THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK

and well yeah

I've got a thing for banjo



so goddammed American

a beautiful American form

ragtime





we studied this a few weeks ago in a dance the music class I'm taking


It must have been amazing the first time Scott Joplin performed one of his ragtime compositions for an audience. He definitely changed American music. He wasn't the first ragtime composer, but he moved the form forward.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin

Just had time to browse through this thread. Some familiar to me, most new.

Great stuff so far.

Not being too familiar with American Folk Music, I shall take a back seat and just come along for the ride.

I have been doing my bit to rectify the cowardly dt'ing as I go, and ask others to do the same.

My fave so far is Cotton Eye Joe.

I like banjo stuff as well.

My late father in law was a fiddle player in a ceilidh band and took up the banjo in later life, and that's where I first got to hear bluegrass style music.
I started a thread about bluegrass some while ago, but it died a death so I just guessed that it was totally uncool over there.

I would highly recommend searching "transatlantic sessions" on yootoob for amazing live jam sessions of this thread type of folk music. It's just modern day stuff, played and sung by the best in the business.
Some fast, some quite hypnotic and beautiful.

Anyway, time to carry on browsing...

You learn something new all the time if you keep your eyes and ears open. This is the first i've heard of the Child ballads. Using the Carter Family and Woody Guthrie is cool because they were "superstars" in the 1930s. Although one might not immediately see it, the banjo is derived from African instruments, and was undoubtedly developed in America by slaves.

Welcome to the thread, your Lordyship, and thank you for your kindness.

The prolific Stephen Foster published this song in 1848. It contains offensive language in the second verse, but i've decided to use this video because of its accuracy. Tom Roush is a folk singer dedicated to cataloging in song performances, the American Songbook. My apologies to those offended by the language in the second verse.

"Oh My Darling, Clementine" is of disputed origin, although it certainly dates to a period after 1850. "Forty-niner" refers to those who joined the 1849 gold rush in California. This song is actually a wonderful parody of the "parlor songs" popular in the 19th century, at which Stephen Foster was such a success as a song writer. Even as children, we recognized the hilarity of the song--when we sang it in school, inevitably we collapsed in laughter at some point, while singing the chorus in exaggerated tones. No teacher ever made the mistake of attempting to get us to sing it a second time.

I chose this video because of the singer's English, and because it appears that she doesn't get it.

someone's using multiple accounts
kinda easy to spot

still working on variants of The Unfortunate Rake (which led to Streets of Laredo)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunate_Rake_(album)

one of my favourite American descendants of that song is

hard to say how much American bluegrass music has meant to me over the years




best live concert I think I ever went to was a great American Band - bluegrass/texas swing - Ray's voice makes me vibrate

Negro spirituals or gospel music is an especially fertile field of American song. Here, the great Paul Robeson sings "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." The song probably dates from 1865, and was first recorded in 1909 by the Fisk Singers, of Fisk University.

"Just a Closer Walk with Thee" is another song whose origins are lost in the mists of time, but there is good inferential evidence that it dates to the period of slavery. It has been used as a standard dirge in New Orleans jazz funerals for a century or more. It has been covered by a wide range of artists. Here it is sung by Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson:

"The Old Rugged Cross" was written by a Methodist preacher in about 1912. My grandmother sang hymns and gospel music as she worked around the house when i was a boy, and this was one of her favorites. Here it is sung by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash:

I love that Janis Joplin version of "Saint James Infirmary," despite the poor recording.

"The House of the Rising Sun," "Rising Sun Blues" and simply "Rising Sun" has proven to be one of the most enduring American folk songs in terms of recording success. Some musicologists link it to "The Unfortunate Rake," a popular song in England nearly 400 years ago. That would make it a first cousin to "St. James Infirmary Blues." Personally, i am not convinced. Folk music is certainly incestuous, but i think that's a stretch for both songs.

At any event, here is one of the earliest recordings (I could not find the putative first recording), from 1933. This one is an Appalachian version, what was then known as hillbilly music, one of the grandfathers of modern country music. (The use of the term hillbilly was not considered pejorative at that time.) Note some of the classic guitar riffs which endure to this day. Tom Clarence Ashley said that he had the song from his grandfather.



Here is Leadbelly's 1948 recording, with some more interesting guitar work:



Eric Burdon said that he heard it first by a Northunbrian folk singer, Johnny Handle. The Animals were then touring with Chuck Berry, and wanted something distinctive to play. It is the most successful recording by a long chalk. It hit number one in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. (The way Eric says New Orleans just cracks me up. The video cracks me up, too.)

"Daddy Sang Bass" was written in 1968 by Carl Perkins, of Rockabilly fame, and was recorded by Johnny Cash. It is derivative from the English hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."

"How I Got Over" is a gospel song written in 1951 by Clara Ward. It became a standard in the repertoire of Mahalia Jackson, the "Queen of Gospel Music," the first gospel singer to appear in Carnegie Hall, and a woman so dedicated to her faith that she divorced her first husband because he tried to pressure her to sing secular music. It is worth enduring this poor recording to hear her sing.

"Can the Circle Be Unbroken" is an English hymn, but it has become a standard in the American Songbook. This is a 1927 recording by the Carter Family.

"The Church in the Wildwood" is an American gospel stnadard written in 1857. The first recording is by the Carter Family, and the second by Dolly Parton.

"Silver Threads and Golden Needles" was written in 1956. Linda Ronstadt sings it for us here.