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An Evolving Tradition

The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music

An Evolving Tradition cover

An Evolving Tradition

The Child Ballads in Modern Folk and Rock Music

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Description

The Child Ballads are a series of over 300 traditional ballads from England and Scotland that, along with their American variants, were anthologized by folklorist Francis James Child in the nineteenth century. An Evolving Tradition is the story of the Child Ballads—the world’s best-known and most highly regarded repository of traditional English folk songs, and the wellspring for approximately 10,000 recordings over the last century, from obscure musicological archives to classic releases from Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and Led Zeppelin.
Drawing on interviews with numerous scholars and musicians, author Dave Thompson explains what a ballad is, outlines their dominant themes, and recounts how these ballads survived to become a mainstay of field recordings made by Cecil Sharp, Alan Lomax, and others as they traveled the English and American countryside in search of old songs. Thompson traverses the entire spectrum of rock, pop, folk, roots, experimental music, industrial, and goth to reveal the remarkable legacy and incalculable influence of the Child Ballads on all manner of modern music.

Product details

Published Jul 15 2023
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 544
ISBN 9781493068241
Imprint Backbeat
Illustrations 67 b/w photos
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

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