David Robinson honored with Lunsford Award: 'Exceptional musician and human being'

MARS HILL - The second longest-tenured folk music festival in Western North Carolina was held Sept. 23 at Mars Hill University and honored people who immensely helped to grow music in Madison County.

The Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival is an all-day festival celebrating regional music and dance traditions held at Mars Hill University. The event is named in honor of the musician and folklorist who dedicated his life to collecting and promoting the music of the Southern Appalachians.

Each year, the festival honors a local resident for their impact on music or dance in Western North Carolina, including in 2022 when the festival bestowed its Lunsford Award on fiddler Bobby Hicks.

This year, the festival honored former Madison High principal David Robinson, who died Jan. 25, 2022 after suffering a stomach aneurysm while helping load buses.

Robinson's wife, Wanda, was on hand to receive the reward Sept. 23.

"We have been very proud to accept this prestigious award on behalf of David," Wanda Robinson said. "He would be humbled and honored to be recognized and receive the Lunsford Award. For David to be recognized in the same category as those who have previously received this honor would have been quite the privilege and thrill for him. He would have been humbly elated."

Mars Hill resident Dana Carter, a mandolin player, made music with Robinson for more than 13 years.

"We've been playing down at (former Lunsford Award winner) Doug Phillips' cabin on Sunday mornings prior to church for over 20 years," Carter told The News-Record. "We nicknamed it, lovingly, 'Sunday School.'"

The band, Southern Heritage, was in the past composed of Phillips, Robinson, Carter and her husband, Chris Carter. On Sept. 23, the band was joined by Robinson's son, Alex, Robinson's son-in-law, Sammy Adams, and local guitarist Rudy Cortese.

Carter said she hand-picked a handful of Robinson's favorite songs prior to the band's performance of them, announcing them to the crowd.

"It was very, very moving," Carter said. "After losing him, it was just a punch in the gut for all of us at the cabin, because this was a Sunday monring thing that went on without fail. We all kind of dropped what we were doing in our daily lives to make sure that we had that hour to two hours down at Doug's cabin every week, just to center ourselves.

"So, to honor him and to have his name spoken again out loud after losing him so suddenly, it was just a beautiful, beautiful thing."

According to Carter, Robinson's musical talents were extraordinary.

"I don't know that there was anything that he was not talented at, musically," Carter said of Robinson, who also served as music director at Gabriel's Creek Baptist Church. "He could play the piano, and he taught several young girls to harmonize and to sing in churches, and they traveled all over the country doing that, in addition to his gospel group Homeward Bound, and with us.

"Any instrument that he picked up, it seemed that he could pick up naturally, and it just flowed right through him."

Mars Hill resident Roger Howell met Robinson when Howell's wife and Robinson's mother worked together at MHU.

In 2015, Howell was recognized by North Carolina Folklore Society with the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award, recording almost 700 fiddle tunes from memory — a “Memory Collection,” which is housed in the Ramsey Center’s Southern Appalachian Archives.

Howell presented the family with the Lunsford Award at the Sept. 23 ceremony.

"It was just a great honor for me to do it," said Howell, who at one point served as Lunsford Festival committee chair.

"To be asked to honor him was pretty nice. I just wish we could have done it while he was here.

Like Carter, Howell said Robinson could pick up any instrument and be proficient on it, recalling when Robinson bought a fiddle from a pawn shop and seeking the services of Howell, who repairs fiddles.

"He started playing the fiddle 10 or 15 years ago, and he bought one and brought it into me for me to rebuild it with modern strings," Howell said. "He jumped all over that. He could play the guitar just like Eric Clapton, or he could play the old mountain stuff, like Carter Family. But gospel music, that was his big thing. He was just an amazing musician."

Robinson's quest to learn different instruments was tied to his affinity for mountain music and culture, according to those who knew him best.

"David’s desire was to keep the traditions of mountain music and heritage alive and flourishing," Wanda Robinson said. "His love of music, heritage and community kept him continually learning and growing in his musical repertoire."

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Though his curiosity always led him to strive for more knowledge and more mastery of additional instruments, Robinson's musical ability was always seemingly innate, according to Howell, who has played guitar for more than 60 years and used to host open jams with Bobby Hicks at Zuma Coffee.

"He was an exceptional musician, and an exceptional human being," Howell said. "He cared a lot about the young folks. Apparently, a lot of the folks appreciated what I said because they said they didn't know that Dr. Robinson had all that background in music.

"I said, 'Well, he's done stuff that I don't even know about it.' He sat down and played the piano one day, and I had no idea he played the piano. He just wore it completely out. He took lessons years ago, apparently. But he knew music. He could read it. See, traditional musicians don't read music, they just play it by ear down through the families, it's handed down, and they just play fiddle tunes and all that. But he could read music and do it all. I guess you could say he had a leg up on most of us."

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Wanda Robinson said her husband's impact on others would have only expanded, as he was always paying it forward with his talents.

"The possibilities were seemingly endless as to the extent his talents would grow," Wanda Robinson said. "He was always learning, always leading and ever seeking to make lives better for those around him."

Howell said though he misses his friend, he trusts he will be able to sit and play some tunes with him again.

"I just wish we could pick a tune again here one of these days, but I imagine we will down the road," Howell said.

Johnny Casey is the Madison County communities reporter for The News-Record & Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jcasey@newsrecordandsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Former Madison High principal Robinson honored with Lunsford Award