Date:         Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:46:28 -0500
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
              <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
              <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Joel Bresler <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      "Follow the Drinking Gourd" website
Comments: To: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
In-Reply-To:  <[log in to unmask]>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed

Dear colleagues:

I hope this item is of interest to some of you 
and, for libraries, perhaps your patrons as well.

Sincerely,

Joel

---

I am happy to announce that my website devoted to 
the history and cultural history of the American 
folk song Follow the Drinking Gourd has now 
launched. The site may be accessed here: www.followthedrinkinggourd.org

Much of the song’s enduring appeal derives from 
its perceived status as a unique, historical 
remnant harkening back to the pre-Civil War South 
– no other such map songs survive. But the song 
as it appears in roughly 200 recordings, dozens 
of songbooks, several award-winning children's 
books and many other places could not possibly 
have been sung by escaping slaves. The signature 
line in the chorus, "for the old man is awaitin' 
for to carry you to freedom," was written by Lee 
Hays eighty years after the end of the Civil War.

Previous explanations of the Drinking Gourd song 
– whatever their accuracy – at least had the 
virtue of being internally consistent and neatly 
compelling! I look at how the song has been 
interpreted over the last 10 years – wrongly, I 
believe, in virtually all the existing websites, 
teacher’s guides, books and other media 
addressing it. I then examine how this flawed 
research assumed its current dominant position.

I believe that versions of the Drinking Gourd 
song were sung by black Americans dating back to 
at least the early 20th century, and likely 
earlier than that. However, I propose a tentative 
new theory to explain the song, which holds that 
there was no Drinking Gourd song complete with 
map information sung in the antebellum South.

Appendices include a timeline, samples of 23 of 
the over 200 recorded versions of the song, and 
an analysis of the adult and children’s books 
based on the song. There is more to come.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Joel Bresler
Independent Researcher




Joel Bresler
250 E. Emerson Rd.
Lexington, MA 02420
USA

781-862-4104 (Telephone & FAX)
[log in to unmask]
IN CASE OF VERIZON EMAIL PROBLEMS, PLEASE USE MY BACK-UP EMAIL:
joelbresler-at-gmail.com