The authorship of many traditional Americana pieces is impossible to trace - but I can give a sense of who made the pieces famous, or whose version we take as the standard:
Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey - Big Bill Broonzy Freight Train - Elizabeth Cotton Hobo's Lullaby - Goebel Reeves House of the Rising Sun - Woody Guthrie John Henry - Alan Lomax collection Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms - The New Lost City Ramblers
Actually, the smart thing to do would be to look into Smithsonians Folkways label and the Moses Asch collections - he compiled, researched, and preserved more Americana than anyone else in our history.
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Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey - Big Bill Broonzy
Freight Train - Elizabeth Cotton
Hobo's Lullaby - Goebel Reeves
House of the Rising Sun - Woody Guthrie
John Henry - Alan Lomax collection
Roll in my Sweet Baby's Arms - The New Lost City Ramblers
Actually, the smart thing to do would be to look into Smithsonians Folkways label and the Moses Asch collections - he compiled, researched, and preserved more Americana than anyone else in our history.