Samantha Bumgarner
"Aunt" Samantha Bumgarner (October 31, 1878 – December 24, 1960), born Sarah Samantha Biddix in Tennessee, was an American early country and folk music performer and singer from Dillsboro, North Carolina. She was the daughter of Hazleton "Haz" Biddix, a locally known fiddler, who bought her her first 5-string banjo. She won much praise for her work with the fiddle and banjo. In 1902, at the age of 23, she married a 40-year-old man named Carson "Carse" Bumgarner, who encouraged her musical career, and bought her a fiddle. In 1924, accompanied by guitarist Eva Davis, she traveled to New York City and recorded about a dozen songs for Columbia Records. The recordings are also notable for being the first use of a 5-string banjo on a recording. She was a yearly headliner at Bascom Lamar Lunsford's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival from 1928 until shortly before her death.
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