A traditional singer, also known as a source singer, is someone who has learned
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
s in the oral tradition, usually from older people within their community.
From around the beginning of the twentieth century, song collectors such as
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England dur ...
went to rural areas to collect traditional songs. Later,
Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and ...
and
James Madison Carpenter
James Madison Carpenter, born in 1888 in Blacklands, Mississippi, near Booneville, in Prentiss County, was a Methodist minister and scholar of American and British folklore. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the ...
, followed by
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...
field recording
Field recording is the production of audio recordings outside recording studios, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It can also include the recording of electromagnetic fields or vibrations using diff ...
s of traditional singers. Many old ballads, including the famous
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ...
, were found within the oral tradition in the twentieth century.
List of traditional singers
(Arranged by nation and year of birth)
England
* The Copper Familynowiki/>Sussex">Sussex.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Sussex">nowiki/>Sussex*Henry Burstow (1826-1916) [Sussex]
*Joseph Taylor (folk singer), Joseph Taylor (1833-1910) [Lincolnshire]
*Emma Overd (1838-1928) [Somerset]
*Lucy White (1848-1923) [Somerset]
* Sam Bennett (1865-1951) nowiki/> Warwickshire.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Warwickshire">nowiki/>Warwickshire*Pop Maynard">George "Pop" Maynard (1872-1962) [Sussex">Warwickshire">Warwickshire.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Warwickshire">nowiki/>Warwickshire*Pop Maynard">George "Pop" Maynard (1872-1962) [Sussex* Sam Larner (1878-1965) [Norfolk]
*Cecilia Costello (1884-1976) [West Midlands (region), West Midlands / Ireland]
*Harry Cox (1885-1971) [Norfolk]
*Bob Roberts (folksinger), Bob Roberts (1907-1982) nowiki/>Dorset">Dorset.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Dorset">nowiki/>Dorset*Walter Pardon (1914-1996) [Norfolk]
* Fred Jordan (singer), Fred Jordan (1922-2002) [Shropshire]
* Frank Hinchliffe (1923-1995) [Yorkshire]
Lizzie Higgins
Elizabeth Ann Youlden (née Higgins; 20 September 1929 – 20 February 1993) was a Scottish ballad singer from Aberdeenshire.
Early life
Elizabeth Ann Higgins was born on 20 September 1929, in Guest Row, Aberdeen. She was the daughter of settled ...
Kenna Campbell
Kenna Campbell () (born 21 July 1937) is a Scottish singer, teacher, tradition bearer and advocate for Gaelic language, culture and song.
Biography
Campbell was born on 21 July 1937 at Greepe, near Roag on the Isle of Skye, into a Crofting ...
(1937-) nowiki/>Inner Hebrides">Inner_Hebrides.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Inner Hebrides">nowiki/>Inner Hebrides* Sheila Stewart (1937-2014) [Perthshire]
Ireland
''See traditional Irish singers''
Wales
* Phil Tanner "The Gower Nightingale", Phil Tanner (1862-1950)
Nimrod Workman
Nimrod Workman (November 5, 1895 – November 26, 1994) was an American folk singer, coal miner and trade unionist. His musical repertoire included traditional English and Scottish ballads passed down through his family, Appalachian folk songs ...
Almeda Riddle
Almeda Riddle (November 21, 1898 – June 30, 1986) was an American folk singer. Born and raised in Cleburne County, Arkansas, she learned music from her father, a fiddler and a teacher of shape note singing. She collected and sang tradition ...
Frank Proffitt
Frank Noah Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist who preserved the song " Tom Dooley" in the form we know it today and was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the trad ...
Jean Ritchie
Jean Ruth Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way (orally, ...