Listen to the Mockingbird: American Folksongs and Popular Music Lyrics of the 19th Century (Green Integer)

In this important new collection, publisher Douglas Messerli has collected 80 lyrics of American folksongs and popular music from the 19th century. Some of these songs, particularly the African-American spirituals, chanteys and cowboy songs—are beautiful paens to the American way of living. But the vast majority, minstrel songs of the 19th century and Civil War ballads, are almost perverse in their black humor and sexual undertones. These lyrics will reveal that some of our favorite American song classics are highly representative of the the wild and open wilderness of a young American landscape.