Editing Folklore of the United States (section)

===Folk songs===
The original Thirteen Colonies of the United States were all former [[British possessions]], and [[English culture]] became a major foundation for American folk and popular music. Many American folk songs are identical to British songs in arrangements, but with new lyrics, often as parodies of the original material. Anglo-American traditional music also includes a variety of broadside ballads, humorous stories and tall tales, and disaster songs regarding mining, shipwrecks and murder.<ref>Kip Lornell, ''Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States'' (Oxford MS: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2012), 82-117. {{ISBN|1617032662}}; and Duncan Emrich, ed., ''Anglo-American Songs and Ballads'' (Washington DC: Library of Congress, 1947); available online at https://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AFS_L12.pdf
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Folk songs may be classified by subject matter, such as: [[drinking songs]], [[sporting song]]s, train songs, [[work song]]s, [[war songs]], and [[ballad]]s.
* [[The Star-Spangled Banner]]'s tune was adapted from an old English drinking song by John Stafford Smith called "To Anacreon in Heaven."
* "[[The Ballad of Casey Jones]]" is a traditional song about railroad engineer Casey Jones and his death at the controls of the train he was driving. It tells of how Jones and his fireman Sim Webb raced their locomotive to make up for lost time, but discovered another train ahead of them on the line, and how Jones remained on board to try to stop the train as Webb jumped to safety.
* "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (sometimes "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again") is a popular song of the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in the war. The Irish anti-war song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" share the same melodic material. Based on internal textual references, "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" apparently dates from the early 1820s, while When Johnny Comes Marching Home was first published in 1863. "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" is a popular traditional Irish anti-war and anti-recruiting song. It is generally dated to the early 19th century, when soldiers from Athy, County Kildare served the British East India Company.
* "[[Oh My Darling, Clementine]]" (1884) is an American western folk ballad believed to have been based on another song called Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden (1863). The words are those of a bereaved lover singing about his darling, the daughter of a miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush. He loses her in a drowning accident. The song plays during the opening credits for the highly acclaimed [[John Ford]] movie "[[My Darling Clementine]]". It also runs as a background score all through the movie.
* "[[The Yellow Rose of Texas (song)|The Yellow Rose of Texas]]" is a traditional folk song. The original love song has become associated with the legend that Emily D. West, a biracial indentured servant, "helped win the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in the Texas Revolution".
* "[[Take Me Out to the Ball Game]]" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song. The song is traditionally sung during the seventh-inning stretch of a baseball game. Fans are generally encouraged to sing along.

Other American folksongs include: "[[She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain]]", "[[Skewball]]", "[[Big Bad John]]", "[[Stagger Lee (song)|Stagger Lee]]", "[[Camptown Races]]" and "[[The Battle Hymn of the Republic]]".