CLASSIC AMERICAN BALLADS
from SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
Classic American Ballads
from SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
SFW 40215 PC 2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place, Katie Ortiz, and Max Smith
1. Banks of the Ohio .................................3:32
Doc Watson and Bill Monroe
2. Blue Mountain Lake .......................2:47
Pete Seeger
3. Claude Allen .................................... 3:50
Hobart Smith
4. Cole Younger .................................... 1:50
Dock Boggs
5. Cowboy’s Lament ..............................3:21
(Streets of Laredo)
Buck Ramsey
6. Boll Weevil ...................................... 2:12
Sam Hinton
(arr. by Sam Hinton/Universal Polygram International Pub. Inc.)
7. Duncan and Brady ............................. 1:08
Lead Belly
(arr. by Huddie Ledbetter/TRO-Folkways
Music Publishers, Inc., BMI )
8. Floyd Collins ................................... 3:27
Paul Clayton
(Andrew Jenkins-Irene Spain/Shapiro
Bernstein & Co. Inc.)
9. Frankie and Johnny .......................... 6:39
Rolf Cahn and Eric Von Schmidt
(Hughie Cannon)
10. John Henry ........................................ 3:22
John Jackson
11. Jesse James ..........................................3:51
Sis Cunningham, Mike Millius,
and Wes Houston
12. Billy the Kid ................................... 2:04
Woody Guthrie
(Andrew Jenkins/Songs of Universal,
Inc., ASCAP)
13. The Death of the Lawson Family ... 1:54
Glen Neaves
(Walter Smith/Peer International Corp.)
14. Naomi Wise....................................... 3:06
Doug Wallin
15. Pearl Bryan .......................................2:54
Bruce Buckley
(Carson-Carson)
16. Sam Bass ............................................. 1:59
Hermes Nye
( John Denton)
19. Tying a Knot in the Devil’s Tail .... 2:14
Cisco Houston
(Gail Gardner-Billy Simon, arr. by
Cisco Houston/Figs. D Music Inc.
o/b/o Stormking Music, BMI )
20. Young Charlotte ............................ 4:05
Pete Seeger
(Seba Smith)
21. Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm?......... 2:41
The Tex-I-An Boys
( J.L. Griffin)
22. Zebra Dun......................................... 2:32
Joan O’Bryant
23. The Titanic .......................................2:52
Pink Anderson
17. Springfield Mountain ......................2:31
Bascom Lamar Lunsford
24. The Louisville Burglar ................ 3:09
The Iron Mountain String Band
18. Tom Dooley .......................................2:11
Glen Neaves, Roscoe Russell, Ivor
Melton, Warren Brown, Ted Lundy
25. The F. F. V. (Engine 143) ................ 3:56
Annie Watson
(arr. by A. P. Carter/Peer
International Corp., BMI )
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Introduction
Among American record labels, Folkways Records (now Smithsonian Folkways) has been one
of the few to continuously produce and distribute high-quality recordings of American folk music.
Folkways founder Moses Asch made a commitment to artists that their Folkways recordings
would never go out of print. In 2002, Smithsonian Folkways initiated its Classic series with the
hope that these compilations would serve as “doors” for listeners into the Smithsonian Folkways
Collection, which includes many artists and styles. This particular album focuses on ballads
composed in the United States about events that took place over the last three centuries. The
recordings date predominantly from the 1940s to 1960s.
Immigrants from the British Isles to the United States brought their ballads with them. For
many years, scholars turned their attention to these ballads—although often it was the poetry
in the lyrics that interested the academics more than the music. Ballad scholar Francis James
Child undertook to catalog variant forms of 305 ballads originally from the British Isles, trying
to find the “most pure” forms of these songs. Olive Dame Campbell, teaching in western North
Carolina, discovered that many of the “isolated” mountain residents still remembered the old
ballads. She and Cecil Sharp collected songs there and often found ballads that had ceased to be
sung in England and Scotland.
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One British tradition was the “broadside” ballad. Composed about current newsworthy events
in the country and sold for pennies, broadsides served as a method of transmitting news from
place to place. They could be about a murder or a satire of a disliked member of the aristocracy.
Many songs and rhymes we know today, such as “Froggie Went A-Courting” and “Little Jack
Horner,” started out as political satires; their original meaning lost, they have become just beloved
children’s rhymes.
Upon coming to this country, immigrant bards began to adopt the ballad form to write broadsides about events here. The earliest one on this album is the Colonial-era ballad “Springfield
Mountain.” In 1950, ballad scholar Malcolm Laws (1919–) published a collection of songs in which
he cataloged ballads composed in the United States (he called them “Native American” ballads)
the same way Child had done for the British ballads. He assigned each song a letter and number,
grouping songs by type and linking variants of the same song. These designations became a song’s
“Laws number.” The majority of the songs on this album were in his collection and helped inspire
this compilation.
In the days before radio, television, and the Internet, there were fewer avenues for spreading
the word of spectacular events—the kinds of news stories that would go “viral” today. But certain
stories captivated the American imagination—the Hindenburg disaster, the sinking of the Titanic,
and the wreck of the “Old 97” train in Danville, Virginia. Americans followed the news of a spelunker, Floyd Collins, trapped in a Kentucky cave; the freezing death of a young girl in Maine
on New Year’s Eve inspired a ballad and a line of children’s dolls. Grisly crimes, like the murder
of Pearl Bryan in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, got huge press coverage, and entrepreneurial ballad
writers jumped right in with new songs to cater to the public’s thirst for details.
In the early 20th century, furniture manufacturers who sold record players mounted in fine
wooden cabinets began to manufacture companion records as well. In the 1920s, these companies
realized that the record-buying public loved songs of “tragedy and death,” and that “folk” material
on record would make money for them. Some of the top-selling records of the decade were ballads
about disasters. Vernon Dalhart’s version of the ballad “The Wreck of the Old 97” is considered the
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first million-selling country
music record. Another top
seller was Ernest Stoneman’s
1924 recording “The Sinking
of the Titanic.”
Record producers would
commission songwriters to
write a ballad in a timely
fashion about a current news
event and would rush the
record to market. In one
such case, record executive
Polk Brockman contracted
songwriter Andrew Jenkins
to compose a song about the
sensational story of Floyd
Collins’ entrapment in Sand
Cave, Kentucky. Brockman was not disappointed with the subsequent record sales.
Many of these “topical” ballads have become American folk songs, thought to be anonymous in
composition even though they are of recent vintage, and during the “folk song revival” of the 1950s
and 1960s, entered performer’s repertoires.
Drawn from among the hundreds of folk albums Moses Asch released during his career, this
collection includes some of the important ballads created in the United States over the last 250 years.
Jeff Place, 2014
7
The Songs
Banks of the Ohio
1
Doc Watson, vocal and guitar; Bill Monroe, vocal and mandolin
(Laws F5; from Smithsonian Folkways 40064, 1993; recorded May 17, 1963, at the
Ash Grove in Los Angeles by Ralph Rinzler)
“Banks of the Ohio” is a 19th-century murder ballad, and one of the most popular of the genre. It
has roots in the British ballad, “The Wexford Girl,” but in this version, the crime takes place on the
Ohio River. The narrator brings his lover for a stroll along the riverbank, and when she rejects his
marriage proposal, he murders her. The first commercial recording of the song was the 1927 release
by Red Patterson’s Piedmont Log Rollers.
Doc Watson (1923–2012) was born in Stoney Fork Township, North Carolina (later known as
Deep Gap), and was one of the best acoustic guitar players of the 20th century.
Bill Monroe (1911–96) was the “Father of Bluegrass.” In the 1930s he performed with his brother
Charlie and sometimes also his brother Birch as the Monroe Brothers. He had a long career, most
famously with the Blue Grass Boys. Many of the great musicians who passed through the Blue Grass
Boys went on to start groups of their own and spread bluegrass music all over the country.
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Blue Mountain Lake
2
Pete Seeger, vocal and banjo
(Laws C20; also known as “The Belle of Long Lake,” “The Rackets Around Blue
Mountain Lake”; from Folkways 5003, 1954/ Smithsonian Folkways 40153, 2006;
recorded early 1950s)
Blue Mountain Lake is located in the Adirondacks in northeast New York State, and the song is
about a fight in a lumber camp in that region. Folklorist Helen Hartness Flanders, a specialist in
songs of the northeastern United States, heard this ballad at the home of Herbert Haley, and he
spoke of it as “Dorset’s Song.” Haley remembered that Charlie Dorset, who played a fife and was
a lumberman on Long Lake, just north of Blue Mountain Lake, made up the song about a fight.
The lumber crew boss was named Griffith (Flanders 1939, 175); in other versions of the song the
boss is named Mitchell.
Folklorist Frank Warner also collected a version of the song in the Adirondacks. He had met people
who knew the Sullivan Brothers and Jim Lou—characters in the song who worked together at the
lumber camp and were involved in the fight—and knew that Bill Mitchell—according to the song,
the man who was beat up—had a bad reputation (Warner 1952). Apparently the lumber company was
the Griffin Company in Glens Falls, New York.
Pete Seeger (1919–2014) was the most significant American folksinger of the 20th century. Pete
grew up surrounded by music. His father was the eminent musicologist Charles Seeger, and his
mother Constance was a concert violinist. In addition, his siblings Mike, Peggy, and Penny and
various cousins and relatives by marriage have had successful recording careers.
His series American Favorite Ballads included over 100 of the best known American folk songs.
Seeger was one of the major figures in the folk song revival and an important influence on many of
the other musicians in the genre. He first recorded this song on 78 rpm disc for Asch in an album
called Hudson Valley Songs.
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Claude Allen
3
Hobart Smith, vocal and guitar
(Laws E6; from Folkways 2390, 1964; recorded September 6, 1963, in New York by
Peter Siegel)
This ballad is about Floyd and Claude Allen, a father and son who were sentenced to death for
their involvement in a 1912 courtroom shooting in Hillsville, Virginia. Floyd Allen (born 1856) was
being tried for assaulting a deputy who had arrested Allen’s nephews without a warrant (Rinzler
1961). The Allens had made a pact among themselves that any one of them would die before being
imprisoned. According to one account of the trial, Floyd told the judge he’d kill him if he was
sentenced. After the judge, Thornton I. Massie, pronounced sentence, Floyd pulled out his weapon
and killed Massie (Roanoke Times, March 15, 1912). Other accounts say no one knows who fired the
first shot, but before the fray was over no fewer than 200 shots had been fired. In any event, Floyd’s
son Claude (born 1889) was accused of shooting and killing the judge, with Floyd the alleged
accomplice in the gunfight. Floyd’s brother Sidney (Sidna) was also involved. A separate ballad
called “Sidna Allen” was written about the events.
To fill an urban public’s demand for a good story, the New York Times concocted a tale of a
band of 20 violent mountaineers storming the courtroom in an attempt to rescue Floyd (September
15, 1912).Throughout the Allens’ trial, false newspaper stories held public opinion in thrall and,
despite a lack of hard evidence, Floyd and Claude were convicted and sentenced to death. Before
their executions, both wrote lengthy statements professing their innocence. Claude’s statement
reads: “My last words to the people of Virginia are: I knew absolutely nothing of any conspiracy
and do not believe there was one. I did not fire the first shot and did not shoot until my father had
been shot at. I did not kill Judge Massie. Those who have wronged me I forgive and hope we shall
meet in a better world where sorrow is never known. Pray God’s blessing upon our dear old State
and to all her people I say farewell. I am with a clear conscience.”
Hobart Smith (1897–1965) was a multi-instrumentalist from Saltville, Virginia. A lifelong
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musician, Smith played locally in southwest Virginia, including the well-known White Top
Festival during the 1930s. Along with his sister Texas Gladden, he was invited to perform at
the Roosevelt White House. Alan Lomax recorded both Smith and Gladden for the Library of
Congress in 1942. This recording comes from a series of concerts presented by the Friends of Old
Time Music in New York.
Cole Younger
4
Dock Boggs, vocal and banjo
(Laws E3; from Folkways 2392, 1965/ Smithsonian Folkways
40108, 1998; recorded June 3, 1964, in Norton, Virginia, by
Mike Seeger)
Cole Younger was born in 1844 in Missouri. During the Civil War, he
joined a group of guerilla fighters which included Frank James. Under their
leader William Clarke Quantrill, they conducted raids and attacks on Union
troops, and both Younger and James went on to serve in the Confederate
Army. When they returned home after the war, they found that their
military service left them disenfranchised. The Younger and James families then joined forces and
turned to crime to support themselves. For this, their wartime skills came in handy. They became
notorious as bank robbers, and from 1871 through 1876 the men lived as successful outlaws. Their
bold crimes served as the stuff of legends, later inspiring songs and stories from people who read
about them in newspapers all over the nation.
In September 1876, however, the James-Younger band’s successful streak came to a fateful end.
The group decided to target a bank in Northfield, Minnesota, perhaps because it was connected
to the former Union general Benjamin Butler. Unlike their many triumphant robberies executed
before, this attempt failed miserably. The cashier who refused to hand over the money was shot, and
the robbers fled empty-handed. In the wake of previous crimes, they had always been able to rely on
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the sympathy of neighbors and other former guerilla fighters to hide them from law enforcement.
In this instance, though, the townspeople turned on the outlaws and helped to hunt them down.
Frank and Jesse James escaped, but all three Younger boys were caught and imprisoned for life
(Anderson 1972). Cole was eventually granted a full pardon in 1903, at which point he returned
home. In his later years, he partnered with Frank James again in the James-Younger Wild West
Show. He also wrote an autobiography, The Story of Cole Younger by Himself.
The ballad was first recorded by Marc
Williams for Brunswick in 1930. Cowboy
singer Edward Crain’s recording was
included in the Anthology of American Folk
Music, and thus introduced many later
singers to the song.
Moran Lee “Dock” Boggs (1898–1971)
was from Norton, a coal-mining town in the
Virginia panhandle. Boggs was influenced
by the African American music in his region,
and his banjo playing has a blues feel to it.
After recording for Brunswick Records,
Boggs had hoped a music career might help
him avoid the mines; instead he worked as
a miner most of his life, retiring in 1952.
He was rediscovered by Mike Seeger in
the 1960s and played various folk festivals,
including the 1963 Newport Folk Festival
and the 1969 Festival of American Folklife
(Place 1997).
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Cowboy’s Lament (Streets of Laredo)
5
Buck Ramsey, vocal and guitar
(Laws B1; also known as “Streets of Laredo,” “St. James Infirmary,” “St. James
Hospital,” “Gambler’s Blues,” and “Young Trooper Cut Down in His Prime”;
from Smithsonian Folkways 50002; recorded January 27, 1995, at the Cowboy Poetry
Gathering, Elko, Nevada)
“Cowboy’s Lament” is the Western cousin of a folk song from England, “The Unfortunate
Rake,” which has been around for many centuries. The rake was a young soldier “draped in white
linen” who was dying from mercury poisoning from a treatment for syphilis. “The Unfortunate
Rake” itself is related to earlier ballads from the British Isles, “The Bard of Armagh” and
“Handful of Laurel,” the latter also about a syphilis-inflicted youth. The song has appeared as the
New Orleans barroom ballad “St. James Infirmary/Hospital.” As “Streets of Laredo” it has become
an American folk song standard recorded by over 100 American musicians and taught in schools
and summer camps, where the students are unaware of its origins. The version known as “Streets of
Laredo” was written by cowboy Frances Henry Maynard and published in 1876.
Texan Buck Ramsey (1938–98) was a singer, working cowboy, and roughrider at ranches along
the Canadian River. In 1963, he was thrown from a horse and was paralyzed. He spent his remaining years in a wheelchair and became a writer, singer, poet, and songwriter. He attended the yearly
Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. In 1995 he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Arts. Smithsonian Folkways released his recording Hittin’
the Trail in 2005.
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Boll Weevil
6
Sam Hinton, vocal and guitar
(Laws I17; from Folkways 7548, 1972)
The boll weevil is a small insect that migrated north from
Central America to the American South around 1892, inflicting
devastating damage to the cotton crop. With such a profound effect
on farmers and farmworkers, the plague became an obvious subject
for songs, such as: “Dixie Boll Weevil” ( John Carson, 1924); “The
Boll Weevil” ( Jaybird Coleman, 1927); “Boll Weevil” (Lindsay
and Connor, 1928); “Boll Weevil Rag” (Charles Griffin, 1934);
“Boll Weevil Been Here” (Willie Williams, 1936); and “Boll
Weevil Blues” (Oscar Woods, 1940). Blues legend Charlie Patton
recorded his “Mississippi Boweavil Blues” in 1929.
Over the years a standard version of a song containing a dialog
between a farmer and the weevil has emerged, and it is now considered an American folk song. Carl Sandburg remembered first
hearing John Lomax singing that version around 1920 (Sandburg
1927, 8). Lead Belly performed a similar version with some additional verses. It was recorded many times during the folk song revival, including a popular version
by Burl Ives in 1956. Brook Benton’s pop single of “Boll Weevil” in 1961 went to number two on
the charts.
Sam Hinton (1917–2009) was a beloved West Coast folksinger and an inspiration to many
younger musicians. He recorded 56 songs for the Library of Congress in 1947 and recorded numerous albums for Decca and Folkways during the folk revival, of both children’s and adult folk songs.
Hinton was a marine biologist and professor and had a long career at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography before moving to the University of California-San Diego.
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Duncan and Brady
7
Lead Belly, vocal
(Laws I9; also known as “Brady” and “Been in the Job Too Long”; from Folkways
2014, 1951/ Smithsonian Folkways 40044, 1996; recorded possibly Summer 1947)
“Duncan and Brady” is a popular folk song in both black and white tradition that has been
performed by many over the years. The song is based on an actual historical incident. James
Brady, a St. Louis policeman, was fatally shot on October 6, 1890, allegedly by a bartender, Harry
Duncan, in a fight at the Charles Starkes Saloon, which was in the dangerous Third Police District.
Some—including Duncan—thought that Starkes was the shooter, but Duncan was arrested and
convicted. His appeals went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, making the case notorious in its
day. Duncan was later executed for the crime.
This song, better known as “Brady,” has been found by the Library of Congress at various places.
The Lomaxes recorded convicts singing it at Parchman Farm in Mississippi in 1933 and Blind Jessie
Harris in Alabama in 1937. It was first recorded commercially by Wilmer Watts and His Lonely
Eagles in 1929. Many singers performed it during the folk revival, including Tom Rush and Paul
Clayton.
Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) (1888–1949) was one of the 20th century’s most important
repositories of traditional American song. After being released from prison in 1934, he recorded a
large body of songs for the next 15 years. Many of his songs, including “Brady,” have been learned
and performed by others in the years hence. Lead Belly’s version of this song was picked up during
the folk revival by singers like Dave Van Ronk and now is considered a standard.
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Floyd Collins
8
Paul Clayton, vocal and guitar
(Laws G22; also known as “The Death of Floyd Collins”; from Folkways 2007, 1957)
This ballad was commissioned by record executive Polk
Brockman in Atlanta. Brockman asked songwriter Blind
Andrew Jenkins if he could compose a song about the Floyd
Collins tragedy, in the hopes the record would allow the Okeh
record company to cash in on the nationwide interest in the
Collins case.
Collins (1887–1925) was adept at exploring caves in the area
around Mammoth Caves, Kentucky. As a result of his discoveries, some caves were opened as tourist
destinations. On one expedition, on January 30, 1925, in Sand Cave, a boulder pinned his left leg,
and he was trapped. As attempts were made to rescue him, thousands of spectators gathered near
the mouth of the cave awaiting news; millions more listened on radio, and the national press followed the story in detail. Shortly after rescuers located Collins, a cave-in on February 4 sealed the
entrance. They then dug an alternate shaft, but Collins died before they reached him. The ordeal
lasted 17 days. His family later recovered his body for a proper burial.
Polk Brockman gave the newly composed song to local Atlanta fiddler John Carson to record, but
Vernon Dalhart’s recording soon thereafter resulted in bigger sales. Dalhart was a light opera singer
whose real name was Marion Try Slaughter; he had taken his stage name from two Texas towns he
had lived in but recorded under many pseudonyms. Dalhart had a successful career in the 1920s
recording country ballads. He was so prolific no one record company could handle his output. His
recordings of topical ballads sold by the millions.
Paul Clayton (1933–67) was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and trained as a folklorist at
the University of Virginia. He was one of the major early figures in the 1950s Greenwich Village
folk revival and an influence on Bob Dylan. Dylan modified the tune to Clayton’s “Who’ll Buy
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Your Chickens When I’m Gone” into his classic “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Clayton
recorded for six record labels and the Library of Congress. Although his career was short, he left
behind a strong recorded legacy of the songs he had collected all over North America.
Frankie and Johnny
9
Rolf Cahn, guitar; Eric Von Schmidt, vocal and guitar
(Laws I3; also known as “Frankie Baker” and “Frankie and
Albert”; from Folkways 2417, 1961; recorded May 15, 1960)
The song “Frankie and Johnny” has become an American folk standard. In October 1899, a murder took place in a St. Louis apartment
(St. Louis murders have inspired multiple ballads, such as “Duncan and
Brady”). Frankie Baker (1876–1952) killed her lover Al “Albert” Britt in
a jealous rage after he went to a dance with another woman, Nelly Bly. In
some lyrics, Frankie was a prostitute and Al, her pimp. The version known as “Frankie and Johnny”
was created by Tin Pan Alley composer Hughie Cannon in 1904. It was so popular that by the 1920s,
folklorists like Carl Sandburg were collecting it and publishing it in folk song collections. Sandburg
included a set of songs based on the character of Frankie in his American Songbag. He felt the song
pre-dated the 1899 crime (Sandburg 1927, 75); although the “wronged” woman and the crime of
passion were undoubtedly themes in many ballads, this version of “Frankie and Johnny” begins with
Cannon’s composition.
Folk musician Rolf Cahn (1924–94) was adept at playing both country blues and flamenco, and
at one point he accompanied flamenco singer Chinin de Triana. He was a well-known singer in the
San Francisco Bay area and recorded a number of albums during the folk song revival. Eric Von
Schmidt (1931–2007) was one of the folksingers associated with the Cambridge (Mass.) folk scene
during the 1960s folk song revival. A cited influence on Bob Dylan, Von Schmidt was also a painter
and illustrator. He made albums of traditional folk songs and his own compositions throughout the
1960s and 1970s.
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John Henry
10
John Jackson, vocal and guitar
(Laws I1; from Smithsonian Folkways 40181, 2010; recorded October 25, 1997, at
The Barns of Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia)
“John Henry” in all its variants is arguably the most famous American folk song, and the Ralph
Rinzler Folklife Archive and Collection alone contains hundreds of versions. Of African American
origin, the ballad has made John Henry a mythic character in American culture, epitomizing man
against machine.
The song deals with the digging of the Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, where the Chesapeake
and Ohio Railroad was being built in 1872 (Place 1997). John Henry claims that by using a tenpound hammer, he can dig a tunnel through Big Bend Mountain quicker than a machine. He
succeeds but dies of exhaustion.
Research has led to some other theories about the setting of the story and John Henry’s identity—
or existence. John Garst (2002) argues that the contest took place at either the Coosa Mountain
Tunnel or Oak Mountain Tunnel near Leeds, Alabama, in September 1887. He identifies the hero
as a former slave named Henry, based on an eyewitness account documented in the 1920s. Scott
Nelson believes the hero of the story to be an African American freedman, John William Henry,
a Virginia prisoner hired out to do labor, and places the contest between Talcott and Millboro,
Virginia. The “white house” near where Henry is buried could be the white building that stood at
the Virginia State Penitentiary at that time (Nelson 2006).
The song has been interpreted many ways; the variants include West Virginia’s Williamson
Brothers and Curry’s “Gonna Die with a Hammer in My Hand”; “The Death of John Henry”
by Uncle Dave Macon (1870–1952); “New John Henry Blues” by Bill Monroe (1911–96); and
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“Spikedriver Blues” by Mississippi John Hurt (1893–1966). Folksinger Josh White devoted an
entire side of one of his LPs to versions of the song.
Born in Woodville, Virginia, John Jackson (1924–2002) was an exemplar of the “piedmont
blues.” He learned to play guitar and banjo from his father and other members of his extended
and highly musical family. In 1949 he and his wife Cora moved to Fairfax Station, Virginia, near
Washington, D.C. In 1964 folklorist Chuck Perdue heard him playing and brought him to the
attention of Chris Strachwitz, who recorded him extensively for his Arhoolie label. Through the
1960s to the 1990s, Jackson recorded for Rounder and Alligator, and toured Europe and Asia.
After his death, Smithsonian Folkways issued a compilation of live concert recordings titled John
Jackson: Rappahannock Blues (SFW 40181).
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11. Jesse James
11
Sis Cunningham, vocal and tambourine; Mike Millius, vocal and guitar;
Wes Houston, vocal and bass
(Laws E2; from Folkways 5315, 1972)
The James Brothers, Jesse and Frank, are probably the best known of the Western outlaws that
were celebrated in the 19th and 20th century in books and media. Jesse James (1847–82) and his
brother were members of a Confederate guerilla organization that carried on raids against Union
forces. After the war, the brothers turned their talents to crime. Based out of Missouri, they formed
the James-Younger gang, which robbed trains and banks between 1871 and 1876. After a botched
robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, led to the capture and death of some of the members (see track 4),
the gang regrouped. Jesse James was killed by gang member Robert Ford to collect a bounty. James
is often fictionalized as a “Robin Hood” character rather than presented as a cold-blooded killer.
Agnes “Sis” Cunningham (1909–2004) and her husband Gordon Friesen were the editors and
driving force behind Broadside magazine. Details about her life can be found in the introduction to
Ronald Cohen’s Wasn’t That a Time (1995).
Billy the Kid
12
Woody Guthrie, vocal and guitar
( from Smithsonian Folkways 40103, 1999; recorded April 19, 1944, in New York by
Moses Asch)
Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney) was born 1860 in the New York area. After Bonney’s mother
died from tuberculosis in 1874, his stepfather separated Billy and his brother and put them both into
foster care. Bonney worked some odd jobs but fell into petty theft and was first arrested in 1875.
He managed to escape jail by shimmying up the chimney—an act that changed him from a petty
criminal into a fugitive. From that point, his misdemeanors snowballed into larger crimes. He was
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18 when he first committed murder.
Somewhere between his notoriety
as a young outlaw and his short
stint as a gunman in the Lincoln
County War in New Mexico, he was
nicknamed “Billy the Kid” for his
gruff reputation and childlike face.
Despite the song’s claims, the Kid
did not kill 21 men (the number was
closer to eight or nine). He was 21
years old when he was shot down by
Sheriff Pat Garrett in July 1881.
Billy the Kid was immortalized
as the “boy-bandit king.” Somehow
he became America’s outlaw sweetheart, a lovable, wayward ruffian
yet with a reputation brutal beyond
his years. The fascination with the
Kid has led to countless versions of
his story.
The song was written by Blind
Andrew Jenkins (1885–1957) in
January 1927 after he read a current biography of the outlaw. It was recorded by Jenkins and also by
the popular singer Vernon Dalhart in 1927.
Woody Guthrie (1912–67) is considered the foremost American folk song composer of the 20th
century. His 2,000-plus songs include the American classics “This Land Is Your Land” and “So
Long It’s Been Good to Know You” (he used the melody of “Billy the Kid” for part of that song).
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13. The Death of the Lawson Family
13
Glen Neaves, vocal and guitar
( from Folkways 3831,1968; recorded July 1961 by Eric Davidson)
One of the most notorious murders in the southeastern United States occurred on Christmas Day,
1929. Charlie Lawson (1886–1929), a tobacco farmer from Stokes County, North Carolina, had taken
his family to town a few days before the holiday to purchase new clothes and to pose for a family photograph. On Christmas Day, at their home near Lawsonville, North Carolina, Charlie bludgeoned
and shot his wife and six children with a shotgun before meticulously placing their heads on pillows.
Sparing the life of one son, he then killed himself. Many theories were put forth as to why Charlie,
who was known to have a temper but generally thought of as a normal guy, would have done it. The
story horrified those who heard the news, and the case became famous. Five thousand people attended
the funeral. Charlie Lawson’s brother turned the murder site into a tourist attraction, staging elements of the Christmas celebration in the house; people drove from far away to see the place until it
was torn down. A tell-all expose was written and a documentary film produced.
Walter Smith, a North Carolina string band musician, penned this song in 1930 and recorded it
as “The Murder of the Lawson Family.” Due to the spectacular nature of the crime, the record was
one of the best sellers of 1930. Smith’s group, the Carolina Buddies, also included North Carolina
recording artists Posey Rorer and Buster Young.
Glen Neaves (1921–83) was from the small town of Fries, Virginia, and worked at the Fries Mill.
Though born in Jefferson, North Carolina, he lived and performed in the musically rich Galax area
for over 35 years. He was one of the core members of an old-time group that recorded four albums
for Folkways in the 1980s. Eric H. Davidson (1937–) had approached Moses Asch in 1972 with a
proposal to record the musicians, known as the Pipers Gap Bluegrass Band, the Bluegrass Buddies,
and then the Virginia Mountain Boys. Membership in the group changed over time, but the other
core musicians were Cullen Galyean, Ivor Melton, and Bobby Harrison.
22
Naomi Wise
14
Doug Wallin, vocal and fiddle
(Laws F4; also known as “Omie Wise,” “Naommi Wise,” “Jealous Lover”;
from Smithsonian Folkways 40013, 1995; recorded 1992–93 in Madison County,
North Carolina)
The ballad “Omie Wise” dates back to the 19th century. It was first published in 1874 in conjunction with a story written by Braxton Craven, president of North Carolina’s Trinity College, about
the 1808 murder by Jonathan Lewis of his pregnant lover Naomi Wise in Randolph County, North
Carolina (“Omie Wise” 1964).
The real Naomi was born in 1789 and (most likely because she was an orphan) worked for a
family, the Adams family, in Randolph County. Jonathan Lewis worked as a clerk in a store owned
by Benjamin Elliot in Asheboro, North Carolina, and every weekend he would ride his horse past
the Adams farm on his way to visit his family. The story goes that Naomi and John fell in love
when he stopped one day to ask her for a drink of water, then helped her carry her bucket back to
the house.
From there, the variations in the story take all sorts of twists and turns. Some say the two shared
a genuine love until Lewis’ mother urged him to marry a wealthier woman; most claim that Naomi
was murdered to cover up a pregnancy out of wedlock; all tell of the pure and beautiful woman who
so naively placed her trust in a malicious man’s love.
The only contemporary account available of Naomi Wise comes from a handwritten poem entitled “A true account of Nayomy Wise” by Mary Woods. According to Woods’ poem, and backed by
the records for “bastardy bonds” in the Randolph County Papers (located in the North Carolina
State Archives), Naomi Wise had borne two children out of wedlock by the time she met Lewis:
Nancy and Henry Wise, born in 1799 and 1804 respectively. In Woods’ version of the tale, Naomi
became pregnant by Lewis and demanded that he marry her rather than post a bastardy bond.
Naomi is still the victim of murder, but she is not the innocent and virginal character in the ballads.
23
Perhaps the most dramatic telling is the literary
version of the tale, written by Craven, and revised
and reissued for many years after its initial publication in 1874. (Craven, having mixed feelings on the
work, used the pen name Charlie Vernon. The 1888
version bears the name M. Penny.) In the text, the
story of Naomi’s murder is embellished with long
passages on her handsome beauty and innocence, and
the purity of a woman’s love as second only to God.
The ballad itself (perhaps the first written version) is printed on the final pages. A 1964 edition of
Sing Out! speculates that this literary account brought the story of Naomi Wise into the folk scene,
and made an impression deep enough to inspire countless retellings and songs.
Whatever the circumstances of Naomi Wise’s situation, her story ended when she was drowned
in the Deep River in 1808 by Jonathan Lewis, who was arrested and held in the Randolph County
jail. He managed to escape—it is worth noting that his employer (and brother of the woman he
planned to marry instead of Naomi) was in charge of guarding his cell. Many years later, Lewis was
recaptured and brought to trial, but he was acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence. It is said that he
confessed to the murder of Naomi Wise on his deathbed in 1820.
Today Randolph County still has several landmarks dedicated to its most famous murder. The
Naomi Wise Spring and Naomi Falls are both located in the Deep River, where her body was found
and her gravestone lies.
The ballad was first recorded by Morgan Denmon for Okeh in 1927.
Doug Wallin (1919–2000) came from around Sodom, North Carolina, an area rich in ballad
singers, and none stronger than the Wallin and Chandler families. Doug’s mother Berzilla was
recorded by John Cohen years earlier, and it is from her that Doug learned many of his songs. Many
other songs were collected from Wallin’s relatives by British folklorist Cecil Sharp in the early 20th
century. The murder took place a few counties northeast of Wallin’s home.
24
Wallin won a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the
Arts in 1990. A recording of Doug and his brother Jack, produced by Wayne Martin, was released
in 1995 by Smithsonian Folkways in conjunction with the North Carolina Arts Council.
Pearl Bryan
15
Bruce Buckley, vocal and guitar
(Laws F3; from Folkways 2025, 1955)
Pearl Bryan of Greencastle, Indiana, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer, was murdered in
1896. Her decapitated body was found in an orchard near Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Investigators
eventually were able to identify the body from the pair of brand new shoes she had purchased in
Greencastle.
Pearl had told her mother that she was going to Cincinnati to visit friends. Her mother, concerned a few days later that she hadn’t heard from Pearl, read about a body that had been found; it
fit Pearl’s description, and she rushed immediately to Cincinnati (Burt 1958, 29–30).
From there, detectives quickly retraced Pearl’s steps and tracked down the taxi driver who had
delivered her to a boarding house in Cincinnati. Pearl had then dispatched the taxi driver to pick
up a man by the name of Scott Jackson, or if not him, then a man by the name of Alonzo Walling.
Jackson and Walling were both dentistry students in Cincinnati, and Jackson was a friend of one
William Wood, the son of a minister in Greencastle. Wood had given Pearl
instructions to head to Cincinnati and meet Jackson and Walling. Both
Jackson and Walling were apprehended by the police and admitted to killing
Pearl, but quickly changed their stories, blaming one another for Pearl’s
death. They claimed that Wood had asked them to give Pearl an abortion,
but in doing so administered too much cocaine, killing her.
Jackson and Walling never confessed where they hid Pearl’s head, keeping
the police searching for months afterwards. During their trial, Wood was not
25
called up as a witness, nor was he considered as a suspect in the crime. On May 20, 1897, Jackson
and Walling were hanged for the murder of Pearl Bryan.
Folk song scholar Gus Meade cites the authors of the song as John and Rosalie Carson, who
composed it in 1926. Country string musicians Burnett and Rutherford first recorded it in 1926.
Bruce Buckley was a New York state folklorist and professor at the Cooperstown Graduate Program.
16. Sam Bass
16
Hermes Nye, vocal and guitar
(Laws E4; from Folkways 2128, 1955)
Sam Bass (1851–78) was a Western outlaw who robbed stagecoaches in the 1870s along with
his partner in crime, Joel Collins, and their gang based out of Texas. One 1877 robbery near Big
Springs, Nebraska, netted them 65,000 dollars but resulted Collins’ death. With a new gang, Bass
continued his string of robberies, but authorities were determined to stop them. He was wounded
in a gun battle near Round Rock, Texas, and died days later. He became another outlaw legend
in subsequent dime novels and stories; the Bass character would also appear in later movies and
television shows.
Gainesville, Texas, resident John Denton composed this famous cowboy ballad in 1879 (Thorp
[1908] 2013, 135–36). It was published in N. Howard (“Jack”) Thorp’s important Songs of the
Cowboys in 1908, and later in John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs.
Hermes Nye (1908–81), from East Texas, was a novelist, lawyer, folksinger, and also a folklorist
interested in the folk songs of Texas. He compiled a number of folk song collections and songs of
American history for Folkways in the 1950s.
26
17. Springfield Mountain
17
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, vocal and banjo
(Laws G16; from Folkways 2040, 1953)
“Springfield Mountain” tells of the death of Timothy Myrick
(Merrick) in western Massachusetts in August 1761. One day Myrick
went out to mow a hayfield, where he was bitten by a rattlesnake, and
he died within two to three hours. He was 22 years old (Clayton 1956).
Although an original composer of the song cannot be identified, the
first versified version of the incident can be found in Joseph Fiske’s
Rhymed Almanac for 1765 (Hinton 1966). “Springfield Mountain”
developed into four different versions, some serious and some comical,
and was widely popular in the early 19th century (Clayton 1956). The
comical versions poked fun at rural New Englanders and were a hit
in minstrel shows.
Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882–1973), “The Minstrel of the Appalachians,” was a banjo player,
fiddler, country lawyer, and an avid collector of Appalachian folk songs. From South Turkey Creek
near Leicester, North Carolina, in 1928 he founded the Mountain Dance and Folk Song Festival in
Asheville, which he was involved in his entire life.
Lunsford traveled extensively around the area collecting and memorizing songs from his neighbors. He recorded hundreds of these songs, mainly for the Library of Congress.
27
Tom Dooley
18
Glen Neaves, vocal and guitar; Roscoe Russell, guitar; Ivor Melton, mandolin; Warren Brown, bass; Ted Lundy, banjo
(Laws F36; from Folkways 3811, 1962; recorded July 1, 1961, by Eric H. Davidson)
“Tom Dooley” is the song most often credited with kicking off the folk revival of the 1950s and
1960s. The ballad had appeared in songbooks and had been collected by Frank Warner from North
Carolina musician Frank Proffitt. It had also been recorded by the 1920s string band, Grayson and
Whitter. (Fiddler G.B. Grayson was related to “Sheriff Grayson” in the song.) But its big moment
came in 1958, when a version released by the Kingston Trio became a hit.
Thomas C. Dula (pronounced “Dooley”) served as a
Confederate soldier during the Civil War but was captured
and detained until war’s end. Upon returning home to
Wilkes County, North Carolina, Dula resumed relationships with both Laura Foster and a married woman named
Ann Melton. Dula reportedly contracted syphilis from
Foster and passed it to Melton. In late May 1865, Foster
went missing; she was found in mid-June, stabbed to death
in a shallow grave. There is no consensus about who killed
Foster, but many people who lived in the area around that
time believed that Melton was at least as responsible for the
murder as Dula (Craig 1986). Why Melton was never tried
in court is uncertain, but Dula was convicted and sentenced
to be hanged the following year, in 1866.
For information on Neaves, see track 13.
28
Tying a Knot in the Devil’s Tail
19
Cisco Houston, vocal and guitar
(Laws B17; from Folkways 2022, 1952; recorded early 1950s by Moses Asch)
This song comes from the pen of Gail A. Gardner (1892–1988). A working cowboy from Prescott,
Arizona, Gardner wrote it as a poem in 1917, and it was later put to music by Billy Simon (Seeman
1983, 2). “Powder River Jack” Lee first recorded a popular version of the song in 1930 for Victor.
Although often mistakenly thought to be of “folk” origins, it has become one of the classic
American cowboy songs.
Katie Lee interviewed Gardner about writing the song. “I was ridin’ to camp at the old Dearing
ranch near Thumb Butte one evening with the late Bob Heckle. We’d been celebrating in town
and were pretty well jugged up, when one of us remarked that the devil got cowboys who did the
things we’d been doing, and the other replied that if the devil monkeyed with us, we’d neck him to
a black-jack oak just like a steer. Imagination took over from there, so I sat down at the desk in the
club car and wrote on Santa Fe Limited stationery the verses of the Sierry Petes. Incidentally, the
name comes from the Sierra Prieta Mountains, just west of Prescott. An old miner I knew in these
mountains always called them the Sierry Petes, not peaks” (Lee 1977, 211).
Cisco Houston (1918–61) was another of the cast of characters who recorded for Moses Asch
in his early years. Houston spent his youth working various jobs in the West, including as a ranch
hand, and picked up songs along the way. During World War II, he served in the Merchant Marine
along with his frequent musical partner, Woody Guthrie. Houston and Guthrie made many duet
recordings for Asch, and it was Cisco whose keener sense of musical time would keep Woody on
beat. Houston died of cancer at the young age of 42, too early to enjoy the fame he would have
likely had during the folk revival of the 1960s.
29
Young Charlotte
20
Pete Seeger, vocal
(Laws G17; also known as “The Frozen Girl”; from Folkways 5210, 1960)
This ballad began as “A Corpse Going to a Ball,” a poem American humorist
Seba Smith (1792–1868) wrote in 1843 for a Maine newspaper. In 1840 Smith
had seen a report in the New York Observer about a young Maine woman who
froze to death on New Year’s Eve because she did not want to cover her “ball
dress.” It was later put to music, and the young woman’s fate moved singers; the
song went through various changes and was carried west by settlers.
The story gained enough public interest that in a rather morbid twist, a small
porcelain doll called a “frozen Charlotte” began to be marketed around 1850.
The dolls continued to be made until the 1920s and were used as bath toys. Poor,
ill-fated Charlotte lived on in the minds of little girls.
The ballad was first recorded by Miller Wikel for Paramount Records in 1929. For information
on Pete Seeger, see track 2.
Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm?
21
The Tex-I-An Boys
(also known as “The Galveston Flood”; from Folkways 5328, 1961)
“Friday, September 7, 1900 started out oppressively hot, then, turned into one of those seemingly
perfect days when the wind swings around out of the north. People who should have been attending to business on the strand took off early to frolic in the breakers. It was a day for getting out,
experiencing life” (Cartwright 1991, 163). No one knew what was to come—the deadliest natural
disaster in American history. That night a terrible hurricane hit Galveston Island. The waves
30
washed away most of the houses
that were not on high ground,
and between 6,000 and 12,000
residents perished in the storm.
When rescue teams were able
to get to Galveston, they were
shocked at what they found.
After the hurricane a great
seawall was constructed so
that, although the city is still
often in the path of hurricanes
coming off the Gulf, it is now
better protected.
Various songs were written
about the event, including
“Wasn’t That a Mighty Time”
or “Wasn’t It a Mighty Storm,” composed years later. In April 1934, John Lomax, recording for
the Library of Congress, visited Darrington State Farm, a prison in Sandy Point, Texas. There
he recorded J.L. “Sin Killer” Griffin, a well-known African American Texas minister, leading a
congregation drawn from inmates. Lomax also recorded Sin Killer singing this spiritual, which he
claimed to have written. His mother had perished in the flood.
During the folk song revival, it was recorded by both Eric Von Schmidt and Tom Rush and
became known to folk music enthusiasts.
The Tex-I-An Boys were a group of five young men who specialized in Western songs. Members
included John Lomax Jr. (whose father had recorded Sin Killer), Pete Rose, Jim McConnell,
Howard Porper, and Ed Badeaux. Badeaux was a longtime employee of Folkways Records who also
recorded a number of solo albums.
31
22
Zebra Dun
Joan O’Bryant, vocal and guitar
(Laws B16; from Folkways 2134, 1957)
Cowboy music scholar Guy Logsdon refers to “Zebra Dun” as one of the oldest and best traditional cowboy songs. First published in Jack Thorp’s Songs of the Cowboys in 1908, it shows how
cowboys played hard practical jokes that sometimes backfired (Logsdon 1994).
“Zebra dun,” or bay dun, is a reference to a certain coloration of a horse’s coat affected by the
dun gene.
The song was first recorded by Jules Allen in 1928 for Victor. This recording of it comes from
Joan O’Bryant’s Folkways LP Folksongs and Ballads of Kansas. O’Bryant (1923–64) was a folklore
teacher in Kansas and Colorado who also performed folk songs on guitar and recorded two albums
for Folkways in the 1950s. She was killed in a Colorado automobile accident in 1964.
23
The Titanic
Pink Anderson, vocal and guitar
(Laws D24; also known as “When That Great Ship Went Down”; from Folkways
3588, 1984; recorded 1960 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, by Sam Charters)
The RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner, the largest ship on the sea at that time. On
her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in April 1912 she carried some of the richest people in the
world as well as immigrants to the United States. Passengers were segregated by class on different
levels of the ship, and African Americans were not allowed on board at all. On April 15, the ship
struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Of 2,224 passengers, over 1,500 perished. The Titanic
32
had been marketed as the best
ship ever constructed, and her
sinking was the news event of
1912. The wreckage was finally
located in 1985, and artifacts are
now in museums.
The Titanic disaster inspired a
number of ballads and was particularly important to African
American musicians, who were
acutely aware of the irony that
Jim Crow laws had saved them from a watery grave. Many believed the ship’s owners had received
divine retribution. In the 1920s Ernest Stoneman recorded a Titanic ballad that was his most
popular song. Other versions were recorded by Frank Hutchison (“The Last Scene of the Titanic”)
and Blind Willie Johnson (“God Moves on the Water”). This ballad was later recorded by both Roy
Acuff and Woody Guthrie.
Pinkney Anderson (1900–74) was born in Laurens, South Carolina. A self-taught guitarist,
he played the streets in Spartanburg as a youngster. Along with his musical partner, Simmie Dooley,
he worked medicine shows, and recorded four sides
for Columbia in 1928. A songster with a diverse repertoire of ballads, country songs, and even minstrel
show pieces, he was rediscovered in the 1960s and
he recorded several albums for Prestige, Riverside,
and Folkways. The rock group Pink Floyd came up
with its name by combining the first names of Pink
Anderson and Floyd Council (who was another
bluesman).
33
The Louisville Burglar
24
The Iron Mountain String Band: Eric H. Davidson, banjo; Caleb Finch, fiddle;
Peggy Haine, vocal and guitar
(Laws L16B; from Folkways 2473, 1973)
The ballad of the Louisville Burglar provides a great example of the folk process. It is
believed to be an Americanized revision of an English ballad called “Botany Bay,” but appears
in many forms, including “The Boston Burglar,” “The Whitby Lad,” and “Frank James, the
Burglar.” Although most renditions follow the same outline, singers changed the place names and
details to fit the stories they sought to tell. The opening line, “I was raised up in Louisville, a town
you all knew well,” frequently swaps out Louisville for another town, as happens later in the ballad
with the location of the jail. In this sense, there are multiple histories to the song. The burglar
has worn many faces, and the song’s localizations may reference specific events and people. (The
Boston version, for instance, may allude to Levi Ames, a young burglar sentenced to death in 1773.)
The Iron Mountain String Band has been playing old-time music for over 40 years. The core
of the group has been Eric H. Davidson (1937–) on banjo and Caleb Finch on fiddle. Davidson and
Finch with their associates began traveling to the southern Appalachians to seek out older regional
old-time string band musicians from whom they could learn (Davidson 1975). The recordings of
these musicians made during their travels led to numerous Folkways releases. Founded in New York
City, the band was influenced by the music of the legendary Grayson County Bogtrotters, the greatest
of the Galax, Virginia, string bands in the 1930s (ibid.). Davidson and Finch were able to play and
study with Wade and Fields Ward, two of the original members of the Bogtrotters.
34
25. The F.F.V. (Engine 143)
25
Annie Watson, vocal
(Laws G3; also known as “Georgie Collins,” “The Wreck of the C&O,” “Engine 143,”
“The Brave Engineer,” “The Wreck of the F.F. & V.”; from Smithsonian Folkways
40192; recorded August 2, 1962, in Deep Gap, North Carolina, by Ralph Rinzler)
The history of the train the Fast
Flying Vestibule (also known as the Fast
Flying Virginian or F.F.V.) can be found
in Harry Smith’s notes to the Anthology of
American Folk Music (SFW 40090). The
wreck referred to in the song was that of
the C&O’s Number 4 train on October 23,
1890; engineered by George Alley (1860–
90), it struck a rock caused by a landslide
near Don, Virginia.
The song is best known as the “The
Wreck of the C&O,” but is also recognized
as “Engine 143” from the Carter Family’s
1929 recording (Norm Cohen pointed out that the engine was actually 134, not 143 [Cohen 2000,
188]). The Carter Family’s version is familiar to modern country music enthusiasts through its
inclusion in the Anthology of American Folk Music. Ballad scholar John H. Cox collected ten
versions of the song in the South between 1915 and 1918; Norm Cohen believes them to be of
Anglo-American origin and all from the same unknown writer because of how similar they were
to one another 25 years after the event (ibid.).
The song was first recorded by George Reneau in 1924 as “C&O Wreck” (Meade 2002, 46).
This rendition is by Annie Watson, the mother of guitarist Doc Watson.
35
Sources and Suggested Reading
Anderson, John Q. 1972. “Another Texas
Variant of ‘Cole Younger,’ Ballad of a Badman.”
Western Folklore 31, no. 2 (April).
Baggelaar, Kristin, and Donald Milton. 1976.
Folk Music: More Than a Song. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell.
Burt, Olive Woolley. 1958. American Murder
Ballads and Their Stories. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Cantwell, Robert. 1996. When We Were Good:
The Folk Music Revival. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press.
Cartwright, Gary. 1991. Galveston: The History of
the Island. Fort Worth, Texas: TCU Press.
Clayton, Paul. 1956. Notes to Bay State Ballads.
Folkways 2106
Cohen, Norm. 2000. Long Steel Rail. Urbana,
Ill.: University of Illinois Press.
Cohen, Ronald D., ed.1995. Wasn’t That a Time:
Firsthand Accounts of the Folk Music Revival.
Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press.
Craig, John. 1986. The Legend of Tom Dula and
Other Tragic Love Ballads Folkways 31110.
Cray, Ed. 2004. Ramblin’ Man: The Life and
Times of Woody Guthrie. New York: W.W.
Norton.
36
David, John Russell. 1976. “Tragedy in Ragtime:
Black Folktales from St. Louis.” PhD diss. Cited
in http://mbmonday.blogspot.com/2013/01/
duncan-and-brady-been-on-job-too-long.html.
Davidson, Eric H. 1975. Walkin’ in the Parlor
Folkways 2477.
Dunaway, David King. 1982. How Can I Keep
from Singing?: The Ballad of Pete Seeger. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Fine, Gary Allan, and Ryan D. White. “Creating
Collective Attention in the Public Domain:
Human Interest Narratives and the Rescue of
Floyd Collins.” Social Forces 81 (1).
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3086527.
Flanders, Helen Hartness. 1939. The New Green
Mountain Songster. New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press.
Garst, John. 2002. “Chasing John Henry in
Alabama and Mississippi: A Personal Memior
of Work in Progress.” http://www.ibiblio.org/
john_henry/alabama.html “Tributaries: Journal
of the Alabama Folklife Association” 5: 92–129.
Goldsmith, Peter D. 2000. Making People’s
Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hinton, Sam. 1966. Notes to the Wandering
Folksong Folkways 2401.
“The Historical Round Rock Collection.”
http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/home/index.
asp?page=1768.
Jones, M. Bruce, and Trudy J. Smith. 1990.
White Christmas, Bloody Christmas. UpWords
Publications.
Klein, Joe. 1999. Woody Guthrie: A Life. New
York: Delta.
Lee, Katie. 1977. “Gail Gardner and the Sierry
Petes.” Journal of Arizona History 15, no. 3
(Summer): 209–22.
Logsdon, Guy. 1994. Notes to Cisco Houston: The
Folkways Years Smithsonian Folkways 40059.
Meade, Guthrie, Richard Spottswood and
Douglas Meade. 2002. Country Music Sources:
A Bilblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded
Country Music, Chapel Hill, N.C.: Southern
Folklife Collection.
Nelson, Scott Reynolds. 2006. Steel Drivin’
Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American
Legend. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
“Notes on the History of Randolph County,
N.C.” http://randolphhistory.wordpress.com/
2009/06/03/naomi-wise/
Olmstead, Tony. 2003. Folkways Records: Moses
Asch and His Encyclopedia of Sound. New York:
Routledge.
“Omie Wise.” 1964. Sing Out! 14, no. 2 (April).
Place, Jeff. 1997. Notes to Anthology of American
Folk Music. Smithsonian Folkways 40090.
Rinzler, Ralph. 1961. Notes to Old Time Music
at Clarence Ashley’s. Folkways 2355.
Sandburg, Carl. 1927. American Songbag. New
York: Harcourt Brace.
Seeman, Charlie. 1983. “The American Cowboy:
Image and Reality.” Notes to Back in the Saddle
Again. New World Records 314/15.
Slade, Paul. 2011. “Please Tell Me Where’s Her
Head: Pearl Bryan in Song and Story.”
http://www.planetslade.com/pearl-bryan.html.
Taylor, Troy. 2001. “The Murder of Pearl
Bryan.” In No Rest for the Wicked: History and
Hauntings of American Crime and Unsolved
Mysteries. Alton, Ill.: Whitechapel Productions.
Thorp, N. Howard. (1908) 2013. Songs of the
Cowboys. London: Forgotten Books.
Warner, Frank. 1952. Notes to Frank Warner
Sings American Folk Songs and Ballads. Elektra
EkLP-3.
Wellman, Manly Wade. 1980. “Naomi Wise
Story.” In Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of
North Carolina. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of
North Carolina Press.
Wolfe, Charles, and Kip Lornell. 1992. The
Life and Legend of Leadbelly. New York:
HarperCollins.
_____. 2003. Notes to Classic Mountain Songs.
Smithsonian Folkways 40094.
37
Credits
Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place, Katie Ortiz, and Max Smith
Mastered by Pete Reiniger
Executive producers: Daniel E. Sheehy and D.A. Sonneborn
Production managed by Mary Monseur
Edited by Carla Borden
Design and layout by Joe Parisi, Flood, www.flooddesign.com
Photos:
Cover photo, p. 4, 7, 11, 14, 31,35, and back of booklet courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division, Washington, DC
p. 16: http://tsgsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/celebrated-pioneer-cave-explorer-floyd.html
p. 17: http://www.slpva.com/historic/police212targee.html
p. 19: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_%28folklore%29
p. 24: http://randolphhistory.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/naomi-wise/
p. 25: http://www.putnam.lib.in.us/lh/stories/pearlbryan.php
p. 26: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bass_%28outlaw%29
p. 27: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31454259
p. 28: http://www.dulathemusical.com/Tom_Dula.htm
p. 30: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Charlotte_%28doll%29
p. 33: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/RMS_Titanic_3.jpg,
http://www.historyofthetitanic.org/the-crew-of-the-rms-titanic.html
38
Additional Smithsonian Folkways staff: Richard James Burgess, associate director for business
strategies; Cecille Chen, royalty manager; Laura Dion, sales and marketing; Toby Dodds, technology director; Claudia Foronda, customer service; Henri Goodson, financial assistant; Will
Griffin, marketing and sales; Emily Hilliard, marketing assistant; Joan Hua, program assistant;
Meredith Holmgren, web production and education; David Horgan, online marketing and licensing;
Helen Lindsay, customer service; Keisha Martin, manufacturing coordinator; Jeff Place,
archivist; Sayem Sharif, director of financial operations; Ronnie Simpkins, audio specialist;
Stephanie Smith, archivist; Sandy Wang, web designer; Jonathan Wright, fulfillment.
Special thanks to Sarah Booth, Ella Vorenberg, Jack Manischewitz, Steve Lorenz, Dan Charette,
Ricky Gomez, Elizabeth Hambleton, David Walker, and Miles Folley-Regusters.
SmithSonian FolkwayS RecoRdingS is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution,
the national museum of the United States. Our mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded
Folkways Records in 1948 to document music, spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around
the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian
Folkways Recordings has continued the Folkways tradition by supporting the work of traditional
artists and expressing a commitment to cultural diversity, education, and increased understanding
among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Folkways, Collector, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Mickey
Hart Collection, Monitor, M.O.R.E., Paredon, and UNESCO recordings are all available through:
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Mail Order
Washington, DC 20560-0520
Phone: (800) 410-9815 or 888-FOLKWAYS (orders only)
Fax: (800) 853-9511 (orders only)
To purchase online, or for further information about Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
go to: www.folkways.si.edu. Please send comments, questions, and catalogue requests to:
smithsonianfolkways@si.edu.
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SFW CD 40215
PC2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
www.folkways.si.edu
SFW CD 40215
1. Banks of the Ohio ........................................ 3:3 2
Doc Watson and Bill Monroe
Pete Seeger
3. Claude Allen ................................................ 3:50
Hobart Smith
4. Cole Younger ............................................... 1:50
Dock Boggs
5. Cowboy’s Lament (Streets of Laredo) ........ 3:21
Buck Ramsey
6. Boll Weevil....................................................2:12
Sam Hinton
7. Duncan and Brady ....................................... 1:08
Lead Belly
8. Floyd Collins ............................................... 3:27
Paul Clayton
9. Frankie and Johnny...................................... 6:39
Rolf Cahn and Eric Von Schmidt
10. John Henry ................................................. 3:22
John Jackson
11. Jesse James.....................................................3:51
12. Billy the Kid .............................................. 2:04
Woody Guthrie
13. The Death of the Lawson Family............... 1:54
Glen Neaves
Bruce Buckley
16. Sam Bass...................................................... 1:59
Hermes Nye
17. Springfield Mountain .................................. 2:31
Bascom Lamar Lunsford
18. Tom Dooley ................................................ 2:11
Glen Neaves, Roscoe Russell, Ivor
Melton, Warren Brown, Ted Lundy
19. Tying a Knot in the Devil’s Tail................ 2:14
Cisco Houston
20. Young Charlotte ........................................ 4:05
Pete Seeger
21. Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm?.................... 2:41
The Tex-I-An Boys
22. Zebra Dun ................................................... 2:32
Joan O’Bryant
23. The Titanic ................................................2:52
Pink Anderson
24. The Louisville Burglar ............................. 3:09
The Iron Mountain String Band
25. The F. F. V. (Engine 143) .......................... 3:56
Annie Watson
SFW CD 40215
Sis Cunningham, Mike Millius, Wes Houston
Doug Wallin
15. Pearl Bryan .................................................2:54
CLASSIC AMERICAN BALLADS
CLASSIC AMERICAN BALLADS
2. Blue Mountain Lake ...................................2:47
14. Naomi Wise ................................................ 3:06
Washington DC 20560-0520 www.folkways.si.edu
SFW CD 40215 PC2015 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Born of the British ballad, its American offspring was the blank canvas for all type of tale, the more calamitous or scandalous, the better. Jesse James and Billy the Kid, train wrecks and hurricanes, the Titanic and
Tom Dooley, fatal lovers’ quarrels and foiling the devil, all and more were normal fare, served up in a song.
Classic American Ballads is 25 tracks of time-worn tragedy drawn from the deep fount of the Smithsonian
Folkways archives. 74 minutes, 40-page booklet with extensive notes and photos.