The wandering ballad singer; Early American folk songs

Not a walk the road again my boy who rode again. If the weather be fair I'll call my hair and I'll walk the road again. Washington State University presents a wandering ballad singer Barry Tobin with songs that vividly describe the history and folklore of a pioneering country. And. Again. The first real American folk songs and ballads were made up during the Revolutionary days in the settlement periods just before the war and just after people flooded into America from all parts of Britain as well as from other places in Europe. And although they sang the songs they brought with them from their native lands and that we transplanted Englishmen sang the songs of his county as if they were the only versions. An intelligent man could saying the early colonists soon realized that experience in America was quite often different adventures were more varied and the problems arose which had never existed in Mary Sussex. So they began making up new songs haphazard at first they sometimes said the new words to some old folk song doing they

already know and often they made up the whole thing. Words and music just to have some uncle come along and dream up a better tune. Well this is what's happened in folk songs since the beginning. Just that in this case were closer to it and we can see the mistakes as well as the results. The ballad it's quite often recognized as the first American product in this field is this one which tells the story of a young man who was mowing hay on the slopes of Springfield mountain now called Wilbraham mountain near the present city of Springfield Massachusetts. Story takes place just prior to the revolution and it borrows for its tune an old familiar church hymn. Springfield Ohio and some new tenant alike. When he. Won and go to the mat he had not mowed

went up higher. He took that with which he mowed and laid that pesky shouted loud more off here to take him home. With which the pies. So the pies. During the revolution many songs were made up by soldiers on both sides an occurrence that's not rare in wartime. Except that these were quite often songs that could later be sung in public. Many of them appear to be

songs that were so in the dark songs in which the embattled farmers told the British regulars what to expect from the new world such a one as this one from Vermont called the Bennington rifles or their red coats. In your mind what madness. There's danger there's danger on our hills and you hear the singing of the Bugle Wilden and soon you'll hear the ringing of the right move from the tree. Will prove nor drive. Oh oh the road not drive him. Who is there that home Mar across the salt water like bulldogs to those water.

Well if the work must be lent and trigger whole but the sooner it will be done. Oh you know I will not drive 0 0 0 0 0. 0. As the soldiers marched off to the war leaving sweet hearts wives and friends behind they made up songs simple songs most of them told of their reluctance to leave in their determination to return. These weren't professional poets and their concern was simply with the welfare of their loved ones who would have to fend for themselves during a long hard war. I'm a go and I'm going to forward a little back.

If I go through and who will go and who will. Look look. Go and. Go In A. Little while but I'm back. If I was in. This concern about shoes gloves and kisses is not as superficial as it might appear. This is the

worry that burdened a man's mind when he knew that his army pay could never support his family at home. These were the down to earth hard cold facts of war for the common man of the revolution. And they're also pretty close to the common man today because when he sings a farewell song in 1968 it's very apt to have the same elements in it. This is one I learn from wander a cliff Bushnell of withdrawal high on. The gun issue or pretty little foot has gone to the door. And who was going to your. Who your going to who is going to be who is going to kid you were

who. The girl answers I'm gonna show you my little foot mama is going to love ma and sister is gonna kill you. I. Know I Know My. Sister is going to get my room and I know. Here's a song from the Revolutionary War the talk still further of the same things but this time from a

different slant. O Soul 0 soul. Marry me now to the beat up by a bend round a how can I marry such a pretty little mess when I've got a nose to put on. Rose you ran and you ran to the clothing store. Past that good Ron he brought back the very very best in the sows are. Now sold your soul to the be the buyer but how can I merit such a pretty little mess when I've got a nose to put on. Rose you ran and you ran to the clothings door good around she brought back the very very best and the soldier but. Also there also they were married to the B. How can I marry such a pretty little man when I got no clothes to put on. Oh she ran and you ran to the clothing store.

Iran brought back the best and sold them on. Soldiers so they were married to the beat up by a man drum on how can I marry such a pretty little man when I got to know I had to put on the rent of the clothing store her own. She brought back the very very best and soldier put it on. Now soldiers over here were married by a bender. How can I marry such a pretty little man when I got no gloves to put on an injury to the clothing store I asked as she got around. She brought back a very very best and a soldier. Now sold or sold your way America to the beat of the underarm. How can I marry such a pretty little man when I got no code to put on. You ran away into the clothing store. Go

to run. He brought back the very best and soldier put it on. Now soldier so it was good to be a biot and run by our going to marry such a pretty little man when I got to know her to but on well she ran and you ran to the clothing store. Good run she brought back the very very best than the soldier but now soldier also here William do that be enough. How can I marry such a pretty little mess without a wife and baby at home. My favorite song from the post revolutionary days was this one brought over from England last night. My band as I really love seemed to come

to mind. She tore her hair and I did watch her they say that the love that men vote drives off like them just as quick as them and this is the way we sing it today all over America. When I was a bachelor I lived with my son. We were three and the only thing that I did that was wrong was to. Who would her go in there and in the summer and the only only thing that was wrong was to keep her from the fog

one night. She know the clothes by my side as I threw her arms around my neck and then began to cry. She tore her hair. What good I saw on long held her in my arm just to keep her from the fog. Again I am a bachelor I live with my son. We were doing this through and every single day I am not I look into his eyes. He reminds me. You reminding me I love the winter

and of the summer too and of the many many times that I held her in my hour just to keep her from Augie That's it for this time and all along the road again my boy is all along the road again and if the weather be a bear I'll call my hair and I'll walk the road again. And listen again next week when Barry told and a wandering ballad singer returns with more songs and melons brazening was transcribed and was produced by the Radio TV services of Washington State University. This is the NASB Radio Network.