Songs having to do with Missouri?
DWirth
I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders using folk,and
country, songs having something to do with Missouri. Would anybody have any
suggestions?
The ones I've thought of and found thru internet searches so far are;
Jesse James
40 Miles from Poplar Bluff
Wish We Were Back in Missouri
--
Dennis Wirth
"An Eye For An Eye And The Whole World Goes Blind"~Ghandi
Call it "Peace" or call it "Treason,"
Call it "Love" or call it "Reason,"
But I ain't marchin' any more.~Phil Ochs
Abby Sale
wrote:
>Hi,
Hi, yerself.
>I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders using folk,and
>country, songs having something to do with Missouri. Would anybody have any
>suggestions?
>The ones I've thought of and found thru internet searches so far are;
>Jesse James
>40 Miles from Poplar Bluff
>Wish We Were Back in Missouri
Go to Digital Tradition and search on "Missouri." (You might want to
unclick the Forum box. Most of these songs at least mention MO but some
may only have been collected there, etc.
Especially note, obviously, "SHENANDOAH" about the MO river. Your students
may be interested to know that this song traveled East to become a sailors'
song and then tended to change (the "folk process") and especially so in
West Indian sailor versions. The phrase "bound away 'cross the wide
Missouri" evolved into "bound away from this world of misery."
You/they may wish to "contrast and compare" MO and/or school with a "world
of misery."
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
I am Abby Sale - in Orlando, Florida
Boycott South Carolina!
http://www.naacp.org/news/releases/confederateflag011201.shtml
Abby Sale
The DigiTrad URL would probably be handy:
http://supersearch.mudcat.org/@NewSSResults.cfm
On Sat, 29 Dec 2001 08:48:04 -0600, "DWirth" <wood...@pantsbootheel.net>
wrote:
>Hi,
Hi, yerself.
>I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders using folk,and
>country, songs having something to do with Missouri. Would anybody have any
>suggestions?
>The ones I've thought of and found thru internet searches so far are;
>Jesse James
>40 Miles from Poplar Bluff
>Wish We Were Back in Missouri
Go to Digital Tradition and search on "Missouri." (You might want to
Buck
<wood...@pantsbootheel.net> wrote:
>Hi,
>I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders using folk,and
>country, songs having something to do with Missouri. Would anybody have any
>suggestions?
Maybe 4th grade is too early for the Free Hot Lunch tune; 'I Hate Too
Wake Up Sober In Nebraska' . A cute little ditty about traveling I-80
from Kansas City to that Colorado line.
Gus Garelick
DWirth wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders using folk,and
> country, songs having something to do with Missouri. Would anybody have any
> suggestions?
Do folks still dance the Missouri Waltz in Missouri? It was written in 1914.
Contrary to popular belief, it was NOT written by Harry Truman-- in fact, he
hated the song. But there must be others, and I'm writing from California, so
what do I know... Anyway, Kansas City is still popular, and Kansas City Kitty
(a little obscure, but a good old tune); the St. Louis Blues, Meet me in St.
Louis, Maple Leaf Rag (well, I don't think there are words, but Scott Joplin
was one of the real musical treasures of Missouri). I know an old fiddle tune
called The Ozarks Waltz, so there must be something else in the Ozarks besides
Branson. Didn't Bonnie and Clyde spend some time in Missouri? The late John
Hartford piloted a riverboat down the Mississippi. Mark Twain wrote about the
Mississippi, but I don't think he ever wrote songs. Well, that's a start.
GUS GARELICK
Maynard R. Johnson
>
> DWirth wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders using folk,and
> > country, songs having something to do with Missouri. Would anybody have any
> > suggestions?
>
shot Mister Howard, Has laid Jesse James in his grave" somewhere near
Independence or St. Joe, I've forgotten which.
2) See if you can locate a copy of Vance Randolph's "Ozark Folk Songs",
University of Missouri Press, I believe. It's a four volume set.
3) Cathy Barton and Dave Para have several CDs out with old folk songs
from Missouri, songs of the Civil War in Missouri. http://www.mid-mo.net/dpara/civilwar/
4) One Civil War song, the Battle of Pea Ridge refers to several
Missouri battles, and the defeat of General Stirling Price's Missouri
Confederate troops at Pea Ridge Arkansas. It was based on an older Ohio
song, St. Clair's Defeat. Lyrics to both and a midi file are at: http://members.aol.com/kitchiegal/smokepage2001.html#anchor1340399
--
Maynard Johnson
Kitchen Musician WWW Site
http://members.aol.com/kitchiegal/
Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddle
http://members.aol.com/kitchenboy/jink/jink.html/
Jim Lucas
>
> DWirth wrote:
>
> > I'm a music teacher planning a program with my 4th graders
> > using folk,and country, songs having something to do with
> > Missouri. Would anybody have any suggestions?
There must be one or more books of traditional songs collected in
Missouri, which I think would have broader significance than just songs
which mention Missouri. In my personal library I have collections of
songs from Vermont, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and
Michigan. Unfortunately, not one for Missouri, but I'm sure such must
exist.
Have you tried contacting universities in Missouri (or even nearby states)
to see if they might have such books, maybe even relevant manuscript
collections?
> Anyway, Kansas City is still popular,...
But one must be careful. Those from Missouri (my great uncle, for one)
can be sensitive about the distinction between Kansas City, Missouri and
Kansas City, Kansas. ;-)
/Jim Lucas
DWirth
material to keep me busy for some time to come.
--
Pax,
Dave Orleans
I see that you've got a full plate, but there is one more resource you should
look for. It may no longer be in print, but you may find it on some school
library shelf. (Assuming that you teach in Missouri, this seems right up your alley)
There is a songbook and cassette compilation of songs called "Missouri
Conservation Melodies", some created by teachers, and students, along with
some traditional songs that celebrate the natural history of the state.
Some information from the songbook follows:
Missouri Dept. of Conservation.
MISSOURI CONSERVATION MELODIES (SB&CS) Fine, Dixie Calvert, compiler. Michael
McIntosh, ed. ©1982, Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City,
MO 65102. 254 pp.
"This book is designed to be used primarily by music teachers, with song
activities suitable for classroom use. However, (it's) design is such that
anyone outside the classroom can use it.
A sing-along cassette tape is included, featuring twenty songs from this
book(*)." (Foreword)
Hojo2x
You already got "Jesse James," but there's also an excellent song called "The
Ballad of Cole Younger."
"Sweet Betsy From Pike" refers to folks from Pike County, Missouri.
"The Missouri Waltz" is a classic, as is "The Kansas City Blues."
"12th Street Rag" refers to when 12th Street in Kansas City was home to a
nearly endless strip of bars, gambling halls and sporting houses. This had
shrunk to one withered block of rather tame strip clubs when I was a kid, and I
don't know if any of those places are still there. But Robert Altman tried to
evoke the original Prohibition-era clubs in his film "Kansas City" a few years
ago, which has to stand as one of the worst movies ever made.
Soundtrack's great, though.
It was observed earlier in this thread that Kansas Citians >can be sensitive
about the distinction between Kansas City, Missouri and>Kansas City, Kansas.
Well, "sensitive" is a diplomatic way of putting it. "Snobbish" might be more
accurate.
It's like the difference between St. Louis and East St. Louis, although the
snobbery isn't as racially motivated as it is in the case of East St. Louis,
which is mostly poor and black. There are plenty of white folks in Kansas
City, Kansas, but it's still very much a working class town, much more so than
Kansas City, Missouri.
A fairly typical conversation between expatriate Kansas Citians might be: "Oh,
you're from KC, are you? Which one: KCMO or KCK?"
(pronounced "caseymo" and "caseykay")
If someone is from the Kansas side but not from Wyandotte County, which is
where Kansas City, Kansas is, he or she will quickly say: "I'm from Johnson
County, not KCK!"
To give you an idea of what KCK is like, after World War One returning veterans
raised the money to build a one half or one quarter size replica of the Arc
D'Triumphe, in stone, on a hillside overlooking the Argentine Railyard in KCK,
which is one of the largest rail freightyards in the world. It wasn't in a
remote part of town or off in a big park or anything, it was built at the end
of a street of houses which stand to this day.
Well, evidently no upkeep was provided for, because over the years trees grew
up around this towering stone arch (even as a scaled-down version it's still
several stories tall.)
And it was FORGOTTEN. Maybe the kids right in that neighborhood still climbed
around under it, but for SEVENTY YEARS this monument was totally forgotten by
the city government of KCK and everyone else.
I had certainly never heard of it, growing up just a few miles away.
A few years ago someone literally stumbled across it, the trees were cut down
and the stonework cleaned off, and now it's a jewel in the crown of Kansas
City, Kansas (such as it is.)
But how do you just flat LOSE something that big that hasn't run off on its
own?
Wade Hampton Miller
Estron
> Especially note, obviously, "SHENANDOAH" about the MO river. Your
> students may be interested to know that this song traveled East to
> become a sailors' song and then tended to change (the "folk process")
> and especially so in West Indian sailor versions. The phrase "bound
> away 'cross the wide Missouri" evolved into "bound away from this
> world of misery."
The excellent folk artists Rich Prezioso and Jacquie Manning, who
perform together as a duo called Small Potatoes, sing it that way in
concerts.
> You/they may wish to "contrast and compare" MO and/or school with a
> "world of misery."
If you have to exist in a world of misery, it might as well be in
Missouri, but Missouri is not ipso facto miserable.
--
All opinions are --surprise!-- only that.
Pax vobiscum.
est...@tfs.net
Kansas City, Missouri
Estron
> But one must be careful. Those from Missouri (my great uncle, for one)
> can be sensitive about the distinction between Kansas City, Missouri and
> Kansas City, Kansas. ;-)
Not to mention Kansas City, North, and North Kansas City.
Anyway, Kansas City, Missouri, is the one with the pro stadiums, the
weird sculpture over the convention center, and more than one tall
building downtown.
Kansas City, Kansas, is -- the other one.
John Fereira
There's a really wonderful song by Clare Lynch called "Peewee and Fern"
about two young people that found love in Missouri.
--
John Fereira
ja...@cornell.edu
Martin Grossman
"When I was in Missouri they would not let me be/
I had to leave there in a hurry/
I only saw what they let me see"
Netennis
Bloodlines album. There is a data base of his songs, about 500 of them, at
www.californiabloodlines.com. Just do a search for "Missouri Birds".
Gordon Kent