Robert Brunk: b. 1942, d. 2026

“Bob Brunk (b. 1942–2026) was, for many years, a western NC singer. He wrote two books about western NC and one of them had a small section on shapenote singing and Quay Smathers. I last saw him some years ago (before Covid) at the Singing on the River in Marshall. He did not lead, but by then he was unwell from MS and did not stay the whole day. He was astonished at the number of songs we sang that he did not know—because by then we had singers who wanted to have sung every song in the book, and when Bob was active in singing there were only about 20 songs that anyone knew. It may well have been the debut singing from the Folk Heritage 2015 edition.”

(notes from Mary Baumeister, 2026-06)

Special mentions at singings