Ozark Folksongs, Volume III: Humorous and Play-Party Songs

The third of four volumes of Ozark folksong collected by Vance Randolph in Missouri and Arkansas, published by the State Historical Society of Missouri between 1946 and 1950 and reissued by the University of Missouri Press in 1980 with an introduction by W. K. McNeil. This volume covers comic songs and play-party songs, the latter being the sung games used for dancing where instruments were not permitted, which puts some of its material close to the old-time dance repertoire. Entries give the singer’s name and town, and melodies appear for a portion of them as unaccompanied single lines.