| Boyden Carpenter | |
| Birth Name: | Hildred Boyden Summit |
| Alias: | "The Original Hill Billy Kid" |
| Birth Date: | 26 February 1909 |
| Origin: | Fries, Virginia, US |
| Instrument: | Guitar |
| Genre: | Bluegrass, Bluegrass gospel, Hillbilly |
| Occupation: | Bluegrass artist |
| 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]
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]
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]