sharp off-pitch, and its contribution to the treble *must* border on painful. Likewise, when harmonizing vocals, the higher vocalist should primarily sing through their nose and often will adopt a rather drone like harmony. Personally, I wonder if the nuances of this style are an unconscious descendant of bagpipe tuning idiosyncrasies from Celtic roots. This really took me back, especially the accents, though I was too far north in Appalachia to be accustomed to the banjo. That role was carried by the mandolin. Thanks for this!
Thanks for watching! That's very interesting - I wonder if anyone has written about the fiddles being tuned slightly sharp. I'd recommend watching this video that shows where different features of Appalachian music come from ruclips.net/video/WRIkXGlttyg/видео.html
@@gale212 I grew up in the Oakland, Md /Terra Alta WV area. Don't live there anymore, but still visit, and still consider it home...though it has become significantly less remote and wild in the last thirty-something years. So few wild places left in the eastern US.
@@wdanielmurphy You said it right. I'm from rural NC and we have been over run by people in the last 30 yrs. The night never is dark enough to see the stars. And they keep coming.
Bascomb Lunsford's grandson is still playing this kind of music. He actually came to my Appalachian Music class at Appalachian State in Boone, NC to give us a sampling. So cool that this video exists!
Watauga County is home to some of the greatest Bluegrass artists in the World. I would send Greetings from Deep Gap, but I am now living at the Sea Gates. I am happy to report, they have some good pickers down here on the coast too.
Pretty cool. I knew some Whitakers when I was in high school just outside Asheville. Strange having first watched this years ago on another channel, a video recorded in the 1960s some time when he was an old man teaching the next generation. It looked so distant, remote, and long ago. And yet here is someone who knows someone who knows someone, who might well know someone I went to school with. Interesting also the feeling I got watching that other video, I actually found some of the dancers on facebook. Young kids in the video, old now, but still clogging.
Irish and Scottish Immigrants singing and playing what their ancestors taught them. I think their accents are a bit “mid-Atlantic” too. Do you hear it?
Bascom Lamar Lunsford almost always appeared in a starched shirt and tie because he didn’t like being thought of as a hillbilly. I’m sure that’s why they were dressed like that here as well
I was born in Jo’burg and I wandered around N. America. Bought a bungalow in an Appalachian small town. You can hear the music in trees, creeks and stones in the Smoky Mountains.
Love it! Took 4 classes of folklore at GSU in Atlanta: Irish, American, British, and Ga. I'm sure you're familiar with Alan Lomax, but have you ever heard of Dr. John Burrison? He was my professor for those 4 qtrs.('90s) and got me interested in music that made a connection between my Celtic root in Ga. and beyond.my family's.
Crazy this exists. I am just kind of blow away that we can see Bascomb Lamar Lunsford himself. Guy left such a huge imprint on old time music, yet here he is playing his fiddle for us... while wearing the greaves of a medieval knight by the looks of it.
Hi, Those may be "snake bitin'" boots. My father had some. Which really makes this authentic because he obviously walked through some rugged country to record this video!
@@TheFolkRevivalProject She did her thing far and wide, while Bascom's thing was preserving the culture against the threats in its place of origin. So influential in every way, but more local.
I was wondering about that, whether the shape was slightly different or if it was an artifact of the restoration of the video. Thank you for the information.
Yes making your own instruments was apparently not unusual. That's where the Appalachian Dulcimer (s) come from. One I own and play is leaf shaped, but some are oblong shaped.
@@katendress6142 the mountain style fiddles tended to have the front almost as wide as the back . Hand mades often have the bow notches slightly offset so you dont have as much bow angle .
What a marvelous film, it's shot incredibly well for its time, and in general. The man was a natural director! A dancer, fiddler, director, lawyer, teacher and a song collector. How bout that?
Agree. They have a gun and an ax for props to set the stage. Nobody in Appalachia has these accoutrements sitting around the front stoop. Great theatre!
@@donriffle1634are you seriously saying that people in 20’s Appalachia didn’t use guns or axes, or that they wouldn’t have them out on the porch for their own use??
@stephenschwenke720 singers often play banjo without picks as it's a softer sound. Especially if the voice is soft pitch like mine is. I did start out with picks but soon realised I could perform easier/sing and play better without. Admire anyone who can sing AND pick simultaneously...simpler songs I can do, but not tricky chord or rhythm changes!
To record this was pioneering for the time. That’s amazing to me. To just be able to set up a camera and record some music is something we take for granted nowadays. Not so in 1928. What a real treat. Thank you!
I lived in the Appalachian Mountains in my early teenage years and was in love with blues and folk music. I jammed some acoustic blues and bluegrass on guitar and 5-string banjo. Mandolin, too. These ppl remind me a bit of my neighbors who sold fresh meat to everyone in town, I worked in the butcher shop. Learned exactly what scrapple is. Learned what mountain folk were like. I was always a bit outside, I was a city boy, tho i love the country. Anyhow, I've always been able to pick along with Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, and blues like Mississippi John Hurt, I was always surrounded by bluegrass fellas.
As a long time banjo player myself, i find it very interesting to note that the two banjo players are picking and not using stroke or , Clawhammer style. One is using two fingers the other uses three. I try to keep those picking styles alive by always teaching the basics of the Oldtime picking styles to all my Clawhammer students just so they’ll know them to pass on to others even though they may not prefer to use them themselves. Love the video. Thank you for posting.🪕❤️
I use the oldtime two and three finger style for playing banjo, along with claw hammer. Claw hammer sounds fancy, but it really bottlenecks the type of music you can play on the banjo.
Great idea, good for you to pass on the knowledge. I've tried clawhammer style and it's difficult to get the hang of if you learned/got used to the standard picking style first.
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers were immensely popular during the 1920s. Charlie Poole was a 3-finger banjo picker!! His group, along with the Carter Family were the first huge recording stars of the fledgling recording industry, and early definers of 'Country Music.' Clawhammer style is only one of many old-time styles and methods of playing banjo, although people wrongly assume it to be the main or only historical style. Ragtime and jazz banjoists often used plectrum.
One of the greatest contributions I've seen on RUclips. This should have so many views. Now, imagine if these folks who are playing could have seen a film of people playing music almost a hundred years before them, about 1833 (this would be only four or five years before the first photograph to include a person). History is moving faster than we might notice. It's a short, crazy ride, man - enjoy it.
@@Carma123Also the English from areas like...Cumberland, County Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire etc...All moved in vast quantities in the 1700s, thats why the accent is why it is. Please fully do research unless you are American and we know you are a bit dimwitted so we forgive you 😉
The guitarist and her banjo playing friend enter the scene. The fiddler greets the man by name and shakes his hand. The fiddler shakes the hand of the guitarist but neglects to greet the lady by name. She strums only the 4 highest (in pitch) strings of the guitar for the G and the D7. She does her job intently and smiles when the fiddler breaks out in an impromptu dance. Jut lovely to watch. ❤
That was proper. He wasn’t snubbing; he was showing deference. The etiquette until quite recently was for a man to let a woman decide if he could touch her. Her hand would be extended first, never his. A man was not supposed to reach to a woman. I kinda like the rule, especially for huggers!
@@customsongmakerHAHAHAHAHHAAH that’s very funny, man. Social etiquette doesn’t tell you anything about how women were treated legally or behind closed doors.
@@maddieb.4282 American women currently have more legal rights and privileges than men. If you can't admit that, which we all see in front of us now, there's no use talking about the past either. You believe that all women in the history of the world were so weak and inferior that they allowed their own sons to abuse them and treat them as property. Because you're sick.
That's correct. "Old Timey" is the actual name of pre bluegrass mountain music. I had an Old Timey guitar teacher at one time named Roy Berkeley. Roy made some important contributions to the study of Old Timey. You can find some of his music here on YT.
Well isn't this a priceless performance to get to experience before our very eyes! Mountain folks gettin' down, old school style! 💖 Makes me miss a time I never was a part of.
My great grandmother lived in the Appalachians in North Carolina and later in Tennessee but a lot of stories she would tell were of gatherings like these. Her dad would start playing on the porch and other musicians nearby would hear the sound from around the way and walk up to join in. There were unofficial banjo competitions near her and as a result a lot of songs like these would get passed down sometimes with different iterations or different ways of playing it. There was a story she’d even told once of an old man that had passed away and they’d held the funeral in their home for people to come by and pay their respects with the body on display before burial.
My grandpa brought a fiddle back from somewhere in Europe when he returned from serving as Cavalry in WWI - late first decade of the 1900s. He was already a relatively old man (30s) when he served. Anyway, the boots these guys are wearing in the film remind me of WWI riding boot and chaps, so I'd venture to say those boots stayed is style for at least a decade, until the time of this film in 1928. Interesting bit of history. Watching this I can also somewhat better picture in my mind him play his fiddle and maybe doing sort of this style music. As chance will have it my grandmother, his wife, played guitar too. Thanks for saving this treasure!
I was just thinking how dainty she looked, but the wear patterns on her guitar show she has put in some heavy playing in her time - like Willie Nelson or Rory Gallagher!
I grew up deep in the mountains of WV and was surrounded by this good music and the good people! I am very proud of my roots! Thank you for this channel!
Wonderful Historical Music. A blend of Irish and Scottish that was took to the America's from the European side of the Atlantic. I do hope one day I can visit that glorious area of these people . Also I admire the Clog dancers. Best regards from Chester, England
If you get the chance you can come into North Carolina, Western Virginia and of course West Virginia where there are fairly famous festivals usually held in the Summertime! I have been to Clifftop in West Virginia and Galax in western Virginia!!! If you have been to the Scottish Higlands this land with its mountains and hollers will remind you a lot of that part of Scotland! I hope you get a chance to come across the pond!!! Peace out! ✌ 👍🙋♂
Come and stay and help us fix the mess. Our ancestors got out to build something, the rest stayed to fix what was. Still brothers and know when all falls run to the hills. It's in our blood and there's lots of people trying to get you to forget that m
I am from East Tennessee, I live a few miles from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I grew up hearing this music, Everyone in my family plays an instrument, and our family get-togethers always feature music.
WOW This is fantastic that it is so well kept and exists...! Film that is almost from 100 years ago, in the infancy of recording music/film, etc... And the contraption recording this was was probably NOT compact and possibly acetate/wax, imagine all the troubles carrying it and managing it out in field! THANKS for having this available 🥰 !
Stirs the the soul TY for posting and to those who added comments. Our ancestors live on in us. How I wish I kept playing, but I just kept reverting back to where my soul would take me to the irk of my mundane classical trained teachers: playing my grandfather’s violin stripped of its shoulder rest, joyfully hitting those fiddle tunes again and again determined not to let my fingers run away as my bowing tried to keep up. With a smile, I did notice the brakes the fiddler would take as he called and sang out his tune… very wise…
Really interesting to read these comments from those of you who understand this music in your heart. I love the feel of it and enjoy hearing you all discuss your area of the world and the culture you share. I feel privileged to stop in here for a visit. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
I've always lived in Appalachia! Always will! Though I think I might go further south where it's warmer when I'm older! Right now I love livin in the northern panhandle of west Virginia!
My Dad played bluegrass music. He played the banjo, guitar, bass, & French Harp. This brings back so many good memories. I'm here in ne Oklahoma and I'm really enjoying y'alls music.
Llevo años siguiendo a Bascon Lamar música apalachense de los Estados de carolina N y S. Estas imágenes en color son preciosas. From Spain Bravo!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏
My entire family on dad's side were from Wilkes County and Alexander County in NC back to the early 1700s. It is amazing to hear that someone a hundred years ago was non-rhotic like the last generation of my family to be so, surviving in my aunt and uncle now that my father has passed. We have been in Georgia for a few generations but the accent stayed in them, sadly disappearing from the words spoken by my city educated cousins, my sister, and myself, and all of us are now in our 40s and 50s. As for the music, there is something that gives me a deep longing for home when I hear it, and of course, there is a reason. My ultimate dream is to get back there one day, somehow, to stay and to live out my days. Amen.
What a wonderful treasure this collection. I sure do love this music and the folk dancing that sends me back to my lost world. I want to get back to what matters most.
Bascon Lamar lusdorf. Principe de los Apalaches folk de Carolina N S . Lo Estudié hace 10 años Es un icono de la música Este. From Espain , Extremadura . Un saludo.👏👏👏👏
Personen die deze muziek en dans voor toekomstige generaties hebben vastgelegd verdienen alle lof! Er is niets mooiers dan bij elkaar komen om muziek te maken, te dansen of te luisteren ❤
What a fantastic contribution to RUclips., I really enjoyed the rare glimpse into time and across cultures. Being a music lover of this genre was icing on the cake. Subscribed.
I very much enjoyed watching this and wondering about the personal lives of the people here. I am impressed with the lady playing the guitar. How she sits so still without tapping her foot at all yet keeps perfect time amazes the viewer. The music is uplifting. It reminds me of my neighbor who used to blast this type of music while working on his cars. He fought in Dessert Storm and is buried in Saratoga National after passing too young in 2016 from complications of Agent Orange. Oddly enough I was already thinking of him today as I was there earlier for another neighbors funeral. When he played his “pickin hillbilly music” as we’d call it, he was always happy. He lost his memory in his frontal lobe and the last time I saw him he came running down the driveway happy to see me again when I was visiting my Mom. This music will always remind me of Bobby Wolcott. I’m glad I saw this. Thank you for sharing it!!
I live in Swannanoa which is just outside of Asheville. Im from Alabama, and my PawPaw always used to play bluegrass. The first time my parents came to visit me in NC, they stayed at a cabin on Doggett Mountain. I had no idea about this song. I feel so connected to bluegrass in general, but this song is so cool to me because of my experience with my parents.
It’s always been said that Earl Scruggs introduced the three finger roll style of Banjo picking but, that video was made in 1929, pretty sure that was before his time
It's been said by people who don't really know. Scrugg's style has a very particular rhythm and flow to it which defined the bluegrass picking style, but the three finger style and forward roll predate him by some time. It seems relatively common around the North Carolina region, to my knowledge.
@@indus7841 Notable examples are Charlie Poole and Snuffy Jenkins. Uncle Dave Macon also does some three finger picking but it's closer in origin to the classic banjo and minstrel styles, to my knowledge.
@@eternallife9786clawhammer style is characterized by downward strokes with the fingers curled so that the face of the nails strike the strings. From what I can see, especially in the close up at the end, neither player is playing clawhammer. Nor is Scruggs style a variant of clawhammer.
I’m from The Peeks of Otter, my grandaddy played the banjo on the porch in summer evenings. Granny said “great day in the morning” and “lawd have mercy”. We moved a lot dad was usaf I don’t have an accent but talked to my cousin and it doesn’t take long for me to “well, my god” and I’m “ya’lling” all over the place. This is incredible footage.
Love the diversity of American music. I wish music stations and record companies were mindful of the same. Variety Love Appalachian music From New York Living in Caribbean now
Here are the lyrics. It would be great if people could help fill in the gaps! 1:26 Runnin' and hollerin' around by the _____________________________ Dogget's Gap 1:37 Breaking up the ground and I pull a pinch of________ I'm a-getting something started in the Dogget's Gap 1:49 Walnut bark and walnut sap, colors of the stockings in the Doggett's Gap 2:08 The old man's a-cussin' but I don't give a rap 'cause the women wear the britches in the Doggett's Gap. 2:20 Run home, boys, and carry on, pap, I'm a-goin' a start cussin' in the Dogget's Gap 2:38 I reined up a filly and I give a little rap, and I rid it like the devil through the Doggett's Gap 2:46 Got a bad feist and a-fetchin' it to yell, and the boys'll run like a bat outta hell 2:57 I've got a girl in the Doggett's Gap, she don't mind a-sittin' in her sweetheart's lap
the first line is hard to hear but the only thing that makes sense is "Runnin' and hollerin' around by the Gap, while my bride stay sitting in Doggett's Gap".
![Traditional English fiddling and Morris dance (1928) | Sam Bennett [RESTORED]](/img/1.gif)
The main purpose of this channel is to conserve and share authentic recordings of all kinds of traditional music. If you support this goal and appreciate this channel's content, consider subscribing and exploring what this channel has to offer!
I have already uploaded several videos about Appalachian music:
How the Appalachian Mountains preserved ancient British ballads (with 36 historical recordings)
ruclips.net/video/mUGoWwGKwSA/видео.html
Where did Appalachian music come from?
ruclips.net/video/WRIkXGlttyg/видео.html
Appalachian Ballad Singing (1969) | Dillard Chandler, Dellie Norton, Berzilla Wallin ruclips.net/video/11id9wkfvwI/видео.html
Appalachian musician George Landers performs old ballad "The Scotland Man" (c.1960s)
ruclips.net/video/TR-jlH7Qs3A/видео.html
Appalachian ballad singer Texas Gladden (1947) | "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife" [Child 278]
ruclips.net/video/eaFDmp4IgaQ/видео.html
Here are several rare videos I uploaded of the Appalachian ballad singer and dulcimer player Jean Ritchie:
ruclips.net/video/phseXZaPoo8/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/SCbNTbJKqMI/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/piV-BGDHLF4/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/TMBqoeCTcQE/видео.html
Please pin this comment so more can see it! 👍😎
Will sub
If your purpose were actually to conserve you wouldn’t have added that awful colorizing. This absolutely ruins the footage. It looks horrible. Just stop.
Thank you so so much for preserving American music history. You are the best! 🎉
Thank you for preserving Appalachian culture
I imagine none of them expected anyone would be enjoying this performance nearly 100 years later!
On a phone, of all things!!!
@@shawnsmith7375 other side of the world. too bad we cant tell them
Wonderful to see them dancing and smiling from so long ago. I bet they won that 1st prize down at Big Sandy. A lot of great little things in this video too.
Watching this made me think about my house that’s built in 1926. This was two years after that and what else has happened during the time the house has been here? Few wars, Elvis born and die etc etc… and the walls are still standing in shape for next 100 years
@@shawnsmith7375 They probably didn't even have rotary phones.
Our Great Uncle,Luther Ramsforth, is third from the left. He always wore those leather gaters on his shins to protect against rattlers and copperheads while traveling about. Uncle Luther lived to the ripe old age of 79 and played the banjo till the day he passed.
Would you happen to know the name of the guy that was playing banjo on the end?
Was wondering what that was on his shins. So they are called leather gators?
@kingdoc3262 gaiters are an article of clothing worn from the shoe or boot to the knee. They serve lots of purposes not least of which is they keep water out of your shoes.
I was looking at those gaiters! My mind was imagining him wearing them to travel, so that he could take them off and dance in his shoes if he wanted. Thanks for sharing about your great uncle.
@@RUfrikkinkiddinME Thank you. I learned something. Are you from there? Where else wears gaiters?
I grew up in the Appalachians where MD and WV meet. We went to an old country church with a four member band like this who would play most Sundays. It is interesting how part of the signature of this style of music is that the fiddle *must* be played a little sharp off-pitch, and its contribution to the treble *must* border on painful. Likewise, when harmonizing vocals, the higher vocalist should primarily sing through their nose and often will adopt a rather drone like harmony. Personally, I wonder if the nuances of this style are an unconscious descendant of bagpipe tuning idiosyncrasies from Celtic roots. This really took me back, especially the accents, though I was too far north in Appalachia to be accustomed to the banjo. That role was carried by the mandolin. Thanks for this!
Thanks for watching! That's very interesting - I wonder if anyone has written about the fiddles being tuned slightly sharp. I'd recommend watching this video that shows where different features of Appalachian music come from
ruclips.net/video/WRIkXGlttyg/видео.html
@@TheFolkRevivalProject Come to think of it, bagpipe higher octaves are tuned flat. My assumption doesn't really support my theory.
You're in my neck of the woods. Whereabouts in WV/MD? And I second the mandolin thought.
@@gale212 I grew up in the Oakland, Md /Terra Alta WV area. Don't live there anymore, but still visit, and still consider it home...though it has become significantly less remote and wild in the last thirty-something years. So few wild places left in the eastern US.
@@wdanielmurphy You said it right. I'm from rural NC and we have been over run by people in the last 30 yrs. The night never is dark enough to see the stars. And they keep coming.
Bascomb Lunsford's grandson is still playing this kind of music. He actually came to my Appalachian Music class at Appalachian State in Boone, NC to give us a sampling.
So cool that this video exists!
Loveley to her that
Watauga County is home to some of the greatest Bluegrass artists in the World. I would send Greetings from Deep Gap, but I am now living at the Sea Gates. I am happy to report, they have some good pickers down here on the coast too.
David Hoffman has great footage of Bascomb on his channel that he filmed back in the 60s.
It’s wild to think that most likely all of their influence came from not hearing any of it on radio, but from other musicians playing live.
That's the difference between culture and pop culture.
Here on a Cumberland Gap rabbit hole!
Back then the best way to listen to music was to play music
Don't forget the mountains themselves...
I find it neat how they harmonize by ear like how us Menno do with 4 part harmony but they do it with instruments
My grandmother was friends with Bascom and my father used to sing with him. This clip is wonderful.
What a small world this is. Did she tell you anything about him by chance?
That's so cool!
🙏🏼
Pretty cool. I knew some Whitakers when I was in high school just outside Asheville. Strange having first watched this years ago on another channel, a video recorded in the 1960s some time when he was an old man teaching the next generation. It looked so distant, remote, and long ago. And yet here is someone who knows someone who knows someone, who might well know someone I went to school with.
Interesting also the feeling I got watching that other video, I actually found some of the dancers on facebook. Young kids in the video, old now, but still clogging.
The Gods keep him in eternal glory
I live in Donegal, this music can be heard in the local bar every Friday evening......
😍
Irish and Scottish Immigrants singing and playing what their ancestors taught them. I think their accents are a bit “mid-Atlantic” too. Do you hear it?
But not quite what the ancestors taught them. @@jenbee3506
for the last 400 years.
@@jenbee3506ulster Scott's originally border reivers in Scotland went to the apalachain mountains
These wonderful people are all passed on but their music lives on. I'm watching this October twenty third 2024
Same😊
A big thank you to Keith Richards for taping this, thanks again Keith.
LOL!!!!!
Keith stole licks from these guys too!
😂😂😂 You sure it wasn't mick jagger?
@@junioralfa3628 He was in on it too!
I thought it was Bill Shatner
Look at these folks, out in the dirt and scrub but wearing coats, vest, tie and a dress. That's classy! Love this!
Wearing their Sunday best
I like his leather gaiters
@@siobhandunne4701Exactly right.
@@siobhandunne4701 they are professional musicians
Bascom Lamar Lunsford almost always appeared in a starched shirt and tie because he didn’t like being thought of as a hillbilly. I’m sure that’s why they were dressed like that here as well
I'm a distant listener from South Africa. Always am a fan...❤ love Appalachian music and similar.
Me too :)
I was born in Jo’burg and I wandered around N. America. Bought a bungalow in an Appalachian small town. You can hear the music in trees, creeks and stones in the Smoky Mountains.
Love it! Took 4 classes of folklore at GSU in Atlanta: Irish, American, British, and Ga. I'm sure you're familiar with Alan Lomax, but have you ever heard of Dr. John Burrison? He was my professor for those 4 qtrs.('90s) and got me interested in music that made a connection between my Celtic root in Ga. and beyond.my family's.
You must have Scottish DNA. lol
Crazy this exists. I am just kind of blow away that we can see Bascomb Lamar Lunsford himself. Guy left such a huge imprint on old time music, yet here he is playing his fiddle for us... while wearing the greaves of a medieval knight by the looks of it.
Hi, Those may be "snake bitin'" boots. My father had some. Which really makes this authentic because he obviously walked through some rugged country to record this video!
Thier snake leggins my grandaddy wore them when he traveling on foot.Rattlesnakes, copperhead, various snakes common in NC mountains
Yup, snake bite boots !
Gotta have them when walking in bushes...
Half chaps by the looks of it. Old school cowboy style leg wear
lots of love from England xxx Can we have more of these videos please x
Bascom did more to preserve our mountain mountain music than any other human that ever lived
How about Jean Ritchie?
I don’t believe I ever had the chance to hear Bascom, but I have heard Ritchie play many times. Thanks for mentioning her.
@@TheFolkRevivalProject She did her thing far and wide, while Bascom's thing was preserving the culture against the threats in its place of origin. So influential in every way, but more local.
Looks like a mountain style fiddle like the one my grandad carved with a jackknife when he was 12 in 1904 . My most beloved heirloom.
I was wondering about that, whether the shape was slightly different or if it was an artifact of the restoration of the video. Thank you for the information.
Yes making your own instruments was apparently not unusual. That's where the Appalachian Dulcimer (s) come from. One I own and play is leaf shaped, but some are oblong shaped.
@@pipfox7834 I've always wanted another chance to try the dulcimer . I love the instrument and often listen to John Mcutcheon .
I'd like to build one like this.
@@katendress6142 the mountain style fiddles tended to have the front almost as wide as the back . Hand mades often have the bow notches slightly offset so you dont have as much bow angle .
What a marvelous film, it's shot incredibly well for its time, and in general. The man was a natural director! A dancer, fiddler, director, lawyer, teacher and a song collector. How bout that?
Agree. They have a gun and an ax for props to set the stage. Nobody in Appalachia has these accoutrements sitting around the front stoop. Great theatre!
@@donriffle1634 Are the gun and axe props, or just tools that everyone used in 1928 Appalachia?
@@donriffle1634 They probably did in 1928. You know this was old because hardly anybody plays banjo without picks nowadays
@@donriffle1634are you seriously saying that people in 20’s Appalachia didn’t use guns or axes, or that they wouldn’t have them out on the porch for their own use??
@stephenschwenke720 singers often play banjo without picks as it's a softer sound. Especially if the voice is soft pitch like mine is. I did start out with picks but soon realised I could perform easier/sing and play better without. Admire anyone who can sing AND pick simultaneously...simpler songs I can do, but not tricky chord or rhythm changes!
I think if modern country music got back to its roots, I might listen to it again. Very good video!
Yes, I love this so much better!
My family’s roots run deep in Madison County! My family has lived at the bottom of Doggett Mountain since before the revolutionary war.
Spring Creek?
To record this was pioneering for the time. That’s amazing to me. To just be able to set up a camera and record some music is something we take for granted nowadays. Not so in 1928. What a real treat. Thank you!
I lived in the Appalachian Mountains in my early teenage years and was in love with blues and folk music. I jammed some acoustic blues and bluegrass on guitar and 5-string banjo. Mandolin, too. These ppl remind me a bit of my neighbors who sold fresh meat to everyone in town, I worked in the butcher shop. Learned exactly what scrapple is. Learned what mountain folk were like. I was always a bit outside, I was a city boy, tho i love the country. Anyhow, I've always been able to pick along with Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, and blues like Mississippi John Hurt, I was always surrounded by bluegrass fellas.
As a long time banjo player myself, i find it very interesting to note that the two banjo players are picking and not using stroke or , Clawhammer style. One is using two fingers the other uses three. I try to keep those picking styles alive by always teaching the basics of the Oldtime picking styles to all my Clawhammer students just so they’ll know them to pass on to others even though they may not prefer to use them themselves. Love the video. Thank you for posting.🪕❤️
My dad played banjo like these men do. When I first heard the strumming style I thought the player didn’t know banjo that well.
This was my immediate thought as well, especially since modern picking is so strongly attributed to Scruggs. It's really piqued my interest.
I use the oldtime two and three finger style for playing banjo, along with claw hammer. Claw hammer sounds fancy, but it really bottlenecks the type of music you can play on the banjo.
Great idea, good for you to pass on the knowledge. I've tried clawhammer style and it's difficult to get the hang of if you learned/got used to the standard picking style first.
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers were immensely popular during the 1920s. Charlie Poole was a 3-finger banjo picker!! His group, along with the Carter Family were the first huge recording stars of the fledgling recording industry, and early definers of 'Country Music.'
Clawhammer style is only one of many old-time styles and methods of playing banjo, although people wrongly assume it to be the main or only historical style.
Ragtime and jazz banjoists often used plectrum.
One of the greatest contributions I've seen on RUclips. This should have so many views. Now, imagine if these folks who are playing could have seen a film of people playing music almost a hundred years before them, about 1833 (this would be only four or five years before the first photograph to include a person). History is moving faster than we might notice. It's a short, crazy ride, man - enjoy it.
We have to go backwards we are heading for self destruction
True words.
🇦🇺 I'm from Australia and this music just sings to me, and i don't know why , i just love it 😁🇦🇺
Its origins are Scottish and Irish. Perhaps so are yours.
Same ethnicity. People from Wales, Scotland,Ireland.
We got the same roots, kinfolk.
@@Carma123Also the English from areas like...Cumberland, County Durham, Lancashire, Yorkshire etc...All moved in vast quantities in the 1700s, thats why the accent is why it is. Please fully do research unless you are American and we know you are a bit dimwitted so we forgive you 😉
@@ColonelNickSteel😁 can't be, there's none of you window lickers in out family tree 🙊
The guitarist and her banjo playing friend enter the scene. The fiddler greets the man by name and shakes his hand. The fiddler shakes the hand of the guitarist but neglects to greet the lady by name. She strums only the 4 highest (in pitch) strings of the guitar for the G and the D7. She does her job intently and smiles when the fiddler breaks out in an impromptu dance. Jut lovely to watch. ❤
That was proper. He wasn’t snubbing; he was showing deference. The etiquette until quite recently was for a man to let a woman decide if he could touch her. Her hand would be extended first, never his. A man was not supposed to reach to a woman. I kinda like the rule, especially for huggers!
Thank you so much for this very helpful insight into one aspect of 1920s American etiquette. @@deedebdoo ❤
@@deedebdooThat's correct. Women throughout history were generally treated like royalty, above men.
@@customsongmakerHAHAHAHAHHAAH that’s very funny, man. Social etiquette doesn’t tell you anything about how women were treated legally or behind closed doors.
@@maddieb.4282 American women currently have more legal rights and privileges than men. If you can't admit that, which we all see in front of us now, there's no use talking about the past either.
You believe that all women in the history of the world were so weak and inferior that they allowed their own sons to abuse them and treat them as property. Because you're sick.
This is what my grandma would've called "old-timey music", not yet bluegrass but a precursor to it. All my people were from KY and VA.
Corbin Ky here
@@Msfifisquarepantz My KY branch is from Ashland and Hi Hat.
One Grandma was from Breathitt County, Kentucky and the other Grandma was from McDowell County, West Virginia.
My grandparents on my father's side were from Floyd county, Kentucky.
That's correct. "Old Timey" is the actual name of pre bluegrass mountain music. I had an Old Timey guitar teacher at one time named Roy Berkeley. Roy made some important contributions to the study of Old Timey. You can find some of his music here on YT.
Well isn't this a priceless performance to get to experience before our very eyes! Mountain folks gettin' down, old school style! 💖 Makes me miss a time I never was a part of.
That's the feeling of being robbed cousin. Your heritage is being stolen from you.
True that! Thank God I was born Southern though! 😆 I'm an old soul, so I love all things from simpler, more normal times.
In this lifetime, anyway...
I always miss the 20s too.
One thing I noticed about these musicians is that they can modulate keys mid-measure seamlessly. amazing.
Also,he tells them the name of this new song of his,and they all know how to play it!
LOL
My great grandmother lived in the Appalachians in North Carolina and later in Tennessee but a lot of stories she would tell were of gatherings like these. Her dad would start playing on the porch and other musicians nearby would hear the sound from around the way and walk up to join in. There were unofficial banjo competitions near her and as a result a lot of songs like these would get passed down sometimes with different iterations or different ways of playing it. There was a story she’d even told once of an old man that had passed away and they’d held the funeral in their home for people to come by and pay their respects with the body on display before burial.
Funerals were usually held in the homes up untill 65 years ago in my family. Some were close to Atlanta, GA.
Like the simplified shape of that fiddle. It's gorgeous.
This is amazing! I’m glad I was able to watch this piece of history.
That fiddle player is triple threat.
Singin, dancin, n playin up a storm!
This snippet in time is a timeless gem :)
I have always loved Lunsford’s voice, particularly on “I Wish a Mole in the Ground.” This is simply an amazing gem of a recording.
I saw evidence to this in the early 2000"s, loved it, embraced it, cherished it. I am from Canada. Love your history.
The audio and video restoration is phenomenal
My grandpa brought a fiddle back from somewhere in Europe when he returned from serving as Cavalry in WWI - late first decade of the 1900s. He was already a relatively old man (30s) when he served. Anyway, the boots these guys are wearing in the film remind me of WWI riding boot and chaps, so I'd venture to say those boots stayed is style for at least a decade, until the time of this film in 1928. Interesting bit of history. Watching this I can also somewhat better picture in my mind him play his fiddle and maybe doing sort of this style music. As chance will have it my grandmother, his wife, played guitar too. Thanks for saving this treasure!
The young woman with the parlor guitar is quite fashionable.
I was just thinking how dainty she looked, but the wear patterns on her guitar show she has put in some heavy playing in her time - like Willie Nelson or Rory Gallagher!
Exposing a little ankle. Naughty little girl.
@@BaronVonMunchshes wearing stockings
@BaronVonMunch Creepy weirdo can’t even recognize ankle when he doesn’t see it…Go help your mom w rent
Wonderful i can look at these people play in the year 2024, thanks to this wonderful magical box that captures moving pictures!
What a privilege to be able to see this! Thank goodness there are still people who care enough to preserve such gems!
I grew up deep in the mountains of WV and was surrounded by this good music and the good people! I am very proud of my roots! Thank you for this channel!
Same here!
Huge bluegrass fan and am so grateful that this exists.
Grew up on this in the Adirondack Mountains.
Everyone looking their Saturday evening best. And a little demonstration of flat foot dancing to boot.
Great restoration!
Wonderful Historical Music. A blend of Irish and Scottish that was took to the America's from the European side of the Atlantic. I do hope one day I can visit that glorious area of these people . Also I admire the Clog dancers.
Best regards from Chester, England
If you get the chance you can come into North Carolina, Western Virginia and of course West Virginia where there are fairly famous festivals usually held in the Summertime! I have been to Clifftop in West Virginia and Galax in western Virginia!!! If you have been to the Scottish Higlands this land with its mountains and hollers will remind you a lot of that part of Scotland! I hope you get a chance to come across the pond!!! Peace out! ✌ 👍🙋♂
Come and stay and help us fix the mess. Our ancestors got out to build something, the rest stayed to fix what was. Still brothers and know when all falls run to the hills. It's in our blood and there's lots of people trying to get you to forget that m
Darling you'd be welcomed at so many hearths
Is there not an English influence also?
@@nicthemickatx Great comment. Perfectly stated.❤
Hermosa música y lindo recuerdo! Carlos, músico from Buenos Aires!
*_What a wonderful, rare treasure. So natural and completely unassuming ..._*
Taking a break from politics? :)
I am from East Tennessee, I live a few miles from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I grew up hearing this music, Everyone in my family plays an instrument, and our family get-togethers always feature music.
Such an amazing glimpse into this time! Awesome, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
WOW
This is fantastic that it is so well kept and exists...!
Film that is almost from 100 years ago, in the infancy of recording music/film, etc...
And the contraption recording this was was probably NOT compact and possibly acetate/wax, imagine all the troubles carrying it and managing it out in field!
THANKS for having this available 🥰 !
Stirs the the soul TY for posting and to those who added comments. Our ancestors live on in us. How I wish I kept playing, but I just kept reverting back to where my soul would take me to the irk of my mundane classical trained teachers: playing my grandfather’s violin stripped of its shoulder rest, joyfully hitting those fiddle tunes again and again determined not to let my fingers run away as my bowing tried to keep up. With a smile, I did notice the brakes the fiddler would take as he called and sang out his tune… very wise…
Really interesting to read these comments from those of you who understand this music in your heart. I love the feel of it and enjoy hearing you all discuss your area of the world and the culture you share. I feel privileged to stop in here for a visit. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
A fantastic piece of musical history that reminds us music is timeless and Blesses All both Far and Wide🤟🙏👍💯‼️
Wow, look at that rare corner-less fiddle! This is priceless video, thanks for sharing
I've always lived in Appalachia! Always will! Though I think I might go further south where it's warmer when I'm older! Right now I love livin in the northern panhandle of west Virginia!
You are very welcome here in the Deep South, just don't bring any of that Yankee sentiment down here! ;) Virginia used to be great.
My Dad played bluegrass music. He played the banjo, guitar, bass, & French Harp. This brings back so many good memories. I'm here in ne Oklahoma and I'm really enjoying y'alls music.
Llevo años siguiendo a Bascon Lamar música apalachense de los Estados de carolina N y S. Estas imágenes en color son preciosas. From Spain Bravo!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏
My entire family on dad's side were from Wilkes County and Alexander County in NC back to the early 1700s. It is amazing to hear that someone a hundred years ago was non-rhotic like the last generation of my family to be so, surviving in my aunt and uncle now that my father has passed. We have been in Georgia for a few generations but the accent stayed in them, sadly disappearing from the words spoken by my city educated cousins, my sister, and myself, and all of us are now in our 40s and 50s. As for the music, there is something that gives me a deep longing for home when I hear it, and of course, there is a reason. My ultimate dream is to get back there one day, somehow, to stay and to live out my days. Amen.
A treat. Getting to hear the accents, style, greetings, then tuning into playing, singing and dancing, getting close to time travel. Great to see.
Absolutely beautiful and priceless to see and hear this! God bless you all! ❤️
What a wonderful treasure this collection. I sure do love this music and the folk dancing that sends me back to my lost world. I want to get back to what matters most.
A window into the past. Hard to believe that the house I live in was already 17yrs old when this was filmed.
Inspiring music that still lives in our hearts.
So sorry for the infringe on your privacy. Beautiful song. Hello
My family is from Southern West Virginia I need to explore my culture some more...
Always love Appalachian music and culture. Greetings from Indonesia.
Fantastic! Five string banjo player here, from Australia. Motivates me to get back to playing again, so much fun- thanks for uploading.
Bascon Lamar lusdorf. Principe de los Apalaches folk de Carolina N S . Lo Estudié hace 10 años Es un icono de la música Este. From Espain , Extremadura . Un saludo.👏👏👏👏
Absolutely beautiful. Each instrument plays an important role in this wonderful language.
Personen die deze muziek en dans voor toekomstige generaties hebben vastgelegd verdienen alle lof! Er is niets mooiers dan bij elkaar komen om muziek te maken, te dansen of te luisteren ❤
Love it. This is as authentic as it get. Respect to these pioneers from New Zealand.
I feel so happy to be able to watch this kind of old musical footages, a window to the distant past.
Merci du partage! Ce n'est pas d'hier ce genre de musique! Un autre temps, une autre époque, l'entre deux guerres. Jolie musique! Stéph.
It's the first ever film of Appalachian music. What you see on RUclips is the transfert to video.
This is wonderful!! My grandfather who played the fiddle and his two oldest sons played guitars. They would play for local dances.
So very much has changed in 105 years... Proud to have known such family before the future arrived.🙏
What a fantastic contribution to RUclips., I really enjoyed the rare glimpse into time and across cultures. Being a music lover of this genre was icing on the cake. Subscribed.
I very much enjoyed watching this and wondering about the personal lives of the people here. I am impressed with the lady playing the guitar. How she sits so still without tapping her foot at all yet keeps perfect time amazes the viewer. The music is uplifting. It reminds me of my neighbor who used to blast this type of music while working on his cars. He fought in Dessert Storm and is buried in Saratoga National after passing too young in 2016 from complications of Agent Orange. Oddly enough I was already thinking of him today as I was there earlier for another neighbors funeral. When he played his “pickin hillbilly music” as we’d call it, he was always happy. He lost his memory in his frontal lobe and the last time I saw him he came running down the driveway happy to see me again when I was visiting my Mom. This music will always remind me of Bobby Wolcott. I’m glad I saw this. Thank you for sharing it!!
Astounding footage thank you so much from a music historian this is the kind of time capsule I love.
✌️❤️🎶
This is so cool! Nearly 100 years ago!! Oh, how things have changed.
That lady is digging on that guitar like a banjo.... Awesome 😎 stuff.
So sorry for the infringe on your privacy. Beautiful song. Hello
To actually see then-young musicians playing the music we hear on 78s is thrilling. Thank you for posting this.
I'm so proud of these people. My people❤
I'm proud these are my people
I live in Swannanoa which is just outside of Asheville. Im from Alabama, and my PawPaw always used to play bluegrass. The first time my parents came to visit me in NC, they stayed at a cabin on Doggett Mountain. I had no idea about this song. I feel so connected to bluegrass in general, but this song is so cool to me because of my experience with my parents.
It’s always been said that Earl Scruggs introduced the three finger roll style of Banjo picking but, that video was made in 1929, pretty sure that was before his time
It's been said by people who don't really know. Scrugg's style has a very particular rhythm and flow to it which defined the bluegrass picking style, but the three finger style and forward roll predate him by some time. It seems relatively common around the North Carolina region, to my knowledge.
@@ProfesserLuigi interesting, thanks.
@@indus7841 Notable examples are Charlie Poole and Snuffy Jenkins. Uncle Dave Macon also does some three finger picking but it's closer in origin to the classic banjo and minstrel styles, to my knowledge.
It's called clawhammer picking Scruggs style is just the hybrid of that
@@eternallife9786clawhammer style is characterized by downward strokes with the fingers curled so that the face of the nails strike the strings.
From what I can see, especially in the close up at the end, neither player is playing clawhammer. Nor is Scruggs style a variant of clawhammer.
My Dad listened to Blue Grass. Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs were two. This reminds me of that. We used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry
What a precious sweet time to live.
I’m from The Peeks of Otter, my grandaddy played the banjo on the porch in summer evenings.
Granny said “great day in the morning” and “lawd have mercy”.
We moved a lot dad was usaf I don’t have an accent but talked to my cousin and it doesn’t take long for me to “well, my god” and I’m “ya’lling” all over the place.
This is incredible footage.
People just played for the joy of playing music. Wonderful.
Love the diversity of American music. I wish music stations and record companies were mindful of the same. Variety
Love Appalachian music
From New York
Living in Caribbean now
Appalachian music just makes me feel happy
When I would go to lundford music in oak ridge TN it was an education. I play 40s jump swing now at 67 yrs of age. Great video
This is beautiful, emotional music. Stirs up my soul. Back from a time of true culture.
Simply brilliant and there are many other films created by Lansford, a man with an eye for posterity. Note the rifle nearby. 😊
Here are the lyrics. It would be great if people could help fill in the gaps!
1:26 Runnin' and hollerin' around by the _____________________________ Dogget's Gap
1:37 Breaking up the ground and I pull a pinch of________ I'm a-getting something started in the Dogget's Gap
1:49 Walnut bark and walnut sap, colors of the stockings in the Doggett's Gap
2:08 The old man's a-cussin' but I don't give a rap 'cause the women wear the britches in the Doggett's Gap.
2:20 Run home, boys, and carry on, pap, I'm a-goin' a start cussin' in the Dogget's Gap
2:38 I reined up a filly and I give a little rap, and I rid it like the devil through the Doggett's Gap
2:46 Got a bad feist and a-fetchin' it to yell, and the boys'll run like a bat outta hell
2:57 I've got a girl in the Doggett's Gap, she don't mind a-sittin' in her sweetheart's lap
Podnuh, you gotta be an Appalachian to understand him!😁👍
@2:49 run like a bat out of hell
**Running and hollering down by the gap, while my bride stay sitting in the Doggetts Gap
Got a bad feist and a fetching it to yell*
the first line is hard to hear but the only thing that makes sense is "Runnin' and hollerin' around by the Gap, while my bride stay sitting in Doggett's Gap".
An old boy out a place i used to work, he invited me out to listen to some old men playin them old songs out in a shack... Sounded like this.
This music originates in the British Isles. When it came to America, it developed into many, many other types of music we all know today.
bless the folks who restored this!
Appalachian music shared from U.K. Thank you for the share😊
I can't fiddle and sing at the same time either. That's a rung up the ladder I will never reach. I salute all of you who can.
What an absoulute delight to discover this treasure in 2023. Thank you from New Zealand.
My mother grew up in the hills of Kentucky and my cousin and I sing this music today. Hart Holler
It reminds me of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" by John Denver. Maybe he was inspired by this music. Almost certainly.
I graduated in Texas 2001 and went to the mountains of North Carolina with a friend from Marion NC for a month. It was amazing.