Music Americana Trivia Quiz

Answer: it was a derogatory term for an outrageous dresser

The state anthem of Connecticut and a patriotic air throughout the United States, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" traces its roots all the way back to the Seven Years War of Europe.
An extension of that war in America was known as the French and Indian Wars, and while the exact origin of the song is unknown, the British used the term "yankee" to mock the disorganized rebels of America.
A "doodle" was a German term meaning simpleton and "macaroni" was slang for foppishness. The word macaroni itself is derived from the Italian maccherone, meaning a boorish fool and the powdered Macaroni wigs of the day were tall, foolishly vain things worn by "dandies."
The implication was that Americans were unsophisticated and foolish, and that they were so naive that they would think that sticking a feather in their cap would make them fashionable.

Answer: a motherless calf

While the exact origin is unknown, a dogie may have been a motherless calf which, having been weaned too soon, would try to eat the rough grass of the praries. Its belly would become distended because it was not able to digest food properly yet, and cowboys would refer to it as a "dough-gut", which was shortened to "dogie".
Another possibility is that it is derived from the word "dogal", the Spanish word for haltar or lariat, as in the lariat used to rope calves for branding purposes.

Answer: The Old Folks At Home

Stephen Collins Foster, one of America's best-loved musical storytellers, wrote "The Old Folks at Home" in 1851. The Suwannee River flows southerly from the Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, slicing the Florida panhandle from the rest of the state.

After Foster wrote "The Old Folks At Home" in 1851, he sold it to famed minstrelman E. P. Christy. Foster is reported to have chosen the "Swanee" because its two-syllable cadence fit nicely into the music he had composed. Originally, he and his brothers had used as a working name a South Carolina river; the PeeDee, but eventually felt that "Swanee" had a better ring to it.
It became the official state song of Florida in 1935, replacing "Florida, My Florida," which had been adopted as the State Song in 1913.

Answer: Woody and Arlo Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. He got his love for music from both of his parents, when he was a young child. In 1933, he married Mary Jennings and had three children, Bill, Gwen and Sue. When the Great Depression hit, it was hard for him to make a living. Then the
Great Dust Storm hit, making it impossible. He left Texas, where he had moved to escape the Dust Bowl, hitchhiking, walking and hopping trains along the way, stopping to work whenever he could to try to support his family back in Pampa, Texas. In so doing, he developed a love for the open road, which came to be reflected in his music.

He was later remarried after moving to New York, this time to Marjorie Mazia, and sired four more children; Cathy, (who died at the age of four in a home fire), Arlo, Joady and Nora Lee.

Arlo was born in 1947 and gave his first public performance in 1961 at the age of 13. His career exploded in 1967 with the release of "Alice's Restaurant."
In 1972 Arlo made famous Steve Goodman's song "City of New Orleans," a sad farewell to passenger rail travel. Arlo's first trip on that train was in December 2005 when he went to raise money for musicians financially devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita in the southern U.S.

Answer: Yellow Rose Of Texas

This song was first published in 1853 by an author identified only as "J.K." It was a popular Confederate marching song during the Civil War and with the U.S. Cavalry out west and along the cattle trails. In 1955 the tune was a hit record. In Spanish, "amarillo" means yellow.

Answer: Clementine

The daughter of a fictional California Gold Rush miner, the song immortalizes Clementine. There are at least 5 alternate endings for the song and no less than three alternate or additional verses that have been added over the years.

The song has been the title of at least one movie, (by John Ford), been featured in one short radio episode, sung by one cartoon character (Huckleberry Hound) created by Hanna-Barbera, and featured in another movie, Hud, starring Paul Newman.

Answer: Susanna

The song "Oh! Susanna" was popularized by Stephen C. Foster and was first published on February 25, 1848.
Just like "My Darling Clementine", written by another author, it too was associated with the California Gold Rush.

Answer: Huddie Ledbetter

Written by Gussie L. Davis in 1889, and popularized by Huddie Ledbetter aka "Leadbelly", "Good Night, Irene", has the interesting distinction of being the song that won a pardon from the governor of Louisana.
After having previously convinced the governor of Texas to release him from prison on a murder charge, (by singing to him), Leadbelly more or less repeated this performance for the governor of Louisana when he was locked up on charges that he had stabbed some other men with a knife.
John Lomax came upon him while Leadbelly was serving on the chain-gang, and brought the song to the attention of the governor of Louisana, who released Leadbelly into the care of Lomax.
In 1950, a year after Leadbelly's death, The Weavers turned it into a number one hit in the U.S.

Answer: Red River Valley

The song and tune have been used in numerous films. It was sung in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath", a reproduction of the John Steinbeck story of displaced Oklahomans. In the 1993 film "Tombstone", Josephine Marcus sings it to Kurt Russell (Wyatt Earp).

Answer: Norworth and Von Tilzer

Written in 1908 by Vaudeville star singer and songwriter Jack Norworth, the music was added by Albert Von Tilzer. Neither man had ever been to a baseball game before, and the song was about wishfully imagining what it would be like.
Later, in 1927, Norworth wrote a new verse to go with the already popular chorus. He attended his first baseball game in 1940, where he watched the Chicago Cubs play the Brooklyn Dodgers.
It wasn't sung at a game, however, until 1971, when baseball announcer Harry Caray led the crowd in singing the chorus during the seventh inning stretch at a Chicago Cubs game.