Frog Went A-Courtin’

“Frog Went A-Courtin’” is one of the oldest surviving folk songs in the English language, with versions dating back to the 1500s. The earliest known text appears in Scotland in 1549, and the tune soon spread throughout England and later across the Atlantic to America. The story – of a frog courting a mouse, only for their wedding feast to end in comic disaster – has been retold for centuries in every imaginable form: nursery rhyme, fable, nonsense song, and social satire. In colonial America it became part of the oral tradition, passed from family to family and reinvented in countless regional styles. Over time it has been sung by artists from Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Pete Seeger to Elizabeth Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen, each version reshaping its humor and rhythm to fit a new century. This performance follows the folk lineage – plainspoken and rhythmic, closer to how it might have been sung on a front porch or around a family hearth long before it ever reached a printed page. #Traditional #FolkSong #ChildrensBallad #JasonPaul #AmericanFolk

“Frog Went A-Courtin’” is one of the oldest surviving folk songs in the English language, with versions dating back to the 1500s. The earliest known text appears in Scotland in 1549, and the tune soon spread throughout England and later across the Atlantic to America. The story – of a frog courting a mouse, only for their wedding feast to end in comic disaster – has been retold for centuries in every imaginable form: nursery rhyme, fable, nonsense song, and social satire. In colonial America it became part of the oral tradition, passed from family to family and reinvented in countless regional styles. Over time it has been sung by artists from Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Pete Seeger to Elizabeth Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen, each version reshaping its humor and rhythm to fit a new century. This performance follows the folk lineage – plainspoken and rhythmic, closer to how it might have been sung on a front porch or around a family hearth long before it ever reached a printed page. #Traditional #FolkSong #ChildrensBallad #JasonPaul #AmericanFolk