Bullfrog Jumped: Children's Folksongs from the Byron Arnold Collection

by Bullfrog Jumped: Children's Fol

Overview

In the summer of 1945, musicologist Byron Arnold set out to collect traditional Alabaman folksongs. Armed at first with blank sheet music and, two years later, a portable recording device borrowed from the University of Alabama's speech department (machinery was scarce due to the war), Arnold collected roughly 600 songs, among them a staggering quantity of children's songs. These schoolyard rhymes, chants, and song-games were gathered from 16 singers, all of them women. They were often recorded in the singers' own homes, and because of this the recordings often take on the quality of old snapshots: a bird sings in the background, a train whistle howls. They're glimpses of a then-vanishing America -- a nation that still knew, often first-hand, the folklore, lullabies, and ballads handed down from the previous century. Once he returned to the university with his findings, Arnold tried his best to transfer the fragile recording discs to tape; unfortunately, the project was never completed. The reel-to-reel tapes, remaining discs, and written transcriptions were locked up in the University of Alabama's W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library after Arnold died in 1971. His recordings have been collected elsewhere, but the children's songs, up until this collection, have never before been gathered up in one fell swoop. Richly annotated, including 70-odd pages of lyrics and biographical notes, Bullfrog Jumped gathers 42 children's songs from the Arnold collection, many of them pulled from the reel-to-reel tapes, quite a few of them extracted from the original discs. These selections can sound more than a little rough; the initial recording conditions were simple at best, and the discs sustained some damage during their stay in the library. But if the production lacks the crispness of similar folk recordings (the startlingly clear Lomax recordings, for example), it in no way diminishes the necessity of this collection. Represented among the vocalists are various schoolteachers, mothers, and grandmothers, including a 45-year-old housekeeper named Vera Hall, who eventually went on to be recorded by Lomax and, in the late '90s, remixed by Moby on Play. Many of these songs, like "All the Pretty Horses," "Frog Went A-Courting," and "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," are immediately recognizable, while other songs, like "Old Shiboots and Leggings," "When I Was a Young Girl," and "Springfield Mountain," are utterly unfamiliar. What's fascinating is they seem familiar. These songs serve as a window into the past, a glimpse of family life in an extinct America. These are deeply human relics. ~ Margaret Reges

Product Details

Release Date:	01/16/2007
Label:	ALABAMA FOLKLIFE
UPC:	0687474146825

Tracks

1. Tic Toc  - Annie Laurie Carleton
2. All the Little Horses  - Pansy Richardson
3. If You Can't Thread the Needle  - Jane Peavy
4. Two Little Gentlemen from the Spring  - Mozella Longmire
5. Shoemaker Song  - Katherine Leggitte
6. Riggity Jig  - Martha Drisdale
7. Old Gray Goose  - Callie Craven
8. All the Pretty Little Ponies  - Jane Peavy
9. Old Pompey  - Pansy Richardson
10. Rebel Dog  - Laurie Cater Carleton
11. A-Tisket, A-Tasket  - Mozella Longmire
12. The Old Gray Cat  - Martha Drisdale
13. Too Daddle Addle  - Julia Greer Marechal
14. The Little White Daisies  - Pansy Richardson
15. Cornbread Crumbled in Gravy  - Mary Chapman
16. Old Shiboots and Leggings  - Callie Craven
17. O Johnny Dear  - Myrtle Love Hester
18. Skip to My Lou My Darling  - Pansy Richardson
19. Little Sally Walker  - Mozella Longmire
20. Bullfrog Jumped  - Laurie Cater Carleton
21. Paper of Pins  - Julia Greer Marechal
22. Lank Dank Kimo  - Janie Couch
23. Little Lap Dog  - Vera Hall
24. Green Gravel  - Martha Drisdale
25. Miss Jenny O. Jones  - Pansy Richardson
26. All the Pretty Horses  - Julia Greer Marechal
27. Ain't Gonna Rain No More  - Vera Hall
28. King Williams Was King James's Son  - Pansy Richardson
29. Like a Leaf or Feather  - Martha Drisdale
30. Springfield Mountain  - May Randlette Beck
31. Shoo Rye  - Mozella Longmire
32. Frog Went A-Courting  - May Randlette Beck
33. Bower of Roses  - Martha Drisdale
34. Dance to Your Daddy  - Kate Newton Middleton
35. Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grows  - Pansy Richardson
36. Trotting Song  - Kate Newton Middleton
37. Riding in a Buggy  - Vera Hall
38. Here Comes Someone A' Roving  - Pansy Richardson
39. What'cha Gonna Do?  - Kate Newton Middleton
40. Feed the Animals  - Mae Erskine Irvine
41. The Farmer  - Martha Drisdale
42. When I Was a Young Girl  - Julia Greer Marechal

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Vera Hall   Primary Artist
Myrtle Love Hester   Primary Artist
Katherine Leggitte   Primary Artist
Kate Newton Middleton   Primary Artist
Mozella Longmire   Primary Artist
Laurie Cater Carleton   Primary Artist
Annie Laurie Carleton   Primary Artist
Mae Erskine Irvine   Primary Artist
Pansy Richardson   Primary Artist
Martha Drisdale   Primary Artist
May Randlette Beck   Primary Artist
Mary Chapman   Primary Artist
Callie Craven   Primary Artist
Janie Couch   Primary Artist
Jane Peavy   Primary Artist
Julia Greer Marechal   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Joyce Cauthen   Producer
Alan Lomax   Photography
Scott Fuller   Graphic Design