Iva Rindlisbacher, Helene Stratman-Thomas, and Lois Rindlisbacher at Swiss bells, Rice Lake, Wisconsin, 1941. Helene Stratman-Thomas headed the Wisconsin Folk Music Recording Project, an effort by the Library of Congress and the University of Wisconsin to document traditional music across the state in the 1940s.  listen: the Rindlisbacher family performs “Emmentalerlied” on the Swiss bells read more: Erika Janik, “Helene Stratman-Thomas: Wisconsin Songcatcher,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 94:2 (2010) via: Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946, Wisconsin Historical Society and Mills Music Library  by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
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Iva Rindlisbacher, Helene Stratman-Thomas, and Lois Rindlisbacher at Swiss bells, Rice Lake, Wisconsin, 1941.

Helene Stratman-Thomas headed the Wisconsin Folk Music Recording Project, an effort by the Library of Congress and the University of Wisconsin to document traditional music across the state in the 1940s. 

listen: the Rindlisbacher family performs “Emmentalerlied” on the Swiss bells

read more: Erika Janik, “Helene Stratman-Thomas: Wisconsin Songcatcher,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 94:2 (2010)

via: Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946, Wisconsin Historical Society and Mills Music Library  by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Source: digital.library.wisc.edu

Listen: "Little Brown Bulls" as sung by Robert Walker, Crandon, Wisconsin, 1941.

This folk ballad describes a contest in a northwoods Wisconsin logging camp between a pair of “big spotted steers” and two “little brown bulls” to determine which team could haul or “skid” the most timber in a single day. The Wisconsin Folksong Collection includes a dozen recordings of this song as sung by former lumberjacks; each singer places the event in a different location. In Walker’s version, the contest takes place in a logging camp on the Wolf River.

via: Wisconsin Folksong Collection 1937-1946, Mills Music Library by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Recording: Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake, as sung by Lewis Winfield Moody, Plainfield, Wisconsin, 1941.

There was caraway seed in abundance
Should’ve built up a fine stomach ache.
Twould have killed a man twice, after eating one slice
Of Miss Fogarty’s Christmas cake.

via: Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946 by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

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