An American Singing Heritage

Series: American Music  Publisher: A-R Editions, American Musicological Society
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An American Singing Heritage
Songs from the British-Irish-American Oral Tradition as Recorded in the Early Twentieth Century

Edited by Norm Cohen, Carson Cohen, Anne Dhu McLucas

MU32/A089 An American Singing Heritage
978-1-9872-0728-6 Full Score (2021) 9x12, l + 546 pp.
$350.00
In stock
SKU
MU32/A089
This edition brings together representative transcriptions of folk songs and ballads in the British-Irish-American oral tradition that have enjoyed widespread familiarity throughout twentieth-century America. Within are the one hundred folk songs that most frequently occurred in a methodical survey of Roud’s Folk Song Index, catalogues of commercial early country (or "hillbilly") recordings, and relevant archival collections. The editors selected sources for transcriptions in a broad range of singing styles and representing many regions of the United States. The selections attempt to avoid the biases of previous collections and provide a fresh group of examples, many heretofore unseen in print. The sources for the transcriptions are recordings of traditional musicians from the 1920s through the early 1940s drawn from (1) commercial recordings of "hillbilly" musicians, and (2) field recordings in the collection of the Library of Congress’s Archive of American Folk Song, now part of the Archive of Folk Culture. Each transcription is accompanied by a brief contextualizing essay discussing the song’s history and influence, recording and performance information (whenever available), and an examination of the tune. The edition begins with a substantive essay about the history of folk song recordings and folk song scholarship, and the nature of traditional vocal music in the United States.
2022 ARSC Award for Best Historical Research in Recorded Country, Folk, Roots or World Music www.arsc-audio.org/awards
1. Barbara Allen
2. Frog He Went A-Courting
3. The House Carpenter
4. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender
5. Black Jack David
6. The Jealous Lover
7. The Lassie Mawhee
8. Sweet Willie
9. The Butcher Boy
10. Jimmie Randall (The Pizen Song)
11. Tom Sherman’s Barroom & St. James’ Hospital
12. The Golden Willow Tree
13. The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife
14. Hangman, Hangman, Slack the Rope
15. Knoxville Girl
16. A Package of Love Letters
17. My Horses Ain’t Hungry, They Won’t Eat Your Hay
18. Pretty Fair Miss in the Garden
19. Lord Lovel
20. Lady Marg’et
21. Young Charlotte
22. Lord Bateman
23. Pretty Polly
24. Three Nights Experience
25. Frankie and Johnny
26. Madam I’ve Come to Marry You
27. The Three Babes
28. The Two Sisters
29. As the Dew Flies Over the Green Valley
30. Lord Daniel
31. Charming Billy
32. John Henry
33. Sleepy Desert
34. The Story of George Collins
35. Springfield Mountain
36. Ommie Wise
37. Jesse James
38. I’ve Always Been a Rambler
39. Old Joe Clark
40. Little Sir Hugh
41. The Prisoner’s Song
42. Old Dan Tucker
43. The Blind Child
44. Father Go Dig Me a Boat
45. The Cuckoo She’s a Fine Bird
46. The Orphan Girl
47. Beware All You Handsome Ladies
48. Lord Varnold
49. Sourwood Mountain
50. Jack Monroe
51. Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow
52. Boston Burglar
53. Who’s Going to Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet
54. The Darby Ram
55. Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane
56. Charley He’s a Good Old Man
57. Pretty Sally
58. Rye Whisky
59. Give My Love to Nellie
60. Texas Rangers
61. Wild Rippling Water
62. Charles Guiteau
63. John Hardy
64. The Golden Dagger
65. The Roving Gambler
66. The Three Crows
67. Casey Jones
68. The Miller’s Will
69. Birmingham Jail
70. Red River Valley
71. Edward
72. Go Tell Aunt Phoebe
73. I Courted a Fair Maid
74. Skip to My Lou
75. I Wish I Was Single Again
76. The Two School Boys
77. The Dying Cowboy
78. Old Woman and the Cow
79. Early, Early in the Morning
80. Cambric Shirt
81. Sally Goodin’
82. King William Was King George’s Son
83. Cripple Creek
84. They Say It Is Simple to Flirt
85. Old Ninety-Seven
86. Foreman Monroe
87. Cindy
88. Round Town Gals
89. Little Brown Jug
90. In the State of Arkansas
91. Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
92. With His Old Gray Beard A-Shining
93. Mary of the Wild Moor
94. Pretty Saro
95. Liza Jane
96. Single Girl, Married Girl
97. Kitty Wells
98. Jimmie Randall
99. Wild Bill Jones
100. Down by the Greenwood Side