Songnotes

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A Companion to the Old Town School Songbook

Compiled and edited byMark Dvorak.

Amazing Grace

In the late 1700s, before John Newton composed Amazing Grace, he was the owner and captain of a slave ship.
     He experienced what he was later to refer to as his "great deliverance" while attempting to steer his ship through a violent storm in the middle of the Atlantic. When all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, it is reported that he exclaimed, "Lord have mercy upon us," and miraculously the ship, its crew and cargo of Africans were spared.
     Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him. According to popular folklore, Newton then turned his slave ship 180 degrees and took those people back to their homes.
     He sailed back to England, joined the Methodist Church, became a minister, and spent the rest of his life in service of the church. In that time, Newton composed some 280 hymns, including Amazing Grace which describes his great epiphany at sea.
     In the southern United States, this hymn is traditionally sung in long-meter style, where the preacher lines out the lyrics to a congregation that may not have been able to afford hymnals or been able to read them.

Sources:

Folk Song USA, Alan Lomax, Editor, New American Library.
Ford Hall Forum audio cassette, “The New American Gazette” with Pete Seeger.
John Newton page on the World Wide Web.

Recordings on File by: The Blind Boys of Alabama, Judy Collins, Buell Kazee, Pete Seeger.

Aragon Mill

Aragon Mill was written by Si Kahn, one of the finest and most prolific folk music composers at work today. He is also deeply involved with grassroots organizing in the fields of civil rights, labor, voting rights, health care, welfare, the environment, and peace.
He says of his music, "The songs I have written grow out of the work I have done and the people I've met and worked with. The words and songs, stories and jokes of the working people of the deep South and Appalachia, have been a source of continuing inspiration to my music and organizing. Their lives and dreams have given me strength and belief. I know that music is not enough to change the world. It takes organizing; it takes people working together to reach the goals they have set for themselves."
Si Kahn's songs have been widely recorded and are sung throughout the world wherever people gather around a cause or just for a good time.

Source: Si Kahn’s home page.
Recordings on File by: Hazel Dickens, Si Kahn, Rosalee Sorrels.

Aunt Rhody

Aunt Rhody is a classic American folk song. There's irony here, pathos, humor, and, if you like, history - a reminder of the days when a goose feather bed was the very prime in sleeping, because it cradled you and cuddled you and covered you at the very same time.
The melody to Aunt Rhody and Go Tell It on the Mountain have very much in common. It is also similar to My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains.

Source: Folk Song USA, Alan Lomax, Editor, New American Library.
Recordings on File by: Pete Seeger, Win Stracke, The Weavers.