This past spring, before I came to RCS, I became interested in learning more American folk songs. I found a book containing a collection of American folk tunes entitled “The Alan Lomax Collection”. I went through the book and found some of my favorites.
One of the songs was called “Strawberry Lane” which is derived from the old English ballad of The Elfin Knight. “This song may well have been composed by women (for there were many female bards in early Britain) at a time when women more openly expressed their feelings. ” Alan Lomax
“The riddling contest between mortal and demon is a folk motif older than the Sphinx, and this part of the ballad still survives, even though the girl and her elfin lover were long censored out of the story. Its ancient, half-understood symbols pleased the women and girls of Britain and the American frontier, and the song traveled all the way to the Pacific coast. In the old days, a girl who made a shirt for a man meant to marry him.” – Lomax
I made a very quick recording of the song which you can listen to here.
I also found another recording of the song on YouTube which you could also check out.
I’m hoping to find more American folk songs and learn more about the different styles of folk music in America.
Terra Burgoyne 