Years ago in primary school, we had to sing a lot of what I later found out where Stephen Foster songs. But you don't hear his work much lately. "Tis summer, the darkies are gay" and "Still longing for de old plantation" don't quite go over well nowadays.
Woody Guthrie, a songwriter? I don't think he actually created those melodies. They were traditional or by long forgotten composers with maybe a few minor changes. His lyrics weren't always very memorable either. We've had great songwriters -- plenty of them -- but some people are stuck on the folk thing and don't care about talented songwriters who don't fit in with it.
Try this youtube link:
Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor: There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears; Oh! Hard Times, come again no more. Chorus: ’Tis the song, the sigh of the weary; Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more: Many days you have lingered around my cabin door; Oh! Hard Times, come again no more. While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay, There are frail forms fainting at the door: Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say Oh! Hard Times, come again no more. Chorus There’s a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away, With a worn heart whose better days are o’er: Though her voice would be merry, ’tis sighing all the day Oh! Hard Times come again no more. Chorus ’Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave, ’Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore, ’Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave, Oh! Hard Times, come again no more. Chorus