Don't forget "Kid on the Mountain" and the "Butterfly".

I would agree that many American rural dance tunes were predominantly in major keys. The minor parts of the tune would be
"blued" against the major chords.

Minor has often been equated with sadness or melancholy but I don't think that this is always the case. Shady Grove is an example in Mountain Minor which is a dance tune originally.

We can split hairs to determine whether the so-called modal tunes could be minor. I maintain that many of them are and that they are based on the sound of a minor quality using a contrast from the major scale. The idea of modality in folk music is tenuous and unprovable since the concept of modes were introduced after the fact to explain the musical evolution of folk songs. Many American traditional singers were not unfamiliar with minor tonality and this would be true of Irish, Scots and British singers and musicians as well.

"Coleraine" and other New England contra dance tunes are often in minor as well.

Unfortunately, it's too easy to generalize.

Frank Hamilton