Steamboatin' Days

It is a book that gets hold of you at once. steamboat river packets, those vessels carrying dispatches, mail, passengers, and goods and having fixed sailing dates, are a rich source of folksongs. This collection is decidedly one of the best books on American folksongs that has been published. reason for this lies in the broad and deep touch of human nature in the soul of the editor, in her consummate knowledge of music, in her thorough acquaintance with the river packets, and her earnest work in collecting the songs and the stories. editor tells us in her Preface that in the beginning she set out to collect only the words and the melodies of the songs, but that she soon realized that some facts about the songs and the singers-in other words, Negro stories-should accompany the songs. As Miss Wheeler says, The background and thoughts of the folk singer are so inseparably associated with the song itself. And how thankful we are for these stories! What a picture of life on the rivers-the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Mississippi! These stories are almost as good as the songs. They are real folklore. information about the packets is historically important. They are a thing of the past for the most part. Our trains, buses, and trucks are now the carriers. first steamboat on the Ohio was built in Pittsburgh in 8I I and the most romantic period of the packet was just prior to and following the War between the States. At that time they were actually floating river palaces. I count eighty-seven items on a dinner menu card for I879 which is quoted in the Introduction. And what inviting juicy dishes they are! form of the book is unusual. Its size is io by 7inches. Its color is maize with a picture of a steamboat stamped on the front cover. illustrations are good, especially those of the steamboats and the view of the Paducah river front in I873. Dedication reads: To the Courageous Pioneers and Boatmen Who Made the Rivers a Course of Empire and to the Humble Minstrels Whose Songs Have Preserved for Us Something of an Era That Is Gone

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Ballad · Folklore · Literature · Melody · Musical · Poetry · Romance · Soul · Train · Visual arts · History · Music History and Culture · Philosophy

• Stack Lee

  George M Eberhαrt, George M Eberhart•Popular Music & Society•1996

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