Folklorists often connect the texts they collect to national identity. Folklore expresses a group's worldview, the argument goes, and so if a nation of millions shares a tradition, then they also share worldview and identity. And if you're a nation-builder, you'll work to make it happen: Publish songbooks, teach them in school or at public events - you are "using" folklore (see our textbook by McNeill, page 30) to build unity amongst the people who sing.

That was another project for Alan Lomax - collecting folksongs and sharing them nationally, giving Americans a songbook in which they could see and sing their own national identity.

That's the topic for Part 1. And in American culture, the sequel to Part 1 was this lecture's Part 2: because the American folksong revival merged into the Civil Rights Movement.

Reading

Estimated time: ~35 minutes

John and Alan Lomax, et al. (1947). Introduction (& other excerpts). Folk song U.S.A.

PDF File : Lomax_1947_FolkSongIntroContentsKeepYourHand.pdf

Case study: Interviews with P.Seeger and J.Jones, about the song, "We Shall Overcome",
(7 minutes): External Link : Tracing the Long Journey of We Shall Overcome

Stephanie Shonekan, (2018), “Black Mizzou: Music & stories one year later", pages 14-33, in Black Lives Matter and Music.

UW Library : Permalink to Black Lives Matter and Music

Example discussed by Stephanie Shonekan in this assigned article: External Link: Mizzou - Alright | Black Love Week 2016

Rationale: Folklorists study songs to understand the singers. And the folksong collections they publish also become songbooks that people use to express identities. Who are the American people? Can folksongs express national identity? What role do folklorists play in this identity?

Lecture

Part 1. While consuming this lecture pay attention to:

How did Alan Lomax choose songs that he included in his songbook for the American people?
What happened after this songbook was published? (spoiler alert... the story continues today and hasn't been fully documented)

Part 2: The history of the Civil Rights movement is paralleled in a history of many individual songs that people sang and sing.

How can describing one song and its singers illuminate an enormous movement of millions of people?
...and what do you think about Lomax's mission of finding songs of and for Americans: can it continue? Why or why not?

Optional Expansion

A starting point for further reading about the Black singer Lead Belly, and his collaboration with Alan and John Lomax: External Link
Case Study, the origins of another American folksong: Amy Whorf McGuighan, “Take me out to the ballgame” [pdf copy]
Listen/watch variants:

Harry Caray in Chicago:
https://youtu.be/HnHV5FaqvEs

Mariners vs Giants, 7th inning stretch

Have some thoughts or questions? Why not join the conversation... Oral Poetry forum