Dear Companion : Appalachian Traditional Songs and Singers from the Cecil Sharp Collection

Cecil Sharp, a music teacher from south London, is England's most renowned collector of folk music and dances, noting down nearly five thousand tunes on his travels throughout England and the Appalachian states of North America up until his death in 1924.

The previous volume in this series, Still Growing, demonstrated the richness of the song tradition that he found in his native England.

But perhaps the most significant part of his vast collection is that assembled during the First World War years in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

At the instigation of American enthusiast Olive Dame Campbell, he embarked with assistant Maud Karpeles on a truly remarkable journey through America's southern uplands, to discover a living tradition of songs and ballads, largely of British origin, which had all but died out back home.

Dear Companion is a collection of fifty-three songs and ballads from Sharp's American collection. An authoritative introductory essay by collector Mike Yates, together with biographical sketches of the singers and notes on the songs, are copiously illustrated by previously unpublished photographs, extracts from diaries, letters, and biographical writings.

Dear Companion is a celebration of the close links between the musical traditions of Britain and North America.