Customer Reviews

American Folk Tales and Songs (Dover Books on Music)

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This is a part of our heritage as Americans. We all have some folklore that helps shape our lives and upbringings. It is the underlying history that does not get placed in the history books. We unfortunately do not teach this stuff in schools. America, being an extraordinary melting pot has a great diversity of tales to be told. This collection includes ballads, tall tales, fiddle tunes, childrens song and hymns. It is a quality overview of American folklore. It will set a yearning in your soul and make you wax nostalgic for lemon-ade and Tom Sawyer. This is a small chunk of what it means to be American.

this book concentrates on anglo-american folklore, and so there is no reference to such characters as paul bunyan or johnny appleseed. still, there are a lot of surprisingly familiar stories that survived and were passed down when europeans settled in america. about half of the book is devoted to tales, including "ancient" tales (with references as far back as norse mythology, as well as robin hood and chaucer), jack tales, "fool irishman" tales, and "tall" tales. the second half is devoted to songs, simultaneously notated in shape as well as traditional notation. this section include ballads (i.e. songs that usually have a narrative), songs, hymns, songs for children, dances (with the choreography explained), and fiddle tunes. the book also includes odds and ends like jokes and riddles as well as a fantastic section of texts from graves from the turn of the century (around the late 1800's). also includes a guide to further reading and nice illustrations by joshua tolford. the stories themselves may feel a little quaint to some, but the colorful local dialect make them engaging and they provide insight into the lives and times of the people who have passed them down.

Upon dimly recalling, then retelling, and delighting my children with a Pat & Mike anecdote that I read in this book in my childhood (70s), I was delighted that it's still in print.
This book was my introduction to tall tales, so I'm thrilled to have a copy, and pleased to share them with my kids, but I hadn't remembered the dark tone of some of the stories. Also (as promised by the book's title), there's a fair portion devoted to folk songs that don't long hold my children's interest. Nevertheless, the stories are gems, and sufficient value by themselves, but I'm also hopeful that my children might gain an appreciation for a side of America that's out of their suburban-centric view.