Samuel Preston Bayard was born April 10, 1908, in Pittsburgh, PA and died January 10, 1997, in State College, PA.  He was an American folklorist and musicologist best known for his interest in the melodies of traditional music at a time when often only the text portion was collected.  He introduced the concept of "melodic families," (groups of tunes that appear to be structurally related) and traced the origin of many traditional American fiddle tunes back to the British Isles.  Bayard established the folklore program at Pennsylvania State University, and taught there from 1945 to 1973.  From 1928-1963 though, he collected fiddle and fife tunes throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia.

​

Dunbar’s musical heritage was memorialized, when Bayard came to Dunbar in the early 1940s to interview local musicians. Those interviews are included in his book, Hill Country Tunes: Instrumental Folk Music of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Bayard's book was devoted exclusively to American folk tunes and the history of the music.

He found in Dunbar "a love of traditional music and song, more intense than in surrounding neighborhoods.” Here, it seems, were families in unusual numbers who had vivid memories of folk musicians of bygone days. They not only possessed the memories of these former musicians, but were, in fact, their descendants. He states that Dunbar, along with the surrounding villages, "had more that its share of fiddlers, singers, fifers and musical families, in which several members played, sang and shared this inherited folk art…often getting together for informal concerts and dances." The musical families included the Lowrys, Hughes, Martins, Devans, Smitleys, Provances, Yaughers, Bryners, Wingroves, Gilpins, McClains and Ahrenburgs. 

The Pennsylvania State University has a digitized collection of Bayard's recordings that can be listened to on YouTube.