HUMN 4345: History of American Folk Music

This blog features the lyrics of early blues recordings.

A video lecture by Katherine Reed of the Society for American Music.

Contains ballads of British and American origin.

A digital collection of English printed ballad-sheets from between the 16th and 20th centuries, linked to other resources for the study of the English ballad tradition.

The 305 ballads collected by Francis Child in one volume.

Digitized 17th-century broadside ballads (U California, Santa Barbara).

A gathering of 122 songs and 322 tunes collected by Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp.

Large collection of broadside ballads collected by printer Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) of Boston. Contains images, essays, and some audio performances.

The famous songbook of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), intended to "fan the flames of discontent."

Essays by folk music scholars on folk music and balladry.

A World Heritage Encyclopedia article on the history, performers, and influence of this Mexican song genre which reports events in the violent world of drug trafficking.

Ballads and popular songs collected by Bishop Thomas Percy.

A PBS NewsHour article.