Actually, these songs do have a real Texas connection: I found "Ye banks and braes " in a book of Scottish songs that was purchased in Salado, Texas, where a large meeting of the Scottish clans takes place each fall. This melody is very familiar to many of us in its secular form, and in 1935 it first appeared in the Methodist Hymnal, paired with the famous Charles Wesley text, "Come, O thou traveler unknown. " I found "Skip to my Lou, " an American folk song widely sung in Texas, in Texas Folk Songs, collected by William Owens; it is considered a "play-party song " that was typically sung as an accompaniment to folk dancing.

The challenge in setting a folk song is not to destroy the original intent of the music — not to dress it up in inappropriate clothes, so to speak — while, at the same time, to add to the song some degree of originality that sets it apart from a straightforward rendition. Certainly, this kind of challenge is one I always enjoy.

						David Ashley White
						Houston, Texas

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Click here to listen to a recording (MP3).