Our Singing Country: Folk Songs and Ballads

by John A. Lomax (Editor), Alan Lomax (Editor)

Overview

In the 1930s and 40s, a father-and-son team of folklorists hit the highways, byways and rural routes of the United States, traveling in a battered pickup truck laden with primitive recording equipment. John A. Lomax and his son, Alan, covered thousands of miles, stopping off at tarpaper shacks, juke joints, prison yards, and other out-of-the-way places to listen to native singers and to record them for the Library of Congress archives. The Lomaxes made over 10,000 field recordings, and from this vast collection they compiled a hugely successful series of anthologies, beginning with the widely acclaimed American Ballads and Folk Songs in 1934. That collection was followed by the present volume in 1941.
Here are the music and words to some 200 songs recorded at the state penitentiary in Milledgeville, Georgia, in Michigan lumber camps, Louisiana rice fields, on Western cattle trails, and in many other locales around the nation. A beguiling mix of the familiar and the rare, the tunes range from spirituals and other songs of faith to chain-gang work chants and field hollers, as well as game songs, lullabies, courting songs, Cajun airs, breakdowns, and many more. Well-known standards such as "Hush Li'l' Baby," "Old Blue," "John Henry," and "Jack o' Diamonds" appear alongside less-familiar tunes, including "The Lady Who Loved a Swine," "You Kicked and Stomped and Beat Me," and the miners' lament, "Oh, My Liver and My Lungs."
This new edition features an informative introduction by award-winning author Judith Tick, a faculty member at Northeastern University. Notes on tune origins, two indexes, and an extensive bibliography round out this important archive of authentic folk songs and ballads.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486410890
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	02/08/2000
Series:	Dover Books on Music Series
Edition description:	Unabridged
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.68(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.93(d)

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION
INTRODUCTION TO THE 1941 EDITION
PREFACE
MUSIC PREFACE
EXPLANATION OF HEADNOTES
I RELIGIOUS SONGS
  1. NEGRO SPIRITUALS
      "Prayer-This evening, our Father"
      Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves
      Samson
      The Man of Calvary
      Job
      John Done Saw That Number
      John Was A-Writin'
      Dem Bones
      The Blood-Strained Banders
      God Moves on the Water
      God Don't Like It
      Soon One Mornin' Death Come Creepin'
      I Feel Like My Time Ain't Long
      "If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?"
      Choose You a Seat 'n' Set Down
      Low Down Chariot
  2. WHITE RELIGIOUS SONGS
      Over Jordon
      "Oh, Lovely Appearance of Death"
      The Romish Lady
  3. THE HOLINESS PEOPLE
      Keep Your Hands on That Plow
      The Little Black Train
      Holy Ghost
II. SOCIAL SONGS
  1. WHITE DANCE TUNES
      Bonyparte
      Callahan
      "Hop Up, My Ladies"
      Ducks in the Millpond
      Lynchburg Town
      Jinny Git Around
      King William Was King George's Son
      Had a Little Fight in Mexico
      The Bank of Arkansaw
  2. NEGRO GAME SONGS
      Ladies in the Dinin' Room
      You Turn for Sugar an' Tea
      Johnnie Bought a Ham
      "Little Bird, Go Through My Window"
      Sally Go Round the Sunshine
      Don't You Like It?
      Cocky Doodle Doodle Doo
      "Kitty, Kitty Casket"
  3. BAHAMAN NEGRO SONGS
      The Wind Blow East
      "Biddy, Biddy"
      Never Get a Lickin' Til I Go Down to Bimini
      Married Man Gonna Keep Your Secret
      A Wasp Bite Nobi on Her Conch-Eye
      Don't You Hurry Worry with Me
      Round the Bay of Mexico
      When de Whale Get Strike
      Dig My Grave
  4. LULLABIES
      Mamma's Gone to the Mail Boat
      "Ol' Hag, You See Mammy?"
      Daddy Shot a Bear
      "Hush, L'i'l' Baby"
      Crabe dans Calalou
      Mary Was a Red Bird
      Cotton Eye Joe
  5. WHOPPERS
      Billy Barlow
      The Crooked Gun
      The Ram of Darby
      The Lady Who Loved a Swine
      Toll-a-Winker
      The Marrowbone Itch
      Old Blue
      Wunst I Had an Old Gray Mare
      Hog Rogues on the Harricane
      Cod Liver Ile
      Tom Bolyn
  6. COURTING SONGS
      The Bachelor's Lay
      Kate Dorey
      Johnny McCardner
      Lolly Too-Dum
      "Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man?"
      Jennie Jenkins
      Married Me a Wife
      Old Shoes and Leggin's
      Blue Bottle
      Devilish Mary
      Do Come Back Again
      My Old True Love
      "Fare Ye Well, My Darlin'"
      I've Rambled This Country Both Earlye and Late
      East Virginia
      Long Lonesome Road
      Little Bonny
  7. OLD-TIME LOVE SONGS
      Old Bangham
      The Mermaid
      Tee Roo
      Sweet William
      Black Jack Davy
      The Irish Lady
      The Lady of Carlisle
      The Lame Soldier
      Willy Reilly
      John Riley
      Lily Munro
      Pretty Polly
      The Lexington Murder
      The Rich Old Lady
  8. FRENCH SONGS AND BALLADS FROM SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA
      Sept Ans Mer
      Blance Comme la Neige
      Je Caresserai la Belle par Amitié
      "Qu' avec-vous, Oui, Belle Blonde "
      Le Petit Mari
      Les Clefs de la Prison
      Belle
III. MEN AT WORK
  1. SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
      The Frenchman's Ball
      The True Paddy's Song
      Trench Blues
      Old King Cole
      Santy Anno
      "Haul Away, My Rosy"
      "The Low-Down, Lonesome Low"
      The High Barbaree
      Greenland Whale Fishery
      The Beaver Island Boys
      Dark-Eyed Canaller
      The Bigler
  2. LUMBERJACKS AND TEAMSTERS
      The Little Brown Bulls
      Moosehead Lake
      "Johnny Stiles, or the Wild Mustard River"
      I Came to This Country in 1865
      Ox-Driving Song
      Yo Soy de la Tierra
  3. COWBOY SONGS
      "Git Along, Little Dogies"
      As I Went A-Walking One Fine Summer's Evening
      The Sporting Cowboy
      "Run Along, You Little Dogies"
      Texas Rangers
      Diamond Joe
      If He'd Be a Buckaroo
      Doney Gal
      Peter Gray
  4. RAILROADERS AND HOBOS
      The Wreck on Somerset Road
      The White House Blues
      John Henry
      Sis Joe
      "Oh, Roll On, Babe"
      As I Went Out for a Ramble
      Way Out in Idaho
  5. MINERS' SONGS
      "Oh, My Liver and My Lungs"
      "Down, Down, Down"
      Pay Day at Coal Creek
      The Coal Miner's Child
  6. FARMERS OF THE SOUTH
      Po' Farmer
      It's Hard on We Po' Farmers
      Ain't It Hard to Be a Right Black Nigger?
      Georgia