List of North American folk music traditions

This is a list of folk music traditions, with styles, dances, instruments and other related topics. The term "folk music" can not be easily defined in a precise manner; it is used with widely-varying definitions depending on the author, intended audience and context within a work. Similarly, the term "traditions" in this context does not connote any strictly-defined criteria. Music scholars, journalists, audiences, record industry individuals, politicians, nationalists and demagogues may often have occasion to address which fields of folk music are distinct traditions based along racial, geographic, linguistic, religious, tribal or ethnic lines, and all such peoples will likely use different criteria to decide what constitutes a "folk music tradition". This list uses the same general categories used by mainstream, primarily English-language, scholarly sources, as determined by relevant statements of fact and the internal structure of works.

These traditions may coincide entirely, partially or not at all with geographic, political, linguistic or cultural boundaries. Very few, if any, music scholars would claim that there are any folk music traditions that can be considered specific to a distinct group of people and with characteristics undiluted by contact with the music of other peoples; thus, the folk music traditions described herein overlap in varying degrees with each other.

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Aanishanabe
See = Ojibwa

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = African American [Darden, pgs. 8, 43 - 45, 48, 57; Broughton, Viv and James Attlee, "Devil Stole the Beat" in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 568 - 579; Crawford, pgs. 107, 111 - 112, 409 - 411; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pgs. 96 - 97; van de Merwe; Titon, Jeff Todd, "North America/Black America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 106 - 166; Lornell, pgs. 75 - 77, 82 - 83]
Styles = blues - blues-harp - boat song - field holler - fife and drum band - freedom song - funereal music - gospel - lining out - shape-note - shout - spiritual - work song
Dance = blues dance - hambone - juba dance - ring dance - shout
Instrumentation = banjo - bones - cowbell - diddley bow - fiddle - harmonica - tambourine - washtub
Other = blue note - camp meeting - Election Day celebration - Great Awakening - Pinkster

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Anglo-American [Nettl, "Folk and Traditional Music", pg. 202; Crawford, pgs. 70, 71, 157 - 158; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pgs. 11, 34; Lankford, pg. 117; Lornell, pgs. 65 - 67; [http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/staticpages/index.php/glossary World Music Central] ]
Styles = ballad - folk hymn - protest song - sea shanty - shape note - singing
Dance = barn dance - country western two-step - longways - jig - reel - square dance
Instrumentation = fiddle - flute - guitar - harpsichord - violin
Other = caller - Shakers

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Apache [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66]
Styles =
Dance =
Instrumentation = Apache fiddle - pot drum - water drum
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Appalachian [Fussell, pgs. 3, 6 - 10; Ritchie, pgs. 52, 57; Barraclough, Nick and Kurt Wolff, "High an' Lonesome" in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 536 - 551; Crawford, pg. 601; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pgs. 101 - 105; Lankford, pg. 38; Lornell, pgs. 15 - 17, 65 - 67, 82 - 83]
Styles = ballad - Blue Ridge fiddling - bluegrass - Child ballad - close harmony - folk hymn - jug band - lining out - North Georgia fiddling - old-time music - scolding ballad - shape note - singing - string band [There is some ambiguity in usage regarding some of these terms. Bluegrass, for example, is not generally considered folk music, but is often loosely categorized along with it, and is especially associated with the Appalachian style. The term "old-time music" is also ambiguous, and can refer to styles of folk music from outside the Appalachian area. The American folk revival was a musical field in the 1950s and 60s that drew on many styles of American folk music, especially Appalachian music; however, the folk revival itself produced much undebateably popular music and little or no true folk music, depending on the precise definition of that term used.]
Dance = clogging
Instrumentation = autoharp - banjo - cello - cornstalk fiddle - dulcimer - fiddle - flute - guitar - harmonica - mandolin
Other = folk revival - hillbilly

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Arapaho [Nettl, "Folk and Traditional Music", pg. 150]
Styles = Ghost Dance - peyote song
Dance = rabbit dance - round dance - snake dance - Sun Dance - turtle dance
Instrumentation =
Other = Ghost Dance

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Blue Ridge
See = Appalachian

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Cajun [Broughton, Simon and Jeff Kaliss, "Music Is the Glue", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 552 - 567; Lornell, pgs. 70 - 71]
Styles =
Dance = polka - two-step - waltz
Instrumentation = accordion - fiddle - guitar - spoons - triangle - washboard
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Cape Breton
See = Irish- and Scottish-Canadian

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Cherokee [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603]
Styles =
Dance = stomp dance
Instrumentation = rattle
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Chickasaw [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603]
Styles =
Dance = stomp dance
Instrumentation =
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Chippewa
See = Ojibwa

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Choctaw [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603]
Styles =
Dance = stomp dance
Instrumentation =
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Cree [Foran, Charles, "No More Solitudes", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 350 - 361]
Styles =
Dance =
Instrumentation = fiddle
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Dakota
See = Sioux

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Dinéh
See = Navajo

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = English-American
See = Anglo-American

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Finnish-American
See = Finnish

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = French-American
See = French

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = German- and Moravian-American [Crawford, pgs. 53 - 55; [http://www.mdhc.org/bibliotest/essays.php?essay=20 Maryland Music and Theatre] ; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pgs. 30, 44]
Styles = collegia musica - cornet band - Moravian funereal music - trombone choir
Dance =
Instrumentation = hautboy - kettle drum - trumpet - viol
Other = Ephrata Cloister - liederkranz - Singstude

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Hopi
See = Pueblo

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Illinois [Crawford, pg. 10]
Styles =
Dance = calumet dance
Instrumentation =
Other = berdache - calumet

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Inuit [Foran, Charles and Etienne Bours, "No More Solitudes" and "Sealskin Hits" in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 350 - 361 and 143 - 145]
Styles = ayaya - kattajaq - pisiq - throat-singing
Dance = drum dance - jig - kalattuut - reel
Instrumentation = accordion - drum
Other = angakkog

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Irish- and Scottish-Canadian [Sawyers, pgs. 75 - 78, 194 - 198, 228 - 230]
Styles = ballad - Cape Breton fiddling - emigrant ballad - sean nos - shape note
Dance = reel - step dance - strathspey
Instrumentation = fiddle
Other = ceilidh

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Irish-American [Sawyers, pgs. 62 - 67; 196 - 199, 208 - 290, 228 - 230]
Styles = ballad - emigrant ballad - sean nos
Dance = clogging - hornpipe - jig - reel - step dance - square dance
Instrumentation = banjo - dulcimer - fiddle - guitar - harmonica - mandolin
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Iroquois [Nettl, "Folk and Traditional Music", pg. 161; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66]
Styles =
Dance = Eagle Dance - Quiver Dance - Warrior's Stomp Dance
Instrumentation = drum - rattle - water drum
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Italian-American
See = Italy

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Japanese-American
See = Japanese

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Jewish-American [Broughton, Simon, "Rhythm and Jews" in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 581 - 591; Lornell, pgs. 77 - 78]
Styles = cantorial chant - klezmer
Dance = bulgar - doina - freylekh - hora - khosidl - mazurka - nigun - polka - sirba - waltz
Instrumentation = cello - clarinet - double bass - flute - tsimbl - violin
Other = badkhn - Freygish - kapelye

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Lakota
See = Sioux

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Louisiana Creole [Broughton, Simon and Jeff Kaliss, "Music Is the Glue", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 552 - 567; Crawford, pgs. 118 - 119; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pg. 99; Lornell, pgs. 87 - 88]
Styles = la la - mellows - zydeco
Dance = bamboula - ring dance
Instrumentation = accordion - fiddle - guitar - washboard
Other = Congo Square - fais-do-do

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Maritime Canada [Ritchie, pg. 54]
Styles = Cape Breton fiddling - milling song
Dance = jig - reel
Instrumentation = accordion - fiddle - piano
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Menomini [McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66]
Styles =
Dance =
Instrumentation = water drum
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Metis [Foran, Charles, "No More Solitudes", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 350 - 361]
Styles =
Dance =
Instrumentation = fiddle
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Mexican, Mejicano, Hispanic and Tejano [Manuel, "Popular Musics", pgs. 54 - 56; Farquharson, Mary and Ramiro Burr, "Much More Than Mariachi" and "Accordion Enchilada", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 463 - 476 and pgs. 604 - 614; Nettl, "Folk and Traditional Music", pgs. 193 - 194; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pgs. 48 - 49, 52, 190 - 191; Lornell, pg. 22 - 23, 72 - 73, 78 - 79]
Styles = alabado - bravata - California mission music - conjunto - copla - corrido - estribillo - huapango arribeño - jarabe - letra - mariachi - Matachine - Mexican son - pirekua - son huasteco - sones abajeños - sones calentanos - sones de arpa grande - sones istmeños - son jaliscense - son jarocho - topada - vallena - zandunga
Dance = chotis - jarabe tapatío - jarana - Matachine - mazurka - polka - raspa - redowa - waltz - xtoles - zandunga - zapateado
Instrumentation = accordion - angelus bell - bajo sexto - fiddle - harp - huapanguera - jarana - guitarra quinta - guitarrón - mission bell - requinto - vihuela - violin
Other = trovadore - vaquero

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Moravian-American
See = German-American

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Navajo [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603; Nettl, "Folk and Traditional Music", pg. 165; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66]
Styles = gift song - signal song - sway song - Yeibichai
Dance = circle dance - Squaw Dance
Instrumentation = pot drum - rattle - water drum
Other = Blessingway - Enemyway - Ghostway - hataali - hozho - Nightway - Yeibichai

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = New England [Crawford, pgs. 24 - 25; [http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/staticpages/index.php/glossary World Music Central] ]
Styles = folk hymn - lining out - Old Way of Singing - psalmody - shape note
Dance = barn dance
Instrumentation =
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Ojibwa [Crawford, pg. 391; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66]
Styles = war song
Dance =
Instrumentation = water drum
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Omaha [Crawford, pg. 400]
Styles =
Dance = pipe dance
Instrumentation =
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Pueblo [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603; Crawford, pg. 8; Lornell, pg. 22 - 23]
Styles = Matachine - work song
Dance = Matachine
Instrumentation = drum - flageolet
Other = Shalako

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Quebecois [Foran, Charles, "No More Solitudes", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 350 - 361]
Styles = accord de pieds
Dance =
Instrumentation =
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = San Ildefonso
See = Pueblo

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Santo Domingo
See = Pueblo

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Scottish-Canadian
See = Irish- and Scottish-Canadian

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Sioux [McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in "Worlds of Music", pgs. 16 - 66]
Styles =
Dance = Grass Dance
Instrumentation = bell - drum - rattle
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Southern states [Crawford, pgs. 162 - 164; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pg. 138; van de Merwe; Sawyers, pgs. 197, 208; Lankford, pgs. 38, 65 - 67, 75, 84 - 85; Abel, pgs. 132 - 134, 172; [http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/staticpages/index.php/glossary World Music Central] ]
Styles = ballad - brass band - Delta blues - blues-harp - fife and drum band - folk hymn - jug band - Sacred Harp - shape note - Southern gospel - white spiritual
Dance = barn dance - chicken in the breadtray - clogging - fisher's hornpipe - Highland fling - jig - lancer - pigeonwing - polka - quadrille - reel - square dance - waltz
Instrumentation = banjo - dulcimer - fiddle - guitar - harmonica - mandolin
Other = singing

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Taos Pueblo
See = Pueblo

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Tejano
See = Mexican

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Tex-Mex
See = Mexican

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Tohono O'odham [Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the "Rough Guide to World Music", pgs. 593 - 603; Lornell, pgs. 73 - 74]
Styles = chicken scratch (waila) - conjunto
Dance = chotis - mazurka - polka - waila
Instrumentation = accordion - bass guitar - drum - fiddle - guitar
Other = piest

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Ukrainian-American and Canadian
See = Ukrainian

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Western Canada and the United States [Crawford, pg. 430, 433 - 435, 609; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pgs. 107, 187 - 189, 192 - 198; Lornell, pgs. 74 - 75, 85 - 86]
Styles = cattle call - cowboy song - frontier ballad - holler - waltz - Western swing - work song
Dance = square dance
Instrumentation = accordion - banjo - fiddle - guitar - harmonica
Other = caller - Chisholm Trail - cowboy poetry - medicine show

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountry
Tradition = Yaqui [ [http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/staticpages/index.php/glossary World Music Central] ]
Styles =
Dance = Danza del Venado
Instrumentation =
Other =

User:TUF-KAT/folkcountrysee
Tradition = Zuni
See = Pueblo

References

*cite book
author = Abel, E. Lawrence
id = ISBN 0-8117-0228-6
location = Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
publisher = Stackpole Books
title = Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861 - 1865
year = 2000
*cite book
author = Broughton, Simon and Mark Ellingham (eds.)
edition = First edition
id = ISBN 1-85828-636-0
location = London
publisher = Rough Guides
title = Rough Guide to World Music
year = 2000
* cite book
author = Burk, Cassie, Virginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips
title = America's Musical Heritage
publisher = Laidlaw Brothers
year = 1942
*cite book
author = Crawford, Richard
id = ISBN 0393048101
location = New York
publisher = W. W. Norton & Company
title = America's Musical Life: A History
year = 2001
*cite book
author = Darden, Robert
id = ISBN 0-8264-1436-2
location = New York
publisher = Continuum International Publishing Group
title = People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music
year = 2004
* cite book
author = Fussell, Fred C.
id = ISBN 0-8078-5459-X
publisher = North Carolina Folklife Institute
title = Blue Ridge Music Trails: Finding a Place in the Circle
year = 2003
*cite book
author = Lankford, Ronald D. Jr.
id = ISBN 0-8256-7300-3
location = New York
publsher = Schirmer Trade Books
title = The Changing Voice Music of Protest USA
year = 2005
*cite book
author = Lornell, Kip
id = ISBN 0-399-53033-9
location = New York
publisher = Berkely Publisher Group
title = NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk
year = 2004
*cite web
accessdate= September 12
accessyear= 2005
title = Music and Theater
url = http://www.mdhc.org/bibliotest/essays.php?essay=20
work = Maryland History and Culture
*cite book
author = Ritchie, Fiona
id = ISBN 0399530711
location = New York
publisher = Berkley Publishing Group
title = The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Celtic Music
year = 2004
*cite book
author = Philip V. Bohlman
coauthors = Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Thomas Turino and Isabel K. F. Wong
edition = Second edition
id = ISBN 0-13-230632-8
publisher = Prentice Hall
title = Excursions in World Music
year = 1997
*cite book
author = Nettl, Bruno
location = Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
publisher = Prentice Hall
title = Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents
year = 1965
*cite book
author = Sawyers, June Skinner
edition = First Edition
id = ISBN 0-306-81007-7
publisher = Da Capo Press
title = Celtic Music: A Complete Guide
year = 2000
*cite book
author = Titon, Jeff Todd, David Locke, David P. McAllester, Anne K. Rasmussen, Jonathan P. J. Stock, David B. Reck, John M. Schechter, Timothy Cooley, and R. Anderson Sutton
edition = Fifth Edition
editor = Jeff Todd Titon (Ed.)
id = ISBN 0-02-872602-2
location = New York
publisher = Schirmer Books/Cengage
title = Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples
year = 2008
*cite book
author = van der Merwe, Peter
id = ISBN 0-19-316121-4
location = Oxford
publisher = Clarendon Press
title = Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music
year = 1989
*cite web
accessdate= April 3
accessyear= 2006
title = International Dance Glossary
url = http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/staticpages/index.php/glossary
work = World Music Central

ee also

*American folk music
*Folk music

Notes