Classic American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways

Born of the British ballad, its 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 Balladsis 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.

Track Listing

101	Banks of the Ohio	Doc Watson and Bill Monroe	03:32
102	Blue Mountain Lake	Pete Seeger	02:47
103	Claude Allen	Hobart Smith	03:50
104	Cole Younger	Dock Boggs	01:50
105	Cowboy’s Lament (Streets of Laredo)	Buck Ramsey	03:21
106	Boll Weevil	Sam Hinton	02:12
107	Duncan and Brady	Lead Belly	01:08
108	Floyd Collins	Paul Clayton	03:27
109	Frankie and Johnny	Rolf Cahn and Eric Von Schmidt	06:39
110	John Henry	John Jackson	03:22
111	Jesse James	Sis Cunningham, Mike Millius, and Wes Houston	03:51
112	Billy the Kid	Woody Guthrie	02:04
113	The Death of the Lawson Family	Glen Neaves	01:54
114	Naomi Wise	Doug Wallin	03:06
115	Pearl Bryan	Bruce Buckley	02:54
116	Sam Bass	Hermes Nye	01:59
117	Springfield Mountain	Bascom Lamar Lunsford	02:31
118	Tom Dooley	Glen Neaves, Roscoe Russell, Ivor Melton, Warren Brown, Ted Lundy	02:11
119	Tying a Knot in the Devil’s Tail	Cisco Houston	02:14
120	Young Charlotte	Pete Seeger	04:05
121	Wasn’t That a Mighty Storm?	The Tex-i-an Boys	02:41
122	Zebra Dun	Joan O'Bryant	02:32
123	The Titanic	Pink Anderson	02:52
124	The Louisville Burglar	The Iron Mountain String Band	03:09
125	The F.F.V. (Engine 143)	Annie Watson	03:56