Dover Publications

Compiled/Edited: Irwin Silber
Format: Book
Instrumentation: Piano, Vocal, Guitar

The 92 songs in this handsomely illustrated songbook --- compiled and edited by one of America's leading authorities on folklore and folk music --- colourfully document America's pioneering spirit. In song after song, the triumphs and miseries, thrills and adventures of homesteaders, lumberjacks, cowboys, gold miners, railroad workers, outlaws, and other early Western adventurers come vividly to life.

Here are America's ballads, lullabies, battle cries, love songs, satirical songs, children's singing games, and more --- each with a story to tell, a moment to treasure, a feeling to share. There are familiar favourites like "Sweet Betsy from Pike," "The Streets of Laredo," and "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" side by side with less familiar songs, each a delight to explore: "The Little Old Sod Shanty on My Claim," "Seeing the Elephant," "Fifty Thousand Lumberjacks," "Doney Gal," "When the Ice Worms Nest Again," and many more.

This is a great collection for sing-alongs, for school and club shows, and for work and study projects that involve the history and folklore of the West. Along with the lyrics for each song, Earl Robinson has provided as easy-to-follow vocal score, complete with simple piano arrangements and chord symbols. Irwin Silber's historical notes and commentaries, together with the 127 period illustrations printed throughout the book, engagingly set the stage for this lively, colourful chapter in the history of American music.
(Reprint of the Macmillan Company, New York, 1967 edition.)