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Vermont & surrounding folk music

24 Feb 26 - 03:00 PM (#4236143)
Subject: Old folk music of Vermont
From: GUEST,M Siirdewaye

Hello!

I am a singer and musician from Vermont looking to uncover more about the traditional music of my region. It appears to me as if there is very little surviving music from the region from former times--most of what I've heard is "American folk music", various sorts of popular & classical music, and some new music from artists in the region. That said, I don't come from an old, established family in the region that might have had things it remembered from times of yore. I am especially interested in the way that the old songs can convey culture, advice and warnings for future generations, things that sustain culture and society that have been thrown away or forgotten.

My two sources of old folk music I've found are Margaret MacArthur and Helen Harkness Flanders. I could find two albums from Margaret MacArthur online (The Old Songs, Folksongs of Vermont), and the book Vermont Folksongs & Ballads by Flanders from the library. So far I've begun to learn some songs from the latter--and am finding them to have unique and interesting melodic motifs such as I've heard elsewhere but put together in unexpected ways, and it makes me want to learn more...


24 Feb 26 - 03:04 PM (#4236144)
Subject: RE: Vermont & surrounding folk music
From: GUEST,M Siirdewaye

It seems like also, many of the lyrics to the Flanders book are up here on Mudcat... this was such a fun little song to run into while flipping through the book, an admonishment that if you don't hoe your corn it will not ripen before the frost!

The Young Man that Wouldn't Hoe Corn

https://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7207


24 Feb 26 - 04:13 PM (#4236145)
Subject: RE: Vermont & surrounding folk music
From: Reinhard

If you'll search the Roud Index for Place: Vermont, you'll get 2243 matches.

Have fun!


24 Feb 26 - 04:41 PM (#4236147)
Subject: RE: Vermont & surrounding folk music
From: GUEST,M Siirdewaye

Thank you! I am looking through and seeing some more books to look for...

Ooh! There is another book available online, Songs from the Hills of Vermont. Exciting... https://archive.org/details/songsfromhillsv00sturgoog

Almost an overwhelm of information. Thank you for giving advice to a newcomer to this sort of thing!


24 Feb 26 - 06:19 PM (#4236153)
Subject: RE: Vermont & surrounding folk music
From: Robert B. Waltz

One other Flanders book you haven't listed: Vermont Chap Book, Being A Garland of Ten Folk Ballads. Hard to find, but there are four songs in it that aren't in the other sources you've listed.