What are the most popular folk song?

Subject: What are the most popular folk songs?
From: GUEST,ffolke
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 05:34 AM

I'm 20 years old and have been interested in folk music for a while. Unfortunately I have no background in much of what I have heard and know. My interest began with people like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Mississippi John Hurt. Searching through this site makes me realize how distant my knowledge is of traditional songs (but maybe not as bad as other teenagers). But being of a newer generation where I was hardly ever shown these songs in the media, by friends or family, or anywhere else, I have an unfilled desire to catch up on all historical music.

What I'd like to know is what are some very common public domain songs? I do know of a lot of old songs, but not which are popular (like on John Hurt's album, he essentially says that everybody knows how to sing "You are my Sunshine," but I actually heard it from him first). Are there any other songs that you think us younger people should know and remember?

The only song I can think of off the top of my head that's popular is Amazing Grace.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,catlin
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 05:57 AM

What do you consider folk music? I generally consider it anything that I can play in my living room on recorder(flute), guitar, mandolin and harp that wouldn't annoy my mother and I could probably play in church. Unplugged, as it were.

Where do you live? Do you have access to National Public Radio and if so does the local programming have a "folk show" feature? WPSU from State College, Pennsylvania has the Folk Show on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (check out the live streaming music). We also get The Thistle and Shamrock on Sunday afternoons and The Prairie Home Companion on Saturdays. These are two programs with lots of folksy music.

If you live on the East coast, go to the Old Songs Festival in Guilderland NY or the Philadelphia Folk Festival. I've been to Old Songs and you'd learn a lot.

Folk songs and music are "the peoples music". In the old days itinerate harpers would pass on tunes they learned while learning new songs when they went from town to town. A many songs were "local" in style and not even heard the next valley or two over. The artists you mention were our nation's folk musicians and there are many more for you to discover. And yes, church is a good place to get more music! Check out the Oxford Book of Carols and then check out the group Nowell Sing We Clear. Everything they sing is from that book. We use it in church during Advent, Christmas and the Easter seasons. The new addition to our hymnal as a tune by Dylan and songs about segregation and Martin Luther King jr in it.

Enjoy your search! Dig away merrily. And google a lot.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,dax
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 06:30 AM

Hi ffolke,
   It's nice to see young people take an interest in traditional music.
It has many definitions and subjective borders, and stuff that appeals to many different tastes. I would suggest that you have made a key start in locating Mudcat. Spend some time reading through the DT lyrics and the forun archives. There is much there to be learned, but you will also find garbage so don't believe everything.
You Are My Sunshine, by the way, is not public domain as it's author, Jimmie Davis, died in recent years.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 07:28 AM

ffolke - Why not join this site ? Its free and membership gives you access to other bits of the site . As Catlin said , Where are you ? If
You are in US I cant help much as I am in UK !!

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,Marion
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 07:28 AM

Hi Ffolke, and welcome to Mudcat. I assume from the three singers that you mention that you're North American - is that right? Anyway, I bet you know more traditional songs than you realize, because many of the most popular old songs are sung to children. Here are some more well-known titles for you:

Will the Circle be Unbroken
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
When the Saints Go Marching In
Home on the Range
Old Folks at Home (Way down upon the Swanee River...)
Oh Susanna
I've Been Working on the Railroad
On Top of Old Smokey
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Kumbaya


Cheers, Marion

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: breezy
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 08:29 AM

Role Britannia and Swing Low are the only sogs the English know
along with Duelling Banjos and American Pie
snuf to bring tears to yer eyes

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: chrisgl
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 09:37 AM

I have _such_ a hard time remembering the lyrics to verse seven of Duelling Banjos.


It's surely going to vary depending where in the world you live...

I have to say I have a bit of an aversion to the "well known" songs - a simple way to find them is to take a look at the folk song books most music stores sell.

I've just had a skip through the Digital Tradtion (available not a million clicks from here and worth grabbing a copy of (tho' the tune examples are generally go at a snail's pace but good for learning)) and come up with the following titles that I recognise - not entirely sure how 'folk' they all are - not all have tunes available in the DT and there's, oo, 8948 other titles many of which also 'fit the bill'.
[FX: gasps for breath]
A fair few are still under copyright.

^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
All Through The Night
Auld Lang Syne
Barbara Allen
Barley Mow, The
Billy Boy
Blow The Wind Southerly
Blue Tailed Fly
Bobbie Shafto
Boney was a warrior
Botany Bay
Dance To Your Daddy
Donkey Riding
Down By The Riverside
Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes
Foggy Foggy Dew, The
Green Grow The Rushes
Greensleeves
Heart Of Oak
Maggie May
Mattie Groves
Morning Has Broken
My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean
Nick Nack Paddy Whack(This Old Man)
Pick A Bale Of Cotton
Scarborough Fair
Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me
South Australia
Tavern In The Town
Vicar Of Bray, The
Waltzing Matilda
When I First Came To This Land
Widdecombe Fair
Wild Mountain Thyme
^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

chris ;-)

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 10:16 AM

yeh Maggie May - good old Rod Stewart! (only joking)

I suspect if you were American you cold sign up to do a module at your local college Folkmusic 101. As it is you'll have to go round a few folk clubs and festivals, and just find out.

always remember ...you are a folk. and your opinion of what is folkmusic is just as valid as anybody else's

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,William
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 12:07 PM

In Ireland the most popular is Dirty Old Town .every folk/ballad singers play it to death,Ewan McCall has a lot to answer for,
It was most likley a great song when it was written in 1946 but it has been played too often.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 02:20 PM

"Played too often" is relative, especially in the context of this thread - our young friend commented that he(she?) had never heard You Are My Sunshine until he listened to Mississippi John Hurt. If you spend a lot of time in Irish pubs, you may well be sick of Dirty Old Town; however, if you only end up in an Irish pub once a year or so, it may have retained its appeal.

And of course a lot of people like to go to the pub and sing along with familiar songs every Saturday night - nothing wrong with that, but it can be hell on those who don't share that particular enthusiasm.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 03:39 PM

When there is singaround in an English pub the one the non-folky drunk always requests is Irish Rover.
Or In my Liverpool Home
or maybe Whisky in the Jar
or "play Irish Washerwoman"

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,Bee
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 04:40 PM

Non-folky drunks must have the same tastes the world over - but here in Nova Scotia you'd have to add 'Sonny's Dream' written by Ron Hynes, a wonderful songwriter, but his Dream has been done to death. He said he once heard it done in Denmark by Korean(?) buskers who thought the lyrics actually were about the Sun.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 05:12 PM

Heard a great take-off on Sonny's Dream this summer, destined to become another done-to-death classic; the chorus went something like, Sonny, please go away,/And leave me alone;/You're thirty-years-old,/And still living at home.

But let's not forget, there was a time when it was the folky drunks that were requesting those songs we folky drunks now sneer at (or folky teetotallers, as the case may be).

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Tootler
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 06:30 PM

You left Danny Boy off your list. Always popular with non-folky drunks.

Last Thursday night we got a request for a Pink Floyd song!!

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Snuffy
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 07:24 PM

Wild Rover surely, not Irish Rover?

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: ffolke
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 07:49 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I am in the US, for those who were concerned. I know about half of the songs already mentioned, but I have a bad memory so sometimes I only know the 1st verse or so.

I collect public domain mp3s of all musical styles and that is how I usually hear older stuff. There is an awesome folk shop in town, and there's also a folk festival every year that I want to check out. And of course the library is a good source for folk/traditional music information.

Catlin said: Folk songs and music are "the peoples music".
-of course they are. I meant "folk" as a broad sense of the term (blues, spirituals, Stephen Foster songs, other countries songs, etc), not just the folk-style singer-songwriter genre.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Celtaddict
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 09:11 PM

Welcome, ffolke, and I hope you decide to join us.
(I wrote this all out earlier and got dumped off before I sent it; bet you can't tell where in the thread)
I would offer two pieces of general advice for the Mudcat: (1) don't ever be put off by arguments about 'what is really folk' because there are as many definitions as there are 'folks' and you can join in if you are so inclined or ignore them if you aren't, and (2) don't worry about discussions of what songs have been 'done to death' because they were so popular in some time and place that someone got tired of hearing them. Older songs that have been very popular and have endured for decades, generations, centuries even, tend to be both singable and memorable.
Specific suggestions, in addition to the good ones already posted:
Invest in a copy of "Sing Out" which has a large number of songs that 'everybody knows' in one place. You might also check whatever local store carries Scout (or even campfire) supplies; they will often have a sturdy paperback of 'campfire songs' and that is where many Americans learn common popular traditional songs.
When you browse for recordings, remember that the big chains carry what sells fast, so they will have top-40 pop but not much traditional; the specialty stores may have several different headings worth checking. 'Folk' in merchandising terms generally means singer-songwriter. 'World Music' often has Irish and Scottish, which will often include traditional songs and ballads; these may also be together under 'Celtic.' Check 'Children's' too because they will often have collections of the sort of song sung in schools and camps (and cars on the highway) and often will include (or be entirely)   standard traditional songs.
The word 'ballad' is often used in popular music to suggest a slower, more lyrical song, but its traditional meaning is a song that tells a story; these are some of the most wonderfully enduring of songs, and there are quite a few collections. I like to pick up the compilation 'sampler' CDs which often have many performers I might not otherwise hear, or that I might decide to search for online for full CDs. Often titles contain words like 'favorite' or 'best' along the lines of "Favorite Irish Pub Songs" or "Border Ballads of Scotland" or descriptions such as "Music of Beech Mountain." Stores that cater to travelers can be good sources for these, as they often try to have a small selection of the most traditional and most typical songs of an area.
Most important, get together with people and sing.
You can develop a terrific library of recordings and books, but until you have shared singing them with other living human beings, also known as 'folk,' you have missed much of the richness of this tradition.
Check for local listings such as concert, coffeehouse, song circle, folk club. When you go, you will not only hear that performance, but you will meet folks with similar interests and often will make contacts for house concerts, open mikes, getaways, song circles, house hoots, and similar gatherings for the purpose of sharing tradition-based music.
Enjoy the learning, but especially, enjoy the music!

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 09:17 PM

ffolke, you should check out Spider John Koerner's CDs on Red House Records: "Raised By Humans" and "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Been". To my mind, the track lists on these two albums constitute as definitive a selection of "most popular folk songs" as a person could wish. Even though the songs are mostly old chestnuts, Koerner's versions are fresh and hot. Recently, Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" has attempted in a rock modality what Koerner accomplished so brilliantly with a picked band of elite acoustic musicians.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Celtaddict
Date: 01 Oct 06 - 09:46 PM

One more hint: when you go to a festival, of course see and hear as broad a variety of performers as you possibly can, but stay after!! This may mean the parking lot area, or camping if people stay over, or sticking to someone who has been there many times, to find where folks go after, or even volunteering for cleanup duty. The performers at a festival will often be making the effort to present unusual material, but the informal gatherings afterward tend to be filled with the 'classics' that folks have loved for years and that 'everybody' knows and can sing along.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 03:26 AM

I'd just like to back that one up - Spider John. a GOOD idea!

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 07:44 AM

Please, please, please learn to question such statements as:

"In the old days itinerate harpers would pass on tunes they learned while learning new songs when they went from town to town".

They (the itinerant harpists) may have done, at certain times and in certain places, but they may not have had an awful lot to do with folk music! One of the reasons why the terms 'folk music' and 'folk song' are so hard to define is that people will insist on making things like this up.

Still, it's probably better than the marketing man's definition which is: "anything acoustic but excluding 'country & western' and 'blues' but including 'folk rock'". In the UK the marketeers also include under 'folk' things like military bands - which don't fit in any other of their cretinous categories.

As you may be, possibly(?), primarily interested in American songs you may want to look for a book called: 'Dear Companion: Appalachian Traditional Songs and Singers from the Cecil Sharp Collection' compiled and edited by Mike Yates, Elaine Bradtke and Malcolm Taylor, published by English Folk Dance & Song Society, 2004 (ISBN: 0 85418 190 3). And you may also might like to look out for recordings of traditional singers and musicians made by your great countryman, Alan Lomax.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Genie
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 11:07 AM

If you go to your local library and look up "folk music" books or CDs, you'll find a motley collection, including compilations by the late Tom Glazer and other collectors.   As to what songs are commonly known and sung, that does vary widely depending on location, ethnicity, etc.   Here are a few songs I find just about everyone knows (can sing along with) in just about any song circle or sing-along I find on the west coast of the US:
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
The Last Thing On My Mind (Tom Paxton)
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Me & Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)
Amazing Grace
Red River Valley
The Wabash Cannonball
Tennessee Waltz (pop song from 1951)
Take Me Home, Country Roads (sung by John Denver)
Leaving On A Jet Plane (as recorded by PP&M)
Blowing In The Wind (Bob Dylan)
Danny Boy
Tom Dooley
Sloop John B
You Are My Sunshine
Over The Rainbow (from The Wizard Of Oz)
Hard Times Come Again No More
Edelweiss (from Sound Of Music)
(Of course on some of these songs, it's just the chorus that everyone knows.)

In Jewish-American communities everybody knows Hava Nagila and Tumbalalaika (the chorus anyway) and Havenu Shalom Aleichem, for example, as well as Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler On The Roof).   Mexican-American groups will know Cielito Lindo, De Colores, La Bamba, etc. (I lead sing-alongs in a variety of settings and it's not unusual for a group to be heavily represented by people of one ethnic heritage or another.)

Songs "everybody" knows in the US but few people ever sing outside of children's or senior citizens' (e.g., nursing home) groups include:
Take Me Out To The Ball Game
Shine On, Harvest Moon
My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean
I've Been Workin' On The Railroad
Down In The Valley
My Darlin' Clementine
O Susanna!

I realize that many of the songs I've listed aren't "folk songs" as most people define that term, but in a way, once a song becomes so commonly known that pretty much a whole population, spanning more than one generation, spontaneously sings along with it and knows it by heart, you could say it's become a "folk song" even if its author is known and it's not PD.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Scoville
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 11:43 AM

Oh, my Lord, Genie--I think I sang ALL of those in elementary school. We also did a little dance to "Jamaica Farewell", of all things, complete with the bottle of rum part. I guess parents were less squeamish in the Eighties.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Genie
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 12:41 PM

LOL, Scoville.

You just reminded me, one place to find commonly-known songs is Sesame Street. Of course, they also use some songs composed just for the show and other recently-written children's songs, but I've heard them do former pop (broadly construed) hits that have made their way into our shared 'folk trove' such as "Catch A Wave" (Beach Boys), "Doggie In The Window," and "Three Little Fishies."

I should add a few more to the well-known "folk" songs list:
When The Saints Go Marching In
Michael, Row The Boat Ashore
This Land Is Your Land
Puff, The Magic Dragon
Roll On, Columbia
Goodnight, Irene
16 Tons
Banana Boat (Day-O)
Hey, Good Lookin'
Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 12:50 PM

Heh.... Popular FOLK song.... That's funny!

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Scoville
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 12:58 PM

Ha! I have an aunt named Eileen and we always deliberately sang it "Goodnight, Eileen". Took me years to learn it the proper way.

We must have grown up on the same wavelength.

Subject: RE: What are the most popular folk song?
From: Genie
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 01:32 PM

Well, Clinton, we could rehash the whole lengthy "What is folk music?" discussion, I guess. But I hope most people will recognize that many songs we now accept as part of our "folklore" or "folk tradition" once had known authors (and maybe still do) and were played, sung, and even published for profit. Plus, the tunes and words to popular songs often get modified as they turn into songs the kids sing around a campfire.

As for what folk songs are most "popular" as opposed to "best known," I really think that varies a lot from region to region. "Roll On, Columbia" is probably more popular in the Pacific Northwest than in Appalachia.   Here on the west coast, I find some of John Prine's and Malvina Reynolds's or Kate Wolf's songs very popular in the folkie crowd. E.g.:
Paradise
Across The Great Divide
Give Yourself To Love
Flag Decal
Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
Little Boxes

But then, so are some Northeasterners' songs such as Gordon Bok's " Isle Au Haut Lullabye" and Dave Mallett's "The Garden Song."

Some of Joni Mitchell's classics are also very popular and well known, such as "Both Sides Now" and "The Circle Game."

And, although he's not "folk," a lot of "folkies" know and love many of Hank Williams's songs (Jambalaya, Your Cheatin' Heart, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hey Good Lookin', I Saw The Light, etc.).

Q: Is "country" necessarily further removed from "folk" than "popular" or "rhythm & blues" is?    (Oh, wait. I probably shouldn't open a can of worms like that in this thread.) ;-D