The rich tradition of American folk songs has never been easier to teach and more fun to sing than with this eclectic anthology of ballads passed down from generation to generation. A worthy successor to Alice Parker’s Hand- Me-Down Songs, these ballads are heartfelt classics that evoke love, excitement, longing— and downright silliness.

As Alice Parker states in her preface, “Songs are memory carriers. Those you learn while young will be with you all of your life, as our elders constantly remind us. True folk songs— that is, those for which we know no composer or poet—are maps of human experience. Share these songs with children of all ages and watch them come alive with delight.”

The ballads in this book will take your heart on a journey, from the longing in “Shenandoah” and the heartbreak of “Barbara Allen” to the heart-thumping shoving off on the winds of “Santy Ano” and the thrill of riding the rails on the “Wabash Cannonball.”
 

These songs are easy to learn and wonderful to share, and children will naturally want to sing them from the moment they are introduced to them. Enjoy!

Includes: Wayfaring Stranger, Dona Nobis Pacem, Five Hundred Miles, Shalom Chaverim, The Other Day I Met a Bear, This Train, Waltzing Matilda, and many more!

Contents: Preface; Aweigh, Santy Ano; Barbara Allen; Bill Grogan's Goat; Casey Jones; Cinty; Dona Nobis Pacem; Down in the Valley; Gum Tree Canoe "Tombigbee River"; Don Gato; Hey, Ho! Nobody Home; John Henry; Mrs. Murphy's Chowder; Oh, How He Lied!; Oh, You Can't Get to Heaven; Old Blue; Over the Sea to Skye; Roll Jordan Roll; Shenandoah; Shalom Chaverim; Swing Low Sweet Chariot; Stewball; Tell Me Why; This Train; The Other Day I Met a Bear; The Wabash Cannonball; Wagoner's Lad; Waltzing Matilda; Wayfaring Stranger; Weevily Wheat; When the Saints Go Marching In; Zum Gali Gali