Tradition and Artist Overview
American folk music spans our country’s geography and draws on traditions that pre-date the nation’s founding. Broadly defined, folk music is the music of regular, everyday people, and is an integral part of daily life. Folk music functions as an accompaniment to specific activities associated with work, social gatherings, and religious celebrations and other rituals. These songs are easy to sing, are passed down through generations, and can often be traced back to origins in Africa, Europe, and indigenous communities. The folk revival of the 1960s brought many old folk songs to the fore as vehicles for social change, when artists such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Odetta Holmes, and Pete Seeger contributed to the popularization of the genre.
Kaia is a musician who grew up in Toronto, Canada and lives in New York City. She went to college in Elkins, West Virginia to study folk music from the Appalachian mountains. She has performed original and folk music from all over the world–including the Savannah Music Festival!
Lesson 1: Learning “John Henry”
Students learn and sing “John Henry” while understanding how music can be used to tell a story.
Go to Lesson 1: Learning “John Henry” →
Lesson 2: Learning “Freight Train”
Students explore melody and banjo through the folk song “Freight Train.”
Learn More!
Reading:
- “Rhiannon Giddens and What Folk Music Means,” by John Jeremiah Sullivan (article in The New Yorker magazine, May 20, 2019)
- African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions, by Cecelia Conway
- Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia, by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr
- The Book of Children’s Songtales, by John Feierabend
- Kentucky Mother Goose: Songs and Stories from My Childhood, by Jean Ritchie (comes with CD!)
Listening:
Listen to the American Folk playlist on YouTube:
Viewing:
Additional Teaching Resources:
- The American Folksong Collection at the Kodaly Center of Holy Names University, features curricula for Grades 1 and 2.
- Smithsonian Folkways has a number of lesson plans on folk music of North America.
- The Max Hunter Collection is an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded in the late 20th century.
Unit 1: PDF Downloads
↓ SG 9 Tell the Story of John Henry
↓ SG 10 Write Your Own Tall Tale
Unit 1: Audio Tracks
Track 1.1 – “John Henry” Song
Track 1.2 – “Freight Train” Song
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