Once upon a time, "prime time" happened on the porch or at the hearth instead of on a TV set. In those days our great-great-great-grandparents had to devise their own entertainment. Their genre was the ballad, a long, intricate story told in song, which could be widely shared and easily passed to other generations. W.K. McNeil has recorded and compiled a broad selection of ballads from the American South. The book includes Child ballads, broadsides, Mexican-American, Cajun French, and Native American ballads, with text and melody transcriptions for each. It is arranged according to such themes as crime, cowboys and pioneers, and lovers faithful and unfaithful. -- From publisher's description.