Folk-songs of the southern United States / by John H. Combs ; edited by D. K. Wilgus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Combs, Josiah H., author.

Contributor:

Wilgus, D. K., editor.

Series:

Publications of the American Folklore Society. Bibliographical and special series ; Volume 19.

Publications of the American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series ; Volume 19

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Folk poetry, American--Southern States--History and criticism.

Folk poetry, American.

Popular culture--Southern States.

Popular culture.

Southern States--In literature.

Southern States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (283 pages).

Other Title:

(Folk-songs du Midi des Etats-Unis)

Place of Publication:

Austin, Texas ; London, [England] : Published for the Institute of Latin American Studies by the University of Texas Press, 2014.

Summary:

“The spirit of balladry is not dead, but slowly dying. The instincts, sentiments, and feelings which it represents are indeed as immortal as romance itself, but their mode of expression, the folksong, is fighting with its back to the wall, with the odds against it in our introspective age.” This statement by Josiah Henry Combs is that of a man who grew up among the members of a singing family in one of the last strongholds of the ballad-making tradition, the Southern Highlands of the United States. Combs was born in 1886 in Hazard, Kentucky, the heart of the mountain feud area—a significant background for one who was to take a prominent part in the “ballad war” of the 1900s. Combs’s intimate knowledge of folk culture and his grasp of the scholarly literature enabled him to approach the ballad controversy with common sense as well as with some of the heat generated by the dispute. Although in the early twentieth century there was probably no more controversy about the nature of the folk and folksong than there is today, it was a different kind of controversy. Many theories of the origins of folksong current at that time, such as the alleged relationship of traditional ballads to “primitive poetry,” did not take into account contemporary evidence. Combs said, “Here as elsewhere, I go directly to the folk for much of my information, allowing the songs, language, names, customs . . . of the people to help settle the problem of ancestry. . . . In brief, a conscientious study of the lore of the folk cannot be separated from the folk itself.” Folk-Songs du Midi des États-Unis, published as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Paris in 1925, was an introduction to the study of the folksong of the Southern Appalachians, together with a selection of folksong texts collected by Combs. Folk-Songs of the Southern United States, the first publication of that work in English, is based on the French text and Combs’s English draft. To this edition is appended an annotated listing of all songs in the Josiah H. Combs Collection in the Western Kentucky Folklore Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles. The appendix also includes the texts of selected songs. The aim of this edition is to make the contents of the original volume more readily available in English and to provide an index to the Combs Collection that may be drawn upon by students of folksong. The book also offers texts of over fifty songs of British and American origin as sung in the Southern Highlands.

Contents:

Frontmatter

FOREWORD

PREFACE

CONTENTS

PART I

CHAPTER I Topography of the Southern Highlands

CHAPTER II Ancestry of the Highlanders

CHAPTER III The Question of Origin or Authorship

CHAPTER IV The Quest of the Folk-Song

CHAPTER V An Attempt at Classification of Folk-Songs

CHAPTER VI Songs of British Origin

CHAPTER VII Native American Songs

CHAPTER VIII The Highlander's Music

CHAPTER IX The Passing of the Folk-Song

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PART II Songs of British Origin

The Broomfield Hill

Fair Annie

The Lass of Roch Royal

Prince Robert

Willie o Winsbury

Mary Hamilton

Bonnie James Campbell

The Rantin Laddie

Get Up and Bar the Door

The Crafty Farmer

The Jovial Tinker

The Spanish Maid

The Old Wife

Kate and the Clothier

There Was a Sea Captain

The Jolly Boatsman

Three Ships Came Sailing In

The Gowans Are Gay

Ryner Dyne

Pretty Polly

Slago Town

To Cheer the Heart

Come All Ye False Lovers

Ranting Roving Lad

The Soldier Bride's Lament

William Bluet

Native American Songs

Brave Wolfe

Floyd Frazier

Talt Hall

J. B. Marcum

The Tolliver Song

The Vance Song

John Henry

The Irish Peddler

Poor Goens

Rosanna

William Baker

Hiram Hubbert

The C.&O. Wreck

Pearl Bryan

The Auxville Love

Sweet Jane

I' m Going To Join the Army

Jack Combs

The Black Mustache

The Married Man

Davy Crockett

The Bugaboo

The Rich and Rambling Boy

Bob Sims

Charles J. Guiteau

Bad Tom Smith

Ellen Smith

Moonshiner

The Gambler

Jacob's Ladder

The Ship That Is Passing By

We Have Fathers Gone to Heaven

Who Am Dat a-Walkin' in de Co'n?

APPENDIX

AN ANNOTATED LIST OF THE JOSIAH H. COMBS COLLECTION OF SONGS AND RHYMES

INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES OF SONG TEXTS

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-77270-X

OCLC:

1286807218