Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired "Stagolee," "John Henry," and Other Traditional American Folk Songs

The American folk song, not unlike the country, is relatively young. This provides the opportunity to study the events that inspired such iconic songs as "Tom Dooley" and "Frankie and Johnny" using contemporary documentations including court records, newspaper accounts, and, in the rare instance, eyewitness accounts. Pollenberg (emeritus, history, Cornell Univ; Fighting Faiths) uses his historian's eye and musician's ear to examine not just the roots of myth but how reality was transformed into song and how that song was disseminated. The results create a picture of a social network that delivered information through the strings of a guitar and the voices of working people. Among its many delights are accounts of the subjects of these tunes after their names entered the popular lexicon. Stagolee's parole hearing and the unsuccessful libel suit that Frankie of "Frankie and Johnny" fame filed are revelations.