FOLK ~ll'SIC OF TIlE UXITED ST ATES LIBRARY OF COXGRESS RecordinJ{ l.aborahll)· AFS L2 WASHIXGTOX An$lo-AllerictUl Shanties, LlJric SOll$S, Dance Tunes and Spirituals
INTRODUCTION by Wayne D. Shirley Reference Librarian, Music Division
In 1942 the Archive of Folk Song in the scriptions of the texts sung on the records and Library of Congress issned its first albums of notes on the music and performers. recorded folk music, thereby makhlg some of its Attempts to devise ,orne method for dis rich collection of field recordings available to tributing the Archive's recorded treasures had the public. The recordings were issued under begun in 1941 with the establishment of the the editorship of Alan Lomax, then head of the Recording Laboratory in the Library of Con Archive. (The editing of the sixth album was gress. The press release announcing the estab entrusted to William N. Fenton.) Each album lishment of the Recording Laboratory claimed they really were "albums" in those days-con that sisted of five 78-rpm records pressed in black when the installation is completed the Music Division shellac (the famous clear red vinyl was to come of the Library will be able to provide for schools, libraries, and individuals, recordings of American folk later). The albums patriotically mixed ten-inch music, American poetry read and interpreted by its and twelve-inch records-shellac was being ra makers, unpublished string quartets, new American tioned in 1942. mUSIc and other similar matenals. Much of this rna· The six albums in the series were planned to t~rial stands ready for use on the shelves of the Library now-records of American folk music from exhibit the main varieties of American folk many parts of the country, documents basic to the music: history and culture of America and of the world I. Anglo-American Ballads musical manuscripts of composers, ancient and mod: II. Anglo-American Shanties, Lyric Songs, ern. Only students who are free to come to the Library Dance Tunes and Spirituals or people who can afford to have expensive copies made, now use the Library's vast collection. To the III. Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, great majority of citizens this material is accessible and Ballads only through the books of research students and occa IV. Afro-American Blues and Game Songs sional radio broadcasts. The new sound service in the V. Bahaman Songs, French Ballads and Library can make a great part of it available on Dance Tunes, Spanish Religious Songs phonogra-ph records to the general public. and Game Songs VI. Songs from the Iroquois Longh.ouse. Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish was Each album included a brochure with tran more eloquent in his proposal to the Carnegie Corporation, whose grant made possible the establishment of the Recording Laboratory: I cannot too strongly express to you my own convic tion that such a program would be a most important During the years 1964 to 1966 the six LPs' force in the life of this country at this moment. It were remastered from the original field record seems to me that we can either educate the American ings; these remastered discs occasionally in people as to the value of their cultural heritage and their national civilization, or sit back and watch the cluded alternate "takes" from those used 6n the destruction and disintegration of that culture and that original 78s. The remastering project also al civilization by forces now so ruinously' active in this lowed the engineers to present complete versions world. of several cuts which had before appeared only The establishment of the Recording Labora as excerpts. Consequently the transcriptions of tory made it possible for people to request the these songs in the brochures no longer accur duplication of specific sound recordings. In addi ately reflected the words on the records. This tion, the Library published recordings in an at was one of the several considerations which led tempt to get some of the Archive's -material to to the present revision of the textual material the person who was interested in sampling its accompanying the recordings. The recordings holdmgs without having a specific item in mind themselves, though now numbered AFS 1 -the auditory equivalent of the library patron through 6 rather than AAFS 1 through 6 (re who just "wants a good book." As a trial balloon flecting the change of name of the issuing body for the project in 1941 the Friends of Music in from Archive of American Folk Song to Archive the Library of Congress issued an album' of of Folk Song), have not been changed since two ten-inch records consisting of "Lady of Car the 1960s remastering. lisle" sung by Basil May, "Pretty Polly" sung The current republication furnishes all six by Pete Steele, "It Makes a Long Time Man Feel records with new covers and a new sleeve note, Bad"-the archetypal Library of Congress folk supplies the present historical introduction, re song title-sung by "a group of Negro convicts," numbers the notes on the selections to corre and "0 Lord, Don' 'low Me to Beat 'em," sung, spond to the numbering on the LP labels, and spoken, and cursed by Willie Williams. The revises the transcriptions to include all the text next year the Archive of Folk Song albums contained on the LP. Otherwise the brochures which are the subject of this essay appeared. read as they did when they first appeared in In 1956, at the time of their first issue, the 1942.. We have even hesitated to change tran LPs were direct transfers from the 78s as issued scriptions when our ears hear something dif~ Friends of Music album was combined with that ferent than did those of the original transcriber. on the first of the Archive of Folk Song albums This is partly attributable to cowardice. Revising to make the record now known as AFS Ll. such transcripts as those of Mrs. Ball's nonsense This allowed those who wanted to buy a long syllables on AFS L2, A7 ("Jennie Jenkins") or playing version of the Friends of Music album the ring-shout of AFS L3, A7 ("Run, Old Jere to purchase a single record, but did create a miah") is not a task one views with enthusiasm. few anomalies: as it is now constituted Ll con But our decision was based partly on common tains two versions of "Pretty Polly" and presents sense. After all, Alan Lomax heard most of. Willie Williams and "group of convicts" under these people in person and singing many songs, the banner of "Anglo-American Ballads." while we only hear them for a single song and In 1956, at the time of their first issue, the on a record. LPs were direct transfers from the 78s as issued Three decades later it is useful to look at in 1942. At this time the records were renum these pioneering issues of recorded folk music bered: six albums numbered from I to VI con and consider the assumptions--<:onscious and tainingrecords numbered from 1 to 30 became unconscious-that went into their production. AFS L1 through L6. The brochures which had Some of these assumptions have colored subse been prepared for the 78-rpm albums continued quent Library record issues up to the present to be used with the LPs. This caused some con day; others were not meant to apply to any fusion as the record number in the brochure but the first issues. Still, all of them played a no longer corresponded to the actual number of part in the creation of the image of the Library the item on the .record.
2 of Congress folk music record, and some Not all of the performances are by otherwise notably number 3 below-played an important unknown singers and instrumentalists caught for part in its development. Here are some of these a brief moment by the microphone of the Li assumptions, more or less in descending order of brary of Congress. Many are by people who even importance: then were fairly well-known folk performers: 1. The Library of Congress recordings were Mrs. Texas Gladden, the salty radical Aunt designed as a method of making the wealth of Molly Jackson, honey-voiced Vera Hall, har field recordings housed in the Archive of Ameri monica man Sonny Terry, and even Woody can Folk Song available to the public. They Guthrie. There are also less widely known musi were-and have remained-recordings of ma cians, from the anonymous little girls of I'Ain't terial from field recordings in the Archive. (In Gonna Ring [Rain?] No More" and the pseu 1976 the Library of Congress began a comple donymous "Lightning"-who would not give mentary series of recordings, Folk Music in John A. Lomax his real name-to such people America, edited by Richard K. Spottswood, which as Jimmie Strothers, the gentle axe murderer drew on commercial recordings and field collec who is known only through his Folk Archive tions other than those in the Archive, as well as recordings. But it cannot be claimed that every an occasional irresistible Archive field recording.) cut of LI through L5 makes articulate a voice This explains many of the questions asked about that would otherwise have remained unheard the Archive's series of folk music recordings, in save by those living within a few miles of the cluding the perennial "Why doesn't the Library singer. This is not to suggest that the early of Congress issue a jazz series as well as a Library of Congress records sacrificed authentic folk music series?" The answer: the field re ity for easy listening. They arc American folk cordings of the Folk Archive did not, in the music pure from the fount. Still, the newcomer 1940s contain sufficient and sufficiently trench to these records should be warned that Wade ant jazz material to undertake such a series. As Ward, to give an example, is not the undiscov the Archive's earliest field recordings were done ered hill-dweller of the cartoons ("Hey, Paw, in the late thirties and early forties in rural here comes t~e man from the Library of Con areas-see number 5 below-they would not gress with that machine"). By 1942 he had have picked up much important jazz besides the already been broadcast nationwide on the Amer roots-of-the-blues material so ably represented ican School of the Air. on L3, L4, and their successors. The Jelly Roll 3. The third assumption is the inverse of the Morton recordings, the one important set of jazz second. It has been the policy of the Library of "field" recordings in the Archive during the Congress not to compete in its publications with early 1940s (if we can call a set of recordings commercial compames. The recordings put out made in the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Audi by the Folk Archive mirror this policy, none torium "field recordings") were commercially more clearly than the first six. The folk wisdom viable and would thus come under the interdic of the Music Division has it that in 1942 Lomax tion of number 3 below-as would, indeed, and Harold Spivacke, then chief of the Music most jazz. Division, were advised that it might be unwise 2. Since the purpose of the record series was for the Library's record series to issue any to make the treasures of the Archive available to record which could profitably be released com mercially. Many of the well-known "Library the general public, the choice of individual per of Congress recordings" that generations of rec formances was made to some extent on the basis of beauty of performance rather than its use for ord buyers have treasured have not, in fact, been folklore scholarship. These were the perform released by the Library, but have been released ances that the Lomaxes wanted to share with the on commercial labels from material recorded by or at the Library of Congress; thus the Archive world. has been able to get its treasures into circula tion without competing with commercial record labels. A few highlights of commercial record ings made from material at the Library of Con gress include the Jelly Roll Morton interviews
3 on Riverside, the Bartok-Szigeti recital on Van ticularly Alan, were to spread their nets very guard, Blind Willie McTell on Piedmont, Aunt widely indeed.) The next two aspects, interre Molly Jackson on Rounder, Budapest String lated, do represent the Lomax family's attitudes, Quartet broadcasts on Odyssey, and the more or attitudes widely shared among earlier folk music less complete works of Huddie "Leadbelly" Led collectors but increasingly challenged by more better and Woody Guthrie on Elektra. recent collectors. Few of the performances in the Folk Ar 5. The sources of the recordings are exclu chive's collections in 1942 would have been con sively rural. sidered to have commercial value in that year. 6. The records are dedicated to the preserva Still, the attempt not to compete with regular tion of the old songs and styles of the folk, record companies may explain why) in a series principally interpreted by older musicians, with of records leaning heavily on black convict little attempt to document the new styles and songs, there is nothing by the Lomax's most songs that were emerging. The next-to-Iast cut famous discovery, Leadbelly. By 1942 his re of L2, complete with Hawaiian guitar, for ex cordings had appeared on the commercial ample, is offered as a single sample of "Ameri market on more than one label. can folk music, 1942." Wbat was not commercial in 1942 was not The view of the folksong as a rural and old, to be forever uncommercial. Several of the and therefore dying, art remains common to artists appearing on the Archive's first issues this day. In the 1940s there was a particular recordcd commercially later (Sonny Terry, of feeling that radio and the phonograph were wip L4, even shows up on the original cast album ing out our folk heritage, which was to be found of Finian's Rainbow), and one, McKinley in its most vi tal form where the electric power "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, who sings "Coun line had not---
4 present writer grew up in New Hampshire under Apparently no answer was received, for another the impression that New Hampshire had no folk performance was substituted for the perform music, since none of it appeared on Library of ances involving the three ministers' permission. Congress records.) The substituted piece was Willie Williams sing 7. "The labourer is worthy of his hire." The ing "The New Buryin' Ground": it is therefore Library of Congress was careful to get permis hard to regret the ministers' recalcitrance. sion from all locatable performers and to pay Lomax summed up the trials of getting clear them for releasing their performances. The fee ances for the first six albums of the Archive was nominal-around ten dollars per song-but series at the end of this report: for a series of records dedicated to commercial This matter of locating a hundred old folk singers all unacceptabiJity (number 3 above) it was a the way from Cat Island to the Colorado buttes and pledge of faith to the artists whose work had back has been an epic chase. It is an experience that [ have enjoyed but that I am not anxious to repeat been used. The efforts to locate singers were soon.. .. heroic; but sometimes even the U.S. govern If Lomax was not anxious to repeat the ex ment had to give up. A 1942 Alan Lomax perience soon, the Folk Archive was fully pre memo, "Report on Clearances," tells many pared to keep up its searches: the second set of stories of his attempts to secure clearances~ in six albums, under the general editorship of cluding this one about the Bahamas records: B. A. Botkin, appeared one year after the initial One of the singers on this record lives on the remote six. Eventually, the rigorous seeking of permis Cat Island of the Bahamas chain. She was written sions became less exhaustive and exhausting. on April 17, 1942, and so far no reply has been ob Payments are held in escrow for performers who tained; perhaps none ever will. The only other Ba haman singer who has been located was found because appear at new locations after their performances the Nassau postmaster published a notice in the newS are released. paper announcing that he had a letter for him. There The first six albums issued by the Archive of is no newspaper within 500 miles of Cat Island ... American Folk Song have become documents Some people felt that ten dollars was not almost as much as the music they sought to pre enough. Again, from the "Report on Clear serve. They are still as capable as ever of giving ances" : pleasure, instruction, and sustenance to the This party asked for a fifteen per-cent royalty; and so listener who comes to them for the music they we have dropped the side, substitllting an even better contain. By now, however, they also serve as one by a performer who has been very cooperative in witness to the state of folk-music collection in the past. A Jetter has gone to Ihis performer, and a reply should be expected within a very few days. the 1930s-both as to the sound quality of the If the first performer meant 15 percent of the records produced and the attitudes toward col profits by his request for a "fifteen per-cent lecting of the gatherers-and to the manner in royalty," he would have done better to stick which this material was presented to the gen with the ten dollars. But at least one performer eral public in the 19405. was pleased with his payment. In a recent in Few people who care for folk music would terview Muddy Waters recalled, "the Library suggest that these six albums be retired for ob of Congress sent me $10.00 a side and that solescence-though we do get about three let $20.00 went a long way, as far as a hundred ters a year suggesting that if we cannot issue dollars goes today" (Unicorn Times, April 1978, records with better audio quality than these we p. 40) . Sometimes denominational problems should get out of the business, and an occasional may have hindered the obtaining of permission: letter suggesting that anyone who would put These two items were recorded with the collaboration out a record entitled [fill in title of anyone of of three Negro ministers. After a month of corres the albums] without including an example of pondence, I discovered that it was necessary for all [fill in any currently fashionable folk-derived three to be consulted on the matter of the release style] is guilty of deceiving the public. There of these two items. On May 8, 1942, I wrote all three have been suggestions, however, that we revise again, explaining the silUation; so far 1 have received no reply. I shall wire again today for a definite yes the printed material accompanying these rec or no answer. ords, either to bring it up to the current stand
5 ards of ethnomusicological writing or to bring it in line with current racial attitudes. Against this proposal is the fact that most of the annota tions on thcse records were made by the people who pointed the microphone at the singers and said "sing." This has seemed more germane to our purposes than folkloric or sociological up to-dateness-what is up-to- 6 ANGLO-AMERICAN SHANTIES, ETC. A I-SALLY BROWN (Traditional Sea Shan A2-HAUL AWAY, MY ROSY ty). A2-HAUL AWAY, MY ROSY. (Traditional I. Talk about your harbor girls around the Sea Shanty). cornel', Sally. Sung hy J. M. (Sailor Dad) Hnnt of 'Way, haul away, haul away, my Rosy, Marion, Virginia. Recorded in "rash 'Way, haui away, haul :.1way, roy Johnny-O. ington, D.C., hy Alan Lomax, 1941. 2. But they couldn't come to tca with the Since the earliest days of sailing vessels, the girls hom Booblc Alley. old manuscripts say, sailors have cried out and halloed at their work as they hoisted sail and 3. I once loved a French Lirl, but she was anchor. Sailor work songs arc known in German, fat and crazy. French, and Scandinavian; but it is to Great 4. With her "Parlez-vous, oui, oui, fran<;ais" Britain, mistress of the seas, that there falls the she ncarly drove me crazy. honor for the greatest development of this type. Between 1820 and 1870, however, swift Ameri 5. King Louis was the king of France before can ships began to dominate the seas; the Ameri the Revolution. can clippers were the fastest and most beautiful 6. But the people cut his head off, then he sailing vessels that man had ever made; and the lost his constitution. British shanty was taken over and further bri2.ht ened by American seamen. .... 7. We sailed away from Liverpool, bound for Both of these songs me performed at a tempo the Gulf of Mexico. actually much faster than is possible for men 8. Wc sailed into Galveston and loaded up at work aboard ship. The first is a capstan or with cotton-o. windlass shanty. The second is what is known as a "long haul shanty"-that is, a shanty song 9. We loaded cargo there, my boys, then we for hoisting the topsails. The pulls occur in took it light and easy. "Haul Away, My Rosy" on the first '''way'' in each chorus line and on the word "Johnny-a." For another version of "Sally Brown" and for A3-PAY DAY AT COAL CREEK (Lament general background on shanties sec page 82 of on a Mine Disaster). Joanna C. Colcord, Songs of AmericaJl Sailor~ Snng with five-string hanjo hy Pete mell (W. W. Norton and Company. 1938); for Steele at Hamilton, Ohio, 1938. Re a variant of A2 sec page 41. corded hy Alan and Elizaheth Lomax. Coal Creek, Tennessee, has been the scene of AI-SALLY BROWN several mine disasters. This song, according to Pete Steele, celebrates the final closing of the 1. I shipped on boare' of a Liverpool liner, mincs- 'Way. hey. roll and go. HNo more pay days at Coal Creek." And we'll go all night and we'll go till Pete Steele's performance marks a high point marnin', in the development of indigenous white folksong, I spend my money alor!.g with Sally Brown. a perfect blending of voice and instrument. 2. Sally Brown is a nice young lady. While the banjo was originally a Negro instru ment, the southern whites have so well adapted 3. She's tall and dark but not too shady. it to their musical style that it is now more typ 4. Her mother don"t like a tarry sailoi". ical of southern white than of southern Negro music. 5. She wants here to marry a one-legged captain. 7 For other miners' songs see G. G. Korson, For another version and a note on this song Minstrels of the Mine Patch (University of see pages 63 1'1'., G. P. Jackson, Spiritual Folk Pennsylvania Press, 1938). For this version see Songs of Early America (New York: J. J, Au page 274 of John A. and Alan Lomax, Our gustin, 1937). Singing Country (New York: Macmil1an Com pany, 1941). 1. As Tsat in a 100wsome grove, Sat o'er my head a little dove. I. Pay day, pay day, 0 pay day, For its lost mate bcgan to coo: Pay day at Coal Creek tomorrow, It made me think of my matc too. Pay day at Coal Creek tomorrow. 2. "O-little dove, you're not alonc, 2. Pay day, pay day, 0 pny day, Twas oncc likc you constrained to mourn, Pay day don't come at Coal Creek no more. Once like you 1 had a matc, Pay day don't cor71C no marc. But now like you I'm deso1 1 This word should be "he." " Vulture. A4-THE LIlTLE DOVE (White Spiritual). Suug by Aunt Molly Jackson o[ Clay Count)', Kentucky. Recorded in New AS-TEN THOUSAND MILES (Lo"e Song). York City, 1939, by Alan Lomax. Sung by Aunt Molly Jackson o[ Clay One of the strictest conventions of Protestant County, Kentucky. Recorded in New ism in rural America was its prohibition of all York City, 1939, by Alan Lumax. nonreligious music. Secular music was de Along with British ballad,; and the fiddle tunes, nounced as being worldly and bclonging to flesh the United Statcs also inherited a group of ex and the devil; and, idcally speaking. no respect quisite lyric songs which have becn particularly able church member ever allowed himself to popular in the southern United States. These sing a ballad or a love song. If he were to be love songs, perhaps more than thc ballads, have convicted of a seriolls disregard of this taboo he been close to the hearts of the people and they was likcly to lose his status as a respect~ble have been further changed by their rcsidence in member of the community. Naturally the strict this country. Without them, the Negro blues ness of this taboo varied a good deal with the would never have grown as they have, nor would community and the time...... we have our present rich stock of contemporary Due to this prohibition agninst ballads and "hill-billy" lyric songs. Aunt Molly's perform love songs, the church folk created narrative and ance of this song, which tells of the parting of lyric songs for themselves, using many of the two lovers as the young man goes to the wars, old secular tunes. but developing texts of proper is an Amcrican re-creation of various fragments religious contcnt. Aunt Molly's "Little Dove" of the British lyric tradition. Her performance is belongs to this class of songs. It is a love song in th~ pure style of Kentucky mountain folk which could bc and was SllIH! before the firc singing. places of respectable reli!..dous ~ramilies. For reference. see page 113, Cccil J. Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appala 8 chian.\", vol. II (Oxford University Press, 1932); 3sm; the "Okics," the wandering migratory also page 380, H. M. Belden, Ballads alu! Songs workers of the Southwest. have carried it to the Collected by the Missouri Folk Lore Society beet fields and oranf!e Qroves of California. (University of Missouri, 1940). For another versi~n ;nd background material on this song, see page 40. Sharp, English Folk Songs. I. "0 fare you well, my darling, fare you well, my dear, o 1. "0 soldier, 0 soldier. won't yOll marry me fare you well, my darling; o now, I'm going to volunteer. To the beat of the fife and the drum: " 2. "I'm going to the army "0 how ean I marry such a pretty little miss To stay for a while, When 1 have no shoes to put on? " Illy So far from you, darling; 2. Now she ran and she r 9. "0 fare you well, my darling, A7-JENNIE JENKINS (Dialogue Song). a fare you well, my dear. Sung with guitar and mandolin by Mr. and Be true to me, my own sweetheart, Mrs. E. C. Ball at Rugby, Virginia, I'm bound to !cave you here." 1941. Recorded b" Alan and Elizabeth Rugby, Virginia, is not a town or even a vil lage, but a community of mountain people, scat A6-S0LDIER, WON'T YOU MARRY ME? tered among the folds of the green hills of south (Humorous Soog). west Virginia, One sunny afternoon last fall, I Sung with guitar hy Russ Pike at Vis drove up one of its green valleys along a narrow alia, California, 1941. Recorded hy road, looking for the home of the E. C. Balls. Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin. I did not have to be told that J had found the This satiric dialogue between a sophisticated right house, because there on a front gallery soldier and a somewhat naive lady has been uni were the two of them, singing together-Mr. versally loved in this country, as in England, Ball with his big guitar in his lap. the country of its origin. Girl Scouts, isolated This song, of English origin, has been found mountaineers. New England lumberjacks, col in many parts of the United States. It is a song lege glee clubs-all sing it with equal enthusi 9 of courtship. Often at rural entertainments of diction, fancy, and foolisI-ness. A typical line earlier days a pair of lovers would sing it to from a contemporary sor.g runs, gether as a duet, to the great amusement and "Her age it was black and her hair was delight of their auditors. nineteen." For another version of this song see page 371, In "Fad" the fantasy ha~ an alnl0st surrealist Sharp, English Folk Songs. character. A blrtck snake bites our adventurer; he sits down on a sturn,), seeming to himself 1. Man: Will you wear white, my dear, like a woodchuck. Then he becomes the wood o dear? chuck, playing a banjo. The woodchuck be o will you wear white, Jennie comes embroiled with a skunk and their com Jenkins? bined musty odor puts out the lamp at a dance Woman: I won't wear white, that had never begun. For the color's too bright; The King family came to California from I'll buy me a foldy-roldy, tildy-toldy, Arkansas as migratory farm workers. They Seek a double use-a cause-a, brought their instruments and their songs with roldy binding. them and, as they have travelled from farm to Both: Roll, Jenn;e Jenkins, roll! farm following the crops and entertaining their fellow "Okies," they have become a legend of 2. Mall: Will you wear red, my dear, 0 dear? fun and good cheer for their people. o will you wear red, Jennie Jenkins? For songs in similar minstrel style see Doro Woman: I won't wear red, thy Scarborough, On the Trail of Negro Folk For it's the color on my head; Songs (Harvard University Press, 1925), and Etc. Newman 1. White, American Negro Folk-Songs 3. Man: Will you wear green, my dear, (Harvard University Press, 1928). o dear? a will you wear green, J. As Twent down to the mowin' field, Jennie Jenkins? Hu-rye, tu-rye, fod-a-link-a-dye-do, Woman: T won't wear green, As I went down to the mowin' field, For it's a shame to be seen; Fod! Etc. As Twent down to the mowin' field, A big black snake got me by the heel. 4. Man: Will you wt:ar black, my dear, Tu roily day. o dear? o will you wear black, 2. Well, Tfell down upon the ground, Jennie Jenkins? Tshut both eyes and looked all around. Woman: I won't wear black, 3. Tset upon a stump to take my ~est; For it's the color on my back; It looked like a woodchuck on his nest. Etc. 5. Man: Will you wear green, my dear, 4. The woodchuck grinned a banjo song, o dear? And up stepped a skunk with the britches on. will you wear green, o 5. The woodchuck and skunk got into a fight; Jennie Jenkins? The fume was so strong it put out the light. Etc. 6. They danced and they played till the chimney begin to rust; A8-FOD (Nonsense Song). Jt was hard to tell which smelt the worst. Sung with guitar and mandolin by Henry King at Visalia, California, 1941. Re corded by Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin. A first love of any Anglo-American folk singer is the nonsense song, the song of contra 10 A9-ROLL ON THE GROUND (Banjo Piece). country dance. It was well fitted to play the Sung with five-string banjo by Tbaddeus C. intricate and unorthodox traditional folk airs Willingham at Gulfport, Mississippi, that were the heritage of the pionec!"s. It carried 1939. Recorded by Herbert Halpert. with it the richest musical tradition that came From Mississippi comes this typical five-string to America-a whole world of delightful English banjo song, part of a large family of such tunes fiddle, Scotch bagpipe, and Irish piper airs. found all the way from Maryland to Texas. The fiddler played in a distinctive fashion, This type of song is used for entertainment and holding the butt of the instrument against his for square dancing. The form is generally the chest, grasping the bow near the middle, mov same-a four-line stanza with a four-!ine chorus. ing his whole body as he played, often retuning For songs of similar type, see Sharp, English his instrument completely when he began a new Folk Songs. air. The fiddler and his instrument were both held in considerable awe by the frontier com CHORUS: munity, so little acquainted with music. There Roll on the ground, boys, is a story of a little boy, who, on hearing the Roll on the ground; fiddle for the first time, ran out of the house and Roll on the ground, boys, hid in a cave for two days, because he thought Roll on the ground. the devil had been let loose in the room. "The Last of Callahan," like many other J. Work on the railroad, fiddle tunes, carries its own legend with it. It is Sleep on the ground, saiel and told that Callahan was to be hung. Eat sody crackers His last reguest was that he be allowed to play And the wind blow 'em around. his beloved fiddle as he stood on the scaffold Chorus. with the rope about his neck. After he played 2. Work on the railroad, Ihis rune, he offered his fiddle to any man in Work all the day, the crowd who could perform the piece. He had Eat sody crackers played so brilliantly that no one dared to at And the wind blow 'em away. (empt it, whereupon he smashed the fiddle over Chorus. the rump of the mule, and the wagon moved out from under his feet. Ever since, the tune The remainder of the song is a repetition of has been called "The Last of Callahan." these two stanzas and the chorus. For a transcription of "The Last of Callahan," see page 56 of John A. and Alan Lomax, Our Singing COlin try (New York: Macmillan Com B1-THE LAST OF CALLAHAN. pany, 1941). For background material, see Jean B2-THE WAYS OF THE WORLD. Thomas, Devi!'s Dillies (Chicago: Wilbur Hat B3-GLORY IN THE MEETINGHOUSE. field, 1931). Played on the fiddle by Luther Strong at Dalesburg, Kentucky, 1937. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax. B4-GRUB SPRINGS. During the whole period of the settlement BS-THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. of America and the expansion of the frontier, B6-TEXAS BELL. the favorite musical instrument of the settlers 87-CINDY. was the violin or, as they called it, the fiddle. Played on the fiddle and sung by W. E. It was light and extremely portable. Its shrill Claunch, accompanied by guitar at Gun voice. could carryover the noise of any rough town, Mississippi, 1939. Recorded by Herbert Halpert. 11 For more than two centuries the most im portant form of rccreution among white settlers B8-0LD JOE CLARK. has been the country dance or, ';S it is known B9-CHILLY WINDS, variously, the square dance, the barn dance, or Played on five-string banjo hy Wade Ward the breakdown. The fiddler with his lively stock at Galax, Virginia, 1939, Recorded by of British and American dance tunes has always Pete Seeger and Alan Lomax, beell the central figure. His partner was the BIO-CRIPPLE CREEK, prompter or ··set-caller." who chanted the di Played on five-SIring banjo by Herbert rections for the whiriing dancers Smoke at Winchester, Virginia, 1940. "Chickcn in the bread tray, pickin' up Recorded by Alan Lomax, dOU2h. BII-COAL CREEK MARCH. Meet )10UI" partner and do-si-do." Played on five-string banjo by Pete Steele The c.1nnce generally lasted from sunset to at Hamilton, Ohio, 1938. Recorded by midnight. Sometimes in country communities Alan and Elizabeth Lomax, where dances were rare, because the people The history of the provenience of the banjo were seldom able to come together frol11 their is one of the most interesting s(ories in the his T~hc scattered farms or ranches, the dances would tory of American folksong. instrument itself Insl all night long. There is the yarn of a Texas is an Afro-American dev;lopment. later adopted square dance that lasted for a week. The oc and popularized by the black-facc minstrel casion was the arrh·al of an itinerant fiddler shows which, during the whole:: of the nineteenth in a community where there had not been any century. carried it over the United States. lt music for several years. The people came in became quite a fashionable instrument in the shifts for a week. driving their buckboard latter part of thc ninetecnth century and highly wagons from rnnches within n circle of a complex compositions and arrangements were hundrc'd miles. The poor fiddlcr only knew one made for it. Some time after the middle years tunc, and he had to play it over and over the of the century it was introduced into the sOllth whole week long. ern mountain area along with a ICHQe number of For a timc...... during the first years of this the minstrel tunes that ~\Vcrc ndapt~d to the in century, the square dance went our of vogue; strument. For a half century thereafter the banjo but it has now begun to recstablish itself every ranked with the fiddle as the most typical in where ami. though not so common as it once strument of the southern mountain reeion. On was, is yet known in every part of the United the contrary it is rarc these days to dr"covcr a States. Negro banjo played anywhere in the South. The For background material sec Elizabeth Bur mountain style of banjo playing is a folk devel chellal, AWC'I";c·all CouJltry Dallcl'.\· (G. Schirm opment and the songs composed for it by moun er. New York, 1918): Captain Francis O'Neill. tain virtuosos represent an important nrea of O'Neill's Iri.\11 Ro.,e (Chicago: lyon and Healy, growth for American folk mllsie. 1915); Beth Tolman and Ralph Page, The Coulltry Da/lce Book (Boston: E. C. Schirmer. 1937); Elias Howe. Mllsical Omllibn\ (New BI2-JOHN HENRY (Square Dance). York: F. Blume. 1863). Played b)' Wallace Swann and his Cher okee String Band, with square danc B7-CINDY ing at Asheville Folk Festival, Ashe ville, North Carolina, 1941. Recorded Once I had a prctty g:rI, by Alan Lomax, Whose name was Katy Brown. Everywhere Kat)' went, In the last fifteen years, as the radio reached I was hangill" around. the most remote districts with symphony orches tras and with highly arranged jazz, the people Kiss me. girl! have made a radical departure from their old Kiss me a!.!ain! fashioned musical styles. In the place of the un Now hug ~lY neck! accompanied song or fiddle tunc, they have O--! I'm holdin' Gn! adapted the guitar, the electric guitar, the bass Kiss me. girl! fiddle, the piano and even the trumpet to their Kiss me ~~gain! favorite melodic styles. In competition with hot O--J r~l holdin· on~ 12 jazz, their dances have become faster in tempo. They have learned to play in small instrumental ensembles. They have made many songs which, in the matter of sentimentality, have the same attraction as the popular songs of the city. This whole field of folk-popular music is known as "hill-billy." The present record of a contempor ary folk performance in this style was made on the stage of a mountain folk festival in Ashe ville, North Carolina, during a squarc dance competition. The participants were all young~ the musicians, using two guitars (one of them elcctric) and a banjo, were young. Tn the fore ground one can hear the roar of the dancers and the cheers of the crowd. This is American folk music, 1942. BI3-TH£ TRAIN (Harmonica Solo). Played on the harmonica by Chub Par ham wilh clogging al Asheville Folk Festival, Asheville, North Carolina, 1941. Recorded by Alan Lomax. For the past forty years thc people have re garded the black smoking railroad train as he roic. The train provided a means of escape from an environment that was too narrow; it was a symbol of frcedom and strength. In the blues, in jazz, in modern spirituals, in "hill-billy" mu sic, onc is constantly being reminded of the train-its rhythm colors text and accompani ment. This record is a rendition of a dcscriptive piece aboLlt the train for the harmonica that is known by both Negro and whitc musicians. The train is represented as rushing ncross the coun trysidc in thc lonesomc night. blowing its whistle, roaring over bridges, saying "hello" and "good byc" to the rcstless heart of Amcrica. Both BI2 and B13 arc reproduced through thc courtesy of Bascom Lamar Lunsford. 13 '("o/' <' (' o Z " " Library of Congress Catalog Card Number R53-559 (rev) Available from the Recording Laboratory, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540