I wrote this piece for my friend Rebecca Hunter. It is a collection of various folksongs, freely interpreted for the violin and piano. Email me if you would like to play this piece; I will email you the score and parts.

The first song, "The Mice and the Bad Angel" is a Miccosukee story about how the lowly mice helped a mother get the hearts of her daughters back from the bad angel. The mice sing "I said, mighty angel. Can't ever do anything to me-I am-I am- far away land and sky. I sing away and I'm bringing raw hearts back."

"Turtle's Song to the Wolf" is a Creek story of how the turtle outsmarted the wolf in a race, a story similar to the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise won the race, the wolf died, and the turtle sang, "I told you I was little and can't run fast, but I can outsmart you. Wolf, wolf, your bones will be quivering, the flies will be quivering, the flies will be buzzing and buzzing around."

The third and the final movements both use versions of the folk tune, "Oh Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie" in the piece. The song is of British origin, the British version voices the sailor's fear of being buried in the "deep, deep sea". This American "Cowboy" version sees the prairie as a vast ocean. The first version I used is Johnny Cash's version, as he recorded it on the "American" label, the second from is Ruth Crawford Seeger's transcription of the song, published in John and Alan Lomax's 1947 Folk Song USA.

The fourth and fifth movements are arrangements of the nonsensical tunes "Risselty Rosselty" and "Old Grey Mare". I transcribed the versions sung by Ruth Crawford Seeger and accompanied by her husband Charles on the hammered dulcimer. These recordings, released on the compilation "Songs for Political Action" by Bear Family Records, represent some of the only recordings of the famous musicologists' their selves in performance.

Of note is that Mrs. Seeger give the full name of "Risselty Rosselty" as being "Risselty-rosselty, hey bom-bosselty,Nicklety, knacklety, rustical quality, Willaby-wallaby now, now, now."