Music Book
53 songs and ballads from Sharp's American collection, with biographical sketches of the singers and notes on the songs, illustrated with previously unpublished photographs, alongside extracts from diaries, letters and biographical writings.
Cecil Sharp, a music teacher from south London, is England's most renowned collector of folk music and dances, noting down nearly 5,000 tunes in his travels throughout England and the Appalachian states of North America up until his death in 1924. His vast Appalachian collection was assembled during the First World War years in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. At the instigation of American enthusiast Olive Dame Campbell, he embarked with Maud Karpeles on a truely remarkable journey through America's Southern uplands, to discover a living tradition of songs and ballads, largely of British origin, which had all but died out at home. Dear Companion is a celebration of the close links between the musical traditions of Britain and North America.
Compiled and edited by Mike Yates, Elaine Bradtke and Malcolm Taylor, with a preface by Shirley Collins and an introduction by Mike Yates.
