He avoided music with racy or controversial lyrics. ... thoy felt he had been cured by a faith healer. Because of his interest in preservation, Lunsford also enjoyed children’s ballads, slave spirituals, and parlor songs. Like so many folk tunes, these told strange, elliptical stories, dense with images, exploding with emotion. The Bascom family lived in Boscombe, Wiltshire where one reference from 1273 … Some of the most famous tunes he popularized were “Jesse James,” “I Wish I Were a Mole in the Ground,” and “Mountain Dew.” His first sessions were in 1922 when he recorded 32 tunes on wax cylinders for a song collector. He and his brother Blackwell were accomplished fiddlers by their teens, and they often performed for neighbors and at school entertainments. The Bascom Lamar Lunsford "Minstrel of Appalachia" Festival is the second oldest folk festival in the region and was started in 1967. He worked in a variety of jobs as a young man, including a fruit tree … Bascom Lamar Lunsford, performer and collector of folk music and organizer of folk festivals, was born in Mars Hill, Madison County. Pioneered and promoted American folk festivals. Today, Lunsford is remembered as a one of the true musical treasures to emerge out of the Southern Appalachians. Bascom Lamar Lunsford at The Hoffman Collection, Mars Hill College Readies for the 43 Annual Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival. ...; Lunsford, Lunsford, Lunsford, Jones (born Lunsford), Lunsford,