I think there IS a "folk music canon" - i.e., songs that everybody knows and everybody sings. It's the commonality that defines the canon...but it's the unusual songs that are a bit outside the canon, that are often the more interesting ones. Too often, the songs in the "canon" have been sung too often, and need to be put on the back burner for a while. Still, it's nice to have songs that everybody knows, because then they can be sung together.

By definition, however, the "folk canon" is undefinable. Child did a pretty good job of setting the canon of ballads, but he left out some good ones. The books of the Lomaxes contain a lot of really good folk songs, but they are not the canon of American folk music. I'm trying to learn all of the songs in Sandburg's American Songbag and to ensure that all of Sandburg's songs are posted here - but Sandburg isn't the canon, either. I'm also trying to learn all 139 songs recorded by Pete Seeger and published by Smithsonian Folkways as American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1-5 - but that isn't the American Folk Canon, either. Still,the Sandburg book and the Seeger recordings are pretty close. Don't know what I'd call the canon of English folk songs, but it wouldn't hurt to learn all the songs in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

Matt, One of Jean Ritchie's relatives tried to put me in touch with Jean by phone, but the call didn't work very well. I'll have Mudcat's Big Mick Lane contact you. He'll know the best way to contact Jean, if it's appropriate. Let's leave the question of contacting Jean to Mick and Matt. Matt, if by chance you don't hear from Mick, let me know. There are lots of other people here who can answer your questions, however.

-Joe Offer-
joe@mudcat.org