tradfolkpoll

[tradfolkpoll]

round 1 matchups

round 1 matchups are listed under the cut. since there are so many, i can't make a bracket chart right now; i'll probably make one once we're down to 64 songs and they can all comfortably fit on a chart in a font size that you don't have to strain to read

i've been working on the railroad vs wreck of the six wheeler

all the pretty little horses vs gallows pole

omie wise vs virgin mary

jelly jelly vs green grow the lilacs

stewball vs rising of the moon

lily of the west vs rose of aberdeen

there is balm in gilead vs john hardy

erie canal vs mi y'malel

sept ans sur mer vs skip to my lou

hob ich a por oksen vs feuilles-o

the e-ri-e vs roll the old chariot

the cuckoo vs samson and delilah

santiana vs wild mountain thyme

blind man lay beside the way vs wind and rain

el cañutero vs haul away joe

old blue vs lauterbach

rock island line vs rye whiskey

motherless child vs black is the colour of my trule love's hair

roving gambler vs turtle dove

jesse james vs oh miss i have a very fine farm

down by the riverside vs blackest crow

arkansas traveler vs hold the fort

streets of laredo vs one morning in may

liza up a 'simmon tree vs st james infirmary

sloop john b vs we shall overcome

the crawdad song vs the wagoner's lad

cotton eyed joe vs foreman monroe

wade in the water vs wild goose grasses

go tell it on the mountain vs careless love

i bought me a cat vs sea lion woman

jubilee vs froggie went a-courting

single girl, married girl vs the bailiff's daughter of islington

go down moses vs little joe the wrangler

the water is wide vs go tell aunt rhodie

storms are on the ocean vs come along john

frankie vs roll jordan roll

captain kidd vs midnight special

worried man blues vs the chickens they are crowing

joshua fit the battle of jericho vs jam on jerry's rocks

did you feed my cow vs trail of tears

jane jane vs colorado trail

take this hammer vs long lonesome road

dink's song vs molasses

five nights drunk vs pay day

make me a pallet on your floor vs cape cod girls

john the revelator vs all her answers were no

engine 143 vs every time i feel the spirit

diamond joe vs call of the moose

michael, row the boat ashore vs farther along

buffalo gals vs boston come-all-ye

wayfaring stranger vs undone in sorrow

the unquiet grave vs the moonshiner

the longest train i ever saw vs banks of the ohio

shenandoah vs this little light of mine

how can i keep from singing vs i ride an old paint

little black train vs this train is bound for glory

the riddle song vs railroad bill

grey goose vs goin' down the road feelin' bad

when first unto this country vs cripple creek

pretty saro vs song of the boatman

cotton mill girls vs wildwood flower

fatal flower garden vs cumberland gap

twelve gates to the city vs git along little dogies

sliding delta vs darby ram

when johnny comes marching home vs down in the willow garden

down by the bay vs darling corey

oh freedom vs old chisholm trail

another man done gone vs deep blue sea

john brown's body vs matty groves

wabash cannonball vs ell corrido de gregorio cortez

the wild wild berry vs

down to the river to pray vs casey jones

tom dooley vs la delgadina

the old soldier vs cindy

the e-ri-e vs poor working girl

avondale mine disaster vs sun will never go down

greenland whale fisheries vs the dodger song

way down the old plank road vs railroad boy

lost jimmie whalen vs shady grove

watercresses vs remon

stagolee vs clementine

pay me my money down vs la rancherita

bulbe vs young hunting

little brown bulls vs we shall not be moved

i never will marry vs the dying soldier to his shipmates

golden vanity vs scarborough fair

bury me not on the lone prairie vs ox driver's song

little moses vs didn't my lord deliver daniel

what shall we do with the baby-o vs twelve gates to the city

handsome molly vs cigarettes will spoil your life

whisky johnny vs pretty polly

when the stars begin to fall vs solidarity forever

in the pines vs bootlegger's story

buffalo skinners vs siss net alli daag luschdich leewe

hallelujah, i'm a bum vs ain't it a shame

silver dagger vs bring me a little water, silvie

i'll fly away vs evil hearted blues

las posadas vs no more auction block

the diggers' song vs sitting on top of the world

green grass grows all around vs big rock candy mountain

corrina, corrina vs columbus stockade blues

hold on vs wreck of the old 97

old joe clark vs soon be over

follow the drinking gourd vs de colores

peggy-o vs house carpenter

springfield mountain vs the foggy dew

come all ye fair and tender ladies vs don't let your deal go down

johnny has gone for a soldier vs steal away

railroadin' some vs jan jansen

love is pleasing vs the devil's nine questions

lonesome valley vs we shall be free

geordie vs when i first came to this land

red river valley vs leatherwing bat

scandalize my name vs boll weevil

you are my sunshine vs down in the valley

audubon zoo vs poor paddy works on the railway

on top of old smokey vs the cherry tree carol

three ravens vs schpinn, schpinn

she baked a hoecake vs see that my grave is kept clean

barbara allen vs take a whiff on me

polly vaughn vs skip to my lou

nine pound hammer vs the wild wild berry

no hiding place vs deep river blues

hares on the mountain vs der rebbe elimelech

john henry vs jenny jenkins

didn't old john cross the water vs bury me beneath the willow

skin and bones vs the fox

knoxville girl vs house of the rising sun

mary don't you weep vs going across the mountain

[tradfolkpoll]

of course the form itself is closed so please send any submissions to my inbox (on this blog or my main)

whoever submitted cumberland gap -- the link you included redirects to black is the colour of my true love's hair; if you want to submit a link to a version of cumberland gap you're welcome to do so but you have until the end of the day, otherwise i will unfortunately have to exclude the song from the tournament

[tradfolkpoll]

same goes for buffalo gals, which seems to redirect to stewball. possibly this is a screwup with the spreadsheet but regardless since i don't have a version to use i can't include them

whoever submitted cumberland gap -- the link you included redirects to black is the colour of my true love's hair; if you want to submit a link to a version of cumberland gap you're welcome to do so but you have until the end of the day, otherwise i will unfortunately have to exclude the song from the tournament

[tradfolkpoll]

whoever submitted cumberland gap -- the link you included redirects to black is the colour of my true love's hair; if you want to submit a link to a version of cumberland gap you're welcome to do so but you have until the end of the day, otherwise i will unfortunately have to exclude the song from the tournament

[tradfolkpoll]

btw, ive finished compiling the songs into a list; i’ll get to work shortly creating polls & i’ll try to have the first few up by the end of the week

[tradfolkpoll]

Hi, do you have any date in mind you're gonna start the trad folk tournament? Or is everything still in progress? I hope i dont come across as pushy, i'm just very excited for it

no you're all good! i've been combing through submissions & i'm about 1/3 of the way through, unfortunately i had to pause for a bit bc i'm kind of swamped with school (my thesis is due this week) but my goal is to have round 1 up by the end of the month (no promises tho bc it is kind of a lot of work)

[tradfolkpoll]

submissions are now closed! i'll get to work sorting through them and we'll start the tournament as soon as possible

american traditional folk song tournament

welcome to the american traditional folk song tournament! submissions for the first round of polls are currently open. the submission form can be found below. op can be found at @murderballadeer.

rules for submissions

for the purposes of having a clear definition and not getting stuck debating genre categories, the only admissible songs are songs originating from oral traditions (ie, of unknown, collaborative or uncertain authorship. uncertain and collaborative are key here – some songs may be attributed to an author; what is most important is that they are sufficiently old and that there are multiple attested versions that differ from each other due to oral transmission) and attested in at least one folk tradition in the united states. they do not have to originate from those traditions (eg, feel free to submit one or more of the many ballads attested in appalachia that ultimately originate in the british isles, or black american folk songs with roots in africa or the caribbean), but must be attested in them. this is not a value judgment about other folk traditions or other kinds of songs; i (the admin) study american folk music academically and am running this poll out of personal interest and i am better equipped to categorize songs from those traditions.

if the song you are submitting is a child ballad and/or listed in the roud folk song index, please include the number it occupies on either list as it will help me with categorization, particularly in the case of songs which go by multiple titles (if multiple people submit the same song by several titles, i will be able to consolidate them if i know the roud or child number). the list of child ballads can be found here and a list of folk songs by roud number can be found here. neither list is exhaustive and you are more than welcome to submit songs that do not appear on either.

it is very common for traditional folk songs to be known by multiple different titles. if you know this is the case for your song, feel free to include several titles, as it will help me with categorization. if you only know one title, just go with that; i don't care if there end up being more i just ask that as a courtesy to me you include whichever titles you are aware of.

please include at least one example recording of your song. a link to youtube or spotify is preferred as it saves me some work but you can also just tell me the name of the artist.

you are not required to include additional information, but you are strongly encouraged to do so as it makes things more interesting for everyone

[tradfolkpoll]

submissions close tonight at midnight est!! get your songs in now or forever hold your peace!!

american traditional folk song tournament

welcome to the american traditional folk song tournament! submissions for the first round of polls are currently open. the submission form can be found below. op can be found at @murderballadeer.

rules for submissions

for the purposes of having a clear definition and not getting stuck debating genre categories, the only admissible songs are songs originating from oral traditions (ie, of unknown, collaborative or uncertain authorship. uncertain and collaborative are key here – some songs may be attributed to an author; what is most important is that they are sufficiently old and that there are multiple attested versions that differ from each other due to oral transmission) and attested in at least one folk tradition in the united states. they do not have to originate from those traditions (eg, feel free to submit one or more of the many ballads attested in appalachia that ultimately originate in the british isles, or black american folk songs with roots in africa or the caribbean), but must be attested in them. this is not a value judgment about other folk traditions or other kinds of songs; i (the admin) study american folk music academically and am running this poll out of personal interest and i am better equipped to categorize songs from those traditions.

if the song you are submitting is a child ballad and/or listed in the roud folk song index, please include the number it occupies on either list as it will help me with categorization, particularly in the case of songs which go by multiple titles (if multiple people submit the same song by several titles, i will be able to consolidate them if i know the roud or child number). the list of child ballads can be found here and a list of folk songs by roud number can be found here. neither list is exhaustive and you are more than welcome to submit songs that do not appear on either.

it is very common for traditional folk songs to be known by multiple different titles. if you know this is the case for your song, feel free to include several titles, as it will help me with categorization. if you only know one title, just go with that; i don't care if there end up being more i just ask that as a courtesy to me you include whichever titles you are aware of.

please include at least one example recording of your song. a link to youtube or spotify is preferred as it saves me some work but you can also just tell me the name of the artist.

you are not required to include additional information, but you are strongly encouraged to do so as it makes things more interesting for everyone

[tradfolkpoll]

update on the songs that have already been submitted 3 or more times

list under the cut; you can keep submitting them if you think your favourite versions are obscure enough that they won't already have been included but believe me the songs themselves won't go unrecognized

shenandoah (6)

wayfaring stranger (5)

in the pines (5)

barbara allen (5)

darling corey (4)

pretty saro (3)

wagoner's lad (3)

the cuckoo (3)

black is the color of my true love's hair (3)

the water is wide (3)

i never will marry (3)

house of the rising sun (3)

hares on the mountain (3)

wildwood flower (3)

red river valley (3)

john henry (3)

shady grove (3)

bury me not on the lone prairie (3)

rock island line (3)

streets of laredo (3)

the devil's nine questions (3)

bury me beneath the willow (3)

stewball (3)

turtle dove (3)

john hardy (3)

michael row the boat ashore (3)

santiana (3)

900 miles (3)

clementine (3)

[tradfolkpoll]

another thing i will add is that copyright & legal attribution can be misleading, a famous example is that for a time lead belly was credited as the author of midnight special because john lomax misinterpreted what he was told about the song and believed it to be an original composition rather than a folk song. elsewhere, a.p. carter is credited as the author of a number of songs he did not write because the carter family were the first to record them and he ended up being listed as the author for copyright reasons

american traditional folk song tournament

welcome to the american traditional folk song tournament! submissions for the first round of polls are currently open. the submission form can be found below. op can be found at @murderballadeer.

rules for submissions

for the purposes of having a clear definition and not getting stuck debating genre categories, the only admissible songs are songs originating from oral traditions (ie, of unknown, collaborative or uncertain authorship. uncertain and collaborative are key here – some songs may be attributed to an author; what is most important is that they are sufficiently old and that there are multiple attested versions that differ from each other due to oral transmission) and attested in at least one folk tradition in the united states. they do not have to originate from those traditions (eg, feel free to submit one or more of the many ballads attested in appalachia that ultimately originate in the british isles, or black american folk songs with roots in africa or the caribbean), but must be attested in them. this is not a value judgment about other folk traditions or other kinds of songs; i (the admin) study american folk music academically and am running this poll out of personal interest and i am better equipped to categorize songs from those traditions.

if the song you are submitting is a child ballad and/or listed in the roud folk song index, please include the number it occupies on either list as it will help me with categorization, particularly in the case of songs which go by multiple titles (if multiple people submit the same song by several titles, i will be able to consolidate them if i know the roud or child number). the list of child ballads can be found here and a list of folk songs by roud number can be found here. neither list is exhaustive and you are more than welcome to submit songs that do not appear on either.

it is very common for traditional folk songs to be known by multiple different titles. if you know this is the case for your song, feel free to include several titles, as it will help me with categorization. if you only know one title, just go with that; i don't care if there end up being more i just ask that as a courtesy to me you include whichever titles you are aware of.

please include at least one example recording of your song. a link to youtube or spotify is preferred as it saves me some work but you can also just tell me the name of the artist.

you are not required to include additional information, but you are strongly encouraged to do so as it makes things more interesting for everyone

[tradfolkpoll]

i've gotten some questions about the "unknown or uncertain authorship" thing, which is my fault because it was misleading in terms of what i actually meant, so i've updated the description to clarify that i meant they should have come about through oral transmission and collaboration – it's okay if there is attribution to an author at some point as long as it is clear that the different versions in existence today came about through some degree of collaboration and folk process

american traditional folk song tournament

welcome to the american traditional folk song tournament! submissions for the first round of polls are currently open. the submission form can be found below. op can be found at @murderballadeer.

rules for submissions

for the purposes of having a clear definition and not getting stuck debating genre categories, the only admissible songs are songs originating from oral traditions (ie, of unknown, collaborative or uncertain authorship. uncertain and collaborative are key here – some songs may be attributed to an author; what is most important is that they are sufficiently old and that there are multiple attested versions that differ from each other due to oral transmission) and attested in at least one folk tradition in the united states. they do not have to originate from those traditions (eg, feel free to submit one or more of the many ballads attested in appalachia that ultimately originate in the british isles, or black american folk songs with roots in africa or the caribbean), but must be attested in them. this is not a value judgment about other folk traditions or other kinds of songs; i (the admin) study american folk music academically and am running this poll out of personal interest and i am better equipped to categorize songs from those traditions.

if the song you are submitting is a child ballad and/or listed in the roud folk song index, please include the number it occupies on either list as it will help me with categorization, particularly in the case of songs which go by multiple titles (if multiple people submit the same song by several titles, i will be able to consolidate them if i know the roud or child number). the list of child ballads can be found here and a list of folk songs by roud number can be found here. neither list is exhaustive and you are more than welcome to submit songs that do not appear on either.

it is very common for traditional folk songs to be known by multiple different titles. if you know this is the case for your song, feel free to include several titles, as it will help me with categorization. if you only know one title, just go with that; i don't care if there end up being more i just ask that as a courtesy to me you include whichever titles you are aware of.

please include at least one example recording of your song. a link to youtube or spotify is preferred as it saves me some work but you can also just tell me the name of the artist.

you are not required to include additional information, but you are strongly encouraged to do so as it makes things more interesting for everyone

[tradfolkpoll]

gotten some questions that make me think i need to update + clarify the admissibility guidelines a little bit so stay tuned for that later tonight or tomorrow, in the meantime feel free to keep asking questions as they arise

[tradfolkpoll]

i love shenandoah too but again just so you guys know it is in no danger of going unrecognized

btw you guys can keep submitting songs but pls don't submit wayfaring stranger anymore unless you're confident that the recording you're submitting is obscure enough that the five people who previously submitted that song won't have known about it

[tradfolkpoll]

similarly you can stop submitting shenandoah now seeing as it's been submitted six times

btw you guys can keep submitting songs but pls don't submit wayfaring stranger anymore unless you're confident that the recording you're submitting is obscure enough that the five people who previously submitted that song won't have known about it

[tradfolkpoll]

Hi, can i ask how many song requests you got for the tournament? I'm still submitting some, but maybe it's already fool and they won't take part in it anyway?

we're up to 308 submissions and a total of 213 unique songs! which means in theory there are 43 slots to fill but there are also some songs in there that i suspect aren't actually eligible but haven't had the time to check up on so there may be more spots than that to fill

[tradfolkpoll]

we now have 263 submissions for a total of 186 songs. my current plan is to leave the form open until the end of the week (sunday, february 16th) to see if we make it to 256 (in which case i will run the tournament with 128 polls in round 1). if we don't make it to 256 i will figure out how to get us to the correct number; i will most likely either eliminate songs at random (using a random number generator) or run some 3- or 4-way polls in round 1

american traditional folk song tournament

welcome to the american traditional folk song tournament! submissions for the first round of polls are currently open. the submission form can be found below. op can be found at @murderballadeer.

rules for submissions

for the purposes of having a clear definition and not getting stuck debating genre categories, the only admissible songs are songs originating from oral traditions (ie, of unknown or uncertain authorship) and attested in at least one folk tradition in the united states. they do not have to originate from those traditions (eg, feel free to submit one or more of the many ballads attested in appalachia that ultimately originate in the british isles, or black american folk songs with roots in africa or the caribbean), but must be attested in them. this is not a value judgment about other folk traditions or other kinds of songs; i (the admin) study american folk music academically and am running this poll out of personal interest and i am better equipped to categorize songs from those traditions.

if the song you are submitting is a child ballad and/or listed in the roud folk song index, please include the number it occupies on either list as it will help me with categorization, particularly in the case of songs which go by multiple titles (if multiple people submit the same song by several titles, i will be able to consolidate them if i know the roud or child number). the list of child ballads can be found here and a list of folk songs by roud number can be found here. neither list is exhaustive and you are more than welcome to submit songs that do not appear on either.

it is very common for traditional folk songs to be known by multiple different titles. if you know this is the case for your song, feel free to include several titles, as it will help me with categorization. if you only know one title, just go with that; i don't care if there end up being more i just ask that as a courtesy to me you include whichever titles you are aware of.

please include at least one example recording of your song. a link to youtube or spotify is preferred as it saves me some work but you can also just tell me the name of the artist.

you are not required to include additional information, but you are strongly encouraged to do so as it makes things more interesting for everyone

[tradfolkpoll]

didn’t realize the askbox was closed and that was why people were sending asks to my main blog instead — it’s open now so feel free to send questions here (but i don’t mind if you prefer to keep sending them to my main instead)