Folksongs of Vermont

Born in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, Margaret MacArthur spent her childhood moving around the western United States. Her first contact with folk music came in 1933, when her father began work at an Arizona timber company with displaced cowboys and folk singers who had collected songs throughout their travels. In 1948 MacArthur moved to Vermont, where she gathered the songs presented here from churches, friends, and broadsides found near her farm. When speaking of her death, Margaret MacArthur’s granddaughter Robin wrote, "On her deathbed she was sick with morphine, most of her memory gone, but she could still remember the lyrics to any ballad we asked her to sing. This music had etched itself into her soul; song and landscape and self had twined into a fabric that was lasting, resounding, and full of grace."
Track Listing
101
|
The Needle's Eye | Margaret MacArthur | 0:27 | |
102
|
Carrion Crow | Margaret MacArthur | 1:36 | |
103
|
Gypsy Davy | Margaret MacArthur | 1:57 | |
104
|
Jennie Jenkins | Margaret MacArthur | 2:00 | |
105
|
Linktem Blue | Margaret MacArthur | 0:20 | |
106
|
Cherries Are Ripe | Margaret MacArthur | 1:28 | |
107
|
Trot Trot to Boston | Margaret MacArthur | 0:53 | |
108
|
This Very Unhappy Man | Margaret MacArthur | 1:40 | |
109
|
Aunt Jemima | Margaret MacArthur | 1:15 | |
110
|
Gorion-Og | Margaret MacArthur | 3:57 | |
111
|
The Scolding Wife | Margaret MacArthur | 0:56 | |
112
|
Riddles | Margaret MacArthur | 0:24 | |
201
|
Old Mr. Grumble | Margaret MacArthur | 2:11 | |
202
|
Single Again | Margaret MacArthur | 1:21 | |
203
|
New Hampshire Miller | Margaret MacArthur | 3:03 | |
204
|
What the Old Hen Said | Margaret MacArthur | 1:15 | |
205
|
Mother in the Graveyard | Margaret MacArthur | 2:17 | |
206
|
Marlboro Merchants | Margaret MacArthur | 6:40 |