Happy folksongs???? We don't need no stinkin' happy folksongs!!!!

But seriously folks..... Here's a little food for thought.

A sense of happiness is so easy to convey using strictly instrumental music that adding words to a happy tune is often unnecessary. If I want to communicate happy I just play "Gaspe' Reel" on the hammer dulcimer. For sad, I need words too. Waltzes and airs can communicate a sense of seriousness, but it takes words to add specific content. Happy doesn't usually need specific content because I don't need to know why you're happy, just that you are, and that can be conveyed without using words.

Bruce