every country has its own folk songs. early america often put new words to older british of european tunes that they remembered. then america stretched and grew. the west opened up, and trail- weary cowboys sang home-made. songs to the cattle as they drove them along. lumberjacks in the north woods chanted songs to the rhythm of their axe blows. railroads about folk heroes. negroes-perhaps america's greatest music-makes-sang work songs in the cotton fields by day and filled the southern nights with the soulful rhythms of the blues. these songs were traded, changed, added to and passed along until they blended into a characteristic folk music - the sound of a country being built.