"A book to cherish permanently." — The New York Times. With this ample collection of authentic ballads and songs, you can immerse yourself in the rich tradition and heritage of American folk music. Discover the diversity, spontaneity, free-flowing melody, and sheer invention of scores of songs sung by cowboys and convicts, lumberjacks, hobos, miners, plantation slaves, mountaineers, soldiers, and many others. One of the remarkable features of this collection is its authenticity. Many of the songs were recorded "on location" by noted folklorist John A. Lomax and his even more famous son, Alan, as they traveled around the United States. The results are firsthand versions of music and lyrics for over 200 railroad songs, chain-gang songs, mountain songs, Creole songs, cocaine and whisky songs, "reels," minstrel songs, songs of childhood, and a host of others. Among them are such time-honored favorites as "John Henry," "Goin' Home," "Frankie and Albert," "Down in the Valley," "Little Brown Jug," "Alabama-Bound," "Shortenin' Bread," "Skip to My Lou," "Frog Went a-Courtin'," and a host of others. An excellent introduction, notes on each song, a bibliography, and an index round out this extensive and valuable collection. Musician, musicologists, folklorists, singers — anyone interested in American folk music — will welcome this treasury of timeless song gathered in one handy, inexpensive volume.

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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 Away 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. BREAKDOWNS 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 the 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
All the Pretty Little Horses
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
Cowboy's Getting'-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