Bluegrass Messengers

Our Singing Country  
   
[This page has Title Page; Introduction; Preface; Music Preface; Bibliography; Index of Songs; Index of First Lines. Individual chapters are found attached to this page on the left hand column- click to open.]

TITLE PAGE

A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs 
  
 COLLECTED AND COMPILED BY JOHN A. LOMAX
Honorary Consultant and Curator of the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress
AND
ALAN LOMAX
Assistant in Charge of the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress  
   
RUTH CRAWFORD SEEGER
Music Editor

INTRODUCTION  
 In any country it is the people who make the differences. The landscapes with the thumb-mark and the heel-mark of the people on them are the land­scapes you remember. In Chile it is not the mountains which make the unbelievable loveliness of that country but the rows of poplars standing under the stone of the Andes, leaf against granite. It is the same way in other countries. France with the fields so and the roads so and the villages square to them. England with the roofs set this way—not in any other way. Persia with the water courses in the wild gardens and the peach boughs over the mud walls. Japan where the pines on the ridge-poles of the moun­tains are warped by the wind but not by the wind only. It is the mark of the people on any country which gives it the feel it leaves in a man's mind. Even the sense of time in a country is the sense of the people in it now and before now.

But it is not only the heel-marks on the hill-sides and the way the roads run that show the traces of the people. There are other marks in other mate­rials and not least in the substance of words and the substance of music. Music and words will wear under the use of a people as easily as the earth will wear—and the marks will last longer. Devoted writers write as though the body of the people of a country made songs for themselves and poems for themselves—the "folk songs" and the "folk music." But to speak prosaically the feofle do not make songs and poems for themselves. The folk songs and the folk poems come from far back and like any song or any poem they have had beginnings in a single mind. What the people of a country do with the music they take over for themselves and the poems they take over for themselves is to pass them along from hand to hand, from mouth to mouth, from one generation to the next, until they wear smooth in the shape the people—this particular people—is obliged to give them.

The people "make" their songs and poems the way the people make a stone stair in an old building of this republic where the treads are worn down and shaped up the way their users have to have them. The folk songs and the folk poems show the mark of a people on them the way the old silver dollars show the mark of shoving thumbs—but with far more meaning. They show the people's mark more even than the line of the roads in a country or the shape of the houses—hopeful or not so hopeful—and they last longer. The people (or the poets either) who can leave their mark on the words or on the music of a country, leave it for a long time and in an honorable place.

This second volume of American ballads and folk songs collected by John Lomax of Texas and his son Alan, the two men who created, under the brilliant direction of Herbert Putnam and Dr. Harold Spivacke, the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library of Congress, is a body of words and of music which tells more about the American people than all the miles of their quadruple-lane express highways and all the acres of their bill-board plastered cities—a body of words and of music which tells almost as much about the American people as the marks they have made upon the earth itself. It is a book which many Americans will delight to open, and not once but many times.

But behind this book is another body of material (also a product of the work of Mr. Putnam and the Lomaxes) which reveals with even greater precision the character and the distinction of the mark left upon their music and their words by the people of this country. Behind it are the actual field recordings of the songs as their own singers sang them in the unreproduce-able rhythm and inflection and beat of the songs themselves.

Down to last year these recordings were available only to specialists who visited the Library—and not always to them. Many of the disks were too fragile to play more than a few times and none of them could be made publicly available. The Archive was an archive indeed, a rich store of price­less materials—but few men had ever used it or ever could.

As part of our present effort in the Library of Congress to make the American record, as it is stored here, truly and broadly available to the American people themselves, we approached the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the fall of 1939 with the request that funds be granted to enable the Library to establish a Sound Studio which could manufacture pressings of the recordings of the Archive, and of other comparable materials, for sale at cost to schools, colleges, students of folk song, and the public generally.

Thanks to the imagination and understanding of Dr. Frederick P. Kep-pel, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the grant was made in March 1940 and the Studio began work in June 1940. An order list of the recordings available is now in process of publication and will shortly be ready for public distribution. It is our hope that the Sound Studio, which works closely with the Archive of American Folk Song though under the direction of Mr. Jerome B. Weisner as Chief Engineer, will be of increasing service to lovers of folk music and particularly to those, in American schools and colleges, whose labor it is to teach the next generation of Americans what their country is and to what people they belong.

Archibald MacLeish.
Washington, August, 1941.

PREFACE  
 If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall here­after ascribe high qualities, though dark; weave round them tragic graces; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among them all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts; if I shall touch that work­man's arm with some ethereal light; if I shall spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun; then against all mortal critics bear me out in it, . . . thou great democratic God! who didst not refuse to the swart convict, Bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl; Thou who didst clothe with doubly ham­mered leaves of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old Cer­vantes; Thou who didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a war-horse; who didst thunder him higher than a throne I Thou who, in all thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from the kingly commons; bear me out in it, O God!"
—from Moby Dick

At the crossings of many of the rivers on the cattle trails from Texas to M.ontana, there are little wind-blown graveyards—the resting place of cowboys drowned while swimming longhom cattle across swollen streams. Scratched on one leaning headstone is: "He done his damdest."  

The function of this book is to let American folk singers have their say with the readers. Most of these singers are poor people, farmers, laborers, convicts, old-age pensioners, relief workers, housewives, wandering guitar pickers. These are the people who still sing the work songs, the cowboy songs, the sea songs, the lumberjack songs, the bad-man ballads, and other songs that have no occupation or special group to keep them alive. These are the people who are making new songs today. These are the people who go courting with their guitars, who make the music for their own dances, who make their own songs for their own religion. These are the story-tellers, because they are the people who are watching when things happen. These are the great laughers and the great liars, because they know that life is so much more ridiculous than anyone can ever hope to tell. These are the people who understand death, because it has been close to them all their lives. They have looked at the faces of young men whose lives have been torn from them in industrial accidents. They have been acquainted personally with young girls who killed themselves when they were deserted by false-hearted lovers. They have sheltered the families of men who were sent to prison for murder. These people make deep, slow jokes while they are waiting for things to happen, and they know that what a man isn't willing to fight for must not be true for him. These people have a lot to say and a lot to remember, and that is why this book is mostly in quotation marks.

These people have been wanderers, walking and riding alone into the wilderness, past the mountains and the broad rivers, down the railroad lines, down the highways. Like all wanderers, they have been lonely and unen­cumbered by respect for the conventions of life behind them. Remember­ing the old songs in their loneliness, throwing up their voices against prairie and forest track, along new rivers, they followed the instincts of their new experience and the old songs were changed so as to belong to their life in the new country. New songs grew up inconspicuously out of the humus of the old, thrusting out in new directions in small, but permanent, fashion. There grew up a whole continent of people with their songs as much a part of their lives as their familiar ax, gun, or silver dollar. It took them long to recognize that new lives and new songs had been made here.

Yet, in mass, the songs are perhaps more unconventional than the new lives. The songs are the product of the mixing or extension of several peasant musical stocks—British, African, Spanish, French, and German. They are sung in styles which offend the cultivated ear, they are accom­panied, if at all, in various unpredictable ways on a number of "limited," inexpensive, and portable instruments. They are often repetitious, they are frequently trite and sententious, but, taken all together, they reflect the life with more honest observation, with more penetrating wit and humor, with more genuine sentiment, with more true, energetic passion than other forms of American art, cultivated or subsidized.

We have known country fiddlers who couldn't read or write, but could play two, three, or four hundred tunes. We have known white ballad singers who remembered one, two, three hundred ballads. We have known Negroes who could sing several hundred spirituals. We have shaken hands with a Mexican share-cropper who carried in his head the ttxty tunes, and stage directions for a Miracle play requiring four hours and twenty actors to perform. We have been in constant touch with people who felt that in­ability to improvise by ear unfamiliar tunes in three- or four-part harmony marked one as unmusical. Such artists with their audiences have created and preserved for America a heritage of folk song and folk music equal to any in the world. Such folk have made America a singing country. We name the names of some of the best singers that we have met:

Mrs. Griffin, a "Georgy cracker" who "has done everything that an honest woman could do except lie and steal"—picked cotton, cleared land, danced in a minstrel show, raised twelve children, run her own sawmill; who came to northern Florida overland and on foot from southern Georgia; from whom seventy-five or more ballads and songs have been recovered, including one called "Lord Derwent-water."

Old Lize Pace of Hyden, Kentucky, from whom Cecil Sharp collected some of his best songs, and whose story is found on page 151 of this book. Blind old Mrs. Dusenberry of the Ozarks, living in a little old log cabin in the hills, holding in her memory nearly two hundred songs and ballads.

Maggie Gant and her children, dispossessed east Texas share-croppers, whose story is found on page 156.

Mrs. Ward of the Wards of Galax, Virginia, a gentle-voiced and calm farmer's wife who has passed on a store of ballads and songs to a whole generation of her descendants.

Elida Hofpauir, fifteen, who knew a bookful of French and Cajun ballads, who worked in a tomato canning factory and wanted a dollar "store-bought" dress for a present.

Aunt Molly Jackson, who has filled seventy-five twelve-inch records for the Library of Congress with her songs and reminiscences about them, who was midwife to Clay County, the daughter of a coal miner and preacher, the wife of a miner, and a union organizer in her own right.

Johnny Green, rantankerous old Irish fisherman and lumberjack and lake sailor of Beaver Island, Michigan, who has "dug up" out of his own memory nearly three hundred come-all-ye ballads, the saga of his people in Ireland, in English wars, in American forests, and on the American lakes.

Elmer George, one-time lumberjack, now automobile salesman of North Monr-pelier, Vermont.

Dick Maitland, seaman of Sailors' Snug Harbor, eighty-odd, still as sturdy and foursquare as an oak ship, called by Joanna Colcord the best sea shanty singer she knows.

J. C. Kennison, scissors grinder, shacked up on the windy top of one of the Green Mountains in Vermont, holding proudly in his mind the memories of Young Beichan and his Turkish Lady and of Jim Fiske, "the kind of man would pat a dog on the head."
Captain Pearl R. Nye, rotund and apple-cheeked, who claims to know the name of "every canalboat and every skipper that sailed the 'silver ribbon' of the Ohio ship canal/' who sent to us in the Library of Congress the texts of seven hundred songs and ballads once current on the canal, copied out on scrolls of cheap yellow paper —songs he said had "bobbed up" recently out of his memory. (Captain Nye re­marked once, "My mind is canal.")

Alec Moore, retired cowpuncher, who sings everything from "Bold Andrew Barton" to "The Bloody Sioux Indians," whose present occupation is riding herd on an ice-cream wagon on the streets of Austin, Texas.

The Sheriff of Hazard County, Kentucky, who gets re-elected each year partly by the speed, ferocity, and style of his banjo-picking at county meetings.

Woody Guthrie, dust-bowl ballad-maker, proud of being an Okie, familiar with microphones and typewriters, familiar, too, with jails and freight trains, "with rela­tives under every railroad bridge in California," who knows scores of the old songs and makes up a new one whenever he feels that one is needed about the Vigilante Mea or Pretty Boy Floyd or Tom Joad.

And now the names of some of the singers who have moved us beyond all others that we have heard between Maine and New Mexico, Florida and Michigan—the Negroes, who in our opinion have made the most important and original contributions to American folk song:

Aunt Harriett McClintock of Alabama, seventy-eight years old, who sat by the roadside and sang:

Poor little Johnny, poor little feller,
He can't make a hunderd today;
Down in the bottom
Where the cotton is rotten,
He can't make a hunderd today.

Aunt Molly McDonald, who sat on the sunny porch of her shanty and swapped sixty little songs out of the slavery days with Uncle Joe, her husband, and laughed heartily between the stanzas.

Iron Head, grim-faced prison habitue, who always claimed that his choice, aris­tocratic repertoire of songs all came from one fellow prisoner.

Big John Davis, who was the best man, the biggest drinker, the most powerful arguiier, and the best singer in Frederica, Georgia.

Allen Prothero, whose singing of "Jumping Judy" and "Pauline" is giving him posthumous fame, who "just nachully didn't like the place" where we found him, and died there in the Nashville Penitentiary of T.B.

Henry Truvillion, still leader of a railroad gang in the piney woods of No Man's Land between Texas and Louisiana, who each day sings and shouts his men into concerted activity by original and beautifully phrased songs, who owns a farm and a white cottage by the side of the road and yet has time to be the pastor of two country churches: "I collected $7.45 last Sunday, all mine; the Lord owns the whole world, He don't need no money."

Lightning, a dynamic black Apollo song-leader, called "Lightnin' " by his com­rades because ahe thinks so fast he can git around any of them white bosses," who sings "Ring, Old Hammer" so realistically that one can see the old blacksmith shop with swinging bellows and hear again the cheerful ring of the forgotten anvil.

Willie Williams, who could sing holler at his mules ("Don't 'low me to beat 'em, got to beg 'em along") or lead spirituals with equal power and fervor.

Dobie Red, Track Horse, Jim Cason, Big Nig, and many another Negro pris­oner, from whom we have obtained our noblest songs.

Vera Hall and Dock Reed, cousins, who can sing all the unique spirituals that seem to have emerged from the countryside about Livingston, Alabama, the beauty of whose singing has been made known to the world through the interest and de­votion of Mrs. Ruby Pickens Tartt.

Clear Rock (Texas), Kelly Page (Arkansas), and Roscoe McLean (Arkansas) are other unsurpassed song leaders.

Seldom does ont discern in these folk a delicate concern "with the crea­tion of an imaginary world peopled with characters quite as wonderful, in their way, as the elfin creations of Spenser." * Nor does one find in them an overwhelming desire to forget themselves and everything that reminds them of their everyday life. The American singer has been concerned with themes close to his everyday experience, with the emotions of ordinary men and women who were fighting for freedom and for a living in a violent new world. His songs have been strongly rooted in his life and have func­tioned there as enzymes to assist in the digestion of hardship, solitude, violence, hunger, and the honest comradeship of democracy.

The songs in this book, therefore, have been given a roughly "func­tional" arrangement—that is, according to the way they grew up and lived in the American community. The first half of the book contains those songs that have been sung in a normal community by or for or before men, women, and children—i.e., religious songs, dance songs, lullabies, love songs, and ballads. The last half contains those songs which grew up in circles mostly male, and were male in content and audience—the occupational songs and ballads, the work songs and those songs which grew up in groups where the exceeding hardness and bitterness of existence tended to obliterate dis­tinctions—the blues and songs of drink, gambling, and crime.

[* English Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians by Cecil Sharp and Maude Karpeles, p. xxxvii]

Only recently have artists and scientists seemed to care to know what the people thought and felt and believed, what and how they sang. With the development of the portable recording machine, however, one can do more than transcribe in written outline what they say. The needle writes on the disc with tireless accuracy the subtle inflections, the melodies, the pauses that comprise the emotional meaning of speech, spoken and sung. In this way folklore can truly be recorded. A piece of folklore is a living, growing, and changing thing, and a folk song printed, words and tune, only symbolizes in a very static fashion a myriad-voiced reality of individual songs. The collector with pen and notebook can capture only the outline of one song, while the recorder, having created an atmosphere of easy sociability, confines the living song, without distortion and in its fluid entirety, on a disc. Between songs, sometimes between stanzas, the singers annotate their own song. The whole process is brief and pleasurable. They are not confused by having to stop and wait for the pedestrian pen of the folklorist: they are able to forget themselves in their songs and to under­line what they wish to underline. Singing in their homes, in their churches, at their dances, they leave on these records imperishable spirals of their personalities, their singing styles, and their cultural heritage. The field recording, as contrasted with the field notebook, shows the folk song in its three-dimensional entirety, that is, with whatever rhythmic accompaniment there may be (hand-clapping, foot-patting, and so on), with its instrumental background, and with its folk harmonization. A funeral service in the South, a voodoo ceremony in Haiti, a wedding in French southwestern Louisiana, or a square dance in the country may be recorded for future study; a "movie" would complete the picture.

It is always a dramatic moment for any one when his own voice comes back to him undistorted from the black mouth of a loud-speaker. He seems to feel the intense and absorbing pleasure that a child experiences when he first recognizes himself in a mirror. One old hard-bitten Mexican vaquero in the mesquite country of southwest Texas, when his song was played to him unexpectedly, said with soft amazement, "Madre de Dios!" then after a time, "Muy hombre!" A Negro prisoner, wishing to communicate his extravagant and uncontrollable surprise, fell flat on his back and lay there till his buddies picked him up. A mountaineer, when asked if he would like to hear his record played back, said: "I reckon so. Anything I'll do oncet, I'll do hit twicet." "Ain't men sharp?" he added, when the record-was finished. "A man can't stutter none talking into one of them things; got to stick to plain English. If he don't, it'll tell on him." On hearing is voice come back, an Alabama Negro exclaimed, "Dat' pure hit! Dat's hit directly!" Another decided: "That machine can sho beat me singin'. " Aunt Harriett heard the sputter of the batteries, saw the spinning turntable. She didn't understand what was happening, but she pointed at the machine and said, "Stop dat ghost!"

Occasionally the singer's belief in the power of the recording he has made is pathetic beyond tears. In the Tennessee State Prison a young Negro convict came up to us shyly and asked to be allowed to make a record. When we asked what he wanted to record, he said, "Boss, I can beat on a bucket just as sweet as you please." All the prisoners present agreed that this was true. When the record was completed, he murmured, half to himself, "Well, I guess when they hear that up there in the White House, them big men sho goin' do something for this po' nigger."

There are now over four thousand aluminum and acetate discs by such singers in the Archive of American Folk Song, about two-thirds of them recorded in the field by ourselves. An order list of these records will be published shortly, containing over twelve thousand English titles, and foreign language supplements later on. A recent grant from the Carnegie Foundation for the installation of duplicating equipment will make these records available at cost to the public. We hope that the American people will learn from these records to know itself better, learn to sing its own folk songs in the rich and varied styles of our folk singers. It is possible to use some commercial records out of the groups called "hillbilly" and "race" to the same ends.*
[* A large mimeographed list of such records is available on application to the Archive of Amer­ican Folk Song, Library of Congress.]

This might seem to be the last book in the world which should owe its existence to the man who invented the L.C. card, Dr. Herbert Putnam. And yet, when one reflects that this same reserved and iron-willed Bostonian liberal also made the Library of Congress the only great democratic library in the world, it is not strange that he understood and wished to preserve— although he could seldom bear to listen to—the songs of the American people. Ruby Pickens Tartt and Genevieve Chandler, two intelligent and creative Southern women, explored the singing resources of their commu­nities and welcomed us with our recording machine. Dr. W. P. Davis and his Bogtrotters of Galax, Virginia, introduced us to an unexplored and tune-packed section of the Virginia mountains, and it is with his kind per­mission that Galax songs are reproduced in this book.

Dr. Harold Spivacke has been personally helpful and administratively generous throughout the making of this volume. Acknowledgment is hereby made to the Federal Writers Project and the Historical Records Project of the Works Progress Administration, under whose auspices a number of these songs were col­lected. Aunt Molly Jackson spoke the lines that make up much of the con­tinuity of Our Singing Country.

Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs, with many regrets for all the songs we have to omit, stands only for work (as noted in the headnotes) we ourselves have done and for our tastes and interests. It neither does justice to our collection, perhaps, nor, except in minor instances, draws upon work done, upon records made, or upon texts collected by any one else. We hope that the book is merely a foretaste of what may grow into a fairly complete collection of American folk tunes, and of the books, symphonies, plays, operas for which it should eventually pro­vide material. Since the songs cannot be heard in all of their living quality, we have not hesitated to adopt certain means for conveying as much of their content as possible to the readers. We have in certain cases created composite versions of the texts of ballads or songs (as noted in the headnotes), so that the non-ballad-student among readers may quickly survey all the choicest lines that any group of song variants contains. We have not quibbled about the definition of folk song, but we have included whatever songs and ballads prove to have been current among the people and to have undergone change through oral transmission. To introduce the songs, we have generally used quotations from the records themselves. We have let the song-makers and the song-rememberers speak for themselves.

A. L. and J. A. L.
Washington, D.C. March, 1941

 MUSIC PREFACE  
 With the exception of thirteen songs:,* the tunes included in this volume were transcribed by the Music Editor direct from duplicate discs of phono­graph recordings made by John A. and Alan Lomax with portable electrical sound-recording apparatus. Copies of these, as of many other recordings in the Archive of American Folk Song, in the Division of Music of the Library of Congressy are now available to the public. [* Included from other publications: "The Romish Lady," "Over Jordan," "The High Barbaree," "Down, Down, Down." Dictated to the Music Editor by the singer: "Cotton Eye Joe," "Old Bangham," "Old King Cole," "Po> Farmer," "Bugger Burns," "I Got to Roll," "Godamighty Drag." Transcribed from commercial recordings: "The Sporting Cowboy," "Hard Times in the Country."]

Up in the Archive of American Folk Song, in one of the attics of the Library of Congress, John Lomax and Alan and Bess Brown and I, with Elizabeth and "Deanie" often sitting along the sidelines, gathered around the phonograph about three years ago. The occasion for these conclaves was the selection of songs to be included in this volume. We played spirituals ad lib., work songs, hollers, white ballads, Negro game songs, Cajun tunes, breakdowns, fiddle tunes, come-all-ye's, and so on.

On each song I was asked to cast my vote. And I found myself very often hesitant to give it. What standards had I—a mere composer—for judgment? My basis for evaluation was that of written rather than un­written music—of fine art, not folk art. As a professional musician, my in­clination was to ask: How "different" is this song? Is it quaint, archaic? Does it contain irregularities of meter, rhythm, counterpoint, harmony, in­tonation, scale, mode, which set it apart as something unusual, unique?

These questions I could answer without difficulty. But to one who had ytt to learn the idioms, their opposites were not so easy: How typical is this song? To what extent does it conform} How "nice and common" (in one singer's words) is it? Of that sort of commonness which keeps a thing alive and growing? And where lies the dividing line between the common and the commonplace? Is "The Lexington Murder" cheap, and aLittle Willie's My Darlin'" sentimental? Is "Careless Love," or "Adieu to the Stone Walls," banal?

In many cases I could, of course, vote an immediate No or Yes—No to a holler whose fluid tonal and rhythmic subtleties could on no stretch of the imagination be put into notation suitable for sight-reading; Yes to a ballad or spiritual or work song whose authenticity was unmistakable, and whose balance between the usual and the unusual made choice easy. But for the most part I gained a reputation for "thinking it over"—for wishing to post­pone decision until I felt I had heard a large enough body of these songs and had myself sung enough of them to gain some sort of feeling for the various idioms as wholes before attempting to pass judgment on individual adherence to or departure from them.

Since we all felt that at least a majority of the songs should be of the sort which could be more or less easily sung, there was a great deal of singing in those sessions. And throughout the succeeding years, during which I sporadically transcribed the three hundred tunes from which the final hundred and ninety were selected, I continued to sing these songs and others like them. And found my tastes expanding. Interest in the unusual did not diminish—in a work song in meter, a Cajun tune consistently inthroughout, a Ravel-like banjo accompaniment, a ballad of archaic tonal texture, a Bahaman part-song of contrapuntal bareness. But appreciation of the "nice and common" took root and grew strong, with promise of growing stronger as time goes on. And along with this growth have come surer answers to some of those questions of three years ago. "Careless Love" and "Adieu to the Stone Walls" are not sentimental, banal —that is, not if they are sung more or less in the manner in which the folk musician sings them.

No one who has studied these or similar recordings can deny that the song and its singing are indissolubly connected—that the character of a song depends to a great extent on the manner of its singing. It is often to be noticed that the city person, unacquainted with folk idioms, will endow a folk song with manners of fine-art or popular performance which are foreign to it, and will tend to sentimentalize or to dramatize that which the folk performer presents in a simple straightforward way. I have heard "Careless Love" sung by a considerable number of folk musicians, but not once "dreamily," "with expression," "patetico," "con amore." Some sing it moderately fast, some fast. The tempo of one recording was very fast from beginning to end.

 It has been my wish, in transcribing these songs, to include as many char­acteristics of singing-style as is possible, yet to keep most of the notations simple enough to be sight-read by the average amateur. If I have been suc­cessful in this, those familiar with the idioms can expect to make from these notations fairly adequate reconstruction of the music. To those not familiar with the idioms (and as a reminder to those who are! ) the following sugges­tions are offered, based on observations made during transcription of the songs from the recordings.

MUSIC PREFACE II. SUGGESTIONS FOR SINGING THE SONGS IN THIS BOOK

It should be remembered that these are neither rules nor directions. They are suggestions, based on acquaintance with these songs and others like them, as heard from the singers themselves and from direct sound-recordings.

1.   Do not hesitate to sing because you think your voice is "not good"— i.e., has not been "trained" These songs are better sung in the manner of the natural than the trained (bel canto] voice.* Do not try to "smooth out" your voice. If it is reedy or nasal, so much the better. [* J. W. Work, in his Introduction to Frederick J. Work's Folk Song of the American Negro (Work Brothers, Nashville, Tenn., 1907), wrote: "To sing this music effectively the singer . . . must not try to sing: that is, he must not try to impress people with his voice or voice culture."]

2.   First try the tune through several times without attention to signs indicating extended tones and extended or inserted rests ( ^ , ^ , etc., and $ and ** , explained on pages xxii and xxiii). When you are more or less at home with the tune, you can then decide whether to add these irregularities to the simple structure you have just learned. You may find, in time, that they "come natural."

3.   Do not sing "with expression," or make an effort to dramatize. Main­tain a level of more or less the same degree of loudness or softness from beginning to end of the song.

4.    Do not slow down at ends of phrases, stanzas, or songs. Frequent, stereotyped ritardandos are rarely heard in the singing of these songs.

5.   Do not hesitate to keep time with your foot. Unless otherwise indi­cated, sing with a fairly strong accent.

6.   Do not "punch" or "typewrite out" each tone. When two or more tones are to be sung to one syllable of text, bind them together rather than articulate each separately. Bear this in mind when singing grace notes and such figures as  (see "Marthy Had a Baby"), which have been used to indicate rapid slides in the voice.

7,    Do not make too much difference between major and minor degrees, in songs containing both (see "Pass Around Your Bottle"). Many such tones are merely "closer to major than to minor/5 or vice versa.*
8,   Do not let the presence of extra syllables in succeeding stanzas deter you from singing the song through. Most singers crowd them, but not too hurriedly, into the established measure-length. Others insert extra beats to care for them in more leisurely fashion.
9,   Do not feel that, in group singing, these songs require "harmonizing" Those which lend themselves to group singing are, with a few excep­tions, most appropriately sung in unison or octave.f
10.   Do not hesitate to sing without accompaniment.
11.    When singing without accompaniment, do not make noticeable pause between stanzas. Most singers, when unaccompanied, continue with little or no break from stanza to stanza throughout the song. (The amount of breathing-time allowed at the end of the stanza by the original singer has, with a few exceptions, been included in each nota­tion. It is more or less typical of that allowred between other stanzas throughout the song.)
12.    When accompaniment is desired, a guitar or banjo is to be preferred. The harmonica, fiddle, dulcimer, auto-harp, and accordion are also appropriate. The piano, if it must be used, should not obtrude; it can easily submerge the voice in conventions foreign to the spirit of the songs. Use simple chords—for most songs, primary triads (I, IV, V) with an occasional V7. Do not feel that you must change chords too often. Accompaniment of an entire song with the tonic (I) is fairly common, either with or without an added melodic line in the bass.
13.    When singing with accompaniment, the voice should rest occasionally between stanzas to allow for instrumental interludes—which, often as not, will repeat the tune. The banjo, on these recordings, gives more frequent interludes than the guitar. Accompaniments usually continue without break throughout an entire song, regardless of ex­tended or contracted tones or rests in the voice. (The duration of the short interlude has, as often as possible, been included in the notation— either in the form of rests (as in "Pretty Polly") or of long held tones (as in "The White House Blues"). It is more or less typical of that found between other stanzas throughout the song. For obvious reasons, durations of the longer interludes have not been indicated.)
14. Remember that most songs which begin with the chorus end with the chorus. In these as in all others, the end of the song is indicated by the heavy double bar*
1$. Do not "sing down" to the songs. Theirs are old traditions, dignified by hundreds of thousands of singers over long periods of time.

16. Listen to phonograph recordings of these songs and others like them.

[* Indication of "blue notes" and neutral intervals has been felt to be out of place in the notations in this volume. See Winthrop Sargeant on "The Scalar Structure of Jazz," in Jazz: Hot and Hybrid, Arrow Editions, New York, 1938.]

[* Twenty-one of the songs in this volume were sung in parts. They are, in the main, spirituals, Bahaman songs, and Negro work songs. In twelve of these, the parts have been transcribed (see "Dig My Grave").
As used here, the term "in parts" signifies continuous or consistent deviation from unison or octave singing, and possesses no harmony-book implications.]
---------------------------------------------------------

MUSIC PREFACE III. EXPLANATION OF TERMS AND SIGNS
The tunes have been transposed to a range suitable for medium voice. The original pitch of the last tone of each tune, as given by the duplicate disc used for transcribing, has been indicated at the beginning of the headnote to each song> by means of a letter in italics (see Explanation of Headnotes, page xxv). Keys of more than three sharps or-flats have been avoided. Excepting the part-songs, all tunes are represented in the G or treble clef, with which the general reader is most likely to be familiar. For simplicity in reading, instrumental notation has been used in place of vocal (as, for instance, instead ofwhen more than one tone is sung to a single syllable of text, this is indicated by a slur (as1). As often as space permits, the linage of the music follows the linage of the words (see "Lolly Too-Dum").

Key Signature
Most of the readers of this book will have been taught to sight-read in the conventional major and minor modes, and to judge the key (and hence, the tonic or key-tone) from the key signature at the beginning of the nota­tion. In these notations, therefore, that key signature has been chosen for each song which will enable the reader most easily to locate its tonic or key-tone. In tunes of 4, 5, 6, or 7 scale degrees, which do not employ, or  which cancel, an accidental (sharp or flat) contained in the key signature, this accidental has been enclosed in parentheses (asor). Exceptions will be found in "King William Was King George's Son," "Oh, Lovely Appearance of Death," and "Trouble, Trouble."

Metrical signature and tempo
Tempo refers to the speed at which a song is sung. Precise indications of speed have been given in terms of the metronome, at the heading of each song. Thus, J =66 indicates that there are 66 half-notes to the minute. The note-value used in the metronome mark is, in most cases, that of the denominator of the metrical signature. It repre­sents the pulse—or foot-beat, either present or implied. The numerator of the metrical signature indicates the number of pulses per measure. Further indication of pulse is given in the length of beams connecting eighth and sixteenth notes (asin "Billy Barlow" orin "Hop Up, My
Ladies"). The eleven songs not transcribed from recordings have been given no metronome indications.
General indications of speed are expressed by the terms "Fast," "Mod­erately fast," "Moderate," "Moderately slow," and "Slow," placed before the metronome mark at the heading of each song. Unless otherwise indi­cated, the song should be understood to have been sung more or less in strict time (Tempo giusto), with regularly recurring, strongly defined pulse, and well accented. The indications "Free" and "Somewhat free" have been used to designate the tempo of songs in which a regular pulse is either (a) vague or indeterminate, or (b) established, departed from and returned to periodically throughout the stanza (rubato).

Ritetinto                      Abrupt change to a slower tempo
Ritardando                  Gradual decrease of speed
Accelerando                Gradual increase of speed

A hold of indefinite length (fermata)
 
A hold of definite length, indicating that a second beat, of the value of the denominator of the metrical signature, should be added to the tone over which this sign appears. Thus (as in "The Wild Colonial Boy"):

A hold of definite length, indicating that a second and a third beat, each of the value of the denominator of the metrical signature, should be added to the tone over which this sign appears. Thus (as in "The Lit­tle Brown Bulls"):

or (as in "Texas Rangers"):

Holds of definite length, to be interpreted as above

An extended or an inserted rest, indicating that one beat, of the value of the denominator of the metrical signature, should be added or interpolated. Thus (as in "My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold"):
or(as in "The Irish Lady"):

An extended or inserted rest of two beats, to be inter­preted as above
Go back to the beginning
Go back to the sign
The end of the song
Go back to the beginning, then continue to Fine
A tone half sung, half spoken
 
Appreciation is due to Bess Brown Lomax, with whom most of the tran­scriptions were discussed and sung. I am also indebted to Sidney Robertson for her detailed reading of the entire music proof. Dr. George Herzog has kindly checked the transcriptions of "Callahan" and "Pauline," and made suggestions which were incorporated in the notation of the latter. Carolyn LeFevre Spivacke has played through the two fiddle tunes, and checked their transcriptions with the recordings. Above all, acknowledgment is due to Charles Seeger, for day-to-day encouragement, consultation and collabo­ration.

R. C. S. Washington, D.C. March, 1941

EXPLANATION OF HEADNOTES  
 A headnote in small type appears above the notation of each song, and contains the following information:
(i) the pitch of the final tone of each tune, as shown on the duplicate phono­graph disc (played at 78 RPM) from which the tune was transcribed;
(2)   the number of the original disc in the Archive of American Folk Song in the Music Division of the Library of Congress;
(3)   the name(s) of the singer(s), and of the accompanying instrument(s) and player(s), if any;
(4)   the place where the recording was made; (5 ) the date at which the recording was made;
(6) one or several references to sources where similar songs can be found in
print. The pitch of the final tone of each tune is shown by means of a letter in italics* as follows:                                                   _
 
 C to B          c to b                  c' to b'
When the pitch rises or falls during the course of a song, this change is indicated fas ue to /"). When several voice-parts have been shown in the notation, the final tone of each is indicated here, from lowest to highest (as
It should be noted that the original discs, as well as the duplicate discs from which the tunes were transcribed, were made on several different assemblies of equipment under varying conditions. It is a question, therefore, whether the pitch of the dupli­cates as given on the following pages is in all cases the same as that of the original singing, or of the original recording. The pitches given here are offered as having value for at least an approximate pitch placement, and as an indication of the amount of variation in pitch within the limits of any one song.

There follows a list of books to which reference has been made in the headnotes. Most of the books may be found in any large library. The references here noted are not intended to be complete, but rather to lead the student or the interested reader to sources where versions of the song may be found, where the song may be located in a context of similar songs with discussion of these songs, or from which the song may
be traced to European or American sources. Each reference book appears in the head-note in a short form which may be identified by reference to the following list of books. In most cases, the references pertain to the text rather than the music.

Barbeau, Marius, Romancero du Canada. Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Canada, 1937. Barbeau, Marius, and Sapir, E., Folk Songs of French Canada. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925.

Belden, BL M., Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk Song Society. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1940.

Boatner, E., Spirituals Triumphant, Old and New. Nashville, Tenn.: National Baptist Convention Publishing Board, 1927.

Bolton, D. G., and Burleigh, H. T., Old Songs Hymnal. New York: Century Co., 1929.

Bone, David W., Capstan Bars. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1932.

Botkin, B. A., The American Play Party Song. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1937.

Cambiaire, C. P., East Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads. London: Mitre Press, 1934.

Combs, J. H., Folk Songs du Midi des Etats Unis. Paris: Presses Univ. de Paris, 1925. Colcord, Joanna, Songs of American Sailormen. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1924.

Cox, J. H., Folk Songs of the South. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Creighton, Helen, Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia. Toronto and Vancouver: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1932.

Davis, A. K., Traditional Ballads in Virginia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929.

Eddy, Mary O., Ballads and Songs from Ohio. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1939.

Fenner, T. P., Cabin and Plantation Songs by Hampton Students. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1877.

Flanders, H. H., and Brown, George, Vermont Folk Songs and Bal­lads. Brattleboro: Stephen Daye Press, 1932.

Flanders, H. H., and others, The New Green Mountain Songster. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939.

Gardner, E. E., Folklore from the Schoharie Hills. Ann Arbor: Uni­versity of Michigan Press, 1937.

Gardner, E. E., and Chickering, G. J., Ballads and Songs of South­ern Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1939.

Gordon, Robert, "Folk Songs of America"—series of articles in New York Times Magazine, beginning Jan. 2, 1927.

Gray, R. P., Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjack. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1924.

Greenleaf, E., and Mansfield, G. L., Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.

Hudson, A. P., Folk Songs of Mississippi. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1936.

Jackson, G. P., Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1937.

Jackson, G. P., White Spirituals from the Southern Uplands. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1933.

Johnson, J. W. and J. R., The Book of American Negro Spirituals. New York: Viking Press, 1925.

Johnson, J. W; and J. R., The Second Book of American Negro Spirituals. New York: Viking Press, 1926.

Johnson, J. R., Rolling Along in Song. New York: Viking Press, 1937. Journal of American Folk-Lore. New York: American Folk-Lore Society.

Lomax, J. A. and A., Cowboy Songs, rev. ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1938.

Lomax, J. A. and A., American Ballads and Folk Songs. New York: Macmillan Co., 1934.

Lomax, J. A. and A., Negro Folk Songs As Sung by Lead Belly. New York: Macmillan Co., 1936. Mackenzie, W. R., Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia. Cam­bridge: Harvard University Press, 1928. McIlhenny, E. A., Befo} de War Spirituals. Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1933. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society. New York: American Folk-Lore Society. National Jubilee Melodies. Nashville, Tenn.: National Baptist Publish­ing Board, no date.

Newell Wm. W., Games and Songs of American Children. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1903.

Niles, J. J., Seven Negro Exaltations. New York: G. Schirmer, 1929.

Odum, H., and Johnson, G. B., The Negro and His Songs. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925.

Odum, H., and Johnson, G. B., Negro Workaday Songs. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926. Pound, Louise, American B&llads and Songs. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922.
 
PTFLS. RL.
Sa. Sc.i.
Sc.2.
Sh. Publications of the Texas Folk-Lore Society, ed. J. Frank Dobie. Austin, Texas, 1916—

Rickaby, Franz, Ballads and Songs of the Shanty-Boy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926.

Sargeant, Winthrop, Jazz, Hot and Hybrid. New York: Arrow Editions, 1938.

Scarborough, Dorothy, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs. Cam­bridge: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Scarborough, Dorothy, A Song Catcher in the Southern Mountains. New York: Columbia University Press, 1937.

Sharp, Cecil J., and Campbell, O., English Folk Songs from the Southern Affalachians. 2 vols. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1917.

Thomas, Jean, Devil's Ditties. Chicago: W. Wilbur Hatfield, 1931.

Thomas, Jean, Ballad Makin' in the Kentucky Mountains'. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1939.

Whall, W. B., Sea Songs and Shanties. Glasgow: J. Brown & Son, 1920.

White, N. L, American Negro Folk-Songs. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928.  

 Tho.i. Tho.2. 
 Wha. Whi.  
 
CONTENTS  

I. RELIGIOUS SONGS
I. 1. Negro Spirituals                                                                                   

Prayer—This evening) our Father........ 3
Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves.......  4
Samson.............   6
The Man of Calvary..........  9
Job..............  14
John Done Saw That Number........   16
John Was A-Writin5..........  22
T>em Bones.............  23
The Blood-Strained Banders.........    24
God Moves on the Water..........       26
God Don't Like It...........       28
Soon One Mornin' Death Come Creepin'......       30
I Feel Like My Time Ain't Long.......       31
If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?...... .       32
Choose You a Seat 'n' Set Down........   34
Low Down Chariot...........       36

I. 2. White Religious Songs
Over Jordan............  37
Oh, Lovely Appearance of Death........ 38
The Romish Lady...........       40
I. 3. The Holiness People
Keep Your Hands on That Plow........       44
The Little Black Train..........       46
Holy Ghost.............       48

II. SOCIAL SONGS

II. 1. White Dance Tunes
Bonyparte.............       54
Callahan.............       56
Hop Up, My Ladies...........       58
Ducks in the Millpond..........       59
Lynchburg Town...........       60
Jinny Git Around...........       63
King William Was King George's Son......       65
Had a Little Fight in Mexico.........       66
The Bank of the Arkansaw.......                       68

II. 2. Negro Game Songs
Ladies in the Dinin' Room.........       70
You Turn for Sugar an' Tea.........       71
Johnnie Bought a Ham..........       72
Little Bird, Go Through My Window......       74
Sally Go Round the Sunshine.........       75
Don't You Like It?...........       76
Cocky Doodle Doodle Doo.........       76
Kitty, Kitty Casket...........       77

II. 3. Bahaman Negro Songs
The Wind Blow East..........   80
Biddy, Biddy............  82
Never Get a Lickin' Till I Go Down to Bimini.....   83
Married Man Gonna Keep Your Secret......  84
A Wasp Bite Nobi on Her Conch-Eye.......  86
Don't You Hurry Worry with Me. ........ 87
Round the Bay of Mexico.........       88
When de Whale Get Strike.........       89
Dig My Grave............       90

II. 4. Lullabies
Mamma's Gone to the Mail Boat........       94
OF Hag, You See Mammy?.........       95
Daddy Shot a Bear...........       95
Hush, LiT Baby...........       96
Crabe dans Calalou...........       97
Mary Was a Red Bird . .......       98
Cotton Eye Joe............       99

II. 5. Whoppers
Billy Barlow............     101
The Crooked Gun...........     102
The Ram of Darby...........     104
The Lady Who Loved a Swine........     107
Toll-a-Winker............     108
The Marrowbone Itch..........     110
Old Blue . .............     111
Wunst I Had an Old Gray Mare........     113
Hog Rogues on the Harricane.........     114
Cod Liver He............     116
Tom Bolyn.............     117

II. 6. Courting Songs
The Bachelor's Lay...........     119
Katy Dorey............     122
Johnny McCardner...........     124
Lolly Too-Dum...........     126
Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man?.....  128
Jennie Jenkins............     129
Married Me a Wife..........     131
Old Shoes and Leggin's..........     132
Blue Bottle.............     134
Devilish Mary............     136
Do Come Back Again..........     139
My Old True Love...........     140
Fare Ye Well, My Darlin'.........     142
I've Rambled This Country Both Earlye and Late . . .143
East Virginia............     144
Long Lonesome Road..........    146
Little Bonny............   148

II. 7. Old-Time Love Songs
Old Bangham............   149
The Mermaid............    151
Tee Roo.............     152
Sweet William.........   154
Black Jack Davy...........     156
The Irish Lady............     160
The Lady of Carlisle..........     162
The Lame Soldier...........     164
Willy Reilly............     166
John Riley.............     168
LilyMunro.............     170
Pretty Polly............     172
The Lexington Murder..........     174
The Rich Old Lady...........     176

II. 8. French Songs and Ballads from Southwestern Louisiana
Sept Ans sur Mer...........     180
Blanche Comme la Neige.........     182
Je Caresserai la Belle par Amitie........     184
Qu'avec-vous, Oui, Belle Blonde........     187
Le Petit Mari............     189
Les Clefs de la Prison..........     191
Belle..............     194

III. MEN AT WORK-----------------------------------------------------

III. 1. Soldiers and Sailors
The Frenchman's Ball..........     198
The True Paddy's Song..........    200
Trench Blues............    202
Old King Cole............    204
Santy Anno.............    206
Haul Away, My Rosy..........    208
The Low-Down, Lonesome Low........    210
The High Barbaree...........212
Greenland Whale Fishery.........    214
The Beaver Island Boys..........    215
Dark-Eyed Canaller...........    218
The Bigler.............    220

III. 2. Lumberjacks and Teamsters
The Little Brown Bulls..........    224
Moosehead Lake...........226
Johnny Stiles, or the Wild Mustard River......  228
I Came to This Country in 1865........    231
Ox-Driving Song.........    233
Yo Soy de la Tierra........... 234

III. 3. Cowboy Songs
Git Along, Little Dogies..........    237
As I Went A-Walking One Fine Summer's Evening . . .    240
The Sporting Cowboy..........    241
Run Along, You Little Dogies ........    242
Texas Rangers............    245
Diamond Joe............    247
If He'd Be a Buckaroo..........    249
Doney Gal.............    250
Peter Gray.............    252

III. 4. Railroaders and Hobos
The Wreck on the Somerset Road........    254
The White House Blues..........    256
John Henry............    258
Sis Joe........  262
Oh, Roll On, Babe...........    264
As I Went Out for a Ramble...... 267
Way Out in Idaho........   269

III. 5. Miners' Songs
Oh, My Liver and My Lungs. . . . . . .272
Down, Down, Down..........273
Pay Day at Coal Creek..........274
T'he Coal Miner's Child........276

III. 6. Farmers of the South
Po' Farmer........ 280
It's Hard on We Po' Farmers .........281
Ain't It Hard to Be a Right Black Nigger? . . . . .282
Georgia Land..........284
Georgia Boy.........286
Hard Times in the Country...... . .287
The Dodger................289
Cotton-Mill Colic. ... . . . 291
Chilly Winds ....... 293

IV. OUTLAWS----------------------------------------------------------
Pass Around Your Bottle..... . . .296
Sweet Thing.........                         298
Three Nights Drunk..... . . . . 300
Darling Corey......... 302
Jack o' Diamonds.......... 303
Stavin' Chain..........  305
My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold . .  . 307
As I Set Down to Play Tin-Can . . . 308
Little Willie's My Darlin'...... . . 310
Adieu to the Stone Walls.........3.11
We Don't Get No Justice Here in Atlanta . ... . . . 313
The Reek and the Rambling Blade...... 314
When First to This Country a Stranger I Came . . . . .315
Brennan on the Moor..........317
The Wild Colonial Boy..........320
The Vance Song..........           322
The Rowan County Crew......... .324
Harvey Logan............326
Dupree..............328
Bugger Burns............    331
Duncan and Brady...........    333
Batson..............    335
Po' Laz'us.............    342

V.     HOLLERS AND BLUES
Roustabout Holler...........    350
Trouble, Trouble..........           352
Mamma, Mamma...........    355
Go Down, Ol' Hannah..........    356
Make Me a Garment..........    358
Go Down, You Little Red Rising Sun.......    360
Prison Moan............    361
Lights in the Quarters Burnin' Mighty Dim.....    362
Eadie..............    363
I Been a Bad, Bad Girl..........    364
Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Some Day...... 366
The Rising Sun Blues.......... 368
Big Fat Woman...........370
I'm a Stranger Here........... 371
Fm Worried Now But I Won't Be Worried Long . . . 373
Lines from the Blues..........    374

VI.  NEGRO GANG SONGS---------------------------------------------
Take This Hammer........... 380
Don't Talk About It...........  382
Didn' OF John Cross the Water on His Knees?..... 384
Marthy Had a Baby...........385
Lord, It's All, Almost Done.........    386
Ain't Workin' Song...........     389
I Got to Roll............    390
You Kicked and Stomped and Beat Me......    391
Drive It On . ..........     392
O Lawd I Went Up on the Mountain.......    394
Long Summer Day...........    396
Godamighty Drag...........    398
Johnny, Won't You Ramble ?.........    400
Pauline..............    402
Look Down That Lonesome Road........    404

Bibliography............    405
Index of Songs............    411
Index of First Lines...........    414
---------------------------------------------------
BIBLIOGRAPHY  
 This is a supplement to the bibliography published in American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934). The intention is to list the most important books and pamphlets of American folk songs which have been published since that date, together with a few of the most valuable articles which have appeared in the Journal of American Folk-Lore (JAFL) and the Southern Folklore Quarterly (SFQ). If space permitted, the list might be extended greatly by adding titles of choral and solo arrangements. The bibliographer is Harold W. Thompson of Cornell University, who has found these works useful in his courses in American folk literature, conducted at Cornell Uni­versity and at the New York College for Teachers at Albany.

Anderson, A. O., "Geography and Rhythm," University of Arizona Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 8. Tucson: University of Arizona, 1935.

Andrews, A. O., The Gift to Be Simfle: Songsy Dances and Rituals of the Ameri­can Shakers. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1940.

Barbeau, Marius, Folk-Songs of Old Quebec. National Museum of Canada, Bul­letin 75, Ottawa, 1936. Fifteen songs.

Barnes, R. A., I Hear America Singing. Philadelphia: J. C. Winston Co., 1937. Introduction by Carl Van Doren. Illustrations by Robert Lawson. No tunes, not all folk songs, but an attractive book for young people.

Barry, Phillips, Folk Music in America. Introduction by George Herzog. W.P.A., Federal Theatre Project, Publication No. 80S, June 1939. New York; National Service Bureau, The most important essays by a great scholar, dating from 1909 to 1937, with a bibliography of Barry's writings.

Belden, H. M., Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society ( Uni­versity of Missouri Studies} Vol. XV, No. 1). Columbia, Mo.: University of Mis­souri, 1940. Wide range of songs, splendidly edited.

Blegen, T. C, and Ruud, M. B., Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads. Min­neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1937.

Boggs, R. S., Annual bibliographies of American Folklore in the SFQ, 2:43—48, 3:45 htm58, 4*23-50-

Botkin, B. A., The American Play-Party Song, with a Collection of Oklahoma , Texts and Tunes. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1937.
 
Brewster, P. G., Ballads and Songs of Indiana (Indiana University Publications, Folklore Series, No. 10. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1940.

Buchanan, Annabel Morris, Choral arrangements of white spirituals and folk-hymns. New York: J. Fischer & Bro., 1935—1936.

Buchanan, Annabel Morris, Folk Hymns of America. New York: J. Fischer & Bro., 1938. Excellent notes, useful accompaniments.

Buchanan, Annabel Morris, Bibliography of Folk Music of America. For Na­tional Federation of Music Clubs. Ithaca, N. Y.: National Federation Publisher, 1939. 
                                                                I
Bulletin of the Folksong Society of the Northeast. This series ended with No. 12 (1937), upon the death of its lamented editor, Phillips Barry.

Cambiaire, C. P., East Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads. Lon­don: Mitre Press, 1935.

Campbell, Marie. An important series of ballads from the Kentucky mountains, published in the SFQ: "Liquor Ballads," 2:157-164 (1938); "Funeral Ballads," 3:107-116 (1939); "Feuding Ballads," 3:165-172 (1939).
Gary, M. B., Jr., "Mademoiselle from Armentieres," in JAFL, 47:369-376 (1934).

Chappell, L. W., John Henry: A Folk-Lore Study. Jena, Germany: W. Biedermann, 1933. Chappell, L. W., Folksongs of Roanoke and the Albemarle. Morgantown, W. Va.: Ballard Press, 1939. Chase, Richard, Old Songs and Singing Games. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1938.

Colcord, J. C, Songs of American Saibormen. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1938. The standard American collection, an enlargement of Roll and Go (1924), now out of print.

Cox, J. H., Folk-Songs Mainly from West Virginia. Introduction and supplementary references by H. Halpert. W.P.A., Federal Theatre Project, Publication No. 81-5. New York: National Service Bureau, 1939.
 
Cox, J. EL, Traditional Ballads Mainly from West Virginia. Edited by H. Halpert. W.P.A., Federal Theatre Project, Publication No. 75-S. New York: National Service Bureau, 1939. Has a valuable bibliography.

Densmore, Frances, Cheyenne and Arafaho Music (Southwest Museum Papers, No. 10). Los Angeles: Southwest Museum, 1936. Densmore, Frances, The American Indians and Their Music. New York:
Woman's Press, 1936. Revised edition of a book written in popular style by a distinguished scholar.

Downes, Olin, and Siegmeister, Elie, A Treasury of American Song. New York: Howell, Soskin & Co., 1940.

Eddy, M. O., Ballads and Songs from Ohio. Introduction by J. H. Hanford. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1939. Fish, H. D., Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Illustrated by Robert Lawson. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1937.
Nursery rhymes in a charming book for children.

Flanders, H. H., A Garland of Green Mountain Song. Northfield, Vt.: A. W. Peach, 1934.

Flanders, H. H., and Norfleet, Helen, Country Songs of Vermont. Schirmer's American Folksong Series, Set 19. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1937. Flanders, H. H., and others, The New Green Mountain Songster: Traditional Folk Songs of Vermont. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939.

Ford, Ira W., Traditional Music of America. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1940.

Gardner, E. E., Folklore from the Schoharie Hills, New York. Ann Arbor: Uni­versity of Michigan Press, 1937.
One chapter of "Songs and Ballads," some of them with tunes, and one chapter of "Rhymes and Games."

Gardner, E. E., and Chickering, G. J., Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1939.

Gellert, Lawrence, Negro Songs of Protest. New York: American Music League, 1936.

Gold Rush Ballads: The Forty-Nmers, ed. Cornel Lengyel. San Francisco: W.P.A. of Northern California, 1940.

Gordon, 'R. W., Folk-Songs of America. W.P.A., Federal Theatre Project, Publi­cation No. 73-S. New York: National Service Bureau, 1938. Fifteen articles by one of the leading collectors, reprinted from the New York
Times, 1927-1928.

Halpert, Herbert, "Some Ballads and Folk Songs from New Jersey," in JAFL, 52: 52-69 (I939)

Haugen, Einar, "Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads," in JAFL, 51:69-75 (1938)

Hendren, J. W., A Study of Ballad Rhythm, with Sfecial Reference to Ballad Music (Princeton Studies in English, No. 14). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936.

Henry, M. E., A Bibliography for the Study of American Folk-Songs. London: Mitre Press, 1937.

Henry, M. E., Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands. New York: J. J. Augustin, I937-

Herzog, George, "Musical Typology in Folksong," in SFQ, 1:49-55 (June, 1937)'

Herzog, George, Research in Primitive and Folk Music in the United States (Bul­letin No. 24). Washington, D. C: American Council of Learned Societies, 1936.

Horne, D. D., "An Inquiry into the Musical Backgrounds of Folk Songs of the Southern Mountains," in Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 4:70—81 (Mary-ville, Tenn., 1938).

Hudson, A. P., Folksongs of Mississippi and Their Background. Chapel Hill: Uni­versity of North Carolina Press, 1936.

Hudson, A. P., and Herzog, G., Folk Tunes from Mississippi, ed. G. Herzog. National Play Bureau, W.P.A., Federal Theatre Project, Publication No. 25. New York: National Service Bureau, 1937.

Hudson, A. P., Folk Tunes from Mississippi, 2nd ed., ed. G. Herzog and H. Halpert, with Preface by E. S. Woodward. W.P.A., Federal Theatre Project, Publication No. 25. New York: National Service Bureau, 1937.

Hustvedt, S. B., A Melodic Index of Chili's Ballad Tunes (Publications of the University of California Southern Branch in Languages and Literatures, Vol. I, No. 2). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1936.

Jackson, G. P., "Did Spirituals First Develop in the Northeast?" in SFQ, 3:1-4 (1939).

Jackson, G. P., Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1937-

Johnson, J. R., Rolling Along in Song. New York: Viking Press, 1937. A chronological survey of Negro music in the United States, with illustrations.

Karpeles, Maud, Folk-Songs from Newfoundland. London: Oxford University Press, 1934.

Kirkland, E. C, and M. M., "Popular Ballads Recorded in Knoxville, Tennessee," in SFQ, 2:65-80 (1938).

Korson, George, Minstrels of the Mine Patch. Philadelphia: University of Penn­sylvania Press, 1938.

Linscott, E. H., Folk-Songs of Old New England. Introduction by J. M. Car­penter. New York: Macmillan Co., 1939. Wide range and charming presentation.

Lomax, J. A. and Alan, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. Rev. and enlarged ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1938. The standard collection.

Lomax, J. A. and Alan, Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Lead Belly. Musical nota­tion by George Herzog. New York: Macmillan Co., 1936. Important. Has fascinating biography of the singer.

Longini, M. D., "Folk Songs of Chicago Negroes," in JAFL, 52:96-111 (1939).

Matteson, Maurice, and Henry, M. E., Beech Mountain Folk-Songs and Ballads. Schirmer's American Folk-Song Series, Set 15. New York: G. Schirmer, 1936.

McDowell, L. L., Songs of the Old Camp Ground. Ann Arbor: Edwards Bros., Inc., 1937. Religious songs from Tennessee.

McDowell, L. L. and F. L., Folk Dances of Tennessee: Old Play Party Games of the Caney Fork Valley. Smithville, Tenn.:

L. L. McDowell, 1938. Nebraska Folklore Pamphlets. Valuable material collected and mimeographed by the Federal Theatre Project, at Lincoln, Nebraska. See especially Nos. 1,3, 11, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24.

Neely, Charles, "Four British Ballads in Southern Illinois," in JAFL, 52:75—81 (1939)-

Neeser, R. W., American Naval Songs and'Ballads, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1938. Valuable for texts; no tunes.

Niles, J. J., Ballads, Carols, and Tragic Legends from the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Schirmer's American Folk-Song Series, Set 20. New York: G. Schirmer, 1938.

Niles, J. J., More Songs of the Hill-Folk. Set 17. New York: G. Schirmer, 1936.

NiLES, J. J., Seven Kentucky Mountain Songs. New York: G. Schirmer, 1929.

Niles, J. J., Songs of the Hill-Folk. Set 14. New York: G. Schirmer, 1934.

Owens, B. A., "Songs of the Cumberlands," in JAFL, 49:215-242 (1936). From Pike County, Kentucky.

Pike, R. E., "Folk Songs from Pittsburg, New Hampshire," in JAFL, 48: 337-351 (1935)-

Pound, Louise, Folk-Song of Nebraska and the Central West: A Syllabus (Nebraska Academy of Science Publications, Vol. IX, No. 3). Lincoln, 1915.

Pound, Louise, "Some Texts of Western Songs," in SFQ, 3:25-32 (1939). ' Powell, John, "In the Lowlands Low," in SFQ, 1:1-12 (1937).
Story of an exciting discovery of folk-music. Randolph, V., and Clemens, N., "Ozark Mountain Party Games," in JAFL,
49:199-206 (1936). Refort of the Committee on Folksong of the Pofular Literature Section of the Mod­em Language Association of America (published as Vol. I, No. 2, of the SFQ,
1937).
Valuable articles by Barry, Davis, Herzog, J. A. Lomax, and Reed Smith, with
a list of collectors and other persons interested in the ballad and folk song in the
United States and Canada. Scarborough, Dorothy, A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1937. Siegmeister, Elie. See Downes, Olin. Smith, Reed, "A Glance at the Ballad and Folksong Field," in SFQ, Vol. I, No. 2,
7-18 (1937)-
Includes a list of the Child ballads found in the U. S. and Canada. Smith, Reed, "The Traditional Ballad in America, 1933," in JAFL} 47:64-75
(1934). Smith, Reed, and Rufty, H., American Anthology of Old-World Ballads. New York: J. Fischer & Bro., 1937.
With accompaniments and admirable notes j perhaps the best collection available for professional singers.
Southern Folklore Quarterly. 1937-         . Published by the University of Florida
in cooperation with the Southeastern Folklore Society.
Spivacke, Harold, "The Archive of American Folk-Song in the Library of Con­gress," in SFQ, Vol. II, No. 1, 31-36 (1938).
Stout, E. J., Folklore from Iowa. New York: J. J. Augustin, 1936.
Taylor, Archer, "A Finding-List of American Song," in SFQ} Vol. I, No. 3, 17-24 (1937).
Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 1935—
Thomas, Jean, Ballad Makin} in the Mountains of Kentucky, New York: Henry Holt& Co., 1939.
Interesting study of backgrounds.                                       '
Thompson, H. W., Body, Boots and Britches. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1940.
Not primarily a collection of folk songs, but contains the texts of more than a hundred ballads and other songs, without music, gathered in New York State.
Thompson, Stith, Motive-Index of Folk-Literature {Indiana University Studies, Nos. 96, 97, 100, 101, 105, 106, 108, 109, no, ill, 112; also issued as FF Communications, Nos. 106-109, 116, 6 vols.). Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Uni­versity, 1932-5.
Monumental work; important in classifying.
Treat, A. E., "Kentucky Folksong in Northern Wisconsin," in JAFL} 52:1-51
(1939)-Umble, John, "The Old Order Amish, Their Hymns and Hymn Tunes," in JAFL,
52:82-95 (1939).
Wheeler, M., and Bridge, C. G., Kentucky Mountain Folk-Songs, Introduction
by Edgar Stillman-Kelley. Boston: Boston Music Co., 1937.
With accompaniments.

INDEX OF SONGS 
 A Wasp Bite Nobi on Her Conch-Eye, 86
Adam in the Garden Pinnin' Leaves, 4
Adieu to the Stone Walls, 311
Ain't It Hard to Be a Right Black Nigger?, 282
Ain't Workin' Song, 389
As I Set Down to Play Tin-Can, 308
As I Went A-Walking One Fine Summer's
Evening, 240 As I Went Out for a Ramble, 267
Batson, 335
Belle, 194
Biddy, Biddy, 82
Big Fat Woman, 370
Billy Barlow, 101
Black Jack Davy, i$6
Blanche Cornme la Neige, 182
Blue Bottle, 134
Bonyparte, 54
Brennan on the Moor, 317
Bugger Burns, 331
Callahan, 56
Chilly Winds, 293
Choose You a Seat 'n' Set Down, 34
Cocky Doodle Doodle Doo, 76
Cod Liver He, 116
Cotton Eye Joe, 99
Cotton-Mill Colic, 291
Crabe dans Calalou, 97
Daddy Shot a Bear, 95
Dark-Eyed Canaller, 218
Darling Corey, 302
Dem Bones, 13
Devilish Mary, 136
Diamond Joe, 247
Didn' OP John Cross the Water on His Knees?,
Dig My Grave, 90
Do Come Back Again, 139
Doney Gal, 250
Don't Talk About It, 382
Don't You Hurry Worry with Me, 87
Don't You Like It?, 76
Down, Down, Down, 273 Drive It On, 392 Ducks in the Millpond, 59 Duncan and Brady, 333 Dupree, 328
Eadie, 363
East Virginia, 144
Fare Ye Well, My Darlin', 142
Georgia Boy, 286
Georgia Land, 284
Git Along, Little Dogies, 237
Go Down, 01' Hannah, 356
Go Down, You Little Red Rising Sun, 360
God Don't Like It, 28
God Moves on the Water, 26
Godamighty Drag, 398
Greenland Whale Fishery, 214
Had a Little Fight in Mexico, 66
Hard Times in the Country, 287
Harvey Logan, 326
Haul Away, My Rosy, 20E
Hog Rogues on the Harricane, 114
Holy Ghost, 48
Hop Up, My Ladies, 58
Hush, Li'P Baby, 96
I Been a Bad, Bad Girl, 364
I Came to This Country in 1865, 23r
I Feel Like My Time Ain't Long, 31
I Got to Roll, 390
If He'd Be a Buckaroo, 249
If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?, 32
I'm a Stranger Here, 371
I'm Worried Now But I* Won't Be Worried
l°nE> 373 It's Hard on We Po' Farmers, 281 I've Rambled This Country Both Earlye and
Late, 143
Jack 0' Diamonds, 303
Je Caresserai la Belle par Amiti6, 184
Jennie Jenkins, 129
Jinny Git Around, 63
Job, 14
John Done Saw That Number, 16
John Henry, 258
John Riley, 168
John Was A-Writing 22
Johnnie Bought" a Ham, 72
Johnny McCardner, 124
Johnny Stiles, or The Wild Mustard River, 228
Johnny, Wron't You Ramble?, 400
Katy Dorey, 122
Keep Your Hands on That Plow, 44 King William Was King George's Son, 65 Kitty, Kitty Casket, 77
Ladies in the Dinin' Room, 70
Le Petit Mari, 189
Les Clefs de la Prison, 191
Lights in the Quarters Burnin' Mighty Dim, 362
Lily Munro, 170
Lines from the Blues, 374
Little Bird, Go Through My Window, 74
Little Bonny, 148
Little Willie's My Darlin', 310
Lolly Too-Dum, 126
Long Lonesome Road, 146
Long Summer Day, 396
Look Down That Lonesome Road, 404
Lord, It's All, Almost Done, 386
Low Down Chariot, 36
Lynchburg Town, 60
Make Me a Garment, 358
Mamma, Mamma, 355
Mamma's Gone to the Mail Boat, 94
Married Man Gonna Keep Your Secret, 84
Married Me a Wife, 131
Marthy Had a Baby, 385
Mary Was a Red Bird, 98
Moosehead Lake, 226
My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold, 307
My Old True Love, 140
Never Get a Lickin' Till I Go Down to Bimini,
O Lawd, I Went Up on the Mountain, 394 Oh, Lovely Appearance of Death, 3 8 Oh, My Liver and My Lungs, 272 Oh, Roll On, Babe, 264
OP Hag, You See Mammy?, 95
Old Bangham, 149
Old Blue, 111
Old King Cole, 204
Old Shoes and Leggin's, 132
Over Jordan, 37
Ox-Driving Song, 233
Pass Around Your Bottle, 296
Pauline, 402
Pay Day at Coal Creek, 274
Peter Gray, 252
Po' Farmer, 280
Po' Laz'us, 342
Prayer—This Evening, Our Father, 3
Pretty Polly, 172
Prison Moan, 361
Qu'avec-vous, Oui, Belle Blonde, 187
Round the Bay of Mexico, 88
Roustabout Holler, 350
Run Along, You Little Dogies, 242
Sally Go Round the Sunshine, 75
Samson, 6
Santy Anno, 206
Sept Ans sur Mer, 180
Sis Joe, 262
Soon One Mornin' Death Come Creepin', 30
Stavin' Chain, 305
Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Some Day, 366
Sweet Thing, 298
Sweet William, 154
Take This Hammer, 380
Tee Roo, 152
Texas Rangers, 245
The Bachelor's Lay, 119
The Bank of the Arkansaw, 68
The Beaver Island Boys, 215
The Bigler, 220
The Blood-Strained Banders, 24
The Coal Miner's Child, 276
The Crooked Gun, 102
The Dodger, 289
The Frenchman's Ball, 198
The High Barbaree, 212
The Irish Lady, 160
The Lady of Carlisle, 162
The Lady Who Loved a Swine, 107
The Lame Soldier, 164
The Lexington Murder, 174
The Little Black Train, 46
The Little Brown Bulls, 224
The Low-down, Lonesome Low, 210
The Man of Calvary, 9
The Marrowbone Itch, 11 o
The Mermaid, 151
The Ram of Darby, 104
The Reek and the Rambling- Blade, 3 14
The Rich Old Lady, 176
The Rising- Sun Blues, 368
The Romish Lady, 40
The Rowan County Crew, 324
The Sporting- Cowboy, 241
The True Paddy's Song, 200
The Vance Song-, 322
The White House Blues, 256
The Wild Colonial Boy, 320
The Wind Blow East, 80

The Wreck on the Somerset Road, 254
Three Nights Drunk, 300 Toll-a- Winker, 108 Tom Bolyn, 117 Trench Blues, 202 Trouble, Trouble, 352
Way Out in Idaho, 269
We Don't Get No Justice Here in Atlanta, 313
When de Whale Get Strike, 89
When First to This Country a Stranger I Came,
315
Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man?,
128 Willy Reilly, 166 Wunst I Had an Old Gray Mare, 113
Yo Soy de la Tierra, 234
You Kicked and Stomped and Beat Me, 391
You Turn for Sugar an' Tea, 71

INDEX OF FIRST LINES 
 A man that was old came a-courtin' one day, 132 A rich Irish lady from Ireland came, 160 A wasp bite Nobi on her conch-eye, 86 About a fierce highwayman my story I will tell,
317 "Adieu to the Stone Walls," the prisoner sighed,
312 Ain't it hard to be a right black nigger, 282 All around the kitchen, cocky doodle doodle
doo, 76 As I looked out of my window, 243 As I set down to play tin-can, 309 As I walked out one evening late, a-drinking of
sweet wine, 141 As I walked out one summer's evening, 169 As I was traveling one morning in May, 120 As I went a-walking one fine summer's evening,
240 As I went down to Darby-town, 104 As I went out for a ramble, 267 As I went out one evening, 151 As I went out one morning to breathe the morn­ing air, 127
Batson been working for Mr. Earle, 336 Been in dat jailhouse, expectin' a fine, 367 Betty told Dupree, "Daddy, I want a diamond
ring," 329 Biddy, Biddy, hold fast my gold ring, 82 Black Jack Davy come a-ridin' through the
woods, 158 Bright shines the sun on Clinch's Hill, 323 Bugger Burns has gone to rest, 332 Bye-o, baby, bye, 94
Captain, oh, captain, what will you give me, 210 Chere mom! On vient m'donner les clefs, 192 Come all brother sailors, I hope you'll draw
nigh, 217 Come, all my boys and listen, a song I'll sing
to you, 221 Come all ye young people, come fathers and
mothers, too, 325 Come all you joky boys, 122
 
Come all you jolly railroad men, and I'll sing
you if I can, 269 Come all* you Texas Rangers, wherever you
may be, 246 Come, all you true boys from the river, 229 Come, Georgia boy, come listen to my song, 286 Come you ladies and you gentlemen and listen
to my song, 287
Daddy shot a bear, 96
Delilie was a woman, fine an' fair, 7
Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bones, 23
Did you ever go to meetin', Uncle Joe, Uncle
Joe?, 58 Didn' ol' John (huh!) cross the water, water
on his knees (huh!), 384 Do you 'member way last summer?, 391 Don't you hurry worry with me, 87 Don't you like it? don't you take it?, 76 Down in Carlisle there lived a lady, 163 Ducks in the millpond, 59 Duncan, Duncan was a-tendin' the bar, 334
Eighteen hundred and ninety-one, 389
Fais dodo, mon fils, 97
First night when I come home, as drunk as I could be, 300
Go and dig my grave both long and narrow, 93 Go down, ol' Hannah, well, well, well, 357 Go get the third Johnny head and touch it north,
262 Go way, Eadie, you dirty dog, 363 God, He called John while he was a-writin', 22 God moves on the water, 27 Going down to town, 61 Goodbye, little Bonny, goodbye, 148 Got my hands on the gospel plow, 45 Got up one morning, went out to plow, 153
Ham and eggs, Lord, pork and beans, 391 Hitch up my buggy, saddle up my black mare,
37* Hush, li'l' baby, don' say a word, 96
I am a reek and a rambling one, 315
I am going out West, partner, 342
I am sleepy, Pm tired, and Pm hungry and dry,
188 I been a bad, bad girl, wouldn' treat nobody
right, 366 I came to this country, boys, in eighteen sixty-five, 232 I courted pretty Polly the livelong night, 173 I have two sons and a son-in-law, 198 I pop my whip, I bring the blood, 233 I raised a dog and his name was Blue, 111 I started out with Maw and Paw, 68 I was borned and raised in east Virginia, 145 I went to the captain with my hat in my hand,
380 I went up to London Town, 137 If he'd be a buckaroo by his trade, 249 If I had a-listened what my mother said, 361 If Pve a babe in town, Babe, 194 If this ain't the Holy Ghost, I don't know, 49 If you want to go to heaven, 25 Pm a young married man that is tired in life,
116 I'm goin' where them chilly winds won't blow,
darlin* baby, 293 Pm just a poor way-far-ing stranger, 37 In eighteen hundred and forty-five, 214 In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, 227 It was a come-ly young lady fair, 218 It was in the merry, merry month of May, 154 Pve rambled this country both earlye and late,
143
Jack o' Diamonds, Jack o' Diamonds, 304
J'ai fait une belle trois jours, trois jours, mais
c'est pas longtemps, 184 Je m'endors, je m'endors, et j'ai soif et j'ai
faim, 188 John done saw that number, 20 Johnnie bought a ham, 73 July the redbird, (hanh\) redbird, Augiis' the
fly (hanh\)> 383
King William was King George's son, 66 Kitty, Kitty Casket, 78
Ladies in the dinin' room, 70
Last Saturday night I called at the house, 125
Lawd, if I got my ticket, can I ride?, 33
Le plus jeune des trois, 183
"Let's go huntin'," says Risky Rob, 101
Lights in the quarters burnin' mighty dim,
partner, 363 Little bird, little bird, go through my window,
74-Little Willie's my darlin', 311 Long summer day makes a white man lazy, 397 Look down, look down, 404 Look out, boys, better wash your hands, 11 o Lord, a big fat woman with the meat shakin'
on her bones, 370
Mais si j' une belle ici, Belle, 194 Mamma and Papa, 399 Mamma, Mamma, make me a garment, 359 Married man gonna keep your secret, 85 Married me a wife in the month of June, 131 Marthy had a baby and she said 'twas mine, .385 Mary wore her red dress, red dress, red dress, 98 Mon pere m'a donne-t-un petit mari, 189 My father dear, so far from here, 307 My father, he gave me a bantam man, 190 My gal don' wear button-up shoes, 285 My tender parents who brought me here, 175
Nine years ago I was diggin' up the land, 200 Not a thing on the river McCloskey did fear, 224
O Job, Job (u/i'/m/t), 15
O Lawd, I went up on the mountain, looked at
the risin' sun, 396 Oh, concerning of some gentlemen who lived
down below, 115 Oh, de hearse keep a-rollin' somebody to de
graveyard, 32 Oh, Eve, where is Adam?, 5 Oh, git around, Jinny, git around, 63 Oh, let-n me ride, oh, let-n me ride, 36 Oh, look up and down that long, lonesome road,
146 O Lordy, jes' give me a long white robe!, 35 Oh, lovely appearance of death, 38 Oh, my liver and my lungs, my lights and my
legs, 272 Oh, pass around your bottle, we'll all take a
drink, 297 Oh, rise up, Willy Reilly, and come along with
me, 166 Oh, roll on, babe, don't roll so slow, 265 Oh, the wind blow east, 81 Oh, we don't get no justice here in Atlanta, 314 Oh, when I go down to Bimini, 83
Oh-h-h-h, Po' roustabout don't have no home,
350 O'l hag, you see Mammy?, 95 Old Bangham did a-hunting ride, 150 Old Diamond Joe was a rich old jay, 247 Old King Cole was a merry old soul, 205 On a dark stormy mornin5 when the snow was
a-fallin', 255 On a reste six ans sur mer, 180 On one Saturday evenin', 327 On stormy seas we six years sailed, 181 Once I knew a little girl, and I loved her as my
life, 139 Once I knowed old lady, 177 Once on a time there lived a man, 252 One pleasant summer morning it came a storm
of snowj 103
Pauline, Pauline, 403
Pay day, pay day, oh, pay day, 275
Po' farmer, po' farmer, po' farmer, 280
Roman soldiers come ridin' at full speed on their
horses and splunged Him in the side, 9 Roosevelt's in the White House, doing the best,
Sally go round the sun, 75
So fare ye well, my darling so fare ye well,
my dear, 142 So where have you been, my good old man?,
128 Soon one mornin' death come creepin' in my
room, 30 Stavin' Chain is dead and gone, 306
Take these stripes from, stripes from around
my shoulder, huh\^ 387 Then round the Bay of Mexico, 89 There is a house in New Orleans, they call the
Rising Sun, 369 There was a lady loved a swine, 107 There was a lame soldier in time of the war, 164 There was a Romish lady brought up in popery,
42 There was a wealthy merchant, 170 There was a wild colonial boy, Jack Dollin
was his name, 321 There were two lofty ships from old England
came, 213
There's a little black train a-comin'—, 46 This evening, our Father, 3 This is the story of a coal miner's child, 277 Three days ago I found my love, and it's not
so long, 186 Tom Bolyn was Scotchman born, 117 Trouble, trouble, I had them all my day, 354
Uh—go down, go down, you little red, 360
Wake up, wake up, darling Corey, 302
Well, every Monday mornin', 260
Well, God don't like it, no, no, 28
Well, I went down in Hell-town, 400
Well, it's Mamma, Mamma, O Lawd, you don't
know, 355 Well-a, jumpin', Jumpin' Judy, 393 Went to sleep, babe, last night in a snow-white
feather bed, 373 We're alone, Doney Gal, in the wind and hail,
We're sailing down the river from Liverpool,
207 What you gonna do when the liquor gives out,
sweet thing, 298 When de whale get strike, 89 When first to this country a stranger I came,
316 When I was a bachelor, brisk and young, 134 When I was a cowboy I learned to throw the
line, 242 When I was a little boy as fat as I could roll,
108 When I was a-stealin' 'cross the deep blue sea,
203 When you buy clothes on easy terms, 291 Where did you come from, Where did you go?,
."
Will you wear white, O my dear, O my dear?,
129 With your kind attention a song I will trill,
273 Work all week an' don' make enough, 281 Wunst I had an old gray mare, 113
Yes, the candidate's a dodger, yes, a well know
dodger, 289 Yo soy de la tierra, 235 You talk about your harbor girls, 209 You turn for sugar an' tea, 71