CONTENTS
FOREWORD BY GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER
I.WORKING ON THE RAILROAD
John Henry
Steel Laying Holler
The Heavy-Hipted Woman
Tie Shuffling Chant
Tie Tamping Chant
Good-by, Pretty Mama
Paddy Works on the Erie
Mike
The Gila Monster Route
Hallelujah, Bum Again
Ten Thousand Miles from Home
The Wreck on the C. & O.
Nachul-Born Easman
Casey Jones
The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver
Ol’ John Brown
Charley Snyder
II.THE LEVEE CAMP
Shack Bully Holler
Reason I Stay on Job So Long
Gwineter Harness in de Mornin’ Soon
Levee Camp “Holler”
Shot My Pistol in de Heart of Town
III.SONGS FROM SOUTHERN CHAIN GANGS
Ain’ No Mo’ Cane on de Brazis
Black Betty
The Hammer Song
Rosie
Ol’ Rattler
Stewball
De Midnight Special
Long Gone
Great God-a’mighty
Jumpin’ Judy
Goin’ Home
IV.NEGRO BAD MEN
Bad Man Ballad
Po Laz’us
Stagolee
Old Bill
Frankie and Albert
Ida Red
Big Jim
De Ballit of de Boll Weevil
Bill Martin and Ella Speed
Railroad Bill
V.WHITE DESPERADOES
Spanish Johnny
John Harty
Sam Bass
Jesse James
Quantrell
Sam Hall
Jim Haggerty’s Story
Billy the Kid
The Cryderville Jail
Po’ Boy
VI.SONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS
Down in the Valley
Every Night When the Sun Goes In
The Roving Gambler
I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground
Sugar Babe
When I Was Single [the Woman]
When I Was Single [the Man]
Darlin’
Polly Williams
The Bear in the Hill
The Little Mohee
VII.COCAINE AND WHISKY
Drink That Rot Gut
Rye Whisky
The Drunkard’s Doom
Little Brown Jug
Adieu to Bon County
Good Ol’ Mountain Dew
Lulu
Willie the Weeper
Honey, Take a Whiff on Me
VIII.THE BLUES
Cornfield Holler
Dirty Mistreatin’ Women
Dink’s Blues
Dink’s Song
Woman Blue
Go Way f’om Mah Window
My Li’l John Henry
Shorty George
The “Cholly” Blues
Fare Thee Well, Babe
Alabama-Bound
IX.CREOLE NEGROES
Michié Préval
Rémon
Criole Candjo
Un, Deux, Trois
Aurore Pradère
Ou Som Souroucou
Salangadou
X.“REELS”
Foller de Drinkin’ Gou’d
Run, Nigger, Run!
Pick a Bale o’ Cotton
Hard to Be a Nigger
Shortenin’ Bread
Sandy Lan’
Pattin’
a. Little Gal at Our House
b. Rabbit Hash
c. Da’s All Right, Baby
Cotton Field Song
De Grey Goose
Julie Ann Johnson
My Yallow Gal
De Black Gal
XI.MINSTREL TYPES
The Ballad of Davy Crockett
Raise a Rukus Tonight
When de Good Lord Sets You Free
Old Dan Tucker
Cotton-Eyed Joe
XII.REAKDOWNS AND PLAY PARTIES
The Arkansas Traveller
Groun’ Hog
Cumberland Gap
Sourwood Mountain
Old Joe Clark
The Gal I Left Behind Me
a. That Pretty Little Gal
b. A cowboy version
Ol’ Mother Hare
Liza Jane
Black-Eyed Susie
Louisiana Girls
Weevily Wheat
Way Over in the Blooming Garden
Skip to My Lou
Shoot the Buffalo
Going to Boston
Shoo-Shoo-Shoo-Lye
XIII.SONGS OF CHILDHOOD
What Folks Are Made of
All the Pretty Little Horses
The Old Gray Goose
Long Time Ago
Three Pigs
Tale of a Little Pig
Frog Went a-Courtin’
Crows in the Garden
The Connecticut Peddler
Billy Boy
Paper of Pins
Hardly Think I Will
I Love Little Willie
XIV.MISCELLANY
The Factory Girl
Hard Times
On Meesh-e-gan
Tearin’ Out-a Wilderness
The Man on the Flying Trapeze
Ye Ballade of Ivan Petrovsky Skevar
Beautiful
The Highly Educated Man
Darky Sunday School
The Old Bachelor
Rattle Snake
XV.VAQUEROS OF THE SOUTHWEST
Allá en el Rancho Grande
El Amor Que Te Tenía
El Abandonado
Cuatro Palomitas Blancas
Tragedia de Heraclio Bernal
XVI.COWBOY SONGS
From the Chuck Wagon
Cowboys’ Gettin’-Up Holler
The Old Chizzum Trail
When I Was a Cowboy
Cowboy to Pitching Bronco
Other Cowboy Boasting Chants
Good-by, Old Paint
Git Along, Little Dogies
The Buffalo Skinners
The Stampede
Mustang Gray
Hell in Texas
Arizona
The Killer
Snagtooth Sal
Tying a Knot in the Devil’s Tail
Susan Van Dusan
The Cowboy’s Dream
Red River Shore
Roy Bean
An Idaho Cowboy Dance
In Town
Bucking Bronco
Poor Lonesome Cowboy
XVII.SONGS OF THE OVERLANDERS
Joe Bowers
Sweet Betsy from Pike
Crossing the Plains
Coming Around the Horn
The Bull-Whacker
Brigham Young
Greer County
XVIII.THE MINER
The Hard-Working Miner
The Dreary Black Hills
Just from Dawson
XIX.THE SHANTY-BOY
The Lost Jimmie Whalen
The Shanty-Boy and the Farmer’s Son
Gerry’s Rocks
Bung Yer Eye
The Banks of the Pamanow
XX.THE ERIE CANAL
Ballad of the Erie Canal
The Erie Canal
The Erie Canal Ballad
Erie Canal
A Trip on the Erie
Low Bridge, Everybody Down
The E-ri-e
The Raging Can-all
XXI.THE GREAT LAKES
Red Iron Ore
XXII.SAILORS AND SEA FIGHTS
Johnny Come Down to Hilo
Heave Away
Whisky Johnny
The Rio Grande
The Black Ball Line
Blow the Man Down
Get Up, Jack! John, Sit Down!
Jack Wrack
The Boston Come-All-Ye
The Wonderful Crocodile
Captain Robert Kidd
The Flying Cloud
Constitution and Guerrière
Siege of Plattsburg
The Buccaneers
Destroyer Life
XXIII.WARS AND SOLDIERS
Yankee Doodle
Braddock’s Defeat
John Brown’s Body
Hold On, Abraham
Dixie
War Song
Good Old Rebel
Benny Havens, Oh!
The Wild Miz-zou-rye
Shenandoah
Damn the Filipinos
A Rookie’s Lament
The Company Cook
We’ve Done Our Hitch in Hell
If You Want to Know Where the Privates Are
The Hearse Song
Hinky Dinky, Parley-Voo?
XXIV.WHITE SPIRITUALS
Bear the News, Mary
Parting Friends
Burges
Few Days
Wedlock
Wicked Polly
Now Our Meeting’s Over
The Other Shore
Amazing Grace
XXV.NEGRO SPIRITUALS
Many T’ousands Go
Lay Dis Body Down
Mone, Member, Mone
Moanin’
Healin’ Waters
’Ligion So Sweet
Dives and Laz’us
Set Down, Servant
Oh, Lawd, How Long?
Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word
Hell and Heaven
Man Goin’ Round
Good-by, Mother
This Train
Deep River
Blin’ Man Stood on de Way an’ Cried
Dese Bones Gwine to Rise Again
Hard Trials
Dat Lonesome Stream
Woe Be unto You
Tone de Bell Easy
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
When My Blood Runs Chilly and Col’
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX