Badass Women in Folksong

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Text in this image reads: "A 4 Week Virtual Course" followed by "Learn a One-of-a-Kind Collection of Folk Songs About Witches, Warriors, & Witty Women from England, Scotland and Appalachia." The background image is black and white and washed out. Visible is an androgynous figure who appears to be laying down, face up, with swirling patterns consisting of flowers and other organic shapes surrounding them. Illustration by Harry Clarke, 1933.
This image has text displayed on an orange field. The text reads: Many of us feel drawn to folk songs and ballads from England, Scotland and Appalachia. Yet so often, these songs tell stories in which women are victims in a world they can’t control. While these songs reflect important historical realities, there are also plenty of songs that flip the script: Songs about women as witches, warriors, adventurers, survivors and justice-seekers. This course is a gateway to those songs.

Badass Women in Folk Song is a four week exploration of songs and ballads about wily and witty women who live fiercely, outwit assailants and use magic to achieve their ends.

Generation after generation of singers have passed down these songs— Now it’s your turn to learn them.

During this course, you will be introduced to traditional songs about badass women and begin to incorporate these songs into your repertoire via live online sessions that teach the songs in an engaging and accessible sing-and-repeat method. Along the way, you’ll learn about the histories, folklore, and real women behind the songs— and become a carrier (and creator!) of these songs yourself.

Enjoy learning and discussing powerful, fierce and funny songs in an inviting community of singers.

“I came to Badass Women in Folksong with limited knowledge of the folk tradition, limited time to commit, and finding myself in a bit of a creative rut. To say I finished the course four weeks later feeling inspired is an understatement! The structure of the course was ideal. Saro was knowledgeable of the tradition, vocal music technique, and was kind and compassionate throughout. I loved the songs, the histories, and imaginative perspectives brought to class discussions. I would absolutely sign up for another course with Saro in the future.”

—Badass Women in Folk Song Student, 2023

How the Course Works

This course starts with a short getting-to-know-you intro class, followed by 4 weeks of learning and content. Each week will focus on a specific theme related to Badass Women in Folk Song (see list below). Participants will be provided with audio lectures and song recordings on the weekly theme, then enjoy a live online session to learn the songs and discuss the week’s topics in greater depth. Participants will also be invited to write their own songs or poems inspired by the course (tools and tips will be provided). During the last week of Badass Women in Folk Song, an additional optional online session will be held for participants to share these new works. 

Each week’s content includes:

  • Audio recordings of 3-4 ballads and folk songs performed by Saro (these will be learned via sing-and-repeat methods in the weekly live sessions)
  • PDF lyrics to each song
  • One or more audio lectures that explore the themes, folklore, and history behind the songs. Essay versions of the lectures will also be available.
  • A YouTube playlist of traditional songs focused on the week’s theme
  • A recording of that week’s live session (posted one to two days after live session takes place)

You will also get: 

  • A resource list to help you research more traditional songs about badass women in the future
  • Access to a private facebook discussion group for attendees to share thoughts and reflections
  • In-class vocal warmup and body engagement exercises

You will have access to this material forever!

What We’ll Cover

Green text on a background that shows a washed out black and white image of what appear to be 17th or 18th century aristocracy socializing. Text reads: Week 1: Witches, Mermaids and Fairy Queens Week 2: Warriors, Sailors and Smugglers Week 3: Outwitting Assailants & Celebrating Sexuality Week 4: Working Women’s Songs of Protest + Optional Session to Share Your Own Song

What to Expect

After Completing the Course, You Will Emerge With

  • A fabulous repertoire of ballads and folk songs about women surviving, thriving and kicking ass to use in classrooms, song circles, social justice movements, and performances.
  • A knowledge of the many strategies women have used over hundreds of years to assert their rights, survive oppression and claim bodily autonomy— and an understanding of how singing has been a part of this work.
  • A foundational experience of learning songs in traditional, unaccompanied singing styles.
  • The confidence to create your own songs about badass women using traditional structures and tunes.
  • Exercises to help you engage your body as a singer and use song to relieve tension.

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is for teachers, parents, musicians, historians, feminists, organizers, and anyone needing more singing in their life.

A black and white illustration showing an enormous boar attacking a man, with a woman towards the top of the image stroking the boar's back. The man's torso is being grasped by the boar's mouth, and the man appears to be trying to strike the boar with a sword. The woman in the upper left corner appears calm and pleased by what is taking place. Illustration by Saro Lynch-Thomason.

This Course Is For You If:

  • You’re looking for an infusion of some powerful new feminist songs into your singing repertoire.
  • You’re worried about ongoing attacks on the bodily autonomy and rights of many peoples— including women both cisgender and trans, nonbinary people, AFAB folks of any gender and more— and want to use songs to express anger, humor and hope in the face of these struggles.
  • As a parent or educator, you want to use song as a fun and creative way to pass on feminist stories to children, youth and young adults.
  • As an organizer, facilitator, or religious leader, you’ve been looking for songs to inspire and motivate your community towards feminist-minded social justice work.
  • You enjoy using sing and repeat methods of learning.
  • You’re open to the malleability of the folk song process. In other words— It’s ok to change lyrics while having a firm understanding of the meaning and intentions of a song in past eras.
  • You know that some ballads and folk songs can be long— and you’re ok with that!
  • You are affirming of trans, nonbinary and other gender expansive identities and are willing to use people’s pronouns.
  • You are aware that racism can show up in historic songs, and are willing to talk about ways to change this language, or consider laying aside songs that can be hurtful to people of color or marginalized communities.

This Course Is Not For You If:

  • You’re uncomfortable learning music without sheet music or instrumentation.
  • You’re uncomfortable learning or communicating over zoom.
  • You do not believe folk song lyrics should be changed ever— under any circumstances!

About The Instructor

A black and white portrait of Saro Lynch-Thomason. Her face and upper body are visible. She rests her right hand on her left elbow and looks directly out at the viewer. She appears calm and confident. She is wearing an unbuttoned jacket with a black shirt underneath.

Saro Lynch-Thomason (she/her) is an award-winning folksinger, as well as a song leader, folklorist, documentarian, and illustrator, who has studied and taught traditional Appalachian, Southern American, English and Scottish folk songs for nearly 15 years. 

Saro was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and as a young adult began exploring organizing songs from Appalachia (see Saro’s multimedia project on the West Virginia Mine Wars here), and the roots of this music in Anglo-American and African-American song traditions. 

She has led community sings and Wassailing choruses, taught at week-long music camps, performed internationally, and produced several albums. She has a special love of using song as a tool to connect contemporary singers to historic and ongoing movements for communal justice and self-liberation. 

Her song “More Waters Rising” has become an international anthem in the movement to end climate change, garnering praise in the Huffington Post.

She holds a Masters in Appalachian Studies from ETSU and a Certificate in Documentary Studies from Duke University. Her thesis was about contemporary women singers and how their gendered experiences shaped their repertoire choices.

What Folk Legends Are Saying

“Having been a singer of traditional Appalachian ballads for over 50 years, it’s hard for this old warhorse to get chills when I hear someone sing. But, Saro Lynch-Thomason is the exception. Saro sings with an intensity and intonation that belies her age. There’s something ancient that lives inside Saro’s voice. She sings with heart and soul and people listen. I consider her the singer among singers of her generation.”
“During the course of my more than 50 years as a civil rights, labor and community organizer and musician in Appalachia and the South, I have had the privilege of working with and getting to know some truly amazing artists, activists and scholars. As extraordinary as so many of them are, few are as impressive in all three areas as Saro Lynch-Thomason. She is simply one of the most gifted, creative, committed, conscientious, self-starting, hard-working people I’ve gotten to know over these years.”

Schedule

The Fall 2024 schedule will be announced soon!

About learning over zoom: Learning songs over zoom comes with its own rewards and challenges. As a participant learning songs in the live sessions, you’ll be muted while learning the songs. This means you will be able to hear yourself and Saro— but you will not be able to hear other attendees singing, nor will they hear you (if we were all unmuted, the audio lag time would create a chaotic sound experience!). If this is new for you, check out this sample to get a sense of what the experience will be like. Participants will be able to unmute themselves for general discussion. 

Cost and Payment Plans

Cost and payment plans will be updated soon!

Student Testimonials

“I highly recommend Saro’s workshop to anyone who is looking to deeply connect through song and community. The songs she offers are powerful and she is a wonderful teacher and singer. Each song has a story behind it and I loved hearing about the different variations and how they have changed throughout time. It was very healing to sing songs that other humans have also spoken hundreds of years ago!”
–Student, 2020 “Brave Women in Ballads” workshop
“Saro Lynch-Thomason is one of the most insightful and gifted ballad singers of a younger generation. Of course I took her course in ‘Brave Women in Ballads,’ if only to listen to what she had to say and sing. The discussions were provocative, but she welcomed many diverse opinions, and thought about them. I respect that.”.
–Elisabeth H. Null (Lisa Null), Ballad singer and folk music historian, Student, 2020 “Brave Women in Ballads” workshop
“Saro sings with an authentic depth that communicates the messages of the material. Her workshops are thoughtful and it was a joy to ‘sing along’ [over zoom] as we learned the ballads.”
–Student, 2020 “Brave Women in Ballads” workshop

FAQ

Q: How much time will this course take up on a weekly basis?
A: If you choose to 1) listen to or read the weekly lectures, song recordings and playlists and 2) attend the live sessions, your time commitment will consist of about 4-5 hours a week. If you choose to take the time to begin to memorize the songs and make them a part of your repertoire week-by-week, this will be a larger commitment. There will also be an optional exercise of writing your own poem or song using traditional styles towards the end of the course, the time of which will be dependent on your own process— you can bust out something inspired in half an hour, or spend several hours writing your piece— it’s up to you. 

Q: What if I can’t commit to all (or any) of the weekly live sessions? 
A: No problem! All of the live sessions will be recorded and made available to students for perpetuity! You can use these recordings to learn the songs at your own pace. You will also still be able to comment and hear other participants’ thoughts in the facebook group.

Q: What if I get overwhelmed or have trouble completing the course when it’s active?
A: All course materials, including recordings of the live sessions, will be available to students forever. You can learn at your own pace and review material whenever you want. 

Q: Who do you mean when you say “women?”
A: When we talk about women’s experiences in this course, we’re talking about people perceived of, treated as, or identified as women both historically and today. In other words, people who have gendered themselves as women or been gendered by the broader culture as women. This includes trans women, nonbinary folks and other identities. 

Q: Is this course affirming of nonbinary, gender expansive and other trans identities?
A: Yes. This course is designed to be inclusive for nonbinary, gender expansive and trans attendees. During the course, we will explore how some historic folk songs can be interpreted as expressing a diversity of sexualities and gender identities. That said, it’s acknowledged that because of the limited language and perspectives of these songs, they only provide a glimpse of the broader historical experiences of varying gender and sexual identities in past eras. 

This course is also approached from a perspective that, while people in the past have understood their genders and sexualities to be outside accepted norms, we usually do not have the privilege of knowing how they perceived themselves or described their own identities. In this class, it’s encouraged that we hold an awareness that, while from a modern lens we may interpret people from past eras as trans, nonbinary, queer etc., we can affirm that these peoples may have understood their identities differently. 

Q: Can men take this course?
A: Absolutely! 

Q: Do I have to be a singer to take this course? 
A: No, you don’t have to consider yourself a singer to take this course. If you do not wish to learn to sing the material, you can still take the course to enjoy the weekly lectures, recordings and playlists. Do keep in mind that most of the time in the live sessions will be devoted to learning the songs. While Saro will be using the live sessions to teach the melodies and advise attendees on vocal and lyrical choices etc., it is important for attendees who wish to learn the songs to feel fairly confident with carrying a tune and singing without instrumental backup. 

Do you have more questions? Email Saro at blairpathways@gmail.com