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Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong

Author: Norm Cohen

Publication date : 1981

Updated edition: 2000

University of Illinois Press

Music In American Life series

Publisher's description:

Impeccable scholarship and lavish illustration mark this landmark study of American railroad folksong. Norm Cohen provides a sweeping discussion of the human aspects of railroad history, railroad folklore, and the evolution of the American folksong. The heart of the book is a detailed analysis of eighty-five songs, from "John Henry" and "The Wabash Cannonball" to "Hell-Bound Train" and "Casey Jones," with their music, sources, history, and variations, and discographies.
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