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On Springfield Mountain
"On Springfield Mountain" or "Springfield Mountain" (Laws G16) is an American ballad which recounts the tragic death of a young man who is bitten by a rattlesnake while mowing a field. Historically, the song refers to the death of Timothy Merrick, who was recorded to have died on August 7, 1761 in Wilbraham, Massachusetts by snakebite. It is commonly included in collections of American folksong, and is one of the earliest known American ballads. The ballad has been cited as representative of elegiac verse tradition which later gained status as folklore throughout the United States. Due to its popularity, there exist many variations of the ballad and its narrative. Although the song is now accompanied by its own distinct melody, early performances of the ballad were sung to other airs, including "Old Hundredth" and "Merrily Danced the Quaker's Wife". Historical basis Timothy Merrick was born on May 24, 1739 to Lieutenant Thomas Merrick and his wife, Mary. As the story goes, at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America. Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is often used for any love song, particularly the sentimental ballad of pop or roc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phillips Barry
Phillips Barry (July 18, 1880, Boston, Massachusetts – August 29, 1937) was an American academic and collector of traditional ballads in New England. Barry was educated privately before undergraduate and graduate studies at Harvard University (A.B., 1900; A.M., 1901; S.T.B., 1913) studying folklore, theology, and classical and medieval literature. After graduating, he devoted himself to "the cultural history of the Celts and American colored lithographs" and then began collecting variations of both American and Anglo-American ballads in the northeast United States. In 1930 he founded the ''Folk-Song Society of the Northeast''. He edited and regularly contributed to the group's ''Bulletin'', which printed twelve issues from 1930 until Barry's death in 1937. In an obituary printed in 1938, folklorist George Herzog described his theory of "communal re-creation" as a significant contribution to the study of ballads in the field: Mr. Barry, and Professor Louise Pound, attacked the theor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Ballads
Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Folk +, an Albanian folk music channel * Folks (band), a Japanese band * ''Folks!'', a 1992 American film People with the name * Bill Folk (born 1927), Canadian ice hockey player * Chad Folk (born 1972), Canadian football player * Elizabeth Folk (c. 16th century), British martyr; one of the Colchester Martyrs * Eugene R. Folk (1924–2003), American ophthalmologist * Joseph W. Folk (1869–1923), American lawyer, reformer, and politician * Kevin Folk (born 1980), Canadian curler * Nick Folk (born 1984), American football player * Rick Folk (born 1950), Canadian curler * Robert Folk (born 1949), American film composer Other uses * Folk classification, a type of classification in geology * Folks Nation, an alliance of American street gangs Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fair Charlotte
"Fair Charlotte" (or "Young Charlotte") (Laws G17) is an American folk ballad. Story The story is a cautionary tale concerning a young girl called Charlotte who refused to wrap up warmly to go on a sleigh ride to a New Year's ball. Upon arriving at the ball, her fiancé discovers that she has frozen to death during the journey. Origins The ballad of "Fair Charlotte" is based on a poem by Seba Smith that was first published in '' The Rover'', a Maine newspaper, on December 28, 1843, under the title ''A Corpse Going To A Ball''.Cohen, Norm: ''Folk Music: A Regional Exploration'', p. 24-25 (America, 2005) According to folklorist Phillips Barry, Smith's composition was based on an incident recounted in an 1840 ''New York Observer'' article of the same name. The story from the "New York Observer" was entitled "A Corpse Going To a Ball" and was reprinted in an Ohio Newspaper: "Ohio Democrat and Dover Advertiser" February 28, 1840 p. 1 the article claimed that the incident in q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rattlesnake Mountain (song)
"Rattlesnake Mountain" is a traditional American folk song derived from one of the earliest known American ballads, " On Springfield Mountain". It is based on the events surrounding the death by snakebite of Timothy Merrick (or Mirick) on August 7, 1761. Recordings * Woody Guthrie on '' Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs'' (1940s, released 1989) * Burl Ives on '' Historical America in Song'' (1950) * Harry Belafonte (1953) * Bascom Lamar Lunsford on ''Smoky Mountain Ballads'' (1953) * Patrick Sky (1965) * Sam Hinton on ''The Wandering Folksong'' (1966) * Brooks Williams on ''Inland Sailor'' (1994) * Tara Maclean for the soundtrack of the movie ''Inventing the Abbotts ''Inventing the Abbotts'' is a 1997 American period coming-of-age film directed by Pat O'Connor and starring Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, and Joanna Going. The screenplay by Ken Hixon is based on a short story by ...'' (1997) References Merrick, Charles L., "History of Wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs
''Woody Guthrie Sings Folk Songs'' is a remastered compilation album of American folk songs sung by legend Woody Guthrie accompanied by Lead Belly, Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry, and Bess Lomax Hawes originally recorded for Moses Asch in the 1940s and re-released in 1989 by Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Service .... Track listing #Hard Traveling #What Did the Deep Sea Say? #The House of the Rising Sun #900 Miles (Instrumental) #John Henry #Oregon Trail #We Shall Be Free #Dirty Overalls (My Dirty Overhauls) #Jackhammer John #Springfield Mountain #Brown Eyes #Boll Weevil Blues (Boll Weevil) #Guitar Blues (Instrumental) #Will You Miss Me? 1989 compilation albums Woody Guthrie albums Folkways Records albums ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bess Hawes
Bess or BESS may refer to: * Bess (name), a given name and surname * Bess (content-control software), a brand of web filtering software * Bess (Dane), legendary Danish general mentioned in ''Gesta Danorum'' * Bess (singer), Finnish singer * BESS (experiment), a particle physics experiment * Basic Enlisted Submarine School, the United States Navy's school for enlisted submariners * Lake Bess, Florida, United States * Mount Bess, on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, Canada * Bess beetle, a family of beetles * Bess Press, an American publisher * Delta Bessborough or The Bess, a hotel in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada * Battery energy storage system See also * BES (other) * Besse (other) * Brown Bess, nickname of a British Army musket * Old Bess (beam engine) * Tropical Storm Bess The name Bess has been used for one tropical cyclone in the Atlantic Ocean, and ten tropical cyclones in the western Pacific. Bess was used for one tropical cyclone in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cisco Houston
Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston (August 18, 1918 – April 29, 1961) was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of recording together. Houston was a regular recording artist for Moses Asch's Folkways recording studio. He also performed with such folk/blues musicians as Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers. Biography Early life Gilbert Vandine Houston was born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, on August 18, 1918, the second of four children. His father, Adrian Moncure Houston, was a sheet-metal worker. The family moved to California while Houston was still young, and he attended school in Eagle Rock, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. During his school years, Houston began to play the guitar, having picked up an assortment of folk songs from his family. It is reported that Houston was regarded as highly intelligent during his time at school, despite the nystagmus tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and occasionally imitations of trains and fox hunts. Career Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and went blind by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work, and was forced to play music in order to earn a living. Terry played "Campdown Races" to the plow horses which improved the efficiency of farming in the area. He began playing blues in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died, he began playing with Piedmont blues–style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, Terry established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and they recorded numerous songs together. The duo became well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired several generations both politically and musically with songs such as "This Land Is Your Land", written in response to the American exceptionalist song "God Bless America". Guthrie wrote hundreds of country, folk, and children's songs, along with ballads and improvised works. '' Dust Bowl Ballads'', Guthrie's album of songs about the Dust Bowl period, was included on '' Mojo'' magazine's list of 100 Records That Changed The World, and many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Songwriters who have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence on their work include Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Hunter, Harry Chapin, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Andy Irvine, Joe Strummer, Billy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech organ, speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects, varieties of English language, English, the phrase "no highway cowboy" () has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word ''ah'' is spoken as a monophthong (), while the word ''ow'' is spoken as a diphthong in most varieties (). Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables (e.g. in the English word ''re-elect'') the result is described as hiatus (linguistics), hiatus, not as a diphthong. (The English word ''h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristram Potter Coffin
Tristram Potter Coffin (February 13, 1922January 31, 2012) was an American folklorist and leading scholar of ballad texts in the 20th century. Coffin spent the bulk of his career at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a professor of English and a co-founder of the Folklore Department. He was the author of 20 books and more than 100 scholarly articles and reviews. Biography Coffin was born February 13, 1922 in San Marino, California, the son of Tristram Roberts Coffin, an investment banker formerly of Richmond, Indiana and New York City, and Elsie Potter Robinson of Edgewood Farm, Wakefield, Rhode Island. He had an older sister, Trelsie Coffin Buffum Lucas (1918–1987); an older brother, Roberts Robinson Coffin, who died shortly after birth in 1920; and a younger brother, Peter Robinson Coffin (1923–1998), who was a college professor as well. He also had an older half-sister, Lydia, and half-brother, Richard, from his father's first marriage. Coming to Rhode Island ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
