{"id":22905,"date":"2022-12-16T19:27:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T18:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=177316"},"modified":"2022-12-16T20:10:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:10:21","slug":"american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best\/","title":{"rendered":"American folk songs: 10 of the best"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Hannah Nepilova\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 16 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Representing the USA\u2019s richly varied folk<\/a> tradition in just ten of the best songs is no easy feat. Odds are that we\u2019ve left out some real smashers, and you may well disagree with our choices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, we\u2019ve done our best to put together a list that at least whets the appetite for further exploration. Here it is.<\/p>\n

Best American folk songs<\/h2>\n
\u00a0This Land is Your Land<\/b><\/h3>\n
Written by American singer Woody Guthrie in 1940, \u2018This Land is Your Land\u2019\u00a0 was intended as a critical response to Irving Berlin\u2019s \u2018God Bless America\u2019. Guthrie originally gave it the sarcastic title of\u00a0 \u2018God Blessed America for Me\u2019.<\/p>\n
But, following Germany\u2019s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he returned to supporting the US and its involvement in Europe, renaming his song in the process and dropping verses that were critical of the United States.\u00a0 Nowadays it is often dubbed as an alternative US national anthem<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<h3><b>Freight Train<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Although this song has been miscredited many times, the real artist behind it was Elizabeth Cotten (1893-1987): a self-taught African-American guitarist who, from the age of 13, worked as a maid, and only began performing publicly and recording in her sixties.<\/p>\n<p>She wrote \u2018Freight Train\u2019 \u2013 probably her signature song \u2013 while still a young\u00a0girl, inspired by the memory of a nearby train that she could hear from her childhood home in North Carolina. But it was decades later, with advocacy from the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger and her family, for whom Cotten worked as a housekeeper, that she got the recognition she deserved for it.<\/p>\n<div\/>\n<div>\n<iframe title=\""Freight\" train=\"\" elizabeth=\"\" cotton=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IUK8emiWabU?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Down by the Riverside<\/h3>\n<p>With roots dating back to before the American Civil War, this African-American spiritual was first published in 1918. By World War\u00a0II there were at least 14 black gospel\u00a0recordings of it and since then it has been used several times as an anti-war protest song, especially during the Vietnam War, thanks to pacifist lines such as \u2018Gonna lay down my sword and shield \/ Gonna stick my sword in the golden sand.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div> <section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlightcontent\" editor-content=\"\"> <p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-irish-folk-songs\/"\"><b>Best Irish folk songs<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/scottish-songs\/"\"><b>Five classic Scottish songs you can\u2019t help singing along to<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/welsh-songs\/"\"><b>Welsh songs: 7 traditional Welsh folk songs you can\u2019t help singing along to<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-folk-music\/"\"><b>What is folk music?<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <h3><b> Blue Moon of Kentucky<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>One of the earliest examples of Bluegrass music, this plaintive waltz was written by Bill Monroe in 1945 and has since become a classic. It was the first song that Elvis Presley ever recorded, and has also been covered by the likes of the Stanley Brothers, Patsy Cline and Sir Paul McCartney. It remains the official state song of Kentucky.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Bill\" monroe=\"\" the=\"\" bluegrass=\"\" boys=\"\" blue=\"\" moon=\"\" of=\"\" kentucky=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4syA9aNnNa0?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3><b>The Big Rock Candy Mountain<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>First written by Harry McClintock in 1895, this catchy country folk song is about a hobo\u2019s idea of paradise: a place where \u2018hens lay soft-boiled eggs\u2019, where \u2018the handouts grow on bushes\u2019 and there are \u2018cigarette trees\u2019. McClintock based the song on memories of hoboing through the United States as a youth while working for the railroad as a brakeman. The original version, which he sang as a street busker, was significantly more disturbing, describing a child being recruited into hobo life. But it was the sanitized edit, which was recorded by Burl Ives in 1949, that achieved widespread\u00a0popularity.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""The\" big=\"\" rock=\"\" candy=\"\" mountain=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E6F0IhdaaWI?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p><b> Deep River Blues<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This song was recorded in 1964 by Doc Watson, the guitarist, singer and songwriter who, despite being blind from a young age, grew up to become one of the US\u2019s legendary bluesmen, winning seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Comprising a traditional tune in a complex arrangement, it showcases Watson\u2019s formidable finger-picking technique.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlightcontent\" editor-content=\"\"> <p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/french-christmas-songs\/"\"><strong>French Christmas songs: 8 of the best<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/polish-christmas-carols\/"\">Polish Christmas carols: 7 of the best <\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/the-best-christmas-classical-music-albums\/"\">recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <h3><b>Michael Row the Boat Ashore<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>This haunting African-American spiritual was sung on St Helena Island, South Carolina, by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island during the American Civil War.<\/p>\n<p>William Francis Allen, an academic who, with his wife, ran a school for newly-emancipated slaves, reported in 1863 that the former slaves sang the song as they rowed him in a boat across Station Creek. His cousin, Charles Pickard Ware, also wrote down the song in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it.<\/p>\n<p>He and Allen later joined forces with the song collector Lucy McKim Garrison to publish it\u00a0in their joint volume: Slave Songs of the United States. It is still one of the US\u2019s most famous folk songs, sung by children and adults alike.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""The\" highwaymen=\"\" row=\"\" the=\"\" boat=\"\" ashore=\"\" on=\"\" ed=\"\" sullivan=\"\" show=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1RwNs8wHRqk?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3><b\/> <b>Mr Tambourine Man<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Well-loved for its expansive melody and poetic, surrealist lyrics, this song was written in 1964 by Bob Dylan, who credited\u00a0French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini as inspirations.<\/p>\n<p>People have variously interpreted it as a paean to drugs, a vision of mortality, or a meditation on the meaning of escape. One thing is certain though: it\u2019s as catchy as anything, which helps to explain why it has been performed and recorded so many times by artists as diverse as the Byrds, Judy Collins,\u00a0 Odetta, and Stevie Wonder.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Mr.\" tambourine=\"\" man=\"\" at=\"\" the=\"\" newport=\"\" folk=\"\" festival.=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OeP4FFr88SQ?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3><b> Go Tell it on the Mountain<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>This anonymous African-American spiritual hymn dates back to the mid-19th century. John Wesley Work Jr, who collected spirituals, first published it in 1907 in his book New Jubilee Songs and Folk Songs of the American Negro.<\/p>\n<p>But by then it had already come to the public eye thanks to the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American a cappella ensemble, who toured the country in the 19th century singing spirituals to raise money for the newly-created college for blacks following the abolition of slavery. Telling the story of the nativity, \u2018<strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/go-tell-it-on-the-mountain-lyrics\/"\">Go Tell It On The Mountain<\/a><\/strong>\u2018 is also a popular <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-carol\/"\">Christmas carol<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Go\" tell=\"\" it=\"\" on=\"\" the=\"\" mountain=\"\" melvin=\"\" crispell=\"\" iii=\"\" chandler=\"\" moore=\"\" maverick=\"\" city=\"\" music=\"\" tribl=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z1RpUV2AQ24?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> <p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/25-greatest-christmas-carols-all-time\/"\">The 25 best Christmas carols of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/the-best-christmas-classical-music-albums\/"\">The best Christmas classical music albums and recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-christmas-musicals\/"\">10 of the best Christmas musicals<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/michael-buble-christmas-songs\/"\">Michael Bubl\u00e9\u2019s Christmas songs: 5 of the best for the festive period<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <h3><b>Clay Pigeons<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Blaze Foley, a frequently\u00a0homeless wanderer who released this song a month before his violent death in 1989, was relatively little-known in his lifetime. Many of his recordings were lost, one of them confiscated in a DEA drug raid. Yet, in the years since his death he has been elevated to something of a folk hero, and \u2018Clay Pigeons\u2019 \u2013 popularised in a cover by John Prine \u2013 is probably his best-known song. Essentially a meditation on the importance of picking yourself up after a fall and starting again, it is masterfully simple and packed with emotion.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""Blaze\" foley=\"\" clay=\"\" pigeons=\"\" rare=\"\" live=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uM3YROq_cLY?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<p>Main image: Woody Guthrie \u00a9\u00a0<i><a class=\""extiw"\" title=\""w:New\" york=\"\" world-telegram=\"\" href=\""https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_York_World-Telegram"\">New York World-Telegram & Sun<\/a><\/i>.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Hannah Nepilova Published: Friday, 16 December 2022 at 12:00 am Representing the USA\u2019s richly varied folk tradition in just ten of the best songs is no easy feat. Odds are that we\u2019ve left out some real smashers, and you may well disagree with our choices. Still, we\u2019ve done our best to put together a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":22906,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-scaled.jpg",2560,2361,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-300x277.jpg",300,277,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-768x708.jpg",768,708,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-1024x944.jpg",800,738,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-1536x1417.jpg",1536,1417,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/american-folk-songs-10-of-the-best-2048x1889.jpg",2048,1889,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Hannah Nepilova Published: Friday, 16 December 2022 at 12:00 am Representing the USA\u2019s richly varied folk tradition in just ten of the best songs is no easy feat. Odds are that we\u2019ve left out some real smashers, and you may well disagree with our choices. Still, we\u2019ve done our best to put together a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/22905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}