Wayfaring Strangers By Fiona Ritchie.

 

For the ethnomusicologist (nee Anglo/American folk fanatic) in your life that has everything, comes this comprehensive study of Appalachian folk music and it's Scots Irish origins from across the great pond. There's a lot of speculation at times by Irish folk expert Ritchie as to what and why some song origins were lost, or survived pretty much intact, after sailing across the Atlantic. She also ponders the effects of the trials in a new country that were experienced by the Scot's Irish immigrants, and their American geographical locations, as to why some songs took on a new life while others are lost to the mists of time. It's an in depth scholarly work that won't over tax the reader, but it is, IMHO, strictly for the die hard American folk music fan.