Arkansas Traveler: 'Little House' Music and Tales
Arkansas Traveler: 'Little House' Music and Tales

The Little House girls. hide caption
Photo Gallery
Prairie House images with text by Dale Cockrell (Professor of Musicology, Vanderbilt University)
Music for the Prairie
'Arkansas Traveler'
'Old Dan Tucker'
'The Gum Tree Canoe'
'The Irish Washerwoman'
'The Blue Juniata'
Few works in all of American literature document the musical life of pioneer America as effectively as the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This special features select songs and stories taken from the Little House series. A Prairie Home Companion's regular Riders in the Sky and other Nashville artists provide musical performances, and actress Cherry Jones reads selected stories from the books. Hosted by Noah Adams.
- Songs Heard In This Show:
- "F.C.'s Jig" - Mark O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz Trio
- "Darling Nelly Gray" - Thomas Hampson (baritone) and Armen Guzelimian (piano)
- "The Arkansas Traveler" (arr. David Guion) - Eugene Rowley (piano)
- "Money Musk" - Pa's Fiddle Band
- "The Girl I Left Behind Me" - Pat Enright and Pa's Fiddle Band
- "Arkansas Traveler" - Pa's Fiddle Band
- "The Irish Washerwoman" - Pa's Fiddle Band
- "Old Dan Tucker" - Elizabeth Cook and Pa's Fiddle Band
- "Amazing Grace" - Mark O'Connor
- "Summer" from Harvest Home Suite - Jay Ungar and Molly Mason
- "The Blue Juniata" - Riders In the Sky
- "The Gum Tree Canoe" - Buddy Greene and Pa's Fiddle Band
- "Uncle Sam's Farm" - Riders In the Sky
- "Cold Frosty Morning" - Butch Baldassari and David Schnaufer
- "The Devil's Dream" - Butch Baldassari and David Schnaufer
- "Happy Land" - Peggy Duncan Singers and Pa's Fiddle Band
Related NPR Stories
Home on the Range, Present at the Creation April 29, 2002
The Federal Touch in South Dakota Aug. 11, 2005