Folksongs of Another America

A set comprising five compact disks, a DVD, and a book, this includes 175 representative performances by more than 200 singers and musicians, biographical sketches and photographs of performers, as well as transcriptions, translations, and annotations for songs in twenty-five languages.

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America's Upper Midwest is a distinctive region wherein a staggering array of indigenous, immigrant, and enslaved peoples have collectively maintained, merged, and modified their folk song traditions for more than two centuries. During the 1930s and 1940s, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Alan Lomax, and Helene Stratman?Thomas set up field studios in homes, hotels, community halls, church basements, and parks throughout Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to record roughly 2000 folksongs and tunes. Since the late 1970s, working incrementally with many generous individuals, partners, and organizations, folklorist Jim Leary has been part of a movement bent on bringing this body of extraordinary folk music of the Upper Midwest to the attention of the larger public. Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946, to be published in fall 2014 by the University of Wisconsin Press, combines five compact disks, a DVD, and a book. Focusing on 175 representative performances by more than 200 singers and musicians - and including biographical sketches and photographs of performers, as well as transcriptions, translations, and annotations for songs in all twenty-five languages.