Hi Walkabouts

I believe Cecil Sharpe found many English songs existing in what has been considered virtually pure forms being sung on the Outer Bank Islands of the Carolinas as well as in the remoter parts of the Appalachians. This was prior to and about the time of WWI, The Great War for you British Types. He found them being sung in harmony with chorded instruments. I won't say that this is the way these songs arrived in the States. But I will say even in these very remote areas that is the way these songs developed. So it isn't a stretch to say that is what happened in the UK 200 years earlier.

Don