Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.929b, Connecticut Historical S…

Western Connecticut Yankee Ballads and Rural Work Songs by Lorraine Hammond

PerformerPerformed by Lorraine Hammond American

Date2006 October 18

Mediumreformatted digital file from audio cassette

DimensionsDuration: 13 Minutes, 2 Seconds

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

DescriptionAudio cassette tape recording of Lorraine Hammond singing Yankee ballads and rural work songs of western Connecticut, submitted as part of her application for Year 9 of the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program. The tape was recorded on October 18, 2006 in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The track list includes:
1. Back of Yonder Mountain - from the singing of Oscar DeGreenia, unaccompanied vocal
2. Ragtime Annie/Raggedy Ann - 5-string banjo
3. Young But Daily Growing - from the singing of Oscar DeGreenia, banjo and vocal
4. Young Nelson - from the singing of Oscar DeGreenia, unaccompanied vocal

Object number2015.196.929a-c

CopyrightIn Copyright

NotesSubject Note: In Year 9 of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program, Lorraine Hammond taught the Yankee work songs and ballads she learned as a girl in West Cornwall, Connecticut from Oscar DeGreenia, a laborer on her father’s farm. Her student Rachel Gall discovered a good singing voice she didn’t know she had, and also learned some fiddle tunes that she has continued to play often in the regular barn dances in this part of rural northwestern Connecticut. Lorraine tracked down Oscar’s sister in eastern New York, and conducted some oral history interviews with her to provide background to the teaching. Lorraine included these in research on traditional farm music in New England, leading to a Masters in Arts degree from Goddard College. Rachel Gall has led square, contra, and barn dances around northwestern Connecticut for many years, bringing together an active group of musicians and dancers.

Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.

Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this apprenticeship.

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

Subject Terms