Book, New York Sings

New York’s fascinating history as presented in song.

In New York Sings, musicologist and folklorist Jerry Silverman has compiled a remarkable collection of songs about the people, places, and events of New York’s 400-year history—from Henry Hudson’s Half Moon to Pete Seeger’s Clearwater, from Montauk to Niagara Falls, from the sidewalks of New York to the lumber camps of the Adirondacks. The traditional songs of New York are among the oldest in the vast repertoire of the American songbook, and included here are songs from the colonial period, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and World War I, as well as songs about the immigrant experience, the Erie Canal, baseball, life in sweatshops and on farms, and hard times and ragtimes along the Bowery, Coney Island, and the Great White Way. The book provides the melody, lyrics, and guitar chord symbols for each song, as well as fascinating facts and stories about the songs, their composers, and the historical events and people described.

“…a history of New York like no other.” — 410Media.com

“…a top pick for those who want to embrace [New York’s] history through song.” — Wisconsin Bookwatch

“A great collection! Since the Dutch days in New Amsterdam, songs accompanied wars, elections, social movements, great events, as well as children’s games and lovers courting. And songs are still being made up, even if they don’t always get on radio or TV. Jerry Silverman is to be congratulated for getting so many in one book.” — Pete Seeger

Musicologist Jerry Silverman is one of America’s outstanding folksingers and guitar teachers. He has published numerous folksong collections, anthologies, and method books for guitar, banjo, and fiddle, including The Baseball Songbook, The Guitarist’s Guide and Almanac, Jerry Silverman’s Folksong Encyclopedia, Ballads and Songs of the Civil War, and Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust. He has taught hundreds of people, young and old, the joys of making music on the guitar, and has performed in folksong concerts at schools, universities, and concert halls in the United States and abroad. He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.