According to The Folk Revival Project, this colorized film shows "Bascom Lamar Lunsford (fiddle and vocals) and three other musicians (guitar and banjo) performing a song called 'Doggett Gap,' recorded in Asheville, North Carolina on October 7th, 1928."
In 1965, a young man named David Hoffman read an article in Time magazine about Bascom Lamar Lunsford and was so inspired that he traveled to North Carolina to make his first documentary, "Music Makers of the Blue Ridge." Hoffman writes:
I went to National Educational Television (NET) and pitched them on my making a documentary about a fellow who I had read about in Time Magazine – Bascom Lamar Lunsford, the founder of the Asheville Mountain music and dance Festival, 81 years old, a music collector and performer and songwriter loved in the region.
The NET man in charge gave me $7000 to make a one hour television special. I had never done anything like that. I had never held a 16mm camera will long zoom lens (and you can see some of the results of my zooming and focusing in the finished film).
When the film got finished I called it music makers of the Blue Ridge. It ran in the prime time. It garnered a full page review in TV Guide and it started my career. Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a wonderful, kind and generous man who treated me with such respect considering my age and experience and the fact that I spent just about six weeks on the road with him meeting some of the folks he was going to cast as talent for his Music Festival.
I didn't know then that I was recording American Appalachian music and dance history. Many viewers have commented on the incredible clog dancing scene presented in this film. It was incredible. We rolled up the rug and Bascom's home, added a few lights, invited a few local friends and Bascom, the great entrepreneur that he was, made it all happen. I danced with a 49 pound camera and battery not knowing that the results would be visible for more than 50 years and touch so many.
