Stephen Foster

[aidenmac17]

Stephen Foster wrote songs during the 1800s and during the 1860s. He was renowned in the United States for his artistic poetic lyrics such as Camptown Races, Hard Times, Oh, Susanna, etc. He died before the Civil War even ended.

What is your Favorite Stephen Foster tune? mine is "Beautiful Dreamer".

 

[peacefulanimalguy7]

Mine would be "Oh Susanna"

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Foster has state parks in Florida and Georgia named after him, both located on the Suwanee River, because he wrote "Old Folks at Home" aka "Suwanee River". Which he wrote without ever seeing the river.

 

[G Low]

My mother used to sing "Suwanee River" going over it on I 75 to and from Daytona beach in the sixties and seventies.

 

[G Low]

Stephen Foster wrote songs during the 1800s and during the 1860s. He was renowned in the United States for his artistic poetic lyrics such as Camptown Races, Hard Times, Oh, Susanna, etc. He died before the Civil War even ended.

What is your Favorite Stephen Foster tune? mine is "Beautiful Dreamer".

Come to think about this my mom used to sing all these songs. "Bet my money on a bobtailed nag oh do da day …..

 

[SWS]

He wrote too many favorites: "Hard Times Come Again No More," "Ring, Ring de Banjo," "O Lemuel," "Old Kentucky Home," "Glendy Burke"

 

[Library Lady]

Hard Times Come Again No More.

 

[Sheltowee]

Chokes me up every dang time….

 

[Library Lady]

This one's for you @SWS.

 

[G Low]

Snapped this picture of a picture at a restaurant in Vicksburg. Steamboat loaded with cotton bales .

 

[donna]

Enjoy all his songs. But say favorite My Old Kentucky Home. Always tear up when played at Ky. Derby.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I appreciate ¨Old Dog Tray¨ more as I get older and more sentimental. ¨Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair¨ is a beautiful piece of music. ¨Beautiful Dreamer,¨ his last song, is really his most sophisticated. So many of his tunes are simple 2 and 3 chord popular songs, but those last 2 are like American art songs. He was reaching for something beyond the minstrel stage. America´s first popular composer, really.
Fun fact: Stephen Foster´s brother worked on the canal in north central Pennsylvania. Stephen lived with him and went to school at the Tioga Academy in Athens, Pennsylvania. The Tioga Academy was the predecessor of the Athens Area School System, so... Stephen Foster and I are alumni! He wrote his first composition there, The ¨Tioga Waltz¨ for a wedding present. It´s a fun piece, but fairly complex and nothing like his popular ditties!

 

[W Charles Young]

Fun fact: Stephen Foster´s brother worked on the canal in north central Pennsylvania. Stephen lived with him and went to school at the Tioga Academy in Athens, Pennsylvania. The Tioga Academy was the predecessor of the Athens Area School System, so... Stephen Foster and I are alumni!

Another fun fact is the nearby village (to Athens) of Camptown whose racetrack inspired another famous Foster song…Camptown Races!

Beyond that, I was in Pittsburgh last weekend and snapped this photo at Allegheny Cemetery.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I have relatives buried in Camptown! There was indeed a famous local horse race track there. They used to run a foot race called the ¨Camptown Races¨ but I don´t know if it´s still a thing.

 

[JPChurch]

I have the Nonesuch Records collection LP produced in 1972 that has 14 of his compositions. It was recorded "with historical instruments at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., Division of Musical Instruments." The liner notes are awesome. I wonder if this LP can still be found anywhere. It may be out there on the internet somewhere. It still to this day sounds wonderful. "Songs by Stephen Foster." Give it a listen if you can. The Smithsonian really did him right with this one.

 

[A. Roy]

I would have to say my favorite is "Hard Times Come Again No More." That's the one that I have in my current (very limited and rather clumsy) repertoire.
AR

 

[archieclement]

Like The Glendy Burke as well.

 

[Library Lady]

I have the Nonesuch Records collection LP produced in 1972 that has 14 of his compositions. It was recorded "with historical instruments at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., Division of Musical Instruments." The liner notes are awesome. I wonder if this LP can still be found anywhere. It may be out there on the internet somewhere. It still to this day sounds wonderful. "Songs by Stephen Foster." Give it a listen if you can. The Smithsonian really did him right with this one.

You might like this one, too, @JPChurch . The Smithsonian Folkways recordings are fantastic!

Richard Dyer-Bennet 11: Stephen Foster Songs | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Richard Dyer-Bennet (1913–1991) played a major role in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. He founded his own record label in 1955 in order to maintain artistic control over the sound quality, repertory, and style of his performances. (For an extended biography of Dyer-Bennet, written...

folkways.si.edu

You might enjoy this program from WFMT, the classical music station in Chicago that is the sister station to WTTW, the PBS station in Chicago. The Hampsong Foundation was founded by Thomas Hampson, an American opera baritone. I've been fortunate enough to see/hear him perform with the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

Stephen Foster - Song of America

songofamerica.net

@JPChurch 's recommended recording was available on the Internet Archive when it was working.

Songs of Stephen Foster : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive

Charles Amirkhanian introduces a selection of songs by one of America’s earliest and most renowned composers, Stephen Foster. Although Foster’s works were...

archive.org

 

[elmira64]

Another fun fact is the nearby village (to Athens) of Camptown whose racetrack inspired another famous Foster song…Camptown Races!

Beyond that, I was in Pittsburgh last weekend and snapped this photo at Allegheny Cemetery. View attachment 526240

At least Pittsburgh allowed his headstone to remain. The city removed a statue of Foster in 2021,
because of it's racist composition. There appears to be a lull lately, who's statue or monument is next is anyone's guess.

 

[Chattahooch33]

Camptown Ladies or Oh, Lemuel may be my favs.