The Ballad Collectors of North America

The Ballad Collectors of North America

Author: Scott B. Spencer

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0810881551

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Much has been written about the songs gathered in North America in the first half of the 20th century. However, there is scant information on those individuals responsible for gathering these songs. The Ballad Collectors of North America: How Gathering Folksongs Transformed Academic Thought and American Identity fills this gap, documenting the efforts of those who transcribed and recorded North American folk songs. Both biographical and topical, this book chronicles not only the most influential of these "song catchers" but also examines the main schools of thought on the collection process, the leading proponents of those schools, and the projects that they shaped. Contributors also consider the role of technology--especially the phonograph--in the collection efforts. Chapters organized by region cover such areas as Appalachia, the West, and Canada, while others devoted to specialized topics from the cowboy tune and occupational song to the commercialization of folk music through song collections and anthologies. Ballad Collectors investigates the larger role of the ballad in the development of American identity, from the national appreciation of cowboy songs in popular culture to the use of Appalachian song forms in radio broadcasts to the role of dustbowl ballads in the urban folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, this collection assesses the changing role of songs and song texts in the academic fields of folklore, anthropology, musicology, and ethnomusicology. Scholars and students of American cultural and social history, as well as fans of North American folk and popular music, will find The Ballad Collectors of North America a fascinating story of how the American folk tradition gained greater visibility, fueling the revolutions that would follow in the writing and performance of American music.


Cowboy Poets & Cowboy Poetry

Cowboy Poets & Cowboy Poetry

Author: David Stanley

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780252068362

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This book offers the first in-depth examination of a distinctive and community-based tradition rich with larger-than-life heroes, vivid occupational language, humor, and unblinking encounters with birth, death, nature, and animals in the poetry.


Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle

Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle

Author: Katie Lee

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780826323354

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This classic of cowboy lore including illustrations by cowboy artist William Moyers, first published in 1976, is now available only from the University of New Mexico Press. "A beautiful job, exact, comprehensive and witty. Should remain a basic history of the subject for many years to come."--Edward Abbey


Sun and Saddle Leather

Sun and Saddle Leather

Author: Badger Clark

Publisher: Pantianos Classics

Published: 1922

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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The rugged landscapes and hardy living of the Old West find vivid evocation in this superb anthology by the famed cowboy poet Charles Badger Clark. Many of the poems eloquently recall places famed for their role in old west life such as the rolling plains and farms host to great herds of livestock. Herding and driving cattle and other animals on horseback across the vast prairielands was the work of the cowboy; during evenings and breaks in the shade these men would sing songs about their daily life, the sights seen and tough jobs accomplished amid scenes of boundless nature. Charles Badger Clark was one of the most celebrated cowboy poets of his generation. Born in Iowa in 1883, from a young age he demonstrated a great knack for penning evocative verse. Much of his writing is treasured for depicting the slang and quirks of speech peculiar to the cowboys, offering readers authentic glimpses of a lifestyle lost to time. Decades after his death Clark was inducted into Oklahoma's revered Hall of Great Westerners for his contributions to the culture. This reprinting of Sun and Saddle Leather is based upon the expanded fifth edition, which dates to 1920.