Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan-online book
A Collection of 200+ traditional & folk songs & variations with commentaries by
Emelyn - Elizabeth Gardner
and Geraldine Jencks Chickering,
Include Lyrics & Sheet music.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press : 1939
About This Book
IN THE years immediately after 1912 American and European folklorists were engaged in revealing the wealth of traditional English, Scotch, and Irish songs current in the Southern Appalachians. Since there had been among the early white settlers of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan many people with the same historical background as that of the Southern informants, I thought that similar songs might linger in the minds of those who lived in the rural sections and who were direct descendants of the early pioneers in the state. The validity of my inference was established when Dr. Bertrand L. Jones, of the Western State Normal School, published a few old ballads and songs which he had collected and which suggested that there might be others in kindred sources. Since at the time his collection was published I was teaching in the Michigan State Normal College at Ypsilanti, which was attended by students who came from the farms and small villages of southern Michigan, it was easy for me to secure their cooperation in recording the words of songs which the singers had learned from oral rather than from printed sources.
These online books rely heavily on browser interpretation of the code for appearance. Internet Explorer 6 and 7 do not do a very good job on some pages. It is recommended to use Firefox (free download from the link below) which is a better browser for this site.