There are a number of excellent printed collections of songs and ballads collected in New England. Check at your local library for the various books by Helen Hartness Flanders (and check out Margaret MacArthur's fine recordings of traditional New England traditional music, much of which she has drawn from Mrs. Flanders' work). Also, look at Eloise Hubbard Linscott's "Folksongs of Old New England." Printed collections from the lumber camps abound, such as Franz Rickaby's Ballads and Songs of the Shanty Boys, Phillips Barry's The Maine Woods Songster (although both of these are pretty hard to find). The songs and ballads of Carrie Grover, a great "informant" from Maine, are available in A Heritage of Songs, which I strongly recommend. Also look for Eckstorm and Smyth's Minstrelsy of Maine and Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth's: British Ballads from Maine. This should point you toward some of the available printed sources.

Skip Gorman recorded a number of fiddle tunes popular in New England (plus a couple of ringers that he wrote himself) on his Folk-Legacy cassette: New Englander's Choice. I compiled a CD from my own field collectanea for New World Records, which they elected to title "Brave Boys" and described as "New England Traditions in Folk Music," even though several of the numbers included were collected in the Adirondacks and Catskills of upstate New York. This CD is also available from Folk-Legacy. Some of the material included on the recent CD drawn from the Frank and Anne Warner collection and titled Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still comes from their collecting in New Hampshire and upstate New York, too. This is also available from Folk-Legacy, although it doesn't appear on our web site as yet, you could ask for it by title. It was produced by Appleseed, and we carry it. Look at CLICK HERE. I've lost my Joe Offer Handy-Dandy Instruction Sheet on making "blickies" myself, so I'm crossing my fingers that this will work for you. (Are you watching over me, angel Joe?)

I trust someone else, more familiar with the New England instrumental tradition than I, will give you a list of recordings available of, for instance, Dudley Laufman and the Canterbury Orchestra, Harvey Tolman, etc. You might also want to find a CD of the Word of Mouth Chorus (is that the proper name of the group?) presenting New England Shape Note singing.

Most importantly, I hope someone (Margaret, are you there?) can do a blue clicky thing to help you reach Margaret MacArthur to order some of her recordings, especially the most recent CD: Ballads Thrice Twisted. Highly recommended.

Shucks, there's a whole slew of stuff available! It's just a little harder to locate than Johnny Cash's stuff.

Sandy