Strings Attached: Fiddles and Banjos

Musician Roger Howell teaching elementary school children on Bailey Mountain in Mars Hill, NC. (Photograph by Darian Smathers)

Samantha Bumgarner (1878-1960), from Jackson County, North Carolina, holding a banjo. (Image courtesy of the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Scrapbook, Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University)

Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882-1873), born in Mars Hill, North Carolina, holding a fiddle. (Image courtesy of the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Scrapbook, Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University)

(Image courtesy of the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Scrapbook, Southern Appalachian Archives, Mars Hill University)

By MHU students Daniel Loredo, Raegan Metcalf, and Darian Smathers

The instruments of bluegrass and old-time bands feel like they were always meant to play together. The banjos, fiddles, guitars, and mandolins blend together and create a full-bodied sound. However, it’s fascinating to think that each of these instruments comes from their own history, and were not always played together. Rather, they were brought together over time to create the sound that we know today. The stories we tell about these instruments each impact the legacy of the instruments and music as a whole.

Historically, the banjo is an African-American instrument. The banjo was thought to have been based, loosely, on the akonting, a traditional West African instrument. The akonting typically features a gourd for its base, a stretched animal skin, and three strings (Allen, The Banjo’s Roots). Most modern banjos are slightly different, using a drum for the base and having five strings. Banjos are typically played in mountain music, making the music and the instrument almost inseparable.

Rhiannon Giddens is a world-renowned banjo player, and a highly accomplished American musician celebrated for her versatile talents in traditional and classical music genres. Giddens has played a pivotal role in revitalizing and preserving traditional African-American music. Beyond her skills on the banjo and fiddle, her powerful vocals and commitment to exploring the roots of American music have earned her credit as a respected artist in contemporary folk and root music scenes. In Kristina Gaddy's book Well of Souls, Giddens says, “The banjo is the quintessential American instrument and an object in our material culture that can tell us the story of the United States. The banjo did not exist before it was created by the hands of enslaved people in the New World ” (Gaddy, xvi). Banjos can serve as a unifying force in society, providing a shared platform for people from diverse backgrounds to appreciate both the historical significance and the musical richness they embody.

The fiddle was introduced to North America in the seventeenth century and travelled here to western North Carolina with settlers in the late 18^th century (Library of Congress). Structurally the same as a violin, the fiddle is often played with a flatter bridge to allow for different sounds and playing styles. It’s the same instrument, but some fiddle players like a flatter bridge so that they can hit multiple strings at one time. There are many famous fiddle players from Western North Carolina, including some from right here in Madison County: Tommy Hunter, Arvil Freeman, and Roger Howell (Blue Ridge Music Trails).

Old time, mountain, and bluegrass fiddlers play with many different techniques; Roger Howell uses a long bow technique and ornaments his playing with with double stops, which allow him to hit more than one string at once. This is a style that he has been able to pass on to the new generations (Furgiuele). When talking about Howell, Joe Penland (a local ballad singer) says “I think if you listen to the roots of his music, it’s from here… we don’t hear people play like this anymore” (Furgiuele). Howell also works on things such as the Roger Howell Memory Collection at MHU’s Southern Appalachian Archives, a project that has allowed him to record hundreds of pieces of mountain music. Director of Mars Hill University’s Southern Appalachian Archives Dr. Karen Paar says of Howell, “He’s an exceptional musician. I mean, that could be enough, really, for most people, to be such an accomplished musician, but to now set it down into this memory collection, it will live on” (Furgiuele).

There is a lot of love that goes into each of these instruments, and some of that love is shown through the craftsmanship or preservation of the history surrounding these beloved instruments. The traditions also continue through the individuals who care enough to keep them alive. One such person is Patrick Sawyer, the founder of Pisgah Banjos. He wants to keep the tradition of making banjos close to its roots and uses native hardwoods. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, another Madison County native, was crucial in keeping and collecting musical traditions in the area. Without people like him, music traditions like the banjo and the fiddle wouldn’t be well-documented or as thriving as they are. Lunsford also has a festival in his honor on Mars Hill University’s campus each fall, allowing these traditions to thrive for generations to come. 

Works Cited

Allen, Greg. “The Banjo’s Roots, Reconsidered.” NPR, NPR, 23 Aug. 2011,

Blue Ridge Music Trails. “Old Time Fiddle.” Blue Ridge Music Trails, 15 Dec. 2021, 

Furgiuele, Hannah. A Mighty Fine Memory: Stories and Tunes from the Fiddler of Banjo Branch . The Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies, 2015.

Gaddy, Kristina R. Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History. National Geographic  Books, 2022.

Library of Congress. “The Historical and Cultural Significance of Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier." The Henry Reed Collection. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.