CLASSIC AMERICAN BALLADS from SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS

Born of the British ballad, it's American offspring was the blank canvas for all type of tale, the more calamitous or scandalous, the better. Jesse James and Billy the Kid, train wrecks and hurricanes, the Titanic and Tom Dooley, fatal lovers' quarrels and foiling the devil, all and more were normal fare, served up in a song. Classic American Ballads is 25 tracks of time-worn tragedy drawn from the deep fount of the Smithsonian Folkways archives. 74 minutes, 40-page booklet with extensive notes and photos.



Banks of the Ohio - Doc Watson and Bill Monroe
Blue Mountain Lake - Pete Seeger
Claude Allen - Hobart Smith
Cole Younger - Dock Boggs
Cowboy's Lament (Streets of Laredo) - Buck Ramsey
Boll Weevil - Sam Hinton
Duncan and Brady - Lead Belly
Floyd Collins - Paul Clayton
Frankie and Johnny - Rolf Cahn and Eric Von Schmidt
John Henry - John Jackson
Jesse James - Sis Cunningham, Mike Millins, and Wes Houston
Billy the Kid - Woody Guthrie
The Death of the Lawson Family - Glen Neaves
Naomi Wise - Doug Wallin
Pearl Bryan - Bruce Buckley
Sam Bass - Hermes Nye
Springfield Mountain - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Tom Dooley - Glen Neaves, Roscoe Russell, Ivor Melton, Warren Brown, and Ted Lundy
Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail - Cisco Houston
Young Charlotte - Pete Seeger
Wasn't That a Mighty Storm? - the Tex-I-An Boys
Zebra Dun - Joan O'Bryant
The Titanic - Pink Anderson
The Louisville Burglar - the Iron Mountain String Band
The F.F.V. (Engine 143) - Annie Watson