Hello!

I am a singer and musician from Vermont looking to uncover more about the traditional music of my region. It appears to me as if there is very little surviving music from the region from former times--most of what I've heard is "American folk music", various sorts of popular & classical music, and some new music from artists in the region. That said, I don't come from an old, established family in the region that might have had things it remembered from times of yore. I am especially interested in the way that the old songs can convey culture, advice and warnings for future generations, things that sustain culture and society that have been thrown away or forgotten.

My two sources of old folk music I've found are Margaret MacArthur and Helen Harkness Flanders. I could find two albums from Margaret MacArthur online (The Old Songs, Folksongs of Vermont), and the book Vermont Folksongs & Ballads by Flanders from the library. So far I've begun to learn some songs from the latter--and am finding them to have unique and interesting melodic motifs such as I've heard elsewhere but put together in unexpected ways, and it makes me want to learn more...