OUR SINGING COUNTRY. A SECOND VOLUME OF AMERICAN BALLADS AND FOLK SONGS

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941., 1941. First edition. First edition. 8vo. Gray cloth, titles stamped in red on front cover and spine, xxxiv, 416 pp., red top stain, introduction, preface, music preface, illustrated with music, bibliography, index of songs, index of first lines. Music edited by Ruth Crawford Seeger. A sequel to the earlier publication American Folk Songs and Ballads the Lomaxes collected these songs primarily from the American South. Ruth Seeger's transcription and arrangement of the tunes is highly praised. Almost all of these songs can be found in the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Songs. Their goal was to collect traditional folk music from working class and poverty-stricken Americans. They interviewed both white and black musicians for their project, and even traveled to the Caribbean for their second volume. The songs contained within this volume are divided into subject areas to include religious songs, social songs, men at work songs, outlaw songs, hollers and blues, and Negro gang songs. A near fine copy in a price-clipped dust jacket with two small holes in the spine panel. light wear to the spine ends and corners, and a few small chips and nicks to the extremities.