American songs

[Robert Booth]

Hi, all:

We are in the process of culling books out of our school library; if it hasn't been checked out during the last three years out it goes.

I rescued this book, "The Laura Ingalls Wilder Songbook". It has all the songs mentioned in Wilders' classic of American frontier life, about one hunded in all. Wilders' father played the fiddle at home and for community dances. There are love songs, hymns, dance tunes, English Ballads, even patriotic songs, all from the nineteenth century. The notation is written for piano or guitar, lyrics are given and even some background info about the songs.

 

I have no idea whether this book is still in print, but it is a very nice hardback, compiled by Eugenia Garson and has the delightful Garth Williams illustrations, and was copyrighted in 1968 from Harper and Row.

 

For someone looking for old-fashioned American popular tunes, this would be a real asset.

 

I'm keepin' mine

 

Cheers,

Rob

[AlexCJones]

Wow! Sounds great. I just looked it up and it seems that there is a 1999 edition in print, same author etc, and used 1968 editions are for sale too. Thanks for the discovery!

[Dan Madden]

There is a CD with the same title with the play list based on the same idea. It might be related to this book. I think I own the CD, but who can be sure of such things at my age? I vaguely recall that it included a concertina on some of the cuts including My Gum Tree Canoe.

 

Dan Madden

[Robert Booth]

Hmmm... didn't know about the CD, thanks for the tip The only thing missing was a source for me to hear the tunes, which is the way I learn new material. I'll seek it out.

Thanks, Dan