The Folk Songs of North America in the English Language

by Alan Lomax (Compilation), Matyas Seiber (Collaborator), Don Banks (Collaborator)

Contents:
The North. Old colony times. In good old colony times ; Cape Ann ; Springfield Mountain ; Billy broke locks ; Captain Kidd : I ; Whisky in the jar ; Strawberry Lane ; Lady Isabel and the elf knight ; Edward ; Father Grumble ; I'll give my love an apple ; The Quaker's courtship ; Sailing in the boat ; As I roved out ; The sow took the measles --
Yankee soldiers and sailors. Brave Wolfe ; The wars of America ; Felix the soldier ; In the days of '76 ; Johnny has gone for a soldier ; Yankee Doodle dandy-o ; The fish of the sea ; Cape Cod girls ; Sally Brown ; Shenandoah ; Santy Anno ; Blood red roses ; A long time ago ; The bullgine run ; Row, bullies, row ; The banks of Newfoundland ; The Greenland whale fishery ; Get up, Jack --
Shouters and shakers. Captain Kidd : II ; Wicked Polly ; Satan's kingdom ; Come life, Shaker life ; Shaker funeral hymn --
Pioneers. The lovely Ohio ; Hudson River steamboat ; El-a-noy ; Oleana ; The foggy dew : I ; The foggy dew : II ; In the wilderness ; The paw-paw patch ; The lone green valley ; Young Charlotte ; Turkey in the straw ; Lincoln and liberty ; When Johnny comes marching home ; Virginia's bloody soil --
Timber tigers. The farmer and the shanty boys ; The little brown bulls ; The pinery boy ; The river in the pines ; Canada-i-o ; Moosehead Lake ; Bold Jack Donahue ; Silver Jack ; The frozen logger --
Workers and farmers. The Julie Plante ; Red iron ore ; The Avondale mine disaster ; My sweetheart's a mule ; The farmer is the man ; The housewife's lament ; Me father's a lawyer in England ; The horse named Bill ; Love is pleasin' --
The Maritime Provinces. Three young ladies ; The kangaro ; The maid on the shore ; The Mary L. MacKay ; Mary Ann ; When a man's in love ; A great big sea ; I'ze the bye. The Southern mountains and backwoods. Across the Blue Ridge. John Riley ; Cumberland Gap ; The deer chase ; Lily Munroe ; Rattlesnake ; Single girl ; Gentle fair Jenny --
The old ballads. The devil's nine questions ; Cock Robin ; The house carpenter ; Barbara Allen ; The two sisters ; Lady gay ; The farmer's curst wife ; Devilish Mary ; Robin Hood and Arthur O'Bland ; The Golden Vanity ; The ramblin' boy ; The bad girl ; A fair beauty bride --
Lonesome love songs. Fair and tender ladies ; Black is the colour ; Aunt Sal's song ; I'm troubled ; Lovin' Hannah ; The gambling suitor ; Chickens they are crowin' ; How old are you, my pretty little miss? ; Whistle, daughter, whistle ; Winter's night ; Who's gonna shoe your pretty little feet? ; The cuckoo ; The fourth day of July ; The wagoner's lad ; Old Smokey ; I never will marry ; Johnson boys --
Frolic tunes. Uncle Joe ; Sally Anne ; Cripple Creek ; Cindy ; Shady Grove ; Sally Goodin ; Jubilee --
White spirituals. The seven blessings of Mary ; The twelve days of Christmas ; Am I born to die? ; On my journey home ; Way over in the heavens ; Weeping Mary ; Death, ain't you got no shame? ; O David --
Rowdy ways. Groundhog ; Sorghum syrup ; The good old rebel ; Moonshiner ; Dig a hole in the meadow ; Hurrah, lie! --
Murder ballads. Rose Connelly ; Omie Wise ; Tom Dula ; Wild Bill Jones ; John Hardy ; Charles Guiteau ; Mister MacKinley --
Hard times and hillbilly. Peg an' awl ; Roll on, buddy ; Pay day ; Down on Penney's farm ; Cotton mill colic ; My last ole dollar ; Down in the valley ; The rising sun blues ; Mule skinner blues ; I don't want your millions, mister ; Sixteen tons ; Dark as a dungeon. The West. Beyond the Mississippi. We're coming, Arkansas ; Blue ; The hound dawg song ; Let's go a-huntin' ; Blow the candle out ; Uh-uh no ; Buffalo boy ; Twistification ; Little Matthy Groves ; The girl I left behind : ballad ; I'm goin' away to Texas ; The state of Arkansas ; The horse trader's song --
Plainsmen and '49ers. The Texas Rangers ; Green grows the laurel ; Root, hog, or die ; Whoa! ha! Buck and Jerry boy ; Sweet Betsy ; Joe Bowers ; Lousy miner ; The dreary Black Hills ; The Regular Army-o ; Lulu --
Soldiers and renegades. Charlie Quantrell ; The brass mounted army ; The battle on Shiloh's Hill ; Cole Younger ; Jesse James --
Cowboys. Wake up, Jacob ; The railroad corral ; I'm bound to follow the longhorn cows ; A cowboy's life ; The Old Chisholm Trail ; Go on, you little dogies ; Run along, you little dogies ; Put the old man to sleep ; The old man's lament ; Night herding song ; Doney gal ; I'm a-leavin' Cheyenne ; On the trail to Mexico ; When I was a cowboy ; The wild rippling water ; My love is a rider ; The dying cowboy ; The sailor cut down in his prime ; Billy the Kid ; Tyin' a knot in the devil's tail --
Prairie farmers. In Kansas ; The little old sod shanty ; The Red River shore ; Hog drovers ; Tideo ; Lord Lovel ; The hell-bound train ; Colorado Trail ; Springfield Mountain : Texas version ; Fod --
Railroaders and hoboes. She'll be comin' around the mountain ; A railroader for me ; Jerry, go an' ile that car ; Drill, ye tarriers ; Wand'rin' ; Around a western water tank ; The Wabash Cannon Ball ; The Big Rock Candy Mountains ; Pie in the sky ; Willie the weeper --
The last West. Talkin' blues ; Talkin' dustbowl blues ; Hard travellin' ; Pretty Boy Floyd ; Hard times ; Hard, ain't it hard ; Fiddle-i-fee ; The kickin' mule ; Talkin' Columbia ; Roll on, Columbia ; Stand to your glasses. The Negro South. Spirituals : I. Jacob's ladder ; When the saints go marchin' in ; When the stars begin to fall ; Many thousands gone ; Keep a-inchin' along ; Roll, Jordan, roll : Negro version ; Roll, Jordan : white version --
Spirituals : II. Wade in the water ; When I'm gone ; Soon I will be done ; Blind man ; I couldn't hear nobody pray ; Hold the wind ; The old ark's a-moverin' ; Dese bones gwine rise again ; Didn't it rain ; Samson ; John the Revelator ; Rise up, shepherd ; The holy baby ; This train ; The downward road ; All night long --
Reels. Knock John Booker ; Miss Mary Jane ; All for the men ; Saturday night ; Ridin' in a buggy ; Steal, Miss Liza ; You cain' lose-a me, Cholly ; Black sheep ; Buck-eye rabbit ; Shortenin' bread ; The blue tail fly ; Bile them cabbage down ; Lynchburg town ; Old Marse John ; Old Bangum ; The queen's gardeen ; The rich old lady --
Work songs. Johnny, won't you ramble? ; John Gilbert is the boat ; Rock about, my Saro Jane ; Riley ; Pay me ; The John B's sails ; Cotton needs pickin' ; Whoa back, buck ; Bring me li'l' water, Sylvie ; Po' farmer ; The boll weevil holler ; Go down, Old Hannah ; Long John ; Another man done gone ; Jumpin' Judy ; The longest train ; It makes a long-time man feel bad ; I got to roll ; Can't you line it? ; Black gal ; Don't lie, buddy ; Let the deal go down ; East Colorado blues --
Ballads. John Henry : I ; John Henry : II ; Little John Henry ; Casey Jones ; Reuben ; Po' Lazarus ; Railroad Bill ; Frankie ; Stagolee --
Blues. I'm all out an' down ; Hattie Belle ; Careless love ; One dime blues ; Good mornin', blues ; Corinna ; Troubled in mind ; How long blues ; Irene ; Black, brown, and white blues ; Sound off.

Compiled by Alan Lomax ; melodies and guitar chords transcribed by Peggy Seeger ; with one hundred piano arrangements by Matyas Seiber and Don Banks ; illustrated by Michael Leonard ; editorial assistant, Shirley Collins.

Genres: Music, Poetry, Reference

623 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Alan Lomax was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker.

Reviews

[Thomas Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Folk Songs of North America: In the English Language, Alan Lomax, 1960, 623 pages, Dewey 782.42162
317 songs: melody, chords, lyrics.

#61 The Frozen Logger, pp. 120-121, James Stephens, 1928 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_S...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fro...

#119 Cindy p. 233 (collected by Alan Lomax)
Well Massa bought a yaller gal,
He brought her from the South,
Her hair it curled so very tight,
She could not shut her mouth.
Get along home, Cindy, Cindy,
Marry you some day.

#124 The Twelve Days of Christmas, p. 245.

#154 Sixteen Tons, p. 294, Merle Travis, 1947.

#155 Dark as a Dungeon, p. 295, Merle Travis, 1947.

#214 She'll Be Comin' around the Mountain, p. 414

#222 Pie in the Sky, p. 423, Joe Hill, 1911. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hil...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pre...

#226 Hard Travelin', p. 426, Woody Guthrie

#236 When the Saints Go Marchin' In, p. 434.

#242 Wade in the Water, p. 470

#269 Bile Them Cabbage Down, p. 506

#283 Bring Me Li'l Water, Sylvie, p. 533.

#311 Good Mornin', Blues p. 586, Lead Belly

#315 Irene, p. 593, Lead Belly

Song books, pp. 597-600.

Guitar and banjo chords and rhythms, pp. 601-607

Discography, pp. 608-615

permalink: https://www.worldcat.org/profiles/Tom...
(to share anything with a goodreads nonmember, you must post it somewhere other than goodreads.com )

[Lynn Pribus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book! It has tune lines (with chords) of many songs and full arrangements of some. There's a write-up on the history of each one and they are grouped by Colonial, Mountain, Labor, War, etc.

An immense project.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

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