Outlaws are not uniquely American, but the myth of the outlaw is deeply embedded in the folklore of American history from the Western Frontier Days of the late19th Century into the Dust Bowl and Great Depression and right up DB Cooper in 1971. Folk music has always served as a sort of social media, chronicling class struggles and political unrest, and there is a rich vein of folk songs about outlaws.
Join me to hear listen to songs about famous outlaws like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, and DB Cooper.
It was really tough being an outlaw woman, as we’ll hear near the end of the show with songs about Outlaw women of the American West Belle Starr, the Rose of Cimarron Rose Dunn, and Cattle Annie & Little Britches.
Featured Folk music social media influencers/artists include Richard Thompson, Roger Miller, Joe Ely & Joel Guzman, Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, The Pogues, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger & Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Glenn Campbell & Merle Haggard, James Taylor, Ashleigh Flynn, and Loreena McKennitt.
LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION:
EXCELLENT ARTICLES :
The Outlaw: A Distinctive American Folktype: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dE-H2_iFvEgZ8w0eUZ3gT3SKsMpFu8dh/view?usp=sharing
Old West Female Outlaws – Women’s Roles in the West: https://worldhistory.us/american-history/old-west-female-outlaws-womens-roles-in-the-west.php
Outlaws of the American West: https://www.historyhit.com/notorious-outlaws-of-the-wild-west/
Wild West Outlaws and Lawmen: https://www.historynet.com/wild-west-outlaws-and-lawmen/#:~:text=Famous%20Wild%20West%20Outlaws%20William%20%E2%80%9CCurly%20Bill%E2%80%9D%20Brocius,Younger%20James%20B.%20%E2%80%9CKiller%E2%80%9D%20Miller%20John%20Wesley%20Hardin
THE HIGHWAYMAN: Poem by Alfred Noyes: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43187/the-highwayman
OUTLAWS:
Robin Hood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood
Robin Hood Ballads by Wallace House on Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu/wallace-house/robin-hood-ballads/celtic-world/music/album/smithsonian
Billy the Kid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_the_Kid
Jesse James: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James
Ned Kelly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly
John Wessley Hardin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hardin
Pretty Boy Floyd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Boy_Floyd
Bonnie & Clyde: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_and_Clyde
Machine Gun Kelly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Gun_Kelly
DB Cooper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper
Belle Starr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Starr
Rose Dunn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Dunn
Cattle Annie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_Annie
Little Britches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Britches_(outlaw)
- KBOO