Missouri Folklore Society Journal Special Issue: Songs and Ballads Volumes 27 - 28 2005 - 2006 Cover illustration: Anonymous 19th-century woodcut used by designer Mia Tea for the cover of a CD titled Folk Songs & Ballads by Mark T. Permission for MFS to use a modified version of the image for the cover of this journal was granted by Circle of Sound Folk and Community Music Projects. The Mia Tea version of the woodcut is available at http://www.circleofsound.co.uk; acc. 6/6/15. Missouri Folklore Society Journal Volumes 27 - 28 2005 - 2006 Special Issue Editor Lyn Wolz University of Kansas Assistant Editor Elizabeth Freise University of Kansas General Editors Dr. Jim Vandergriff (Ret.) Dr. Donna Jurich University of Arizona Review Editor Dr. Jim Vandergriff Missouri Folklore Society P. O. Box 1757 Columbia, MO 65205 This issue of the Missouri Folklore Society Journal was published by Naciketas Press, 715 E. McPherson, Kirksville, Missouri, 63501 ISSN: 0731-2946; ISBN: 978-1-936135-17-2 (1-936135-17-5) The Missouri Folklore Society Journal is indexed in: The Hathi Trust Digital Library Vols. 4-24, 26; 1982-2002, 2004 Essentially acts as an online keyword indexing tool; only allows users to search by keyword and only within one year of the journal at a time. The result is a list of page numbers where the search words appear. No abstracts or full-text incl. (Available free at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Advanced). The MLA International Bibliography Vols. 1-26, 1979-2004 Searchable by keyword, author, and journal title. The result is a list of article citations; it does not include abstracts or full-text. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature Vols. 13-14, 20; 1991-92, 1998 Searchable by keyword, author, and journal title. Indexes only selected articles about music that appear in these volumes only. Most of the entries have an abstract. There is no full-text. A list of major articles in every issue of the journal also appears on the Society’s web page. Go to http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu/MFSJcnts.html. Notice to library subscribers and catalogers: Though the cover date on this volume is 2005-2006, the volume was actually published in 2015. The Society’s board is working to produce enough issues to catch up with the journal’s publishing schedule as quickly as possible. © 2015 The Missouri Folklore Society claims the copyright to all materials published in the Missouri Folklore Society Journal, unless the author retains his or her rights by specifying this prominently in their manuscripts or in written (printed or digital) correspondence with the editor(s). The Missouri Folklore Society is not responsible for the accuracy of statements of fact made by authors or book reviewers. Also, the opinions expressed in the Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Society or its officers or members. Missouri Folklore Society Journal Special Issue: Songs and Ballads Volume 27-28, 2005-2006 Preface – “It’s been a long time comin’…” v Music in Our Lives A National Folk Festival Reminiscence 1 Alex Usher The McDowell Gold Jubilee: History of a Hootenanny 7 Betty Craker Henderson Freaks and Fiddle Tunes: The Early-1970’s Folk Revival in St. Louis 18 Paul J. Stamler Songs We Know and Love “Nancy Dill”: Searching for a Song My Mother Sang 31 Jim Vandergriff The Dawg Song War 70 Sue Attalla John Henry and the Reverend Bayes 97 John Garst “Pretty Polly”: A History of a Folk Song 124 Beth Brooks A Note on the Song “The Babes in the Wood” 146 Steve Roud Music and Customs in Our Region Ozark Ballads as Story and Song 157 Julie Henigan A Shivaree in Thornfield, Missouri 187 Pauline Greenhill The Lasting Legacy of Jim Hickam: A Remembrance 208 Lyn Wolz iv In Memoriam Adolf Schroeder: Co-Founder of the Reorganized MFS 214 Susan Pentlin 219 John Schleppenbach 220 Mildred Letton Wittick 221 Reviews 229 Adam Brooke Davis Literary Legacies, Folklore Foundations: Selfhood and Cultural Tradition in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Literature. Karen Beardslee. University of Tennessee Press, 2001. Legend and Belief. Linda Dégh. Indiana University Press, 2001. Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends Tales, Beliefs and Customs. Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, and John Lindow, eds. Oxford University Press, 2002. The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytical Essays of Alan Dundes. Simon Bronner, ed. Utah State University Press, 2007. Jim Vandergriff Family Fun and Games: A Hundred-Year Tradition. Carolyn Gray Thornton and Ellen Gray Massey. Skyward Publishing, 2002. Living Sideways: Tricksters in American Indian Oral Traditions. Franchot Ballinger. University of Oklahoma Press, 2006. Older Than America. An independent film directed by Georgina Lightning and produced by Adam Beach. IFC Films, 2008. About the Authors / Editors 240 Editors’ Note About the Term “Folk Song” > > > Since we have not been able to find a definitive statement on which form of the term “folk song” is the “standard” form, we’ve chosen to use “folk song,” rather than “folk-song” or “folksong,” unless the term appears in a quotation or a title, where we have retained the original form. v PREFACE: “It’s been a long time comin’…” Welcome to this special “Songs and Ballads” issue of the Missouri Folklore Society Journal. We are excited about the lineup of articles we were able to solicit on this topic, ranging from fascinating personal experience narratives to in-depth scholarly investigations. This combination of academic articles and personal stories has always been a hallmark of the Missouri Folklore Society’s publications and events, something we believe to be a strength of the Society that contributes substantially to its accomplishments and successes by building a community of those who cherish Missouri’s traditional culture, no matter what their individual circumstances. The topics of the ten articles we received seemed to fall naturally into three categories: “Music in Our Lives,” “Songs We Know and Love,” and “Music and Customs in Our Region.” “Music in Our Lives” contains three personal experience stories: from autoharpist Alex Usher, who performed at the National Folk Festival in the 1940’s and ’50’s; from Ozark author Betty Henderson, who gives us a history of a “hootenanny” that has been bringing people together in southern Missouri for more than thirty-five years; and from folk music radio show host Paul Stamler, who gives us his take on how the folk music scene developed in St. Louis during the early 1970’s. These authors allow us to explore with them the ways in which traditional music has influenced their lives. The scholarly articles we received fell into two categories – those that explore the history of individual songs and those that delve into various aspects of songs in our region. We put the studies of individual songs into the section titled “Songs We Know and Love.” The first entry in that category is from retired educator Jim Vandergriff, whose article recounts the journey of discovery he took while researching a song he heard his mother sing to his daughter. Next, we catch up with Sue Attalla’s work on the history of “The Dawg Song,” specifically her description of the “war” that arose in the early 1900’s over conflicting claims about who actually wrote the song. After that, retired chemistry professor John Garst demonstrates his experimental use of logical proofs to determine the actual location and historical reality of events in the well-known American folk song “John Henry.” College music professor Beth Brooks then traces the possible historic path of one traditional song found in America (“Pretty Polly”) and the many changes it experienced over the centuries. Finally, finishing up this section is a brief article by Steve Roud, librarian, author, and folk song expert from London, concerning the history of the song “The Babes in the Wood,” in which he speculates about how the song changed during its journey from England to Missouri. The second category of scholarly pieces, titled “Music and Customs in Our Region,” includes three articles about different aspects of regional culture. First, musician, poet, and scholar Julie Henigan gives us an overview of the types of ballads found in the Ozarks and the southern Appalachians. This is followed by Canadian professor Pauline Greenhill’s account of a noisy vi Preface shivaree (involving so-called “rough music”) gone awry in a small southern Missouri town in the early 1960’s. Finally, we close this section with a remembrance of MFS member Jim Hickam, who co-hosted a folk music radio show that influenced the traditional music scene around Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for many years. Following these articles are our final two sections—In Memoriam, where we say good-bye to long-time MFS members and friends, and the Reviews section where Adam Davis and Jim Vandergriff offer their cogent comments on six books and one film in their areas of expertise. You will have noticed that the cover date on this issue is 2005-2006, though you are receiving it in 2015. (The previous volume, which had a cover date of 2004, was actually published in 2008.) Obviously, the Society has been having trouble producing volumes of this journal on a regular schedule, but the MFS board is trying its best to catch up, already overseeing at least two more issues of this journal that are currently in process. Though many factors in this delay were beyond our control, we extend our apologies to everyone involved, including the authors, the members of our Society, and our institutional subscribers. Most of all, we apologize to the Schroeders, the founders of the modern incarnation of our Society, who faithfully shepherded this journal through the publication process for so many years.