Today, the Veterans History Project launches a new online exhibit focusing on the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most pivotal and infamous battles of World War II. On December 16, 1944, the German army attacked Allied forces—mostly American units—positioned in the Ardennes Forest, a densely forested area along the borders of Belgium and …
Patrick Tayluer, the retired sailor who recorded 79 sea shanties, ballads, and stories for the Library of Congress in 1942, was fascinated by Australia. In this post we present several of his Australian songs and stories. We also recount his epic 7500 kilometer walk across the continent from late 1929 to early 1931. The post includes audio of two songs, including a bushranger ballad never collected from any other source.
The American Folklife Center took part in the Library's Halloween-themed Family Day in October. In addition to showcasing a few items from the archive, AFC staff led visitors in an activity (making paper fortune-tellers) and encouraged participation in an engagement question around cryptids, ghost stories and urban legends.
This post continues Stephen Winick's series on the sea songs of Patrick Tayluer, and finishes the story of "The Leaving of Liverpool," the lyric lament of a nineteenth-century mariner who leaves his hometown of Liverpool for San Francisco. In this post Steve outlines how the song became a major part of the folk revival, and gives links to versions and adaptations performed and recorded by everyone from the Clancy Brothers to the Kingston Trio and Ewan MacColl to Bob Dylan. He asks what can be learned from Patrick Tayluer's version of the song. Finally, he provides a fragmentary recording of the song from 1942, sung by a woman, and discusses who the mystery singer might be!
We're back with another episode of the Folklife Today podcast! In this latest Halloween episode, John Fenn and I continue our discussion with Hanna Salmon about the new Research Guide "Folktales and Oral Storytelling: Resources in the American Folklife Center Collections." Then we introduce some of our favorite spooky stories: the ghost legend "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" as told by students Marty Weathers and Bill Henry of Georgia; the witch story "Skin, Don't You Know Me" as told by master storyteller J. D. Suggs of Mississippi and later Michigan; and the truly spooky tale of "The Two White Horses," told by the great Connie Regan-Blake, a leading Appalachian storyteller who has lived in Tennessee and North Carolina among other places. Of course, in addition to some chat about the tales, the episode showcases the stories themselves. This blog post shows you how to find the podcast and gives you some additional background on the stories and storytellers. So prepare for a scare and give us a listen!
The American Folklife Center takes readers on a virtual tour through the graveyards and cemeteries documented in its archives on the eve of National Visit a Cemetery Day (October 29).
The latest post in the Homegrown Plus series features the Skye Consort and Emma Björling, an eclectic group performing British, Irish, Canadian, and Scandinavian music and songs in a variety of traditional and modern styles. Just like other blogs in the series, this one includes a concert video, a video interview with the musicians, and connections to Library of Congress collections.
This post continues Stephen Winick's series on the sea songs of retired sailor Patrick Tayluer, collected in 1942. One of the songs William Doerflinger collected from Tayluer was "The Leaving of Liverpool," the lyric lament of a nineteenth-century mariner who leaves his hometown of Liverpool for San Francisco, through the treacherous seas around Cape Horn. Doerflinger had previously collected it from another retired sailor, Richard Maitland. Years later, based on Doerflinger's publications, the song became a major part of the folk revival, with versions and adaptations performed and recorded by everyone from the Clancy Brothers to the Kingston Trio and Ewan MacColl to Bob Dylan. This post looks at Tayluer and Maitland and their field recordings of "The Leaving of Liverpool."
This post in the Homegrown Plus series features the Windborne Trio, a vocal group from New England. Windborne is usually a quartet, but Jeremy Carter Gordon was prevented from performing at this show. Luckily, before Jeremy joined the group, Windborne toured as a trio, so they had the repertoire, arrangements, and experience to put together a stunning show without him. Consequently, for this concert Windborne was Lynn Mahoney Rowan, Will Thomas Rowan, and Lauren Breunig. In their concert they performed a mix of old and new favorites, including American, English, Georgian, Corsican, and Basque songs. Just like other blogs in the Homegrown Plus series, this one includes a concert video, a video interview with the musicians, and connections to Library of Congress collections.