View source for American folk music

{{Short description|Roots and traditional music from the United States}}
{{See also|Folk music|Contemporary folk music|Americana (music)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{US music}}

The term '''American folk music''' encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional [[folk music]]'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the [[British Isles]], [[Mainland Europe]], or [[Africa]].<ref name=afc>[https://www.loc.gov/folklife/guide/folkmusicandsong.html "Folk Music and Song", American Folklife Center, Library of Congress]</ref> Musician [[Mike Seeger]] once famously commented that the definition of American folk music is "...all the music that fits between the cracks."<ref>[http://catalog.youranswerplace.org/(riylqzaouv3t2j55dvrnwt21)/NewCopyListing.aspx?QS0=&QS1=2&QS2=Folk%20music%20United%20States&QS3=1&QS4=2&QS5=0&QS6=99&QS7=0&QS8=9999&QS9=0&QS10=99&QS11=263042&QS12=1&QS13=1&QS14=457430&QS15=9780399530333 catalog.youranswerplace.org]</ref>

American folk music is a broad category of music including [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]], [[gospel music|gospel]], [[old time music]], [[jug band]]s, [[Appalachian folk music|Appalachian folk]], [[blues]], [[Cajun music|Cajun]] and [[Native American music]].{{not verified in body|date=March 2022}}  The music is considered American either because it is native to the United States or because it developed there, out of foreign origins, to such a degree that it struck [[musicologist]]s as something distinctly new. It is considered "roots music" because it served as the basis of [[music of the United States|music later developed in the United States]], including [[rock and roll]], [[rhythm and blues]], and [[jazz]]. A lot of this music was created during hardships that told the story of the history.

==Early American folk music==
Most songs of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods originated in England, Scotland and Ireland and were brought over by early settlers. According to [[ethnomusicologist]] [[Bruno Nettl]], American folk music is notable because it "At its roots is an [[English folk music|English folk]] song tradition that has been modified to suit the specific requirements of America."<ref name="Nettl1976">{{cite book | first = Bruno | last = Nettl | date = 1 February 1976 | title = Folk Music in the United States: An Introduction | publisher = Wayne State University Press | pages = 14 | isbn = 978-0-8143-3757-8 | oclc = 1018058006 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=s_0KTNH8lYYC}}</ref> Therefore, many American folk songs, such as those documented by the American [[folklorist]] [[Francis James Child]] in his catalogue of [[ballads]] known as the [[Child Ballads]], can be traced back to their pre-colonial origins in the [[British Isles]].<ref name="SeelyeSelby2018">{{cite book | editor1 = James E. Seelye Jr. | editor2 = Shawn Selby | date = 3 August 2018 | title = Shaping North America: From Exploration to the American Revolution [3 volumes] | publisher = ABC-CLIO | pages = 348 | isbn = 978-1-4408-3669-5 | oclc = 1029074501 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YgVnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA348}}</ref> For example, "[[Barbara Allen (song)|Barbara Allen"]] remains a popular traditional ballad originating in England and Scotland, which immigrants introduced to the United States.<ref>Raph, Theodore. ''The American Song Treasury'', Dover Publications (1986)</ref> The [[murder ballad]] "[[Pretty Polly (ballad)|Pretty Polly]]", indexed by another scholar of American folk music, [[George Malcolm Laws]], is an American version of an earlier British song, "The Gosport Tragedy".<ref name=pbs>[https://web.archive.org/web/20011102014044/http://www.pbs.org/americanrootsmusic/pbs_arm_es_folkballad.html "Folk Songs and Ballads", American Roots Music, PBS]</ref> The oldest surviving folk song of local [[Anglo-American music|Anglo-American]] origin is the ballad "[[Springfield Mountain]]" dating back to 1761 in [[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]].<ref name="Cohen2005">{{cite book | first = Norm | last= Cohen | date = 2005 | title = Folk Music: A Regional Exploration | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | pages = 92 | isbn = 978-0-313-32872-5 | oclc = 145510879 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DqN_-kyCJFcC}}</ref>

The typical instruments played in early American folk music were the [[fiddle]], the [[guitar]], the [[mandolin]], the [[mouth organ]], the [[fife (instrument)|fife]], and the [[dulcimer]], although guitars went through a significant change as the previously popular [[English guitar]] was replaced around the 1830s by the [[Classical guitar|Spanish guitar]].{{sfn|Nettl|1976|p=71}}<ref name="Noonan2008">{{cite book | author = Jeffrey Noonan | date = 2008 | title = The Guitar in America: Victorian Era to Jazz Age | publisher = Univ. Press of Mississippi | pages = 10–11 | isbn = 978-1-60473-302-0 | oclc = 1037458807 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uG7mipQ84bMC&pg=PA10}}</ref>

In addition to ballads, American colonials also imported numerous [[Country dance|English country dance tunes]], mainly [[jigs]], [[reel (dance)|reels]], and [[hornpipe]]s, which were played during community dances or [[contra dances]].<ref name="HOLENKO2010">{{cite book | first= John | last= Holenko | date = 7 October 2010 | title = Contra Dance Encyclopedia | publisher = Mel Bay Publications | pages = 4 | isbn = 978-1-60974-377-2 | oclc = 1100953153 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=L866b1Olh-UC&pg=PA4}}</ref><ref name="Burchenal1918">{{cite book | editor = Elizabeth Burchenal | date = 1918 | title = American Country-dances, Volume 1 | publisher = G. Schirmer | pages = v-vii | oclc = 367708189 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Lir0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA25}}</ref> Some dance tunes as well as dances themselves were also adapted from [[Irish dance|Irish]] and [[Scottish country dance|Scottish]] sources.<ref name="LaufmanLaufman2009">{{cite book | author1 = Dudley Laufman | author2 = Jacqueline Laufman | date = 2009 | title = Traditional Barn Dances with Calls & Fiddling, Volume 1 | publisher = Human Kinetics | pages = 24–25 | isbn = 978-0-7360-7612-8 | oclc = 1004439899 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tlzbrwt0Qa0C&pg=PA24}}</ref> The musical collections ''Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels'', ''Ryan's Mammoth Collection'', and ''1000 Fiddle Tunes'' contain many of the dance tunes Americans and their colonial predecessors danced to for nearly two centuries.<ref name="SKY2014">{{cite book | first = Patrick| last = Sky | date = 24 June 2014 | title = Ryan's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes | publisher = Mel Bay Publications | pages = 16–17| isbn = 978-1-60974-037-5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gbQECAAAQBAJ}}</ref> Popular dances that rose to prominence in America in the nineteenth century, which could be set to traditional dance tunes, were [[quadrilles]], [[mazurkas]], [[barn dance]]s, [[redowa]]s, [[American march music|marches]], and [[polkas]].<ref name="SKY2014" /> "[[Soldier's Joy (fiddle tune)|Soldier's Joy]]" is an example of a typical British fiddle tune.{{sfn|Nettl|1976|p=71}}

In [[New England]], one of the areas with the earliest history of colonization as well as the highest percentage of settlement by ethnic [[English people]], numerous English ballads survived within American folk music into the twentieth century.  These include older popular ballads such as "[[Lord Randall]]", "[[The Sweet Trinity|The Golden Vanity]]", [[The Elfin Knight]], [[The Raggle Taggle Gypsy|The Gypsy Davy]], "[[Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight]]", "Barbara Allen", [[Young Beichan|Lord Bateman]], [[The House Carpenter]], [[The Farmer's Curst Wife]], [[Lord Lovel]], and [[Henry Martin (song)|Henry Martin]].{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=83-86}} Later [[broadside ballad]]s imported into New England from the British Isles include "The Yorkshire Bite", "The Bold Soldier", "[[The Butcher's Boy (folk song)|Butcher Boy]]", "Katie Morey", "The Half Hitch", and "[[The Boston Burglar]]".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=83-86}} Locally composed, traditional New England folk songs include "Springfield Mountain", "[[Jam on Gerry's Rock|The Jam on Gerry's Rock]]", "Young Charlotte", "Peter Amberly", "Jack Haggarty, and "The Jealous Lover".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=83-86}} The folk music of the rest of [[Northeastern United States]], including [[Pennsylvania]], [[New York State|New York]], and [[New Jersey]], was similar to that of New England, aside from a marked influence from the high numbers of non-British immigrants, such as the [[German-Americans|Germans]], [[Dutch-Americans|Dutch]], and [[Swiss-Americans|Swiss]].{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=83-86}}

In the [[Southeastern United States]], popular local folk songs included "[[Sourwood Mountain]]", "Charming Betsy", "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss", "[[Buffalo Gals]]", "[[The Arkansas Traveler (song)|Arkansas Traveler]]", "[[Turkey in the Straw]]", "[[Old Joe Clark]]", "[[Going Down the Road Feeling Bad]]", "[[Shady Grove (song)|Shady Grove]]", "Katy Cline", "[[Ida Red (song)|Ida Red]]", and "[[Cindy (folk song)|Cindy]]".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=109-111}} The southern murder ballad "[[Poor Ellen Smith]]", which recorded a murder so inflammatory its public performance had to be outlawed, was most likely written in [[Winston, North Carolina]] by one of the murderer's cellmates.<ref name="Slade2015">{{cite book | author = Paul Slade | date = 1 November 2015 | title = Unprepared To Die: America's greatest murder ballads and the true crime stories that inspired them | publisher = Soundcheck Books | pages = 216–218 | isbn = 978-0-9929480-7-8 | oclc = 1016085986 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=g7KcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT113}}</ref><ref name="BurtonManning1971">{{cite book | editor1 = Thomas G. Burton | editor2 = Ambrose N. Manning | date = 1971 | title = Folksongs, Volume 2 | publisher = Research Advisory Council of East Tennessee State University | pages = 6 | oclc = 79866841 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RKsWAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> Unlike the Northeast and New England, the Southeast had significant influence from African-American music and as a result instruments such as the banjo were widely adopted.{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=109-111}} However, English traditional music was still present in the Southeast with older Child ballads such as "[[Lord Thomas and Fair Annet|Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor]]", "[[The Maid Freed from the Gallows]]", "[[Fair Margaret and Sweet William]]", "[[The Wife of Usher's Well]]", "[[The Twa Sisters|The Two Sisters]]", and "[[Matty Groves]]" surviving alongside some English ballads also played in the Northeast like "Barbara Allen".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=109-111}} Popular broadside ballads in the Southeast were "Pretty Polly", "Pretty Little Miss in the Garden", "[[Knoxville Girl]]", "[[Jack Monroe (song)|Jack Monroe]]", "The Sailor Boy", "Awake, Awake You Drowsy Sleeper", "Rich Irish Lady", "[[One Morning in May (folk song)|The Nightingale]]", "[[The Girl I Left Behind]]", and "[[The Miller's Three Sons|The Miller's Will]]".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=109-111}} Notable songs written in Appalachia include "[[On Top of Old Smokey|Little Mohea]]", "[[John Hardy (song)|John Hardy]]", and "[[Omie Wise]]".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=112-113}}  Unlike in the Northeast, Southeastern ballads of English origins tend to be appreciably altered with their lyrics shortened and smoothed out, reducing the number of stresses per stanza.{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=112-113}}

Folk songs in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] largely reflected the tastes of New England and the [[Mid-Atlantic (United States)|Mid-Atlantic]] states.{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=149-151}} However, there were some ballads uniquely popular to the Midwest such as the broadside ballad "Mary of the Wild Moor" and the locally produced ballads namely "The Little Brown Bulls", "Fuller and Warren", "[[Charles Guiteau (song)|Charles Guiteau]]", "Canady-I-O", and "Paul Jones".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=149-151}} Many folk songs were also produced that were unique specifically to the [[Great Lakes region]], evoking the area's nautical culture. These include "It's me for the Inland Lakes", "Loss of the ''Persian''", and "The Buffalo Whore".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=151-153}} Farther west in states like [[Iowa]], [[Kansas]], [[the Dakotas]], and [[Nebraska]] regional songs included "[[The Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim]]", "The Lane County Bachelor", "Comin' Back to Kansas", "The Dreary Black Hills", and "Dakota Land".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=156-159}} The famous "[[Jesse James (folk song)|Ballad of Jesse James]]", which celebrated the titular bankrobber's life, first appeared in [[Springfield, Missouri]].<ref name="StudwellCooperHoffmann1997">{{cite book | author1 = William Emmett Studwell | author2 = B. Lee Cooper | author3 = Frank Hoffmann | date = 1997 | title = The Americana Song Reader | publisher = Psychology Press | pages = 51 | isbn = 978-0-7890-0150-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VhV1u2oIb-QC&pg=PA51}}</ref>

Few Child or broadside ballads have been found in the Northwestern United States as the documented folk songs in the area are usually [[work song]]s connected to relatively recent folk experiences within the [[mining]], [[wood industry|lumber]], and other industries of the nineteenth and twentieth century.{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=169-172}}

Similar to the Northwest, older traditional ballads were far less common in the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]], with only "Barbara Allen" and "Lord Randal" being regional favorites.{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=179}} Popular local songs and ballads were, among others, "Texas Rangers", "[[The Yellow Rose of Texas (song)|The Yellow Rose of Texas]]", "Joe Bowers", "[[Sweet Betsy from Pike]]", "Ho for California!", and "[[On the Trail of the Buffalo|Buffalo Skinners]]".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=181-187}}

Some songs entered the folk tradition through the flourishing [[American popular music]] industry.  One such popular song that became a folk tune was "[[Old Dan Tucker]]" written by [[Dan Emmett]].<ref name="Lomax1994">{{cite book | editor = John Avery Lomax | author = Alan Lomax | date = 1 January 1994 | title = American Ballads and Folk Songs | publisher = Courier Corporation | pages = 261 | isbn = 978-0-486-28276-3 | oclc = 1001902878 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Dn0cSe2ecuoC&pg=PA261}}</ref>

===Spirituals===
{{Main|Spiritual (music)}}
Spirituals have their origins in white American ministers appropriating European folk melodies and setting them to religious lyrics, creating uniquely American folk hymns.{{sfn|Nettl|1976|p=82-83}} African Americans adopted this religious folk music, adding their own style and themes such as slavery and emancipation.{{sfn|Nettl|1976|p=82-83}}  "Sacred music, both a Capella and instrumentally accompanied, is at the heart of the tradition. Early spirituals framed Christian beliefs within native practices and were heavily influenced by the music and rhythms of Africa."<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>  Spirituals are prominent, and often use a call and response pattern.<ref name = OklahomaFolk/> "Gospel developed after the Civil War (1861-65). It relied on biblical text for much of its direction, and the use of metaphors and imagery was common. Gospel is a "joyful noise," sometimes accompanied by instrumentation and almost always punctuated by hand clapping, toe tapping, and body movement."<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>

===African-American folk music===
{{Seealso|Blues}}
When African slaves were brought to the Americas, husbands were separated from wives and parents from their children.  Also the many tribes that the slaves were from were broken up and the ensuing slave communities that were set up were constituted by every possible mixture.   What the slaves had in common was the desire to dance, sing and play what musical instruments could be assembled.<ref>Southern, Eileen and Josephine Wright, Images: Iconography of Music in African-American Culture, 1770s-1920s, Garland Publishing Inc., New York, 2000, pp. 3-5</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Southern |first=Eileen |title=The Music of Black Americans: A History |publisher=WW Norton & Company Inc. |location=New York |date=1971 |pages=3–13}}</ref>  [[Eileen Southern]] in ''The Music of Black Americans:  A History'' lists about a dozen and a half African-American "folksong types".  These are "boat songs, corn songs, cowboy songs, dance songs, freedom songs, harvest songs, parodies of spirituals, pattyroller songs, prison songs, railroad songs, satirical songs, shout songs, spirituals, stevedore songs, story songs, war songs, woodcutter songs, and work songs."{{sfn|Southern|1971|p=539-540}}

Because slaves were forbidden to perform African ceremonies or use African languages, "the slaves filled this cultural vacuum by acquiring the rudiments of Anglo-American folk song, British country dancing and European harmony, and adapting them to West African patterns."{{sfn|Lomax|1960|p=447}}
[[Alan Lomax]] in ''The Folk Songs of North America'' states,  "The slaves, brought to the United States from many parts of Africa, continued to dance and make music as their ancestors had done…. In the United States tribes were mixed and African languages and ceremonies were forbidden, and the slaves filled the cultural vacuum by acquiring the rudiments of Anglo-American folk song, British country dancing, and European harmony, and adapting them to West African patterns.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lomax |first=Alan |title=The Folk Songs of North America |publisher=Doubleday & Company, Inc. |location=Garden City, New York |date=1960 |page=447}}</ref>  Lomax, after maintaining that "whatever they sang was intensely functional," catalogs these songs as "spirituals, reels, work songs, ballads and blues."{{sfn|Lomax|1960|p=xii-xiii}}

===Work songs===

====Sea shanties====
{{Main|Sea shanty}}
Sea shanties functioned to lighten the burden of routine tasks and provide a rhythm that helped workers perform as a team.<ref name=afc/> One of the oldest sea shanties sung in America may have been "Haul in the Bowline" which possibly dates back to the reign of [[Henry VIII]] in the sixteenth century.{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=100-104}} Other popular shanties include "[[Blow the Man Down]]", "Blow, Boys, Blow", "Reuben Ranzo", "[[Oh Shenandoah|Shenandoah]]" and "The Greenland Whale" as well as African-American shanties such as "Mobile Bay" and "I'm Goin' up the River".<ref name="Cohen2006">{{cite book | author = Ronald D. Cohen | date = 2006 | title = Folk Music: The Basics | publisher = Routledge | pages = 9 | isbn = 978-0-415-97159-1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dgz17WnaxscC}}</ref>{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=100-104}}

====Cowboy songs====
Cowboys songs are typically ballads that [[cowboy]]s sang in the West and Southwest. The familiar "[[Streets of Laredo (song)|Streets of Laredo]]" (or "Cowboys Lament") derives from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called "[[The Unfortunate Rake]]",<ref name=pbs/> which in turn appears to have descended from the even earlier "[[The Bard of Armagh]]". While "Streets of Laredo" uses the same melody as "The Unfortunate Rake", "[[St. James Infirmary Blues]]" adapts the story to a different tune. This illustrates how folk songs can change in the retelling and appear in a variety of versions.<ref name=afc/> Similarly the popular cowboy song "[[Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie]], about a dying cowboy begging not to be buried alone in the wilderness, is based on an earlier poem, "The Ocean Burial".{{sfn|Cohen|2005|p=199}} Similarly, the popular song "Buffalo Skinners" is based on the earlier lumberjack tune "Canaday-I-O".<ref name="FowkeGlazerBray1973">{{cite book | author1 = Edith Fowke | author2 = Joe Glazer | author3 = Kenneth Ira Bray | date = 1 January 1973 | title = Songs of Work and Protest | publisher = Courier Corporation | pages = 119 | isbn = 978-0-486-22899-0 | oclc = 1019954652 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6vtPafZy1PsC&pg=PA119}}</ref>

Other songs originated wholly on the frontier such as the famous "[[Home on the Range]]" written in [[Kansas]] in 1873 by [[Brewster Higley]] and Dan Kelly.<ref name="Raph1986">{{cite book | author = Theodore Raph | date = 1 January 1986 | title = The American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites | publisher = Courier Corporation | pages = 360 | isbn = 978-0-486-25222-3 | oclc = 1015764163 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2ho0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA360}}</ref> "The Old Chisholm Trail" too was a distinctly American ballad tied to the experiences of cowboys on the long treks on the [[Chisholm Trail]].<ref name="Bronner2002">{{cite book | author = Simon J. Bronner | date = 1 August 2002 | title = Folk Nation: Folklore in the Creation of American Tradition | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | pages = 124 | isbn = 978-0-7425-8023-7 | oclc = 1002095559 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DRNtAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA124}}</ref>

Following the Civil War, cowboys became popular as characters in novels and in Wild West shows. The first movie western was ''The Great Train Robbery'', filmed in 1903.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Roots Music in America: Collected Writings of Joe Wilson |publisher=The University of Tennessee Press |year=2017 |editor-last=Bartenstein |editor-first=Fred |location=Knoxville |pages=245}}</ref> At the height of this romanticizing of the American cowboy, [[John Lomax]] published his preeminent work, ''Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lomax |first=John |title=Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1910 |location=New York}}</ref> This work was acclaimed in both academic and popular readership and helped to expand the scope of what constituted folk music, as previous scholarship focused on songs with European ballad ancestry, such as with the [[Child Ballads]]. While ''Cowboy Songs'' may have opened the door to legitimizing a wider range of vernacular music in the field of American folk music scholarship, in later years it has been criticized for not being a strictly scientific historical endeavor. Lomax himself admitted, "I have violated the ethics of ballad-gatherers, in a few instances, by selecting and putting together what seems to be the best lines from different versions, all telling the same story...Frankly the volume is meant to be popular."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hagstrom Miller |first=Karl |title=Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2010 |location=Durham and London |pages=85–87, 118}}</ref>

====Railroad songs====
One of the most popular railroad folk songs in American history was [[The Ballad of Casey Jones]], a song about a train conductor who sacrificed himself to prevent a collision.<ref name="Holbrook2016">{{cite book | author = Stewart H. Holbrook | date = 14 January 2016 | title = The Story of American Railroads: From the Iron Horse to the Diesel Locomotive | publisher = Courier Dover Publications | pages = 429 | isbn = 978-0-486-81007-2 | oclc = 1030387871 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Ho5uCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA429}}</ref> The "Ballad of [[John Henry (folklore)|John Henry]]" is about an African-American folk hero said to have worked as a "steel-driving man".<ref name=pbs/>

==== Coal mining ====
The earliest known coal mine was in Richmond Virginia in 1750. Coal became the primary source of fuel in the United States by the 1880s, beating out wood, with usage peaking in 1910. [[Coal town|Coal camps]] were made up of a largely Irish and Welsh demographic, which is evident in the structure of coal mining songs. Coal mining was fraught with danger that was unmitigated by morally indifferent mining companies. Explosions and cave-ins were a constant fear, as were black lung disease and pneumoconiosis. Songs such as "Don't Go Down in the Mine", "The Dying Mine Brakeman", and "A Miner's Prayer" gave voice to these fears. Efforts to unionize began in the 1930s, creating tunes such as "We Shall Not Be Moved", which was a rewriting of the gospel hymn "[[I Shall Not Be Moved]]". The use of familiar hymns made the songs easy for organizers to sing along with, and also imbued the cause with an air of righteousness.<ref name="Cohen2005" />

"[[Sixteen Tons]]" was written in 1946 by [[Merle Travis]] about the plight of coal miners and life in [[company town]]s. Travis also penned "[[Dark as a Dungeon]]", which was most notably performed by [[Johnny Cash]].

==== Textile workers ====
While American colonists had long spun and wove homemade textiles, a burgeoning industry began to appear at the end of the eighteenth century in New England and later in the southern states. Working conditions in textile mills were bleak, with extremely long hours and meager pay for the men, women, and children employed within. Strikes began in the 1830s and 1840s, led by the young women who made up three-quarters of the work force, and earned about half of their male coworkers. The song "A Factory Girl" tells of a young woman, dissatisfied with her occupation, leaving the mill to become a wife. Dave McCarn wrote songs in protest of the textile mill such as "Cotton Mill Colic", which lamented the insufficient and inequitable pay scale and poverty that ensued.<ref name="Cohen2005" />

==== Logging ====
The logging industry began in New England to satisfy the needs of ship building. Later, the advent of the transcontinental railroad made it possible to harvest the forests of the Pacific Northwest, with the industry reaching a peak from 1870 to 1900. The hardships for loggers included a struggle with natural forces, unpredictable outdoor working conditions, and the danger of precarious stacks of logs stories high that could topple. "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" was one such song that described this terrifying phenomenon. "The Lumberjack's Alphabet" was a high spirited song and favorite of these workers.<ref name="Cohen2005" />

==== Linemen songs ====
"The Lineman's Hymn" is told from the perspective of a dying lineman who fell from a pole, and warns the listener to be careful lest he suffer the same fate.<ref name="Cohen2005" />

==Roots music==
Many roots musicians do not consider themselves folk musicians. The main difference between the [[American folk music revival]] and American "roots music" is that roots music seems to cover a broader range, including blues and country.

Roots music developed its most expressive and varied forms in the first three decades of the 20th century.  The [[Great Depression]] and the [[Dust Bowl]] were extremely important in disseminating these musical styles to the rest of the country, as [[Delta blues]] masters, itinerant [[honky tonk]] singers, and [[Cajun music]]ians spread to cities like [[Chicago]], [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], and [[New York City|New York]].  The growth of the [[record industry|recording industry]] in the same period was also important; higher potential profits from music placed pressure on artists, songwriters, and label executives to replicate previous hit songs.  This meant that musical trends, such as [[Hawaii]]an [[slack-key guitar]], never died out completely, since a broad range of rhythms, instruments, and vocal stylings were incorporated into disparate popular genres.

By the 1950s, forms of roots music had led to pop-oriented forms.  Folk musicians like the [[Kingston Trio]], blues-derived [[rock and roll]] and [[rockabilly]], pop-gospel, [[doo wop]] and [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] (later secularized further as [[soul music]]) and the [[Nashville sound]] in country music all modernized and expanded the musical palette of the country.

The roots approach to music emphasizes the diversity of American musical traditions, the genealogy of creative lineages and communities, and the innovative contributions of musicians working in these traditions today.  In recent years roots music has been the focus of popular media programs such as [[Garrison Keillor]]'s public radio program, ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' and the feature film by the same name.

==Regional forms==
American traditional music is also called roots music.  Roots music is a broad category of music including [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]], [[country music]], [[gospel music|gospel]], [[old time music]], [[jug band]]s, [[Appalachian folk music|Appalachian folk]], [[blues]], [[Cajun music|Cajun]] and [[Native American music]].  The music is considered American either because it is native to the United States or because it developed there, out of foreign origins, to such a degree that it struck [[musicologist]]s as something distinctly new. It is considered "roots music" because it served as the basis of music later developed in the United States, including [[rock and roll]], contemporary folk music, [[rhythm and blues]], and [[jazz]].

===Appalachian music===
{{See also|Music of East Tennessee}}
[[Appalachian music]] is the traditional music of the region of [[Appalachia]] in the Eastern United States. It derives from various European and African influences—including English ballads, Irish and Scottish traditional music (especially [[fiddle]] music), hymns, and African-American blues.  First recorded in the 1920s, Appalachian musicians were a key influence on the early development of [[Old-time music]], [[country music]], and [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]], and were an important part of the [[American folk music revival]].

Instruments typically used to perform Appalachian music include the [[banjo]], [[American fiddle]], [[Appalachian dulcimer|fretted dulcimer]], and [[guitar]].<ref name=olson>Ted Olson, "Music&nbsp;— Introduction".  ''Encyclopedia of Appalachia'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), pp. 1109—1120.</ref>

Early recorded Appalachian musicians include [[Fiddlin' John Carson]], [[Henry Whitter]], [[Bascom Lamar Lunsford]], the [[Carter Family]], [[Clarence Ashley]], [[Frank Proffitt]], and [[Dock Boggs]], all of whom were initially recorded in the 1920s and 1930s. Several Appalachian musicians obtained renown during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, including [[Jean Ritchie]], [[Roscoe Holcomb]], [[Ola Belle Reed]], [[Lily May Ledford]], and [[Doc Watson]].

The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]], [[country music|country]], [[Southern Gospel]], [[popular music|pop]] and [[rock music]]ians. They were the first vocal group to become country music stars; a beginning of the divergence of country music from traditional folk music. Their recordings of such songs as "[[Wabash Cannonball]]" (1932), "[[Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)|Will the Circle Be Unbroken]]" (1935), "[[Wildwood Flower]]" (1928), and "[[Keep on the Sunny Side]]" (1928) made them country standards.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock |last=Heatley |first=Michael |year=2007 |publisher=Star Fire |location=London, United Kingdom |isbn=978-1-84451-996-5 }}</ref>

Country and bluegrass artists such as [[Loretta Lynn]], [[Roy Acuff]], [[Dolly Parton]], [[Earl Scruggs]], [[Chet Atkins]], and [[Don Reno]] were heavily influenced by traditional Appalachian music.<ref name=olson />  Artists such as [[Bob Dylan]], [[Jerry Garcia]], and [[Bruce Springsteen]] have performed Appalachian songs or rewritten versions of Appalachian songs.

===Cajun music===
[[Cajun music]], an emblematic [[music of Louisiana]], is rooted in the [[ballads]] of the French-speaking [[Acadian]]s of [[Canada]]. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the [[Louisiana Creole people|Creole]]-based, [[Cajun]]-influenced [[zydeco]] form, both of [[Acadiana]] origin. These [[French Louisiana#Modern French Louisiana|French Louisiana]] sounds have influenced [[American popular music]] for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials.

===Oklahoma and southern US plains===
[[File:Woody Guthrie NYWTS.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Singer-songwriter [[Woody Guthrie]] emerged from the dust bowl of Oklahoma and the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]] in the mid-20th Century, with lyrics that embraced his views on ecology, poverty, and [[Trade union|unionization in the United States]], paired with melody reflecting the many genres of American folk music.]]
Before recorded history American Indians in this area used songs and instrumentation; music and dance remain the core of ceremonial and social activities.<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>  "Stomp dance" remains at its core, a "call and response" form; instrumentation is provided by rattles or shackles worn on the legs of women.<ref name = OklahomaFolk>{{Cite web |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/F/FO010.html |title=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Folk Music |access-date=2012-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103182135/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/F/FO010.html |archive-date=2012-11-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  "Other southeastern nations have their own complexes of sacred and social songs, including those for animal dances and friendship dances, and songs that accompany stickball games.

Central to the music of the southern Plains Indians is the drum, which has been called the heartbeat of Plains Indian music. Most of that genre traces back to the hunting and warfare that was a strong part of plains culture.<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>  During the reservation period, they frequently used music to relieve boredom and despair. Neighbors gathered, exchanged and created songs and dances. This is a part of the roots of the modern intertribal [[powwow]]. Another common instrument is the courting flute.<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>

[[Shape-note]] or [[sacred harp]] singing developed in the early nineteenth century as a way for itinerant singing instructors to teach church songs in rural communities. They taught using song books that represented musical notation of tones by geometric shapes that associated a shape with a pitch. Sacred harp singing became popular in many Oklahoma rural communities, regardless of ethnicity.<ref name=OklahomaFolk/>

Later, the blues tradition developed, with roots in and parallels to sacred music.<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>   By the early 20th century, jazz developed, born from a "blend of ragtime, gospel, and blues"<ref name = OklahomaFolk/> "Anglo-Scots-Irish music traditions gained a place in Oklahoma after the Land Run of 1889. Because of its size and portability, the fiddle was the core of early Oklahoma Anglo music, but other instruments such as the guitar, mandolin, banjo, and steel guitar were added later. Various Oklahoma music traditions trace their roots to the British Isles, including cowboy ballads, western swing, and contemporary country and western."<ref name = OklahomaFolk/> "Mexican immigrants began to reach Oklahoma in the 1870s, bringing beautiful canciones and corridos love songs, waltzes, and ballads along with them. Like American Indian communities, each rite of passage in Hispanic communities is accompanied by traditional music.

The acoustic guitar, string bass, and violin provide the basic instrumentation for Mexican music, with maracas, flute, horns, or sometimes accordion filling out the sound."<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>  Other Europeans (such as Bohemians and Germans) settled in the late nineteenth century. Their social activities centered on community halls, "where local musicians played polkas and waltzes on the accordion, piano, and brass instruments."<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>

Later Asians contributed to the musical mix.  "Ancient music and dance traditions from the temples and courts of China, India, and Indonesia are preserved in Asian communities throughout the state, and popular song genres are continually layered on to these classical music forms"<ref name = OklahomaFolk/>

===The American Southwest and South Texas===
[[Tejano music|Tejano]] and [[New Mexico music]], heard throughout the [[American Southwest]] and [[South Texas]], is rooted in the musics of the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] and [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanic/Latino]] communities of the regions. Tejano music is also heavily influenced by [[Regional Mexican music|Regional Mexican]] and Country music, while New Mexico music is much more influenced by [[Hispanos of New Mexico|Hispano]] folk and [[Western music (North America)|Western music]]. Both styles have influenced one another over the years, and incorporated American popular music styles.

===Other forms===
Folk composer and musician [[Robert Schmertz (artist)|Robert Schmertz]] composed and wrote [[List of songs by Robert Schmertz|pieces]] related to historical events in Western Pennsylvania.<ref name="Journal_obituary">{{cite journal|url=https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/viewFile/3386/3217|title=Historical Society Notes and Documents: Robert Watson Schmertz|last=Swetnam|first=George|volume=54|number=4|journal=The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine|date=October 1975|pages=537–538}} {{open access}}</ref><ref name="Covers,_Bio">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3528108/composer_architect_entertains_avon_club/|title=Composer, Architect Entertains Avon Club|newspaper=News Record|date=October 27–28, 1973|page=11}}</ref>

==20th century folk revival music==
{{Main|American folk music revival}}
Starting in the mid-20th century a phenomenon termed the folk music revival began, forming a new [[Contemporary folk music|contemporary type of folk music]]. It was somewhat centered on but not limited to the United States. While sometimes termed the [[American Folk Music Revival]], it was somewhat international and does not fit some narrower definitions of American folk music even when the artists were American.  Prominent artists from this movement include [[Pete Seeger]], [[Woody Guthrie]], [[The Weavers]],{{sfn|Gilliland|1969|loc=show 18}} [[Burl Ives]], and others.  A more commercially oriented version of folk music emerged in the 1960s, including performers such as [[The Kingston Trio]],{{sfn|Gilliland|1969|loc=show 18}} [[The Limeliters]], [[The Brothers Four]], [[Peter, Paul and Mary]], [[Joan Baez]],{{sfn|Gilliland|1969|loc=show 19}} [[The Highwaymen (folk band)|The Highwaymen]], [[Judy Collins]], [[The New Christy Minstrels]], and [[Gordon Lightfoot]], as well as counterculture and folk rock performers including [[Bob Dylan]],{{sfn|Gilliland|1969|loc=shows 31-32}} [[The Byrds]], [[Arlo Guthrie]], and [[Buffy Sainte-Marie]].{{sfn|Gilliland|1969|loc=show 33}}

==Books==
*Series: ''Greenwood Guides to American Roots Music,'' edited by Norm Cohen. Titles include, Folk Music, [[Country music|Country]], [[Blues]], [[Jazz]], and Ethnic and Border Music.
* Norm Cohen, ''Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong'' (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2nd ed., 2000)
*Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr, ''Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia'' (University of North Carolina Press, 2014). Includes a foreword by [[Dolly Parton]] and 20 track CD.
*Benjamin Filene, ''Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music'' (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2000)
*Rachel Clare Donaldson, ''"I Hear American Singing": Folk Music and National Identity'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014)
*Kip Lornell, ''Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States'' (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012)
*Robert Santelli, ''American Roots Music--Based on the [[PBS]] Television Series'' (Abrams, 2001), foreword by [[Bonnie Raitt]]
*In 2004, [[NPR]] published the book titled ''The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music'',<ref name="foreword">{{cite book | isbn=0399530339 | last1=Lornell | first1=Kip | title=The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music | year=2004 | publisher=Berkley Publishing }}</ref> [[Linda Ronstadt]] wrote the [[foreword]].
*[http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/48nks6er9780252033339.html The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance by Michael F. Scully (University of Illinois Press, 2008)]
*Nettl, Bruno. ''An Introduction to Folk Music in the United States''. Rev. ed. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1962.
*In 2007, [[James P. Leary]] published ''Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music'', which proposes a redefinition of traditional American folk music and identifies a new genre of music from the [[Upper Midwest]] known as ''Polkabilly'', which blends ethnic music, old-time country music, and polka.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.123.489.0363 | jstor=10.5406/jamerfolk.123.489.0363 | doi=10.5406/jamerfolk.123.489.0363 | title=Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music | date=2010 | last1=Rahkonen | first1=Carl | journal=Journal of American Folklore | volume=123 | issue=489 | pages=363–365 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> The book was awarded the [[American Folklore Society]]'s Chicago Folklore Prize for the best book in the field of folklore scholarship.<ref>[http://www.afsnet.org/?page=Chicago "Chicago Folklore Prize"], Retrieved 27 April 2013.</ref>

==Film, TV, and radio==
{{listen
|filename=Yellow Rose Of Texas.ogg
|title="Yellow Rose Of Texas" (1858)
|description="[[The Yellow Rose of Texas (song)|The Yellow Rose of Texas]]" performed by the [[United States Coast Guard Band]]
|filetype=[[Ogg]]
|filename2=Oh Susanna.ogg
|title2="Oh! Susanna" (1848)
|description2=[[Stephen Foster]]'s  "[[Oh! Susanna]]" performed by the [[United States Navy Band|United States Navy Concert Band]]
|filetype2=[[Ogg]]
|pos=right}}

''[[Hootenanny (U.S. TV series)|Hootenanny]]'', a weekly musical variety show broadcast on the ABC network in the U.S. in 1963–1964, primarily featured folk musicians.

The soundtrack of the 2000 [[film]] ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'' is exclusively roots music, performed by [[Alison Krauss]], [[The Fairfield Four]], [[Emmylou Harris]], [[Norman Blake (American musician)|Norman Blake]] and others.

In 2001, [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] broadcast a 4-part [[documentary film|documentary]] series, ''American Roots Music,'' that explored the historical roots of American roots music through footage and performances by the creators of the movement.

The 2003 film ''[[A Mighty Wind]]'' is a tribute to (and parody of) the folk-pop musicians of the early 1960s.

A six-hour public television series, ''The Music of America: History Through Musical Traditions,'' appeared in 2010.

PBS series ''Country Music'' by [[Ken Burns]], 8 episodes. "Explore the remarkable stories of the people and places behind a true American art form." Gives insight into the folk heritage of what would become country music.

BBC radio program ''Black Roots,'' Grammy Award-winning musician [[Rhiannon Giddens]] explores the history of African American roots music through the stories of forgotten black pioneers.

{{Gilliland |show=18 |title=Blowin' in the Wind: Pop discovers folk music
 }}

==See also==
*[[American folk music revival]]
*''[[Anthology of American Folk Music]]''
*[[List of North American folk music traditions]]
*[[Protest songs in the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}

==External links==
*[http://historyscoper.com/folkmusicscope.html The Historyscoper]
*[http://www.folklib.net/folkfile/ The Folk File: A Folkie's Dictionary] by Bill Markwick (1945-2017) - musical definitions and short biographies for American and U.K. Folk musicians and groups. Retrieved September 21, 2017.

{{Folk music}}
{{Americanrootsmusic}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:American folk music| ]]
[[Category:American styles of music]]
[[Category:Folk music by country]]