I don't mean folk music. I mean popular music - the songs and tunes that were in the national consciousness during that period.

Yes, in deed Stephen Foster was popular. And there were many songs that recent immigrants brought along with them, Annie Laurie, Kathleen Mavourneen, etc ... and there would be piano pieces, I'm sure and band brass music ... There's a lot we know about from recent film and books. And I've scanned the various lists I know of (Contemplator, and a couple of Civil War sites).

But I wonder how much is myth and how much is history when it comes to our modern understanding of music and instruments from the period. How likely would it be for me to see a banjo player at a wedding in St Jo Missouri, or a mandolin being played at a wake in Boston? What sort of band might be playing at a 4th of July celebration on Sherman TX in 1855?

Now-a-days we presume that guitars, for example would all be gut stringed - but I know that steel strings were available for the music market at least a decade before the war. But guitars were more commonly used as a parlor instrument, and typically played by women.

Likewise for banjos - steel strings were available - and frets. But the banjo was a pretty popular instrument and quite common, especially for Minstrel Show and other stage performances. How did the steel string and fretted version creep onto the national scene, and when?

What about harmonica? What about accordion (button box)? Cello was more common and normally played the bass - what about Upright Bass? What about penny whistle, recorder, fife?

There must be a scholar or two who has researched the subject. I'd like to know a little more about what we actually know about the period.