An old favorite

My father has an original copy of this book that I grew up reading. I was so very glad to see it back in print. The way that the book is arranged (railroad songs, chain gangs, blues, reels, cowboy songs, etc.) makes it easy to navigate. The bulk of the songs cataloged are not the familiar ones that one is used to seeing in other collections.

An essential reference

This is not an exhaustive catalogue of ballads nor does it always contain the same version of a ballad that are published elsewhere under the Lomax name. The ballads are arranged by subject matter: Working on the Railroad; The Levee Camp; Southerrn Chain Gangs; Negro Bad Men; White Desperadoes; Mountain Songs; Cocaine and Whiskey; Blues; Creole Negroes; Reels; Minstrel Types; Breakdowns and Play Parties; Songs of Childhood; Vaqueros of the Southwest; Cowboy Songs; Songs of the Overlanders; Miner; Shanty-Boy; Erie Canal; Great Lake; Sailors and Sea Fights; Wars and Soldiers; White Spirituals and Negro Spirituals. Often there is a short story of the song in addition to the collection notes.

A decent introduction to the ballad form and its music precedes the collection. This is an essential reference to anyone interested in ballads in America.

On "American Ballads and Folk Songs"

Not a bad book... Not the best, though. The Lomaxes put together a very complete and exhaustive volume of folk music, that's for sure. However, some of it manages to contradict their other books, or has some songs more or less complete than they are in those works. Some of their choices of songs as "folk music" are a little odd, too; "Beautiful" would be a good example of this. I would suggest Folk Song USA as a better reference, if you can find it.