Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 6: Ring Game Songs and Others

Folk is a song-centered acoustic tradition rooted in community storytelling, everyday life, and social history. It emphasizes clear melodies, simple harmonies, and lyrics that foreground narrative, protest, and personal testimony. As a modern recorded genre, folk coalesced in the early-to-mid 20th century in the United States out of older ballad, work song, and rural dance traditions. It typically features acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica), strophic song forms, and participatory singing (choruses, call-and-response).

Ring shout is an African American sacred music-and-dance tradition rooted in the Gullah Geechee communities of the U.S. Southeast. It combines antiphonal (call-and-response) singing with a counterclockwise, shuffling ring dance, handclapping, and a percussive "shout stick" tapped on the floor. Despite its name, the classic ring shout is not a shouted vocal style but a devotional ritual. A leader "calls" lines that a chorus answers, while "shouters" circle with restrained, gliding footwork (traditionally avoiding crossing the feet) and intensifying polyrhythms. The resulting texture fuses West and Central African communal dance practices with Christian spiritual texts, producing one of the oldest continuously practiced forms of African American sacred performance.