Boyden Carpenter
| Boyden Carpenter | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Hildred Boyden Summit |
| Also known as | "The Original Hill Billy Kid" |
| Born | February 26, 1909 |
| Origin | Fries, Virginia, US |
| Died | May 25, 1995 (aged 86) |
| Genres | Bluegrass, Bluegrass gospel, Hillbilly |
| Occupation(s) | Bluegrass artist |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1930s–1940s |
Boyden Carpenter (1909–1995) was a Hillbilly and Bluegrass artist active in the 1930s and 1940s in the United States.[1][2][3]
Personal
Carpenter was born February 26, 1909 in Fries, Grayson County, Virginia and was raised in Pipers Gap, Carroll County, Virginia[4] and Sparta and Cherry Lane in Alleghany County, North Carolina.[1][2][3] He died May 25, 1995 at Cherryville, Gaston County, North Carolina.[3] Carpenter was his adopted surname—he was born to John W. and Mary E. Summit but was using his stepfather's surname by 1930.[5]
Musical career
In 1930, Carpenter was working in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, as a musician in an orchestra.[5] Billing himself as "The Hill Billy Kid," he began playing with several bands, including Wade Mainer's Sons of The Mountaineers, Bill Monroe's Monroe Brothers, and the Crazy Water Crystals-sponsored[6] "Crazy Water Barn Dance" show band in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1][3][7]
He had his greatest musical success in the mid-1930s working at WPTF radio station in Raleigh, North Carolina, touring with the "Grandfather of Bluegrass, Wade Mainer and his Sons of the Mountaineers band and Bill Monroe's Monroe Brothers,[1] and playing with Ernest Thompson.[8]
The William Leonard Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina preserves a photograph of Carpenter with his guitar and "The 'Hill Billy' from Alleghany County" guitar case found in a book titled Boyden Carpenter: The Old Gospel Singer.[3] A 1930s booklet entitled Boyden Carpenter: The Original "Hillbilly Kid", which relates his life story and lyrics to his songs, also survives.[9]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Bob Carlin: String Bands in the North Carolina Piedmont, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, N.C., 2004, https://books.google.com/books?id=2xfOMgDFHNwC&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=hillbilly+kid+boyden&source=bl&ots=krQhcJPMJx&sig=c1E7c0Mbrzi7IpBqIjC7DFWJZUM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9sTRT6f6A-yJ6gHb3fz9Ag&ved=0CEoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=hillbilly%20kid%20boyden&f=false.
- 1 2 Dick Spottswood: Banjo on the Mountain: Wade Mainer's First Hundred Years, American Made Music Series, The University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Miss., pp. 7, 54, 55, https://books.google.com/books?id=gJOB905mzdQC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=hillbilly+kid+boyden&source=bl&ots=5Jvv8sjzO7&sig=iBa64wlWti3jBgExzfHY9BxGjfc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9sTRT6f6A-yJ6gHb3fz9Ag&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=hillbilly%20kid%20boyden&f=false.
- 1 2 3 4 5 W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Guide to Collection 333. Boyden Carpenter Photograph, c. 1930, Belk Library Special Collections, Appalachian Collection, Closed Collection, Small Collections, http://www.library.appstate.edu/appcoll/ead2002/temp/coll333.htm/, accessed June 9, 2012.
- ↑ US Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Feature Detail Report for: Pipers Gap, http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=132:3:3889338600353731::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:1472430%2CPipers%20Gap, accessed June 9, 2012.
- 1 2 United States of America, Bureau of the Census: Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930, T626.
- ↑ Famous Mineral Water Company: Crazy From The Start!, http://www.famouswater.com/story.aspx, accessed June 9, 2012.
- ↑ Sjef Hermans: Tell Me Where Have All The Hoboes Gone; To Hobo Songs in American Roots Music, http://www.champagnecharlie.nl/nieuws2011/hobo_verhaal.pdf, 2011, accessed June 9, 2012.
- ↑ Carolina Music Ways: 1920s – 1930s: Northwest Piedmont Stringband Musicians in the Dawn of Hillbilly Recordings, http://www.carolinamusicways.org/history_1920s.html, accessed June 9, 2012.
- ↑ Worthopedia: Boyden Carpenter Hillbilly Kid Cherry Lane NC Booklet, http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/boyden-carpenter-hillbilly-kid-cherry-170451473, accessed June 9, 2012.