Sheet music (and some folk lyrics without music). More songs collected by Lomax, c. 1941, but in this second volume more than half come with sheet music, plus anecdotes from the folks contributing the songs. Though I probably won't learn more than a couple of these songs (since I neither attend "play parties" or belong to a chain gang), I do feel like it's another national treasure of historical import. ( )

Unlike the Lomax's usual approach, this is a very scholarly work. It makes no attempt at being usable as a songbook, and instead consists of exact-as-possible transcriptions made from field recordings. The book would be fairly superfluous if those recordings were readily available, but since they're not (although they were at the time the book was first published), this is an excellent resource - albeit a poor second to the many field recordings which are available. The real fun I got from reading the book, though, was from the stories occasionally included between songs; as they say in the introduction, "these people have a lot to say and a lot to remember, and that is why this book is mostly in quotation marks." ( )

This sequel to the Lomaxes' widely acclaimed American Ballads and Folk Songs includes melodies and words for tunes from all parts of the country. Songs include spirituals, hollers, game songs, lullabies, courting songs, chain-gang work songs, Cajun airs, breakdowns, and many more. Judith Tick, a scholar and award-winning author, provides a new fact-filled Introduction; notes on tune origins, two indexes, and an extensive bibliography round out this archive of some 200 authentic folk songs and ballads.