“Smoky Mt. Ballads” – Bascom Lamar Lunsford

Album: Smoky Mt. Ballads

Artist: Bascom Lamar Lunsford

Year: 1953

Genre: Appalachian Folk

Grade: A-

Bascom Lamar Lunsford, over age 70, released Smoky Mt. Ballads as a final tribute to the ancient mountain music he’d compiled, cultivated and perfected throughout his career. He sounds just as good here as he did back in his prime, when Top 1920s songs like “Dry Bones” and “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground” defined the sound of Appalachian folk.

An 8-song collection of misty vocals and clawhammer banjo, Smoky Mt. Ballads is a testament to Lunsford’s authenticity: hillbilly blues bottled straight from the source. His music sounded old when it was first released three decades earlier; it sounds just as old here. The true definition of timelessness.

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