The first ever film of Appalachian music (1928) "Doggett Gap" - Bascom Lamar Lunsford [RESTORED]

[Uncle Joe]

This is a video of Bascom Lamar Lunsford (fiddle and vocals) and three other musicians (guitar and banjo) singing a song called "Doggett Gap" recorded in Ashville, North Carolina on October 7th, 1928.

"Doggett Gap" seems very similar to the more famous "Cumberland Gap", so it could simply be a variation of Cumberland Gap with an alternate title. • Tommy Jarrell: Cumberland Gap (1983)

You can see Lunsford playing a fragment of either "Cumberland Gap" or "Doggett Gap" in 1964 at the age of 81 here: • He Sang This Bluegrass/Mountain Song ...

Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882-1973) was a hugely influential figure in twentieth century Appalachian music. Here is a documentary about him: • My Classic Bluegrass/Mountain Music S...

The video was filmed in the inaugural year of the Asheville Mountain Folk and Dance Festival, which continues to this day and is considered the first ever “folk festival”. "Doggett Gap" is the name of a mountain pass in North Carolina, just 25 miles from Asheville.

The fragment at 5:19 is "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane".

I added artificial color with an automatic online tool, and improved the audio to remove background noise.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Must have been a wild Prohibition down there

[patricia92243]

2. Thanks for posting this. I had only seen pictures of him as an old, old man.

It was fun seeing his cute grin. I loved having the color added.

[LastDemocratInSC]

3. My father worked with Mr Lunsford in the 1930s.

My father was an engineer at WWNC radio in Asheville at the time and made many of Lunsford's on-location audio recordings. They used film, as shown above, and wire recording which matured over time into tape recording technology. I have a wire recorder from that era. It's no longer usable, if course, but it's an interesting item nonetheless.

[mitch96]

4. This is way cool. Love that kind of music. The only problem was I could not understand what they were saying

I had to put on closed caption!!!!!
When I saw the movie "Sargent York" with Gary Cooper I thought they were a bit "heavy" with the mountain accent..Boy was I wrong..
Thanks for the vid...
m