folk·lore (’fōk׳lôr),
n. Traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances or art forms preserved among
a people
The American Folklore project was born one night in a tiny cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Over the next three years, we wrote songs to tell the tales of these characters the way they were told to us when we were children and to preserve the stories that help make America truly American.
Paul Bunyan
As any good lumberjack will tell you, there never was a greater man than Paul Bunyan. When Paul was born, it took 5 storks to deliver him to his parents instead of 1. When he was a child, he could holler so loud, it would scare the fish out of the lakes and rivers. By the time he was 5 years old he was 6 feet tall and outworked any man around. And by the time he was ten, he was full grown at 10 feet tall. With his double edged axe, he could chop down a dozen trees with one swing.
Now back in those days, the whole country was covered with trees. The farmers had no room to farm so they asked Paul to clear the land. He set off to work and by the time he was done, he had created The Great Plains. He figured that after that tough job, he’d take a bath in the Pacific Ocean. He was so tired that on his way, he dragged his axe and that’s what formed the Grand Canyon.
One night in January, way up north, it got so cold that the snow turned blue. Paul and the other lumberjacks had a hard time staying warm due to the flames freezing up. All of the sudden, they heard something outside. Paul went out to see what was making so much racket and that’s when he found a baby ox that had turned blue because of the cold. Paul took that little blue ox inside and named her Babe. From that point forward, Paul and Babe were best friends.
Pecos Bill
Pecos Bill, as everyone knows, is the greatest cowboy that ever lived. But before he was a cowboy, he was a boy. And before that he was a baby. And when he was a baby, he fell out of the wagon while his family headed west. A pack of coyotes found him and raised him up as if he were one of their own. He grew up tough as an old piece of leather and as fast as a jack rabbit. At age 13, he realized he wasn’t like the other coyotes so he set off on his own. He met up with some cowboys and went to work roping and wrangling cattle. One day Bill and the other cowboys got cornered by pack of rattlesnakes. Bill fought with the snakes until he wore them out. Then he tied them all together and invented the lasso.
Another time, while driving cattle, Bill saw the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She was riding a giant catfish down the Rio Grande. Her name was Slue Foot Sue and Bill fell instantly in love with her. He proposed to Sue right away and the two got married. After the honeymoon, they were headed back to town when a huge tornado came twisting through. It was about to destroy the town when Bill jumped onto it’s back and rode it like a bucking bronco until it disintegrated.
Bill, like all cowboys, had a horse. But Bill’s horse was the meanest, nastiest horse that ever was. Widow Maker was his name and Bill was the only one tough enough to ride him. That is until Slue Foot Sue hopped on Widow Maker’s back. That horse was so furious that he bucked Sue off 100 feet in the air. She started to bounce on her bustle and soon went so high that she bumped her head on the moon. Bill figured she learned her lesson and lassoed her before she bounced clear to outer space.
Johnny Appleseed
Before Johnny Appleseed, there was hardly any fruit to eat in this country. You could find some berries and a pear tree or two, but Johnny knew that what this country needed was some good apple trees. His father ran a nursery out east and he taught Johnny how to raise plants and trees. When Johnny was old enough, he set out west to cover the land with apple trees.
Now Johnny had a vision and his vision was for everyone to have apple trees. Many good things are born of apples; apple pie, apple cider, apple sauce and apple jack to name a few. Johnny knew that if he could find a way to distribute apple trees, no one would ever go without any of these tasty treats.
Around that time, there were settlements popping up all over the Midwest and that is exactly where you could find Johnny. He would travel ahead of those settlements and claim land on which he would start an apple orchard. As people came through, he would sell them saplings and teach them how to care for them. And when his orchards grew up, he would leave town and start all over again. Every now and then, he would stop back into town to see how his trees were doing.
Johnny never really had a place he called home. While he had a lot of friends that were happy to feed him and give him a warm bed to sleep in, he spent most of his nights sleeping under the stars. That’s where Johnny Appleseed was happiest; out in the wilderness with the animals.
Rip Van Winkle
There once was a man named Rip Van Winkle who loved nothing more than sleep. Now don’t get me wrong, he loved his wife and he loved his farm, he just loved sleep more. He would sleep in late every morning. He made sure he squeezed in a nap or two every afternoon. And of course, he tried to make it to bed early every night.
Everyone he knew called him lazy, and that included his wife. She was always on his case to get out of bed and get to work on the farm. He didn’t much care though; he went on doing things at his own pace. That resulted in a farm that didn’t grow too many crops and he and his wife were very poor. Rip didn’t mind though, as long as he got to sleep his days away.
One day, after taking a nap in the forest, Rip was slowly making his way back to the farm when he met a man in the trail. They struck up a conversation and after a while the man offered Rip some bread and wine. They talked for a while longer and said their goodbyes. Rip started toward home again but it seems the wine made him a bit sleepy. So, he propped himself up against a tree and closed his eyes for another afternoon nap in the sun. And that is where Rip Van Winkle spent the next 20 years; sleeping under that tree.
When he woke up, he had no idea that so much time had passed. As he made his way back home, he noticed that things looked different, grown up. He passed people he had never seen before and houses that weren’t there before his nap. He discovered his house had been torn down and his wife had left him. Rip Van Winkle just smiled and propped himself up under a tree and took a long nap.
Casey Jones
A hundred years ago, before everyone drove cars and trucks, railroads crisscrossed our great country. Every train needed an engineer and there was never one greater than Casey Jones. If anyone could get a train to the station on time, he was the man that could do it. Everybody in that part of the country knew when Casey was coming down the tracks by the sound his whistle made. You could hear that whistle a mile away and when you heard it, you knew it could only be Casey Jones.
One stormy April night in the year 1900, Casey’s train, the 382, was off to a late start. They departed from Memphis, Tennessee on their way to Canton, Mississippi. It was a light load and Casey attempted to make the trip in record time. As he rounded a curve near Vaughn Mississippi, Casey saw trouble ahead. Another train had broken down and the caboose, along with several other cars, sat in the way of Casey’s train. He pulled on the brake with all his might but it was too late. The 382 crashed into the stalled train causing a tremendous wreck. It is said that when they found Casey’s body, he was still hanging on to that brake. He managed to save the life of everyone else on the train.
John Henry
Back in the 1800’s, when the country was new, the railroads were very important. People used the railroad for transportation and to ship materials from one place to another. It took a lot of people working together to build the railroad. Land had to be cleared, trees cut, and the rails had to be laid down and held in place with large metal spikes. All this was done by hand and no one was as good at it as John Henry.
John Henry was born into slavery somewhere in Alabama. He grew up to be big and strong and was eventually freed from slavery. He went to work on the railroad and gained a reputation for being the best spike driver around. With his big hammer, John could drive twice as many spikes as any other man in his crew. He was a loyal, dedicated worker who ate, slept and breathed the railroad.
One day, a salesman came into town with a brand new spike driving machine. The man said the machine would do the work of 2 men. When John Henry heard about this machine, he challenged the salesman to a contest. He would race the spike driving machine to prove that a machine was not as good a worker as a man.
The next day was a warm one with the sun shining and without a cloud in the sky. John Henry lined up against the machine and the two went to work. The machine was a formidable opponent and at times it looked like the machine would win. But in the last 100 yards, the machine began to break down. John knew he could win but he pushed himself even harder so he would leave no doubt who was better. John crossed the finish line first that day and everyone cheered. In all the excitement, John Henry collapsed and died right on the tracks. He proved he was better than the machine but had worked himself to death in the process.
The American Folklore project was born one night in a tiny cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Over the next three years, we wrote songs to tell the tales of these characters the way they were told to us when we were children and to preserve the stories that help make America truly American.
Paul Bunyan
As any good lumberjack will tell you, there never was a greater man than Paul Bunyan. When Paul was born, it took 5 storks to deliver him to his parents instead of 1. When he was a child, he could holler so loud, it would scare the fish out of the lakes and rivers. By the time he was 5 years old he was 6 feet tall and outworked any man around. And by the time he was ten, he was full grown at 10 feet tall. With his double edged axe, he could chop down a dozen trees with one swing.
Now back in those days, the whole country was covered with trees. The farmers had no room to farm so they asked Paul to clear the land. He set off to work and by the time he was done, he had created The Great Plains. He figured that after that tough job, he’d take a bath in the Pacific Ocean. He was so tired that on his way, he dragged his axe and that’s what formed the Grand Canyon.
One night in January, way up north, it got so cold that the snow turned blue. Paul and the other lumberjacks had a hard time staying warm due to the flames freezing up. All of the sudden, they heard something outside. Paul went out to see what was making so much racket and that’s when he found a baby ox that had turned blue because of the cold. Paul took that little blue ox inside and named her Babe. From that point forward, Paul and Babe were best friends.
Pecos Bill
Pecos Bill, as everyone knows, is the greatest cowboy that ever lived. But before he was a cowboy, he was a boy. And before that he was a baby. And when he was a baby, he fell out of the wagon while his family headed west. A pack of coyotes found him and raised him up as if he were one of their own. He grew up tough as an old piece of leather and as fast as a jack rabbit. At age 13, he realized he wasn’t like the other coyotes so he set off on his own. He met up with some cowboys and went to work roping and wrangling cattle. One day Bill and the other cowboys got cornered by pack of rattlesnakes. Bill fought with the snakes until he wore them out. Then he tied them all together and invented the lasso.
Another time, while driving cattle, Bill saw the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She was riding a giant catfish down the Rio Grande. Her name was Slue Foot Sue and Bill fell instantly in love with her. He proposed to Sue right away and the two got married. After the honeymoon, they were headed back to town when a huge tornado came twisting through. It was about to destroy the town when Bill jumped onto it’s back and rode it like a bucking bronco until it disintegrated.
Bill, like all cowboys, had a horse. But Bill’s horse was the meanest, nastiest horse that ever was. Widow Maker was his name and Bill was the only one tough enough to ride him. That is until Slue Foot Sue hopped on Widow Maker’s back. That horse was so furious that he bucked Sue off 100 feet in the air. She started to bounce on her bustle and soon went so high that she bumped her head on the moon. Bill figured she learned her lesson and lassoed her before she bounced clear to outer space.
Johnny Appleseed
Before Johnny Appleseed, there was hardly any fruit to eat in this country. You could find some berries and a pear tree or two, but Johnny knew that what this country needed was some good apple trees. His father ran a nursery out east and he taught Johnny how to raise plants and trees. When Johnny was old enough, he set out west to cover the land with apple trees.
Now Johnny had a vision and his vision was for everyone to have apple trees. Many good things are born of apples; apple pie, apple cider, apple sauce and apple jack to name a few. Johnny knew that if he could find a way to distribute apple trees, no one would ever go without any of these tasty treats.
Around that time, there were settlements popping up all over the Midwest and that is exactly where you could find Johnny. He would travel ahead of those settlements and claim land on which he would start an apple orchard. As people came through, he would sell them saplings and teach them how to care for them. And when his orchards grew up, he would leave town and start all over again. Every now and then, he would stop back into town to see how his trees were doing.
Johnny never really had a place he called home. While he had a lot of friends that were happy to feed him and give him a warm bed to sleep in, he spent most of his nights sleeping under the stars. That’s where Johnny Appleseed was happiest; out in the wilderness with the animals.
Rip Van Winkle
There once was a man named Rip Van Winkle who loved nothing more than sleep. Now don’t get me wrong, he loved his wife and he loved his farm, he just loved sleep more. He would sleep in late every morning. He made sure he squeezed in a nap or two every afternoon. And of course, he tried to make it to bed early every night.
Everyone he knew called him lazy, and that included his wife. She was always on his case to get out of bed and get to work on the farm. He didn’t much care though; he went on doing things at his own pace. That resulted in a farm that didn’t grow too many crops and he and his wife were very poor. Rip didn’t mind though, as long as he got to sleep his days away.
One day, after taking a nap in the forest, Rip was slowly making his way back to the farm when he met a man in the trail. They struck up a conversation and after a while the man offered Rip some bread and wine. They talked for a while longer and said their goodbyes. Rip started toward home again but it seems the wine made him a bit sleepy. So, he propped himself up against a tree and closed his eyes for another afternoon nap in the sun. And that is where Rip Van Winkle spent the next 20 years; sleeping under that tree.
When he woke up, he had no idea that so much time had passed. As he made his way back home, he noticed that things looked different, grown up. He passed people he had never seen before and houses that weren’t there before his nap. He discovered his house had been torn down and his wife had left him. Rip Van Winkle just smiled and propped himself up under a tree and took a long nap.
Casey Jones
A hundred years ago, before everyone drove cars and trucks, railroads crisscrossed our great country. Every train needed an engineer and there was never one greater than Casey Jones. If anyone could get a train to the station on time, he was the man that could do it. Everybody in that part of the country knew when Casey was coming down the tracks by the sound his whistle made. You could hear that whistle a mile away and when you heard it, you knew it could only be Casey Jones.
One stormy April night in the year 1900, Casey’s train, the 382, was off to a late start. They departed from Memphis, Tennessee on their way to Canton, Mississippi. It was a light load and Casey attempted to make the trip in record time. As he rounded a curve near Vaughn Mississippi, Casey saw trouble ahead. Another train had broken down and the caboose, along with several other cars, sat in the way of Casey’s train. He pulled on the brake with all his might but it was too late. The 382 crashed into the stalled train causing a tremendous wreck. It is said that when they found Casey’s body, he was still hanging on to that brake. He managed to save the life of everyone else on the train.
John Henry
Back in the 1800’s, when the country was new, the railroads were very important. People used the railroad for transportation and to ship materials from one place to another. It took a lot of people working together to build the railroad. Land had to be cleared, trees cut, and the rails had to be laid down and held in place with large metal spikes. All this was done by hand and no one was as good at it as John Henry.
John Henry was born into slavery somewhere in Alabama. He grew up to be big and strong and was eventually freed from slavery. He went to work on the railroad and gained a reputation for being the best spike driver around. With his big hammer, John could drive twice as many spikes as any other man in his crew. He was a loyal, dedicated worker who ate, slept and breathed the railroad.
One day, a salesman came into town with a brand new spike driving machine. The man said the machine would do the work of 2 men. When John Henry heard about this machine, he challenged the salesman to a contest. He would race the spike driving machine to prove that a machine was not as good a worker as a man.
The next day was a warm one with the sun shining and without a cloud in the sky. John Henry lined up against the machine and the two went to work. The machine was a formidable opponent and at times it looked like the machine would win. But in the last 100 yards, the machine began to break down. John knew he could win but he pushed himself even harder so he would leave no doubt who was better. John crossed the finish line first that day and everyone cheered. In all the excitement, John Henry collapsed and died right on the tracks. He proved he was better than the machine but had worked himself to death in the process.
