Musician. Sarah Samantha Biddix Bumgarner was born in 1878 in Dillsboro, North Carolina. Her father, Has Biddix, was a fiddle player of local renown, and by the time she was fifteen she was playing a 5-string banjo, becoming one of the first women to play mountain music. Like Fiddlin' John Carson or Uncle Dave Macon, Samantha Bumgarner came to a career in music later in life, as commercial country music was just getting off the ground. She first recorded in 1924 with Eva Davis, and those early recordings were some of the first to feature five-string banjo. From 1928 to 1959, she participated in Bascom Lamar Lunsford's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, which kept her in the public eye, and developed a following that included local players as well as folk scholars and performers such as Pete Seeger. She was one of several mountain musicians to perform for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the King and Queen of England. By the time of her death in 1960, she had achieved an iconic status in the folk and mountain music communities.
Musician. Sarah Samantha Biddix Bumgarner was born in 1878 in Dillsboro, North Carolina. Her father, Has Biddix, was a fiddle player of local renown, and by the time she was fifteen she was playing a 5-string banjo, becoming one of the first women to play mountain music. Like Fiddlin' John Carson or Uncle Dave Macon, Samantha Bumgarner came to a career in music later in life, as commercial country music was just getting off the ground. She first recorded in 1924 with Eva Davis, and those early recordings were some of the first to feature five-string banjo. From 1928 to 1959, she participated in Bascom Lamar Lunsford's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, which kept her in the public eye, and developed a following that included local players as well as folk scholars and performers such as Pete Seeger. She was one of several mountain musicians to perform for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the King and Queen of England. By the time of her death in 1960, she had achieved an iconic status in the folk and mountain music communities.
Bio by: George S. Ellington
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