Welcome to the madhouse, Matthew!

Just to get an idea of the task ahead, a friend of mine and I took a course in "The English Popular Ballad," taught by Prof. David Fowler in the English Department at the University of Washington back in the late 1950s. The term paper was to research a particular ballad, using all the sources available at various libraries (he handed out a list) and document the origins—if possible—of our particular ballad. My friend picked "Lord Randal" and came up with a truly monumental and highly educational amount of information.

He found the texts of 1,013 different versions of the ballad. And that although the origins of the ballad were lost in the mists of antiquity, he developed—and was able to support—the theory that it had come into existence in one to the Scandinavian countries in medieval times, probably composed by some anonymous scop or skald (bard or minstrel)—and had spread through Scandinavia, to the British Isles, continental Europe, Russia, through the Middle East, and into North Africa. In short, everywhere the Vikings or Norsemen went.

English settlers brought it to the Americas, along with a myriad of other songs and ballads, and it's found in the Appalachians and elsewhere, along with a host of such songs and ballads (as documented by Cecil Sharp and others).

And many--most--of the ballads and many folk songs have a similar history. Far older and more widespread

One would do well to read The Ballad Tree by Evelyn Kendrick Wells, published in 1950, and should be findable in a good public library.

Another book I would highly recommend is Singing Family of the Cumberlands by Jean Ritchie.

My interest in folk music and ballads goes back well before the "folk revival" of the Fifties. I'm well up in years, and I remember (vaguely) hearing Alan Lomax's broadcasts on "American School of the Air" in the 1930s and in the 1940s, listening to Burl Ives's Sunday afternoon program, "The Wayfaring Stranger." Ives talked about American history and sang songs relating to the historical incidents he was talking about. Fascinating! My interest became active when a girl friend in 1952 inherited an old parlor guitar from her grandmother and started to learn folk songs from A Treasury of Folk Songs, a drugstore paperback by John and Sylvia Kolb (excellent little collection!). I bought a copy of the book and a cheap guitar, and Claire taught me my first chords.

To avoid confusion, it might by useful to make the distinction between a folk singer and a singer of folk songs. A folk singer grew up in the tradition and learned songs from their family and community. A singer of folk songs is someone who was born and raise in the city and who learned their songs from records and song books (I am one of these).

Folk music is a much broader field than many people suspect. It's far too easy to err on the overly simplistic side.

Be warned!

Don Firth