American Song

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American Song is an online collection with tens of thousands of tracks of songs that users listen to over the Internet – and it will continue to grow.

The songs include music that relates to almost every walk of American life, every ethnic group, and every time period. You’ll find songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. There are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and anti-war protests. And the genres encompass country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, shape note singing, doo-wop, Motown, R&B, soul, funk, and others.

What was the human impact of the industrial revolution? Listen to songs sung by coal miners (Eight Hour Day) to understand the long hours and strife that workers and their families endured. In the early 1900s, the backlash toward specific immigrant groups was expressed in songs such as No Irish Need Apply. Propaganda during World War II took the form of songs to inspire patriotism, as in I’m Gonna Put My Name Down and If You Want to Do Your Part. A people’s history is engraved in the music—from post-Reconstruction, through the Great Migration, to the Civil Rights movement—reflecting the struggles, triumphs, and unfolding journey of African Americans.

CONTENT

American Song will become the definitive source for American roots music and pre-1960 American popular music. Included are powerful recordings by artists such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Si Kahn, Lead Belly, Sleepy LaBeef, the New Lost City Ramblers, Otis Clay, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Nanci Griffith, The Lilly Brothers, Merle Travis, Ma Rainey, Mahalia Jackson, Alberta Hunter, Tampa Red, William “Bunk” Johnson, Duke Ellington, Sophie Tucker, Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Sarah Vaughn, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Big Joe Williams, Memphis Jug Band, Roosevelt Sykes, Dizzy Gillespie, Chicago River Kings, Muddy Waters, Skip James, Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson, Alberta Jones, Johnny Shines, Memphis Minnie, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Little Brother Montgomery, Speckled Red, Edith Wilson, Earl Hines, Eddie Johnson, Bobby Bradford, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, and hundreds more.

The music comes from labels including Rounder Records, Appleseed Recordings, Stax, Specialty Records, Testament Records, McNeil Music, Native Ground Music, Rebel Records, County Records, Smithsonian Folkways, Document Records, and many others.

HOW WILL YOU USE IT?

Songs like the following provide a rich source for understanding the American experience: New Massachusetts Liberty Song (1775); Hurrah for Grant! (1868 election song); Influenza Blues (1919); The Titanic Disaster (1912); The Battle of Saratoga (1777); The Ludlow Massacre (1914); Prohibition is a Failure; If You Miss Me From the Back of the Bus (Civil Rights song); The Wreck of the Old 97 (1903 railroad song); Chisolm Trail (cowboy song); The Harrison Song (War of 1812); Poor Paddy Works on the Railway (railroad song); I Rode Southern, I Rode L&N (railroad song); Zion’s Walls (shape note song); and tens of thousands more.

ALEXANDER STREET'S SEMANTIC INDEXING™

Deep indexing and multiple, combinable search fields allow you to search by artist, ensemble, label, geographical region, instrument, album, and time period. Specially created controlled vocabularies for genre, instrumentation, performer, and time period are musically authoritative and are applied consistently across all Alexander Street music collections.

Answers to queries such as find all songs with banjo or find all examples of songs that mention the Civil War or find all bluegrass music from Tennessee are a single click away. Browse lists can be sorted and then further narrowed. Once you identify the tracks they want, you will hear your selections over the Internet through your headphones or speakers.

 “Civilization is spread more by singing than by anything else, because whole big bunches can sing a particular song, where not every man can join in on the same conversation.”

—Woody Guthrie
 

TOOLS FOR INSTRUCTION AND PERSONAL LISTENING

Tools common to all our streaming music and video collections help direct individuals, instructors, and students:

• Personal playlists: Password-protected playlists are easy to create, save, and edit. Listen to your favorite songs, copy and paste from course folders, and even share your playlists with others.
• Course playlists: Librarians and educators can organize and share course music with students in a secure and simple way. This tool can either tie in with an existing digital audio reserve or serve as a standalone access point.
• Static URLs: All course folders and individual recordings reside at permanent URLs that can be emailed or posted to online teaching applications such as Blackboard. A new feature even lets you select precise sections within tracks and put them on reserve.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

American Song is available on the Web through annual subscription. The service works on PCs or Macs, and there is no set up—just point your browser. All the music is included in the comprehensive Music Online: Listening service.