American folk music
Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, Mainland Europe, or Africa.
[not verified in body] The music is considered American either because it is native to the United States or because it developed there, out of foreign origins, to such a degree that it struck musicologists as something distinctly new.
[4] For example, "Barbara Allen" remains a popular traditional ballad originating in England and Scotland, which immigrants introduced to the United States.
[6] The oldest surviving folk song of local Anglo-American origin is the ballad "Springfield Mountain" dating back to 1761 in Connecticut.
[14] Later broadside ballads imported into New England from the British Isles include "The Yorkshire Bite", "The Bold Soldier", "Butcher Boy", "Katie Morey", "The Half Hitch", and "The Boston Burglar".
[14] Locally composed, traditional New England folk songs include "Springfield Mountain", "The Jam on Gerry's Rock", "Young Charlotte", "Peter Amberly", "Jack Haggarty, and "The Jealous Lover".
[14] The folk music of the rest of Northeastern United States, including Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, was similar to that of New England, aside from a marked influence from the high numbers of non-British immigrants, such as the Germans, Dutch, and Swiss.
[14] In the Southeastern United States, popular local folk songs included "Sourwood Mountain", "Charming Betsy", "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss", "Buffalo Gals", "Arkansas Traveler", "Turkey in the Straw", "Old Joe Clark", "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad", "Shady Grove", "Katy Cline", "Ida Red", and "Cindy".
[16][17] Unlike the Northeast and New England, the Southeast had significant influence from African-American music and as a result instruments such as the banjo were widely adopted.
[15] However, English traditional music was still present in the Southeast with older Child ballads such as "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor", "The Maid Freed from the Gallows", "Fair Margaret and Sweet William", "The Wife of Usher's Well", "The Two Sisters", and "Matty Groves" surviving alongside some English ballads also played in the Northeast like "Barbara Allen".
[18] Unlike in the Northeast, Southeastern ballads of English origins tend to be appreciably altered with their lyrics shortened and smoothed out, reducing the number of stresses per stanza.
[1] One of the oldest sea shanties sung in America may have been "Haul in the Bowline" which could date back as far as the rule of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century.
The familiar "Streets of Laredo" (or "Cowboys Lament") derives from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called "The Unfortunate Rake",[6] which in turn appears to have descended from the even earlier "The Bard of Armagh".
Lomax himself admitted, "I have violated the ethics of ballad-gatherers, in a few instances, by selecting and putting together what seems to be the best lines from different versions, all telling the same story...Frankly the volume is meant to be popular.
While American colonists had long spun and wove homemade textiles, a burgeoning industry began to appear at the end of the eighteenth century in New England and later in the southern states.
Working conditions in textile mills were bleak, with extremely long hours and meager pay for the men, women, and children employed within.
Strikes began in the 1830s and 1840s, led by the young women who made up three-quarters of the work force, and earned about half of their male coworkers.
The hardships for loggers included a struggle with natural forces, unpredictable outdoor working conditions, and the danger of precarious stacks of logs stories high that could topple.
The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl were extremely important in disseminating these musical styles to the rest of the country, as Delta blues masters, itinerant honky tonk singers, and Cajun musicians spread to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
The growth of the recording industry in the same period was also important; higher potential profits from music placed pressure on artists, songwriters, and label executives to replicate previous hit songs.
This meant that musical fads, such as Hawaiian slack-key guitar, never died out completely, since a broad range of rhythms, instruments, and vocal stylings were incorporated into disparate popular genres.
Several Appalachian musicians obtained renown during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, including Jean Ritchie, Roscoe Holcomb, Ola Belle Reed, Lily May Ledford, and Doc Watson.
[46] Country and bluegrass artists such as Loretta Lynn, Roy Acuff, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Chet Atkins, and Don Reno were heavily influenced by traditional Appalachian music.
Before recorded history American Indians in this area used songs and instrumentation; music and dance remain the core of ceremonial and social activities.
[28] "Stomp dance" remains at its core, a "call and response" form; instrumentation is provided by rattles or shackles worn on the legs of women.
[28] By the early 20th century, jazz developed, born from a "blend of ragtime, gospel, and blues"[28] "Anglo-Scots-Irish music traditions gained a place in Oklahoma after the Land Run of 1889.
"[28] "Mexican immigrants began to reach Oklahoma in the 1870s, bringing beautiful canciones and corridos love songs, waltzes, and ballads along with them.
The acoustic guitar, string bass, and violin provide the basic instrumentation for Mexican music, with maracas, flute, horns, or sometimes accordion filling out the sound.
Their social activities centered on community halls, "where local musicians played polkas and waltzes on the accordion, piano, and brass instruments.
A more commercially oriented version of folk music emerged in the 1960s, including performers such as The Kingston Trio,[49] The Limeliters, The Brothers Four, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez,[50] The Highwaymen, Judy Collins, The New Christy Minstrels, and Gordon Lightfoot, as well as counterculture and folk rock performers including Bob Dylan,[51] The Byrds, Arlo Guthrie, and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
