I think we have to give Mary Wheeler credit for doing what she did. Can you imagine what her family and her neighbors must have thought when this middle-class white woman spent all of her time associating with elderly black roustabouts and their women folk, taking down the songs they could remember? Surely must have shocked 'em all! If a bit of the paternalistic (maternalistic?) attitude is detected, I think we have to consider the time in which she was doing her collecting. As I say, she was there.

I've rambled along the Ohio and the Missouri, spent some time going up the Big Sandy, and along the Mississippi, too (one of those trips with you, Art, on the Julia Belle Swain!), but I've never collected any old songs from the folks I've talked with along the way. Worse luck. Got some nice photographs, though!

The Barton/Para songs (Jim Bludso and the Prairie Belle, etc.) are still available from Folk-Legacy. Thanks for mentioning them! By doggies, those Missouri kids do make good music, don't they?

Sandy