Associazione Italo Americana del Friuli Venezia Giulia: Folks Giving Theme

American Folk Music Theme

Traditional Songs

Traditional singers (or musicians or storytellers) are those who have learned their art informally, within the context of family, tribe, community, or another close-knit group. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and can sometimes be traced back to such places of origin as Great Britain, Europe, or Africa. At some point the song would have been composed by a single individual, but that author may no longer be known. Most folksongs change over time, to a lesser or greater extent, as they are passed from person to person and multiple variants spring up.

In some contexts, traditional songs are an integral part of daily life, and particular songs are performed to accompany particular activities associated with work, religious celebration, or social occasions. Anglo-American ballads often offer cautionary tales and moral lessons, warning young women about the temptations of honey-tongued suitors and warning men about the wiles of unfaithful women. Sea shanties and railroad songs can function to lighten the burden of routine tasks and provide a rhythm that helps workers perform as a team. Lullabies bind together mother and child, and song and music of all sorts performed within the context of family helps to bind one generation to the next.

Source Library of Congress

American Folk Music

Folk Revival

The great folksong revival of the 1940s through 1960s made rural white and African American artists and their music favorites of audiences everywhere. While key figures associated with the American folksong revival, such as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Alan Lomax, and Moses Asch, were white, the music traditions on which they drew were frequently African American as well as Anglo-American. Lead Belly is perhaps the best known name of the African Americans that helped define the genre, but you'll also find portraits of Mississippi John Hurt, Odetta, and Joshua Daniel White, and music by Bill McAdoo and Bernice Reagon, among others.

Politics and Protest

As the civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1960s, folk music gave voice to a new generation longing for equality and justice. "We Shall Overcome" is particularly well-known as a civil rights anthem. Folk music also played an influential role in environmental political efforts and anti-war protests during the United States' engagement in Vietnam. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings playlists, Sounds of the Civil Rights Movement and Peace Songs of the 1960s, reveal the vibrancy of the genre.

Text and photos courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute.