Autoharp Folk Songs

Just a Closer Walk with Thee
[southern United States]

One of the most popular songs in the gospel canon.

Listen/Download:
Just a Closer Walk with Thee (G major, Travis picking)
Just a Closer Walk with Thee (D major, Travis picking)

Just a closer walk with thee, Grant it, Jesus, is my plea. Daily walking close to Thee, Let it be, dear Lord, let it be. I am weak, but Thou are strong. Jesus, keep me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as long as I walk, let me walk close to thee. Through the days of toil that's near, If I fall, dear Lord, who cares? Who with me my burden shares? Only Thee, dear Lord, only Thee. When my troubled life is e'er time for me will be no more. Then guide me gently, safely on to thy shore, dear Lord, to thy shore.

Bill Bailey, won't you please come home? (C major, rocker strum) [US, 1902] Words and music by Hughie Cannon. Bill Bailey is a Dixieland/Jazz standard, and has been recorded by Louis Armstrong, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others. Where have all the flowers gone? by Pete Seeger / Peter, Paul, & Mary (1961) Where have all the flowers gone? (F major, calypso strum) Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (Excerpt: C major, calypso strum)

Tom Dooley [Wilkes County, North Carolina] Tom Dooley is a traditional North Carolin folk song that tells the story of the 1866 murder of Laura Foster by her lover, Confederate veteran Tom Dula. The Kingston Trio recorded this song, and it has been parodied by both Ella Fitzgerald and MST3K. Midnight Special First recorded in 1905, I like this song because it's about going to jail in Houston, and because Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter recorded this in the 1930's for Alan Lomax. He added a couple stanzas about a 1923 Houston jail break to it, and I used these lyrics. Scarborough Fair [England] Scarborough Fair is a traditional English ballad in which a young man asking his lover to perform a series of impossible tasks. This may have some from a much older Scottish ballad called the Elfin Knight, in which an elf threatens to kidnap a young woman unless she can perform a series of impossible tasks. Scarborough Fair (a minor) Scarborough Fair (d minor) Silent Night This popular Christmas carol was adapted from the German Stile Nacht by John Freeman Young in 1819. Silent Night (B flat major) Silent Night (C major)

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