In some other posts on other threads I've mentioned that for 22 years I did workshops in schools in the six-county area around Northern Illinois. These focused on how folksongs were a time machine that let us hear what the people, all over, might've thought about their spot on the map at a certain point on the timeline.

The songs zeroed in on their own geographical area. They were not always accurate history representations but, like tall tales, they made fun of or highlighted aspects of real life while blatantly being obviously outright lies. The songs reflected the way things were as well as the way people WANTED things to be.

To reinforce this lesson, I handed out maps of the U.S.A. divided into 5 zones. The students colored in the south (red for heat), West (yellow for arridity), midwest (green for crops), eastern seaboard (blue for the ocean)and the west coastal area (whatever-I can' tremember).

Instead of placenames on the land I'd written the names of FOLKSONGS that had been born on or near that location. "The Buffalo Skinners" was over Texas--as were other cowboy songs. "The Pinery Boy" and other lumbecamp songs were written over the Northern tier of states. Old timey songs were generally over the southern mountains. Etc, etc. etc.

For me,these songs are REAL DOCUMENTS---not on a textbook page but in the vernacular of the folks that lived through the events.

Yes, REAL folk songs and history cannot be separated.

Art Thieme