Gold Mine of a site! - Max Hunter Song Collection

Subject: Gold Mine of a site!
From: KT
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 01:34 AM

Hi gang! I've just been doing a bit of surfing and came across this site. I've been having a grand time with it and just wanted to share it with you! It's a gold mine!

Have fun! KT

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 01:47 AM

Little glitch in the link. Try this:

Max Hunter Folk Song Collection

Looks interesting, KT.

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: KT
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 01:52 AM

OOPS!! Thanks Bardford! I don't know what happened, but I'm glad you fixed it. This site's too cool to not share!

KT

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: Genie
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 02:01 AM

Great site, Bardford!

(Good ol' SMSUU! I lived across the street from their football stadium when I was 5 y.o. Haven't thought about Springfield, MO in years.)

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 02:04 AM

PLEASE - post the written URL - along with the Blue Clicky Thing

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: KT
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 02:07 AM

Here ya go, Guest. Enjoy! http://www.smsu.edu/folksong/maxhunter/

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 02:11 AM

Hopefully they're not all as mangled as "Flinnigans Wake"

Ug...

Wazza matter GUEST? Can't look around your browser window to find out the URL you've moused over???

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:42 AM

Yeah, yeah...nothing great yet. Any favorites?

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: pattyClink
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 10:49 AM

KT, thanks for sharing this source!

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: Giac
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 11:00 AM

If you want to read previous discussions of the Max Hunter site, just put Max Hunter into the DigiTrad and Forum search box. You'll find quite a few posts.

It is a good site, and, if you are interested in how lyrics change through oral tradition, it is, indeed, a gold mine. A lot of these songs were recorded not far from where I grew up and I enjoy the familiar phrasings. It's also fun to see how some songs were adapted to local events.

~;o) - Mary

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 11:40 AM

I love that note on punctuation he's got there:

You may by this time be critical of the way I have puncuated my transcriptions of the songs. It is my belief, that my job is to get the words off of the tape the best way that I can and know how. It takes about ten (10) to twelve (12) hours to take the words off of the tape and this is done by the use of a pencil so that I can erase when I have to. Then, from this I type the transcription. This is one "hell" of a job.

So, since I am doing the work, I'll punctuate the way I want to.

Right on!

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 11:49 AM

Still waiting for the other GUEST to pop up and claim that there's something sinister about the fact that this guy's name is Max...

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 11:58 AM

This thread is probably the one to read. Every good thing deserves to be brought up now and then. Thanks, KT.

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18989

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: KT
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 12:23 PM

Thanks, Giac and Guest for the links to the previous post and reference to this site. I missed it all together back in 2000, but sure am glad to have found the site now!

ClintonHammond, I don't know what you mean by "garbled". I'm using the Real audio version and while it's not the best quality recording, it's pretty clear and understandable. What I find so appealing about this site, aside from the fact that there are 1600 old songs to learn, is that so many of them are sung by old ones, who learned the songs in the folk tradition. We may not all have back porches or kitchens in the mountains, but with a little imagination, we're almost there. A great resource!

I hope those of you who may have missed it check it out and enjoy it. KT

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: GUEST,FairDeal
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 01:48 PM

That Clinton is a bit of a PITA?

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:34 PM

Oh it's not the audio files I mean... I didn't even bother trying those...

The lyrics for "Flinnigans Wake" are the worst kind of bastardisation I can imagine... Why bother archiving it if it's crap?

PITA?

Person Ingesting Tasty Animals?

Yes... yes I am!

;-)

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: MMario
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:54 PM

as a sample of the folk process in progress?

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 03:56 PM

The Finnigans Wake text seems fair enough, for a song that has travelled a long way. It's a fragment, that's how the oral process works, and many a good song has been reconstructed out of fragments, and changed in the process.

"Put fourteen candles at his feet
Couple dozen at 'is head"

That makes an interesting variation, and a vivid image. And the man sings it well.

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: GUEST,KT
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 08:13 PM

Clinton, I'm sure the singer who learned it that way at his Granddaddy's knee didn't consider it crap. Keep looking, Clinton. Maybe you'll find one that will make the time spent there worthwhile. KT

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 10:00 PM

This is indeed a goldmine, Fantastic. My favourite so far is

I know a lady of th north
A fair a fair o was she
She was courted by nine noble cowboys
on th derry dems of arrow

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 10:03 PM

PS I can see that this site may be rather challenging for those who believe that there are "correct" versions of folksongs.

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 10:14 PM

Oh I don't think that at all greg, but when a song end up making no sense, due to the folk process or oral tradition, then the folk process needs to be reversed...

Subject: RE: Gold Mine of a site!
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jul 02 - 10:44 PM

At the top of the Muscat page is the word "Links" in green. Click on this and look through the alphabetical list of links. Lots of "gold mine" sites. One of them is to the Max Hunter Collection.
No one seems to look at this valuable feature of Mudcat.

For information on Max Hunter and the collection, go to, among others, thread 18989, which is over two years old: Hunter
Read Max Hunter, Ozark folklorist, dies at 78, to find out about this remarkable man.