Stephen Foster Medley on mountain dulcimer

This weekend I plan to go to a dulcimer festival at the Stephen Foster State Park on the Suwannee River in Florida. That got me to thinking of how many of the songs that Foster wrote have become a part of the fabric of American music and song.
So I sat down and played snippets of about a half dozen Foster songs which were written in the mid 1800s.
The music still captivates our ear today but many of the 1800 era lyrics have to undergo some tweaking due to past racial descriptions that would be offensive today.

So lyrics like "the darkies are gay" now are sung as "everyone was gay" (which still doesn't quite allow a school child to hear that without giggling) An intersting note ... the sheet music was sold as "Ethiopian Music".

The songs in this medley are
My Old Kentucky Home
Old Folks At Home (Suwannee River)
Oh Susanna
Camptown Races
Hard Times
I Dream of Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair


The first two songs(My Old Kentucky Home and Old Folks at Home) became the official state songs of Kentucky and Florida. Geography continues with a man that left Alabama with a banjo on his knee.

apologies for the imperfections...I miss some of the notes that others always play and I play some of the notes that others always miss.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• dulcimer
• Stephen
• Foster
• David
• Summerford

[dholeton]

Well done David

I think your video lines up with Stephen's intentions.

Dave

[neptunesgallery]

This is wonderful! I love your style of finger picking :-D