Then there are songs of 'exhortation' which seemed to be popular when the US and Canada were opening up their frontiers and needed people to settle. The governments used all kinds of methods - sometimes older immigrants seemed to have taken up the challenge just to prove what good 'new' citizens they were. And, of course, they were written in whatever language would be best received by the Old Country.

A Welsh group (4 yn y Bar) resurrected and recorded "Dewch i America" (Come to America) a few years back. Quite a catchy 'ditty' with a chorus: Come to America X2, O people of all the world, Come to America. I don't actually have the recording so can't tell you any more.

I can think of a poem written for an Eisteddfod (competitive arts festival) in Saskatchewan in the 1930s which waxes lyrical about the beauty and attractions of Canada, and particularly the Rockies and B.C. It was not set to music as far as I know, but it's the same genre.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of songs around the time of the Chicago World's Fair - I know that there was a strong Welsh contingent out there, and probably the same can be said for other nations. Presumably, though, they never became part of the folk tradition.

siân