250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 250 songs for 250 years
From: gillymor
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 11:33 AM

Moderator Note: pattyClink started this thread but by importing earlier posts from the thread that this is intended to spinoff of, her intro post is pushed below the imported remarks. So for clarity, this is what patty posted originally that is now shared up here:

Rather than hijacking the thread about the CBS list of 250 songs, shall we work on our own list here?

Our target should be well-known, well-loved songs that people tend to know and sing, whether in our modern time or in generations past. We're excluding the obscure, and we're not focused like the CBS list was on masterwork performances, but on the song itself and its suitability to pass into our American song tradition. I don't think the song has to have originated in the US as long as it became known and popular here.

Not being a mudcat wizard or gnome, I don't know how to paste in the contributions gillymore and StillyRiverSage already made.

This post from Gilly was transferred in:

Amen to all that. I'll kick it off with a few, in no particular order-

East Virginia Blues
Sweet Sunny South
Lakes of Ponchartrain

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 250 songs for 250 years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 06:49 PM

Something that should help with such a list - all of the song choices contributed by Mudcatters on the CDs that were sold many years ago. Here are links to the liner notes:

To start, here's a thread called Mudcat CD Liner Notes / lyrics

Blue Plate Special (2002) The various CDs had color names, here are threads about the liner notes:

Rose
Violet
Orchid
Plum
Strawberry

This is Us (2011)

2011 Mudcat CD Lyrics - This Is Us

Blue Bottle Special (2003, for Max's baby)

Blue Bottle Special CD

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA
From: pattyClink
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 08:31 PM

Heck, I can't even spell gillymor!

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: our list
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 09:37 PM

Yep, it's gillymor (or less), patty. I really like the idea of this thread and here are my offerings from the other one-

East Virginia Blues
Sweet Sunny South
Lakes of Ponchartrain
...and I'll throw in
Goin' Across the Mountain

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: our list
From: pattyClink
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 10:14 PM

Good ones!

Shenandoah
Buffalo Gals
John Henry
Barbara Allen
Yellow Rose of Texas
City of New Orleans
Country Roads

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: our list
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jun 26 - 11:10 PM

Acres of Clams
The Frozen Logger

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: our list
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 03:52 AM

Man Come Into Egypt
Come Away, Melinda
Ballad of Weaverville
What's That I Hear?
Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound
What You Do With What You've Got
The Goodnight-Loving Trail
Roseville Fair
King of the Road
Coal Tattoo

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: our list
From: pattyClink
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 09:33 AM

Gerry, that sent me down a rabbithole enjoying some beautiful songs I've never heard before. But I think we have to resist the urge to name personal favorites for our "desert island discs" (although maybe it's time for new threads on that).

Can we add Goodnight-Loving Trail, King of the Road, Can't Help Wonder Where I'm Bound, and Coal Tattoo, but challenge the others on 'obscurity' grounds?

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 06:34 PM

Patty, I'm glad you found some new, enjoyable music. As for obscurity, I don't know how to measure that.
Man Come Into Egypt was on an early (and very popular) Peter Paul and Mary album (I almost wrote "CD", but that format was still 30 years in the future).
Come Away, Melinda was on an early Judy Collins album.
Weaverville was recorded by Kate Wolf.
What's That I Hear was the title track on a Phil Ochs tribute CD – maybe not as well-known as Draft Dodger Rag, or I Ain't a-Marching Any More, but hardly obscure (in my subjective
opinion).
What You Do With What You've Got is probably Si Kahn's best-known song. Roy Bailey used it to open his concerts for many years.
Roseville Fair may be Bill Staines' best-known song, and a favorite Nanci Griffith recording.

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 07:24 PM

Regarding Phil Ochs, I would like to suggest
Power and the Glory,
a song with which
Theodore Bikel opened a concert of his --
no introduction, no remarks, just let the song speak for itself.

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 08:16 PM

I SUM I BE A YANKEE LAD

(Perhaps, Byrl Ives 1955)

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Am I getting dementia? I know the tune but can not recall the lyrics.

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 08:22 PM

Angelina Baker
Old Joe Clark
June Apple
Darling Corey
Tom Dooley

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 08:24 PM

and a couple from the great Jimmy Driftwood-

Tennesee Stud
Battle of New Orleans

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 08:25 PM

Garg, do you mean Jimmie Driftwood's DamnYankee Lad?

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 08:42 PM

No ... I will dig the closet ... for the book.

Thank you Joe.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

the entire tune comes out on the keyboard ... but the words escape me.

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jun 26 - 09:03 PM

Gimme a little more, Garg. Otherwise, you can call me and sing it on the phone, [phone].

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 12:13 AM

”Perhaps, Byrl Ives 1955”

Or even BURL Ives…

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: GUEST,RA
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 03:41 AM

Amazing Grace

Wondrous Love

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 05:55 AM

Several of Stephen Foster's songs?

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 06:41 AM

Wabash Cannonball
Blue Moon of Kentucky
Banks of the Ohio

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: GerryM
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 07:02 AM

A few more – not, I hope, too obscure:

Skip to My Lou
Oh, Susannah
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Blue Tail Fly
Aragon Mill
Ain't No More Cane On the Brazos
Where Have All the Flowers Gone
The View From Home
A Swallow Song
This Train

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 05:45 PM

Found it.
Posted as new lyrics.
Catchy tune but impossible lyrics.
I could have only known it from my own sheet music collection.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Donald would like this.

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 05:26 AM

From the Mississippi Delta-

Sitting on Top of the World
Crossroad Blues
Walking Blues
Pony Blues

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: pattyClink
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 01:44 PM

With the 4th upon us, wondered what songs from the 1700s are still known to us. There of course are a few mudcat threads on the subject, and from them it seems these titles were known in colonial days.

The Water is Wide
In the Good Old Colony Days
The Golden Vanity
Billy Boy
Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair

of course plenty of Child ballads crossed the pond, but which ones were best known and loved in the colonies?

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 03:25 PM

Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier
Over the Hills and Far Away
The King's Hard Bargain
Yankee Doodle

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 11:17 PM

A contribution from an Ozzie....

What did Delaware, boys

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 03 Jul 26 - 07:17 AM

Someone to Watch Over Me
September Song
But Not For Me
Blue Moon
Lady Be Good
Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
Freight Train
My Creole Belle
High on a Mountain
Banks of the Ohio
My Home's Across the Blueridge Mountains
Mr. Tambourine Man
Tennesee Stud
Battle of New Orleans
Nine Pound Hammer
John Henry
Simple Gifts
This World is Not My Home
Deportee plane wreck...
Philadelphia Lawyer
Pretty Boy Floyd
Pastures of Plenty
Gospel Plow
Bring Them Home
Waist Deep in The Big Muddy
Jesse James
Which Side are you on
Come all You Fair and Tender Maidens
He Was a Friend of Mine
Silver Dagger
Lily of the West
Billy The Kid
El Paso
Big Iron
Hey Porter
Wabash Cannonball
Golden Rocket
La Danse du Mardi Gras
Lacassine Special
DELTA BLUES
Sitting on Top of the World
Cross Road Blues
Pony Blues
LOUISIANA
Iko Iko
The Back Door
Jolie Blond
La Cassine Special
Don't Mess With My Toot Toot
Deep River Blues
Last Thing on My Mind
Rambling Boy
Someday Soon (written by a Canadian but set in U.S.)
I Got Mine
That'll Never Happen No More
Traveling Man
Samson and Delilah
Delia
Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
Candyman (MJH or RGD or Grateful Dead)
Smokestack Ligthning
The Thrill is Gone
Born Under a Bad Sign
Second That Emotion
I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine
My Girl
Bourgeois Blues
Keep You Hands Off Her
Take Me to the River
The Tattler
It's All Over Now
The Race is On
White Lightning
Summertime Blues
Blue Suede Shoes
Changes
That's Alright Mama
Mystery Train
I Can't Quit You Baby
Railroad Bill
Freight Train
I've Been Everywhere (another Canadian author, set in U.S.}
Sweet Dreams
Oh Lonesome Me
Don't Think Twice It's Alright
Masters of War
So Lonesome I Could Cry
Jambalaya
I Saw the Light
Mule Skinner Blues
Buffalo Skinners
Hills of Mexico
Waterbound (trad)
Waterbound (by Dirk Powell)
Old Joe Clark
Big River

Happy 250TH!

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: gillymor
Date: 03 Jul 26 - 07:56 AM

a few that the Grateful Dead have written into the Americana lexicon-

Ripple
Friend of the Devil
Truckin'
Sugar Magnolia

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 26 - 12:44 PM

Is someone planning to drop these alphabetically into a list to clear the duplicates? Then what?

Subject: RE: 250 Songs from 250 Years of USA: Mudcat's list
From: pattyClink
Date: 06 Jul 26 - 10:05 AM

Thanks for your help, SRS. We've seen a lot of good songs brought forth, but I don't think we're up for a curated list, let's just let it go.