Welcome to the Folk & Blues in the Schools website, where the riverboat Songster departs everyday through the musical waterway of America! A songster was a person who sang along the main street in little southern towns hoping somebody would toss a few coins in his cup. Then he'd move on down the road, like a slow train or winding river. Another kind of songster was a pocket-sized book of song lyrics. Two types of songs they sang we now call folk and blues. Parts of the folk songs were born in Europe and some of the blues in Africa, but they both grew up in America. As people carried the songs down the Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi and other rivers, their melodies mixed together and lots of new and interesting sounds and stories passed along. Now imagine you're a songster and hop on board to learn why so much singing was going on back then. It's a great musical journey about people building their lives in America and what happened along the way.