The Sound Of America

Subject: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 09:54 AM

My wife and I just returned from a two and a half week bus tour of Europe. As we traveled from country to country, the Tour Director played tapes of music that reflected the heritage and essence of each country. I thought that it was a great addition to the tour, and started to think about what collection of music I would compile to play on a bus tour of America.

There were several qualities to the music that was chosen on our tour.
There was some traditional music from each country, as well as popular music that was familiar to almost everyone on the tour. (We had 14 Austrulians, 2 South Africans, and 8 Americans (two of whom are from California but grew up to adulthood in the Phillipines.)
Some of the songs that were chosen were ones we all seemed to know... like The Happy Wanderer and I Don't Have A Wooden Heart from Germany,
Arrividerci Roma and Volare from Italy. Other songs were unfamiliar to me, but the type of music reflectecd the country well... polkas from Austria (and some bagpipe music) flamenco guitar from Spain, etc.

As we were driving along, I started thinking about songs I'd include on a Sound Of America collection. There were several directions to go. You could chose songs that are identified with a city or area of the country (New York, New York and I Left My Heart In San Francisco,
Artists that helped to define American Pop Music (You'd have to have Elvis, Sinatra, and Ray Charles on it, or types of music that are identified strongly as American (jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, and Doo Wop.) You'd probably want a country song or to on there, as well.

So, what songs would you include? (This would be a tape or CD of no more than 24 songs, so stop and think a minute before immediately listing a dozen songs.)

The other thing to remember is that there are people on tour buses who don't know the language, so I wouldn't suggest an eighteen verse unaccompanied ballad..

A few songs I feel would be top choices for me:

Georgia, by Ray Charles
Proud Mary by either Creedance Clearwater Revival or Ike and Tina Turner
Johnny B. Goode (or Maybelline, Roll Over Beethoven or School Days)
by Chuck Berry
Shenandoah ( there's a real nice version by James Taylor I might choose)
This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie.

I'd better stop right here...

And I wonder what a Sounds of England, Sounds Of Australia, Sounds of Germany bus tour tape would sound like, if put together by Mudcatters?
Anyone interested enough to start a similar thread on your own country?

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Janie
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 10:07 AM

Artists or genres come to my mind more than particular songs.

Certainly Louis Armstrong, regional blues, some gospel, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, some Applachian String Band music, Sons of the Pioneers, Buffalo Springfield or someone of their ilk, Janis Joplin, some Motown, immigrant songs, Count Basie or anther Big Band....Wow. It's a big country.

Janie

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 10:24 AM

Yeah, janie:

That's part of the problem. If you pick just one country song, one cajun song, one rhythm and blues song, one rock and roll song, one disco (echhh!) Song, (Staing Alive, maybe) one gospel song, one string band song, one blues, one jazz, etc., you end up with a whole tape. And how do you pick ONE country song, or One Blues?

It would probably take at least a couple a tapes with some theme (Art or otherwise) to tie them together..

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Amos
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 11:00 AM

How intersting! I just got back from a dinner conversation on this theme -- not somuch the present Sound of America, which is sort of a weeping and gnashing of teeth, but the myriad time-streams that are traveled by folksingers and the waystations along them -- for example, there's a modern folky song called "Chuck the Chuckwagon" which is a direct derivative of the circa 1880 (I believe) cowboy song, "Get Along Ya Lil DOgies" which in turn is a direct descendant of the Irish ballad "Rocking the Cradle of a Child Not My Own" which I would guess dates from the 18th century, maybe nineteenth. Just a wildass guess. But th epoint is these threads of inherited vision condensed into song are the legacy of America and underlie her current soundscape, and leak out all over the place if you know what to listen for.

A

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Janie
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 12:08 PM

Amos,

So of like this discusses?


Janie

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: M.Ted
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 02:31 PM

If you try to represent the diversity, you end up juxtaposing music that should not be juxtaposed, like "The Little Log Cabin in the Lane" and "Macho Man"--

If you try the historical approach, you end up with songs like "Yankee Doodle" and "Eating Goober Peas", which no one wants to hear--

f you go with the great songs of yesteryear, you'll have to include "My Mammy" which will get you into a lot of trouble--

If you feature standards, people will say, "There's no roots music"--if you do roots music, people will say, "There are no standards", and if you mix them, you will run the risk of severe injury or death--

If you focus on rock, you be criticized if you leave out The Beatles and Neil Young, and you'll be criticized if you include them, because they are British and Canadian--

If you include good, old fashioned, rock and roll, people will complain because the popular white artists stole everything from black artists, and if you feature the black artists, people will say, "Who the hell is that?"

Worst of all, when you make the CD, you will be compelled to go back and take something good out so that you can re-burn it with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" included, because "it has been so important to so many people in America's times of need"--

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: DonMeixner
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 03:08 PM

Shouldn't it rightly be The Sound of the Americas. Even so the sound is too big.   North and South America takes up nearly an entire hemisphere. The constituent peoples come from such a glot of human experinece that for me to find 24 songs that explain the sounds of these two continents would be impossible. My experience of other peoples and their cultures is just too small.

To ask for me, or anyone else for that matter, for The Sound of America would be like asking Skarpi for The Sound of Europe. Ask me for The Sound of Central New York, I can handle that on one CD.

Don

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 04:07 PM

America Paul Simon, Gaceland Paul Simon, Hard rain Dylan

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 04:20 PM

For the part of the tour that passes through Attleboro, Mass., I'd suggest: "Windham" by the colonial era composer Daniel Read (born here), "Lara's Theme" by the Ray Conniff singers ("somewhere my love.." is a nice traveling song and Conniff was also born here), a waltz written by John Laing Gibb (can't think of the tune's name, but he was the music master in local schools for 50 years). Some French-Canadian fiddle tunes would be appropriate when the bus goes thru the old mill villages of Dodgeville and Hebronville. Some Irish music when it comes near St. John's Church or into Attleboro Falls. Thru the largely Portuguese neighborhood of Lonicut, some brass marching band music, please. "Holman Street" by the Blue FOs, an electrified piece lamenting the off-shoring of the jobs that used to be here, will take us through the old industrial sections. Alternate between Latin rhythms and Khmer folk music in the heart of the city. And when the tape stops, you're sure to hear some rap coming out of a young man's over-amplified car. Nice thread, Jerry, hope it encourages folks to think about their local, or regional, music geography.

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 05:52 PM

Sheesh! We go from a tour bus staying in one town to one covering both North and South America. I can tell you from experience that riding on a bus that covers north and South America would leave your ass in a serious sling... and probably not too much demand for a tour bus visiting one city (although tour buses often take a tour of individual cities, in which case Guest's suggestions make some sense.

The whole idea here is a tour bus tape, not a Mudcat tape. Tourists who don't know the area aren't going to be knowledgeable enough to get hung up on whether a particular selection of songs gives the definitive image of the United States.

And perhaps the idea should be called The Sound Of The United States.

Any tape would be of necessity more limited in scope than the country. A better approach, I guess, would be to make tapes for regions of the country, just as we listened to music of smaller European countries. You could do a tape of New England, from a colonial song or two, right up to New York, New York, do a Midwewst tape reflecting the Scandinavian heritage, as well as Motown and Mississippi River lore.. one of the West would be quite different, and Poppa Gator could do one for the deep south.

And finally, when you're in San Francisco, wear some flowers in your hair.

Fifty different people would make fifty different tapes... which would be fine. And everyone would be right and wrong at the same time. Who could ask for more? :-)

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: M.Ted
Date: 11 Oct 05 - 11:34 PM

As long as every single tape has "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree"--

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: MissouriMud
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:05 PM

A couple of thoughts Jerry -

First: You indicated that you were familiar with several of the choices on your European tour bus - is that important? I think for a bus load of Non Americans it would be important to have some of your musical expectations met - cowboy tunes in cowboy country etc.   Should you perhaps get some input from Non Americans about what songs/tunes they associate with America and then try to include some of those to help meet the foreignors expectations?   It may be that the Germans and Austrians are as sick of the Happy Wanderer as we are of Yankee Doodle - but in order to accomplish what you want perhaps that is not a reason to exclude the latter. To some degree while you want to be instructive you need to have some hackneyed stereotyped music on that bus.

Second:I do think it is of some value to use a fair amount of pretty well known material and only occsionally use something arcane. That being said as a string band player I'd love to see a few of those old mountain tunes in there but you would have to be very selective - there are definitely some that could work, but many of the potential bus tunes that come to mind are more Pop music/broadway than roots music.

Third - I would try to have as much music as you can that relates in some direct way to each State, major City, major river, or other area your bus is planning to go through - if there is any well known music that fits the bill. If there isnt you can fill in with general "This Land is your Land" "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America" type stuff . You're going to need a lot more than 1 tape if your driving for more than a coupple of days so you would probably need to regionalize it.

A few examples of the top of my head, based on content primarily, could be:

California - California Here I come, If You're Going to San Fran, I left My Heart in SF, San Francisco Nights (I'm sure there is an LA tune out there somewhere), Lodi (great bus song - Oh Lord stuck in Lodi again)

New York - New York New York, Sidewalks of New York, Erie Canal

Texas - Yellow Rose of Texas, Remember the Alamo, Luckenbach Texas, El Paso, Streets of Laredo, Galveston

Oklahoma - Oklahoma, Okie From Muscogee
Tennessee - Chatanooga Choo Choo, Memphis, Nashville Cats, Ballad of Davy Crocket, Tennessee Waltz, An Elvis tune if you're near Graceland (or Tupelo Miss. I guess)

Pennsylvania - Philadelphia Freedom (yes its by Elton John but..), Allentown,

North Carolina - Tom Dooley, On Top of Old Smoky?

Michigan - something from MOtown,

Mississippi River - Proud Mary

Oregon/Washington - Roll On Columbia

Louisiana - Lady Marmalade, Battle of New Orleans,

Wyoming - Good By Old Paint

Montana - Get Along Little Dogies

Kansas - Over the Rainbow, Wichita Lineman, The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe

Georgia - Georgia on My Mind

Colorado - Rocky Mountain High

Missouri - Shenandoah, St Louis Blues, Going to Kansas City

West Virginia and Western Virginia- Country Roads

Southern States - you have to play Dixie somewhere - either near Richmond or in a cotton state. Other Civil War tunes may be good specific sites.   Battle Hymn of the Republic should be used at an appropriate place as should America I suppose (Washington DC?)

Many more states and regions to be accounted for. As indicated in others notes using music written by local composers is certainly also something to mix in even if the content doesnt necessarily relate to the area.   Concept music like familiar movie themes from certain settings (like westerns) would also work.   If you go to Charleston you got to have a Charleston ...,

This is too long..

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:19 PM

Missouri Mud: Thanks for the well thought out posting. I do believe that doing the songs regionally would make sense. After all, a bus tour of the United States would take weeks, and everyone would be certified insane, listening to one tape for all that time. I also think that while it helped to hear a few recognizable songs, listening to tapes in other countries, that there are recognizable styles of music that give a feel for the country, too. You certainly couldn't make a tape of music in Switzerland without have at least one song with yodelling. Cajun music, string band music in the southern Appalachians, blues in the deep south, Motor City music in Detroit and Michigan, Tex-Mex music in the Southwest all make sense, whatever the individual recording might be.

I think I'd like to take a bus tour with tapes you'd put together, MissouriMud..

And in Mississippi, "it's fun to stomp your feet in the Mississippi Mud."

Then there's Back Home Again in Indiana, Pennsylvania Polka, and all the other songs related to states..

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 04:23 PM

I'd add some politically significant anthems to the mix:

Yankee Doodle

Follow the Drinking Gourd

union songs, such as Joe Hill and Union Maid

Paul Robeson's song about America

This Land is Your Land

and absolutely: We Shall Overcome

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: MissouriMud
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 05:42 PM

Just thought of another place to look - the "official state songs"   - a few would be good to consider - like My Old Kentucky Home and Rocky Top (one of several official Tennessee songs)

I'll have to sit down and think of some string band and mountain music that would fit - I do like the idea of giving some samples of the more indiginous music to capture the flavor of an area. Arkansas Traveler works well for Arkansas. Some of the best known are a bit hard to really tie to any area but would probably work in many areas - Cripple Creek, Old Joe Clark, Cotton Eyed Joe, Old Dan Tucker, Cindy, I've Endured. Of course some like Foggy Mountain Breakdown could work in a lot of different southeastern hilly locations.

Other thoughts - for Indiana - Wabash canonball, Gary Indiana and the Notre Dame Fight song. And for the Mississippi its hard to beat Old Man River

Let me know when that bus comes through St Louis - I'd like to take a ride and hear what you come up with!

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 05:58 PM

I don't know, MissisippiMud, you don't really cover regional Music--For some reason, you completely missed Jazz, which may be all that there is left of New Orleans--And of course, you overlooked the wonderful Gamble and Huff music from Philly(as in TSOP--The Sound of Philly), and what is Texas, without Western Swing? Not to mention Surf music, and all that great music from Minneapolis--

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Janie
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 06:14 PM

Through West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, I'd include some old Regular Baptist" hymns--a capella, of course.

Over east, driving through the Alleghenies, you'd play some Hammonds family. As the bus moved west and south, down into the coal fields, the union songs would start. You'd have to throw in a little Hank Williams to commemorate his last performance and death on the WV highways. From Charleston to Huntington, on I-64, Porter Wagner and Flatt & Scruggs would be called for.

Throughout the trip through West Virginia, some old ballads and Appalachian stringband music would be most appropiate.   Playing Kathy Matteo as you pass the dog track at Cross Lanes would be OK. If you did that, unfortunately, you would then have to play Billy Cyrus "Achy,Breaky Heart" as you passed the exit to West Huntington.

There'd be more good fiddlers than you could hope to sample, and they come from all regions of the State. Probably ought to add in a good story teller or two.

NC, where I live now, would be really tough to keep down to a managable length. I'll have to think on that one a while longer.

Janie

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Janie
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 07:08 PM

What American music hasn't influenced or been influenced as it passed through North Carolina? trad ballads, Piedmont blues, gospel, jazz, country, R&B, folk, R&R, punk rock, indy rock...., bluegrass, stringband...you name it. The trains that ran from Nork York to New Orleans carried blues and jazzmen in and out of the Piedmont area and both effected and were effected by the exchange. (It is also one of the reasons Drham has a tradition of illicit drugs, especially herion and cocaine, that far exceeded what one would have expected for a town its size, back in the days when drugs were mostly an urban issue.) Indentured servants from the British Isles finishing their servitude along the coast then moving on across over and up into the entire Appalachian range. Slaves, and the exchange of slaves moving from Virginia on down into the deep south. The Bible belt. Talk about rich and diverse! And that is only one State in one region.
Helpppp!

Janie

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Oct 05 - 11:06 PM

If someone says pick a song about Texas, "San Antonio Rose" and "Pistol Packin' Mama" are the first that come to mind because I was in Army training in Texas, and we would hit the juke joints.

My picks would not be objective but would be determined by time and place and memories. "Twilight on the Trail" for Colorado. "La Golondrina" for New Mexico.

Re-think would lead to better choices, including many of those listed above, but they would not have been the first songs into my mind.

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 07:50 AM

You asked about suggestions for an English tour.

How about a completely blank record, except for someone saying "Have you got a license to sing here?"

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 09:55 AM

You could sing the Darby Ram in England, and right here in Derby, Connecticut.

This thread is picking up steam... a lot of fun to read. How can you talk about Texas without The Yellow Rose Of Texas?

I really like the idea of seeing the country through music...

(MissouriMud: this is just an excercise that kept me occupied when we went through stretchs of Europe that didn't look significantly different than Weehawken, New Jersey. I'm not really doing this, although it sounds like more and more fun.)

As an aside, I picked up a wonderful CD in Paris: From Gospel To Soul: When The Church Hits The Charts. It's my kinda collection with an interesting theme.. not unlike the Gospel In Black and White series I've done. It has a ton of stuff I've never heard (by artists who I have many CDs of.)

And as for odd juxtaposition, I did a listening tape once titled "Huh?" which was great fun. I let each song suggest the next one, wandering through rock, rhythm and blues, folk, jazz, pop, country and even classical. It was a lot of fun to do, and people got a kick out of listening to it and seeing the connections that made the choices and sequence work.

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: MissouriMud
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 11:59 AM

Jerry - I didnt really think you had a bus tour lined up - but I like getting on the imaginary trip.

By the way - being born and raised in your home state I felt odd not being able to immediately think of a any good Connecticut music other than possibly Yankee Doodle - Wiffenpoof as you sale past New Haven perhaps?. Something by Charles Ives? A whaling tune for Mystic? Aerosmith did an instrumental called I Live in Connecticut I think ...

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 12:26 PM

MissouriMud: I did the switch... was born and grew up in Wisconsin and know Missouri and the Mississippi River Valley well. Moved to Connecticut in 1964, so this feels equally like "home" to me. There's always The Good Old Colony Days, I suppose. I also wrote a song based on a handbill printed at Mystic about Levi Kelly. Now, there's a song just about nobody has every heard, but in feel it would be alright.

Living in what is called "The Valley" along the Housatonic River, I guess I could use Down In The Valley (which would be a fine song to use, as it is familiar worldwide...

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 10:53 PM

MissouriMud: for Michigan, how about "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare:

Last night I went to sleep in Detroit city,
And I dreamed about those cotton fields at home.
I dreamed about my mother,
Dear old papa, sister and brother,
I dreamed about that girl
Who's been waiting for so long.

I wanna go home, I wanna go home,
Oh, how I wanna go home!

Home, folks think I'm big in Detroit city.
From the letters that I write, they think I'm fine.
But by day, I make the cars,
And by night I make the bars,
If only they could read between the lines!

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 08:55 AM

For Michigan, you could use House Of Blue Lights... a great song from the fifties. It raves about Dee-troit barbequed ribs, and as the song fades, the singer is talking and says, "Sloww down, man, you in Dee-troit, now.) It took me many years to get a re-issue of the recording by Chuck Miller. Chuck Berry did it too, but not as well, I think...

And then there's always the old jazz song, Wolverine Blues that has the line, "Oh how I wish again, I was back in Michigan..."

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: MissouriMud
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 12:25 PM

From another thread on the Cat today I see we need to add Art Thieme's version of the State of Illinois - that's a good one.
   
Other random thoughts:


There is the whole Cowboy genere which - while some are locational many others are not and could be used for open range land most anywhere - like Home on the Range, Happy Trails to You. Old Chisolm Trail needs to be done at the right place.   Other tunes that could be used in the wide open western spaces include westward expansion tunes and plains living tunes (Little Old Sod Shanty on the Plain)

You have to do Cumberland Gap at the proper location, and there are
lots of other very specific geographical location tunes - like Rivers: Red River Valley, Big Sciota, Big Sandy River, Mississippi Snag, Mississippi Sawyer, Salt River Monongahela Sal? etc to do when in the right vicinity. Besides rivers there are lots of folk songs, Bluegrass and Old time fiddle tunes that are based on other small geographical subdivisions or locales - counties and towns, mountains etc - Abilene, Dubuque, Pike County Breakdown, Burt County Breakdown, Black Mountain Rag, Waynesboro, Swananoah Tunnel, ad infinitum ... - of coure you'd have to get the timing right to have the right tune playing just as you whiz by.   Because of that problem unless the bus was going to stop at or spend a prolonged time travelling near one of these locales you might have have to stay away from most of them

Got be a bit careful about some of these location tunes - These days I would be reluctant include Phil Och's "Here's to the State of Mississippi".

Gotta have By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Viva Las Vegas, Sweet Home Alabama and Lake Shore Drive in there somewhere - face it this is getting out of hand.

I figure we are just a bit beyond Jerry's original request for 24 songs - but lets be honest - even a straight bus ride from New York to San Francisco on the Interstates would take close to 50 hours without any side trips - and I hate hearing the same cd over again.   So I think we'd have to expand this to more like 50 to 100 cds with 1000 - 2400 songs. Now that would really let us include a lot and have a hell of a good musical journey!

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 02:06 PM

Maybe 24 songs for each region? That would require some discipline. Have to whittle the songs down to at least 2,000. Maybe even have room in there for Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree for Mr. Ted.

And then there's all the songs about fires and disasters that are either regional, or tied to a particular city.

Jerry

Thanks for the imput... I've enjoyed reading all of the posts...

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: pdq
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 11:22 PM

The definitive version of "House of Blue Lights" was probably Ella Mae Morse, the same lady who did "Cow Cow Boogie". This was an very underrated performer.

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 11:14 AM

That's interesting, pdq. I never heard it by Ella Mae Morse, although I can imagine she did a great job on it. I have a "Best of" collection, but it's not on there... I agree that she was very underrated.

Wanna swap a copy of Chuck Miller's version for one of Ella Mae Morse?

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: pdq
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 01:22 PM

Jerry,

My 78s are in storage, have been for about ten years. If I get to them, I will send it. Don't stay up late waiting, please. Here are the particulars on the recording session. Note: author credit to one Don Raye a well as Freddie Slack...

FREDDIE SLACK WITH RHYTHM SECTION AND ELLA MAE MORSE WITH DON RAYE -1 / ELLA MAE MORSE WITH FREDDIE SLACK AND RHYTHM SECTION -2: Freddie Slack (p), George Van Eps (g), Jack "Red" Ryan (b), Nick Fatool (d), Ella Mae Morse, Don Raye (vcl).
LA, February 12, 1946
1006-3 The House Of Blue Lights (EMM, DR-vcl) -1 Cap 251
1007-4 Hey Mr. Postman (EMM-vcl) -2 -

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 02:42 PM

Geroge Van Epps... Nick Fatool... I like it awready!

But, I won't wait around... I'll see if its on any reissues...

Thanks for the info.

Jerry

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 03:58 PM

Jerry,

Instead of me writing out a huge list, just go to my ART'S PLACE FOLK PHOTOS website -- http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html -- and look at Art's Folksong Map O The USA (both parts--east and west). Any of hose songs from my repertory that I've included there are part of any list of songs I might make of those that, taken alone, could be representative of the kind of song you are looking for.

Hope that run-on sentence makes sense!!   ;-)

And thanks for the photos from your trip. They're lovely. At least Ruth is! ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: The Sound Of America
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 04:05 PM

Jerry,

You good folks along the Housatonic River might consider the song "Five Feet High And Rising" given all the water falling on you and all of New England in recent days. Hope you are staying dry!

Art