English & Welsh Songs

• Child Ballads and Ancient Balladry
• Songs of the English Countryside
• Sea Songs and Shanties
• Love and Romance
• Industrial and Workers' Songs
• Historical and Patriotic
• Drinking and Good Company
• Humorous Songs and Nonsense
• Morris, Maypole and Seasonal Songs
• Welsh Songs (Caneuon Cymreig)
• Cornish Songs
• Revival and Modern Folk
• Australian Folk Songs
• Key Figures
• Canadian Folk Songs
• English-Language Tradition
• French-Language Tradition
• Key Figures
• New Zealand Folk Songs
• South Africa and the Caribbean
• Children's Songs and Nursery Rhymes

Child Ballads and Ancient Balladry

Ballads from the collection of Francis James Child (The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882–1898) and other ancient sources. Many of these are shared with the Scottish tradition but have distinct English variants.

• "Barbara Allen" (Child 84) – one of the most widely known English ballads, about a dying man and his cold-hearted lover.
• "Cruel Sister" (Child 10) – also known as "The Twa Sisters" or "Binnorie," a murder ballad about jealousy.
• "Edward" (Child 13) – a dialogue ballad about a son confessing murder to his mother.
• "Geordie" (Child 209) – about a man sentenced to hang, his wife pleading for his life.
• "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (Child 4) – ancient ballad of a woman outwitting a supernatural murderer.
• "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (Child 81) – tragic ballad of adultery and revenge, known since the 17th century.
• "Lord Bateman" (Child 53) – also "Young Beichan," about a prisoner freed by a Turkish lady.
• "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" (Child 73) – tragic love triangle ending in murder.
• "Matty Groves" – English folk revival name for "Little Musgrave," popularised by Fairport Convention.
• "Reynardine" – supernatural ballad about a werefox who seduces women, popularised by Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny.
• "Sir Lionel" (Child 18) – ancient ballad of a knight slaying a boar.
• "Sweet William's Ghost" (Child 77) – a ghost returning to release his lover from her troth.
• "The Baffled Knight" (Child 112) – humorous ballad of a knight outwitted by a maiden.
• "The Cruel Mother" (Child 20) – a woman who murders her newborn children is haunted by their ghosts.
• "The Daemon Lover" (Child 243) – also "The House Carpenter," about a woman lured away by a supernatural former lover.
• "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (Child 106) – a woman disguises herself as a man to serve a king.
• "The Golden Vanity" (Child 286) – about a cabin boy who sinks an enemy ship and is betrayed by his captain.
• "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" (Child 113) – supernatural ballad from Orkney, about a seal-man.
• "The Outlandish Knight" (Child 4) – English version of "Lady Isabel."
• "The Three Ravens" (Child 26) – three ravens discuss a slain knight; the English counterpart to Scotland's "Twa Corbies."
• "The Unquiet Grave" (Child 78) – a mourner speaks with the dead beloved.
• "Thomas the Rhymer" (Child 37) – shared with Scotland, about True Thomas and the Queen of Elfland.
• "Young Hunting" (Child 68) – murder ballad in which a woman kills her lover and is betrayed by a talking bird.

Songs of the English Countryside

Pastoral songs, harvest songs, and songs of rural life collected by Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger, and others.

• "A Farmer's Boy" – traditional song about a young man seeking farm work.
• "Blow Away the Morning Dew" – traditional English courtship song.
• "Bushes and Briars" – collected by Vaughan Williams in Essex, a song of unrequited love.
• "Come All Ye Faithful Ploughboys" – harvest celebration song.
• "Country Life" – traditional song praising rural existence over city life.
• "Dabbling in the Dew" – traditional country song about milkmaids.
• "Early One Morning" – classic English folk song of a jilted lover.
• "Foggy, Foggy Dew" – traditional English love song (distinct from the Irish "Foggy Dew").
• "Green Bushes" – traditional song collected in many English counties.
• "Greensleeves" – attributed to Henry VIII by legend, one of the oldest and best-known English melodies.
• "Here's the Tender Coming" – press-gang song from the south coast.
• "In Sheffield Park" – traditional Yorkshire love song.
• "John Barleycorn" – allegory of the grain harvest as a death and resurrection, shared with Scotland.
• "Lovely Joan" – collected by Vaughan Williams, a courtship outwitting song.
• "My Boy Billy" – traditional song from the West Country.
• "Oak and Ash and Thorn" – inspired by Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill, set by Peter Bellamy.
• "One Man Went to Mow" – counting song, widely known.
• "Seeds of Love" – collected by Cecil Sharp in Somerset in 1903, one of the first songs of the English folk revival.
• "Sheep Shearing Song" – traditional Dorset harvest song.
• "Spencer the Rover" – broadside ballad about a wandering man returning home.
• "Strawberry Fair" – traditional Devon song.
• "The Cuckoo" – spring song in many variants.
• "The Lark in the Clear Air" – traditional, also claimed by the Irish tradition.
• "The Lincolnshire Poacher" – one of the most famous English folk songs, about poaching hares.
• "The Oak and the Ash" – a northern girl longing for home.
• "The Ploughboy" – celebrating the life of a young ploughman.
• "The Seeds of Love" – see "Seeds of Love."
• "The Turtle Dove" – traditional love song about a departing sweetheart.
• "We Plough the Fields and Scatter" – harvest hymn, German origin, widely adopted in England.
• "Widdicombe Fair" – Devon folk song about a group of men borrowing Tom Pearce's grey mare.

Sea Songs and Shanties

• "A-Roving" (also "The Maid of Amsterdam") – classic sailor's liberty song.
• "Billy Boy" – traditional courting song with nautical flavour.
• "Blow the Man Down" – one of the best-known halyard shanties.
• "Bobby Shafto" – Northumbrian children's/folk song about a sailor.
• "Bound for South Australia" – capstan shanty.
• "Drunken Sailor" ("What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?") – the most famous of all shanties.
• "Haul Away, Joe" – traditional short-haul shanty, shared with the Irish tradition.
• "Hearts of Oak" – unofficial anthem of the Royal Navy, written by David Garrick.
• "Henry Martin" (Child 250) – ballad of a pirate who sinks a ship.
• "High Barbary" – pirate ballad.
• "Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her" – pumping shanty for the end of a voyage.
• "Lowlands Away" – mournful pumping shanty about a dead lover appearing in a dream.
• "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" – widely known folk/sea song.
• "Rio Grande" – one of the grandest of the capstan shanties.
• "Rolling Down to Old Maui" – whaling shanty about returning from the Arctic.
• "Shenandoah" – capstan shanty of American origin, widely adopted by English sailors.
• "South Australia" – rousing capstan shanty.
• "Spanish Ladies" – farewell to the Bay of Biscay, one of the oldest English sea songs.
• "The Coasts of High Barbary" – variant of "High Barbary."
• "The Handsome Cabin Boy" – cross-dressing ballad about a woman discovered aboard ship.
• "The Holy Ground" – shared with the Irish tradition.
• "The Leaving of Liverpool" – see also Irish tradition, an emigrant sea song.
• "The Mermaid" – about a ship doomed after sighting a mermaid.
• "The Saucy Arethusa" – celebrating a Royal Navy frigate.
• "Tom Bowling" – by Charles Dibdin, a lament for a dead sailor.
• "Whiskey Johnny" – pumping shanty.

Love and Romance

• "Annie Laurie" – shared with Scotland, widely sung in England.
• "Barbara Allen" – see Child Ballads.
• "Bruton Town" – sinister ballad of a murdered lover, collected in Somerset.
• "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" – warning song to young women.
• "Down in the Valley" – traditional English/American love song.
• "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" – words by Ben Jonson, set to a traditional melody.
• "Geordie" – love ballad variant.
• "Greensleeves" – see Countryside songs.
• "If I Was a Blackbird" – shared with Ireland.
• "Just as the Tide Was Flowing" – collected by Cecil Sharp.
• "Linden Lea" – by Ralph Vaughan Williams, setting a poem by William Barnes.
• "My Bonny Boy" – traditional song of a woman lamenting her young lover's departure.
• "O Waly, Waly" – the English name for the Scottish "Waly, Waly" / "The Water Is Wide."
• "Scarborough Fair" – ancient Yorkshire song popularised worldwide by Simon & Garfunkel.
• "She Moved Through the Fair" – shared with Ireland, also collected in England.
• "Sweet Nightingale" – traditional West Country love song.
• "The Ash Grove" – Welsh melody with English words, one of the most beautiful folk airs.
• "The Banks of Green Willow" – tragic ballad about a pregnant woman thrown overboard.
• "The Dark-Eyed Sailor" – broken token ballad, a sailor returns in disguise.
• "The Lark in the Morning" – shared with Ireland.
• "The Trees They Do Grow High" – about a child bride and her young husband.
• "The Water Is Wide" – English name for "Waly, Waly," widely recorded.
• "Under the Greenwood Tree" – from Shakespeare, set to traditional airs.

Industrial and Workers' Songs

Songs of the mines, mills, factories, and working life of industrial England.

• "Blackleg Miner" – Northumbrian song threatening strike-breakers.
• "Champion at Keeping 'Em Rolling" – WWII-era factory song.
• "Close the Coalhouse Door" – by Alex Glasgow, about the Durham mining communities.
• "Cosher Bailey" – Welsh/English border song about an ironworks boss.
• "Cushie Butterfield" – Geordie comic love song by George Ridley.
• "Dirty Old Town" – written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 about Salford.
• "Droylsden Wakes" – Lancashire factory song.
• "Fourpence a Day" – lead miners' song from Weardale.
• "Poverty Knock" – about life in a Lancashire cotton mill.
• "The Blacksmith" – traditional song about a woman betrayed by a blacksmith lover.
• "The Collier's Rant" – Northumbrian coal-mining song.
• "The Cotton Mill Song" – traditional Lancashire weaving song.
• "The Gresford Disaster" – about the 1934 Welsh mining disaster that killed 266 men.
• "The Iron Road" – about the railway navvies.
• "The Testimony of Patience Kershaw" – by Jez Lowe, about a child mine worker from the 1842 parliamentary inquiry.
• "The Trimdon Grange Explosion" – by Tommy Armstrong, about the 1882 mining disaster in County Durham.
• "Wanderin'" – by Ewan MacColl, about itinerant workers.

Historical and Patriotic

• "Agincourt Song" ("Deo Gratias Anglia") – celebrating Henry V's victory in 1415, one of the oldest English songs.
• "Drake's Drum" – poem by Sir Henry Newbolt, set to music.
• "Heart of Oak" – see Sea Songs.
• "Jerusalem" – William Blake's poem set to music by Hubert Parry, England's unofficial anthem.
• "Land of Hope and Glory" – words by A.C. Benson, music by Edward Elgar.
• "Men of Harlech" – Welsh military march, associated with the siege of Harlech Castle (1461–1468).
• "Rule, Britannia!" – by James Thomson and Thomas Arne.
• "The British Grenadiers" – regimental march dating from the 17th century.
• "The Diggers' Song" – by Gerrard Winstanley (1649), about the radical Diggers movement.
• "The Cutty Wren" – ancient song sometimes interpreted as a coded song of peasant revolt.
• "The World Turned Upside Down" – about the Diggers and Levellers, popularised by Leon Rosselson and later Billy Bragg.
• "There'll Always Be an England" – WWII patriotic song by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles.

Drinking and Good Company

• "Bring Us In Good Ale" – medieval English drinking song.
• "Come, Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl" – traditional English pub song.
• "Down Among the Dead Men" – 18th-century drinking song.
• "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" – see Love songs.
• "Here's a Health to the Company" – farewell drinking song.
• "John Barleycorn" – see Countryside songs.
• "The Barley Mow" – cumulative drinking song.
• "The Derby Ram" – tall tale song about an impossibly large ram.
• "The Jolly Ploughboy" – traditional celebration of drink and work.
• "The Painful Plough" – celebrating the ploughman's hard work, often sung over drinks.
• "Wassail Song" – traditional English wassailing song for Twelfth Night.

Humorous Songs and Nonsense

• "A Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" – traditional hunting tale.
• "Frog Went a-Courting" – one of the oldest English nursery/folk songs, dating from 1580.
• "Green Grow the Rushes, O" – cumulative counting song of uncertain origin.
• "John Peel" – about the Cumberland fox hunter, by John Woodcock Graves.
• "Lavender Blue" – traditional nursery song.
• "Old King Cole" – nursery rhyme with folk song variants.
• "Oranges and Lemons" – London children's song naming the bells of various churches.
• "Sing a Song of Sixpence" – nursery rhyme sometimes given political interpretations.
• "The Fox" – see "A Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night."
• "The Grand Old Duke of York" – comic marching song.
• "The Ramblin' Rover" – shared with Scotland.
• "The Vicar of Bray" – satirical song about a clergyman who changes his politics with every new monarch.
• "There Was a Jolly Miller" – from Love in a Village (1762).
• "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" – nursery rhyme.
• "Widdicombe Fair" – see Countryside songs.

Morris, Maypole and Seasonal Songs

Songs associated with English folk customs, Morris dancing, and the ritual calendar.

• "Abbots Bromley Horn Dance" – tune for the ancient Staffordshire horn dance.
• "Bonny Green Garters" – Morris dance tune with song.
• "Bring Us In Good Ale" – midwinter feasting song.
• "Hal-an-Tow" – Cornish May Day song from Helston.
• "Here We Come A-Wassailing" – traditional wassailing carol.
• "Jack-in-the-Green" – Mayday song.
• "Padstow May Song" – ancient May Day processional from Padstow, Cornwall.
• "The Boar's Head Carol" – ancient Christmas carol from Queen's College, Oxford.
• "The Coventry Carol" – 16th-century carol about the Massacre of the Innocents.
• "The Cutty Wren" – see Historical songs, also associated with St. Stephen's Day.
• "The Gloucestershire Wassail" – traditional wassailing song.
• "The Holly and the Ivy" – traditional Christmas carol.
• "The Hunting of the Wren" – St. Stephen's Day custom song.
• "The Lord of the Dance" – by Sydney Carter, set to the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts."
• "The Wassail Song" – various regional wassailing songs.

Welsh Songs (Caneuon Cymreig)

• "Ar Hyd y Nos" (All Through the Night) – traditional Welsh lullaby, one of the most famous Welsh melodies.
• "Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn" (Watching the White Wheat) – traditional Welsh love song.
• "Calon Lân" (A Pure Heart) – hymn by Daniel James (Gwyrosydd), set to music by John Hughes; one of Wales's most beloved songs.
• "Cwm Rhondda" (Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer) – hymn tune by John Hughes, Wales's most famous hymn.
• "Dafydd y Garreg Wen" (David of the White Rock) – lament said to be composed by the dying harpist Dafydd Owen.
• "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" (Land of My Fathers) – the Welsh national anthem, by Evan James and James James (1856).
• "Myfanwy" – love song by Joseph Parry, one of the most popular Welsh songs.
• "Sosban Fach" (Little Saucepan) – traditional comic song, adopted as a rugby anthem by Llanelli.
• "Suo Gân" (Lullaby) – traditional Welsh lullaby, featured in the film Empire of the Sun.
• "Tra Bo Dau" – traditional Welsh love song.
• "David of the White Rock" – English version of "Dafydd y Garreg Wen."
• "God Bless the Prince of Wales" – by Brinley Richards.
• "Idle Days in Summertime" – traditional Welsh melody with English words.
• "Men of Harlech" – see Historical songs.
• "The Ash Grove" – traditional Welsh melody, widely known with English lyrics.
• "The Bells of Aberdovey" – traditional Welsh song.
• "The March of the Men of Harlech" – see "Men of Harlech."
• "We'll Keep a Welcome in the Hillsides" – popular Welsh song of homecoming by Mai Jones and Lyn Joshua.
• "Y Deryn Pur" (The Gentle Dove) – traditional Welsh folk song.

Cornish Songs

• "Camborne Hill" – traditional Cornish mining song.
• "Hal-an-Tow" – ancient Helston May Day song.
• "Lamorna" – a song about the village of Lamorna.
• "Little Eyes" – traditional Cornish lullaby.
• "The Furry Dance" ("Floral Dance") – Helston's ancient processional tune.
• "The Song of the Western Men" ("Trelawny") – Cornish anthem by Robert Stephen Hawker.
• "The White Rose" – Cornish folk song.

Revival and Modern Folk

Songs from the English folk revival (1950s–present) and modern compositions that have become standards.

• "A Sailor's Life" – traditional, given a landmark arrangement by Fairport Convention.
• "Byker Hill" – Northumbrian mining song, popularised by Steeleye Span and Martin Carthy.
• "Crazy Man Michael" – by Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention.
• "Dirty Old Town" – by Ewan MacColl, written about Salford.
• "Farewell to the Gold" – Australian gold rush song adopted into the English tradition.
• "Gaudete" – Latin Christmas carol popularised by Steeleye Span.
• "I Was Born in Kyle" – shared with Scotland.
• "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" – by Shane MacGowan, bridging Irish and English traditions.
• "Liege and Lief" – Fairport Convention's landmark album title track.
• "Reynardine" – ancient ballad revived by Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention.
• "Sir Patrick Spens" – shared with Scotland, revived by many English folk artists.
• "Streets of London" – by Ralph McTell, one of the most popular songs of the English folk revival.
• "Tam Lin" – see Child Ballads, given a celebrated arrangement by Fairport Convention.
• "The Blacksmith" – revived by Steeleye Span, Planxty, and many others.
• "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" – Napoleonic ballad shared with Ireland.
• "The Deserter" – traditional broadside revived in the folk revival.
• "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" – by Sandy Denny, one of the great songs of the English folk revival.

Australian Folk Songs

The Anglophone ballad tradition crossed to Australia with convicts, settlers, and gold rush immigrants from the 1780s onward. Irish and English ballads transformed in the bush, producing a distinctive body of songs about convict life, bushrangers, droving, shearing, and the vast landscape. The Australian tradition is marked by defiance, dark humour, and a strong identification with the underdog.

• "Waltzing Matilda" — Banjo Paterson (1895), set to a tune derived from the Scottish "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea." Australia's unofficial national anthem — a swagman steals a sheep and drowns himself rather than be captured. The most famous Australian song in the world.
• "Click Go the Shears" — shearing song, one of the great Australian work songs, based on the American "Ring the Bell, Watchman."
• "The Wild Colonial Boy" — bushranger ballad about Jack Doolan (or Duggan), shared with the Irish tradition. A transported convict turned outlaw.
• "Botany Bay" — convict transportation song, both a lament and a dark joke about being sent to New South Wales.
• "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" — Eric Bogle (1971), about Gallipoli and the horror of war. One of the greatest anti-war songs ever written. Bogle is a Scot who emigrated to Australia.
• "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" — see above. Widely covered by The Pogues, Liam Clancy, and many others.
• "Green Fields of France" ("No Man's Land") — Eric Bogle (1976), a meditation on a young soldier's grave in a WWI cemetery. Another masterpiece by the same songwriter.
• "Moreton Bay" — convict lament about the brutal penal settlement in Queensland.
• "The Drover's Dream" — humorous bush song about a sleeping drover whose animals come to life.
• "The Overlander" — droving song about cattle runs across the outback.
• "Bold Jack Donahue" — bushranger ballad about the Irish-born outlaw, one of the oldest Australian folk songs.
• "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" — convict transportation ballad, popularised by Bob Dylan on Good as I Been to You (1992).
• "The Dying Stockman" — bush ballad about a stockman's last words.
• "Along the Road to Gundagai" — Jack O'Hagan (1922), sentimental bush song that became a standard.
• "Bound for South Australia" — capstan shanty shared with the English sea tradition.
• "My Old Man's a Dustman" — Lonnie Donegan, originally English but widely adopted in Australia.
• "I Still Call Australia Home" — Peter Allen (1980), modern but universally known.
• "Brisbane Ladies" — traditional Australian ballad.
• "Flash Jack from Gundagai" — humorous shearing song.
• "The Pub with No Beer" — Slim Dusty (1957), based on a poem by Dan Sheahan, one of the best-known Australian country-folk songs.
• "Advance Australia Fair" — the national anthem, folk-influenced.

Key Figures

• Banjo Paterson — poet and songwriter, author of "Waltzing Matilda" and "The Man from Snowy River"
• Henry Lawson — poet of the bush tradition
• Eric Bogle — Scottish-born Australian songwriter, wrote "Green Fields of France" and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
• Slim Dusty — country-folk singer who preserved and popularised Australian bush songs
• A.L. Lloyd — English folk scholar who also collected and recorded Australian folk songs

Canadian Folk Songs

Canada's folk tradition has two great streams: the English-language tradition of the Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) and Newfoundland, and the French-language tradition of Quebec and Acadia. The English stream preserved British and Irish ballads in extraordinary purity — Newfoundland in particular kept alive Child Ballads and broadside ballads that had vanished from Britain. Cape Breton Island maintained Scottish Gaelic singing and fiddle music longer than many parts of Scotland itself.

English-Language Tradition

• "Barrett's Privateers" — Stan Rogers (1976), a song about a disastrous Nova Scotian privateer voyage in 1778. Canada's most beloved folk song of the modern era.
• "Northwest Passage" — Stan Rogers (1981), about the search for the Arctic sea route. Often called Canada's unofficial anthem.
• "The Mary Ellen Carter" — Stan Rogers, about salvaging a sunken ship. Famous for its defiant chorus.
• "I'se the B'y" — Newfoundland folk song, one of the most widely known Canadian folk songs.
• "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" — Newfoundland tall-tale song.
• "The Squid-Jiggin' Ground" — Arthur Scammell (1928), Newfoundland fishing song.
• "Farewell to Nova Scotia" — traditional Maritime ballad, one of Canada's best-known folk songs.
• "The Kelligrews Soiree" — Newfoundland comic song about a disastrous party.
• "She's Like the Swallow" — Newfoundland love song, collected by Maud Karpeles (Cecil Sharp's collaborator) in 1930. Hauntingly beautiful.
• "The Banks of Newfoundland" — traditional ballad about the Grand Banks fishing grounds.
• "Song for the Mira" — Allister MacGillivray (1973), a Cape Breton song of homecoming.
• "Donkey Riding" — Québécois/Maritime work song, widely known.
• "The Ryans and the Pittmans" — Newfoundland comic courting song.
• "Lukey's Boat" — Newfoundland fishing song.
• "Ise the B'y That Builds the Boat" — variant of "I'se the B'y."
• "The Nova Scotia Song" — traditional Maritime emigrant song.
• "Lots of Fish in Bonavist' Harbour" — Newfoundland children's/folk song.
• "Four Strong Winds" — Ian & Sylvia Tyson (1963), one of the defining Canadian folk songs. Covered by Neil Young and many others.
• "Someday Soon" — Ian Tyson, covered widely including by Judy Collins.
• "Early Morning Rain" — Gordon Lightfoot (1966), covered by Peter, Paul and Mary, Elvis Presley, and many others.
• "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" — Gordon Lightfoot (1976), about the 1975 Great Lakes shipwreck.
• "If You Could Read My Mind" — Gordon Lightfoot (1970).
• "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" — Gordon Lightfoot (1967), an epic folk suite about building the transcontinental railroad.
• "Suzanne" — Leonard Cohen (1967), from Montreal. Not strictly folk but deeply rooted in the tradition.

French-Language Tradition

• "À la Claire Fontaine" — the great song of New France, carried from France by settlers. Unofficial anthem of French Canada for centuries.
• "Alouette" — French-Canadian plucking song, one of the most widely known Canadian songs worldwide.
• "Un Canadien Errant" — Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (1842), lament of exile after the 1837 Rebellion. One of the most beautiful Canadian songs in any language.
• "V'là l'Bon Vent" — traditional Québécois folk song.
• "Mon Pays" — Gilles Vigneault (1964), one of Quebec's great national songs.
• "Gens du Pays" — Gilles Vigneault (1975), often called Quebec's true national anthem.
• "La Bolduc" songs — Mary Travers (La Bolduc), Quebec's first folk recording star in the 1920s–1930s.

Key Figures

• Stan Rogers — the great modern Canadian folk songwriter (Nova Scotia/Ontario)
• Gordon Lightfoot — Canada's most famous folk singer-songwriter (Ontario)
• Ian & Sylvia Tyson — pioneering Canadian folk duo
• Leonard Cohen — Montreal poet-songwriter
• Gilles Vigneault — Quebec's national poet-songwriter
• Maud Karpeles — collected Newfoundland folk songs in 1929–1930
• Helen Creighton — collected thousands of Maritime folk songs over decades

New Zealand Folk Songs

New Zealand's folk tradition is smaller but genuine — a mix of songs carried by English, Scottish, and Irish settlers, gold rush songs (the Otago gold rush of the 1860s drew many of the same people who had been in the Australian goldfields), whaling songs from the Bay of Islands era, and songs about the land itself. Māori waiata (songs) form a separate and ancient tradition.

• "Pokarekare Ana" — the most famous Māori love song, widely known and often called New Zealand's unofficial anthem. Written in the early 20th century, with roots in older Māori musical traditions.
• "God Defend New Zealand" — the national anthem, folk-influenced.
• "Blue Smoke" — Ruru Karaitiana (1948), often called the first New Zealand pop/folk hit.
• "Haere Mai" — traditional Māori welcome song.
• "Now Is the Hour" ("Pō Atarau") — Māori/New Zealand farewell song, became internationally famous through Gracie Fields's recording.
• "The Digger's Song" — Otago gold rush song.
• "Anchored in the Harbour" — whaling-era song.
• "Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi" — Māori action song (1960s), widely sung.
• "Slice of Heaven" — Dave Dobbyn (1986), modern but beloved.
• "Te Aroha" — Māori song of peace and love, widely taught and sung.

South Africa and the Caribbean

Brief notes on smaller branches of the tradition.

South Africa — English and Scottish settlers brought folk songs to the Cape Colony and Natal. The Afrikaans volkslied tradition is separate (Dutch-derived), but English-language folk songs survived in isolated communities. The Boer War produced its own body of English-language songs:

• "Goodbye Dolly Gray" — Boer War farewell song, widely sung by English soldiers.
• "We Are Marching to Pretoria" — Boer War marching song.
• "Sarie Marais" — Afrikaans folk song from the Boer War era, crossing between traditions.

The Caribbean — English sea shanties and work songs carried by sailors mixed with African, Creole, and indigenous traditions to produce something new. Not the same tradition, but interwoven at the roots:

• "Jamaica Farewell" — Harry Belafonte popularised this traditional Caribbean folk song.
• "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" — Jamaican work song, made famous by Harry Belafonte.
• "Sloop John B" — Bahamian folk song, collected by Alan Lomax, made famous by the Beach Boys. A genuine folk song with deep roots.
• "Mary Ann" — traditional Caribbean folk song.
• "Yellow Bird" — Haitian Creole folk song, widely covered.

Children's Songs and Nursery Rhymes

• "A-Hunting We Will Go" – traditional English children's song.
• "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" – traditional nursery rhyme.
• "Bobby Shafto" – see Sea Songs.
• "Frère Jacques" – French origin, widely sung in English schools.
• "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" – traditional ring game.
• "Humpty Dumpty" – traditional nursery rhyme.
• "Jack and Jill" – traditional nursery rhyme.
• "Lavender's Blue" – traditional English nursery song, 17th century.
• "London Bridge Is Falling Down" – one of the most famous nursery rhymes.
• "Mary Had a Little Lamb" – American origin (Sarah Josepha Hale, 1830), universally known in England.
• "Pop Goes the Weasel" – traditional London children's song.
• "Ring a Ring o' Roses" – traditional ring game.
• "Rock-a-Bye Baby" – traditional lullaby.
• "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" – traditional round.
• "Three Blind Mice" – one of the oldest English rounds, published in 1609.
• "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" – words by Jane Taylor (1806), to the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman."