Rosalie Sorrels (Rosalie Ann Stringfellow, Boise, Idaho, June 24, 1933 - Ju… Read Full Bio ↴Rosalie Sorrels (Rosalie Ann Stringfellow, Boise, Idaho, June 24, 1933 - June 11, 2017) was an American folk singer, guitarist and songwriter.
She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals and clubs throughout the United States. She and her five children traveled across the country as she worked to support her family and establish herself as a performer. Along the way she made many lifelong friends among the folk and beat scene. Her career of social activism, storytelling, teaching, learning, songwriting, collecting folk songs, performing, and recording has spanned six decades.
Rosalie's first major gig was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966. Rosalie recorded more than 20 albums including the 2005 Grammy nominated album "My Last Go 'Round" (Best Traditional Folk Album.) She authored two books and wrote the introduction to her mother's book. In 1990 Sorrels was the recipient of the World Folk Music Association's Kate Wolf Award. In 1999 she received the National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence Award for "exceptional commitment and exemplary contributions to the art of storytelling." In 2000 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Idaho. In 2001 she was awarded the Boise Peace Quilt Award. She had been featured several times on National Public Radio and profiled on Idaho Public Television.
Throughout her career, she has performed and recorded with other notable folk musicians, including Utah Phillips, Mitch Greenhill, Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger and Pete Seeger. Oscar Zeta Acosta, Hunter S. Thompson and Studs Terkel wrote introductory notes for her albums. She was strongly influenced by Malvina Reynolds and went on to record several of her songs on the album What does it mean to love? She credits Reynolds with helping turn rebelliousness from a destructive force into an artistic one.
Rosalie Ann Stringfellow was born on June 24, 1933 in Boise, Idaho to Walter Pendleton Stringfellow and Nancy Ann Kelly Stringfellow. Her parents met while attending Idaho State University in Pocatello. Her parents, like their parents before them, had a love of language and song which they passed to their children. Her father worked for the highway department and the family often travelled with him as he did field work.
Her cultural heritage was one of language, song, and poetry from both sets of grandparents. Her father’s parents were Robert Stanton Stringfellow and Rosalie Cope who settled near Idaho City, Idaho on the Grimes Creek property. Robert was an Episcopal missionary working with various tribes and rural churches in Idaho and Montana. His wife, Rosalie Cope, was a photographer and journalist. The Cope family were journalists in Salt Lake City.[5] Rosalie developed a love of the outdoors while spending summers on Grimes Creek. Her mother’s parents were James Madison Kelly and Arabel Beaire who married and settled on a farm in Twin Falls, Idaho where Rosalie was a frequent visitor.
In interviews for a biography of Rosalie, Nancy Stringfellow explained
“She finds something … in a piece of poetry … that shines out like a precious jewel, and you can see her cupping her hands and holding it. We all have a streak of that … We are delighted with words. We’re drunk with words.”[4]
During high school Rosalie participated in theater as had her parents while in college. She acted and sang in many productions, garnering praise for her performances in the local media. It was during this period that Rosalie became pregnant and had an illegal abortion. This experience had a profound effect on her, showing up in later poetry and song.[5] She earned a scholarship to the University of Idaho, but as a result of a rape, she became pregnant and went to a home for unwed mothers in California to await the birth of her child, a daughter. Again, the experience of making the difficult choice of adoption shows in her later writings and music.
Sorrels did not go to college as planned, but returned to Boise after the birth of her child. She acted in local theater and partied with her friends. She enjoyed the love and support of her family during this unsteady time in her life. She recounted that her parents loved her and did not judge her.
Jim Sorrels and Rosalie Stringfellow met while performing in theater in Boise, Idaho. Jim worked for the phone company as a lineman and was seven years older than Rosalie. The two married in 1952 and his job took them to Salt Lake City where they opened their home to actors, musicians, and poets living or visiting in the area. During the marriage, they had five children and the house was filled with love, laughter, music, books and words. Both loved jazz music and Rosalie joked that Jim married her to get access to her collection of jazz recordings. Over time, her interest in the folk music of her childhood was piqued and she began to study at the University of Utah with noted folklorist, Wayland Hand. She learned to accompany herself on guitar during this period and attended folklore society meetings and seminars.
There was a strong tradition in both the Stringfellow and Kelly families to celebrate the written and spoken word. The families encouraged reading and learning for their children and this was passed to the succeeding generations. Writing; whether sermons, magazine articles, poems or Personal journaling, were all activities Rosalie experienced in her youth. She followed in the same path of expressing herself in word by journaling and writing poetry and prose.
Songs and music were a natural extension of this interest in words and her love of music began early in life as she listened to her father, Walter Pendleton Stringfellow, sing. She had access to a scrapbook of folk songs collected by her grandmother, Rosalie Cope Stringfellow. She began her music career collecting folksongs and performing them, first with her husband Jim in the late 1950s, then later on her own. It was during this time that the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage recorded Rosalie and Jim performing her collection of traditional songs. Many of these have been released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in various compilation albums throughout the last fifty years.
Sorrels was a regular in the Utah folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s when she and her husband taught folk guitar classes at the University of Utah. She participated in workshops and folk festivals in the area, such as the Utah Folklore Workshop and Festival (1959). In this way she met other folklorists and performers at "song swaps"; as well as formal sessions. Sorrels also was a concert promoter and brought Joan Baez to Salt Lake City the first time in 1963.
In 1963 Rosalie began a four decade relationship with Manny Greenhill and Folklore Productions. She performed with Manny's son, Mitch at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival and produced an album in 1964 for Folk-Legacy Records entitled If I Could Be the Rain. This is her first album which included her original songs, as previous recordings contained her renditions of traditional songs she had collected. She and her children lived for a time with Lena Spencer in Saratoga Springs, New York where she performed at Caffè Lena. She continued working on her craft, and was one of the performers at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Sorrels maintained an active performance schedule throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, often touring solo or with close friend Utah Phillips. By the midpoint of the new century's first decade, health considerations were slowing her pace. By the end of the decade, she had mostly retired to her home in Idaho, maintaining an interest and presence in the region's cultural life.
She began her public career as a singer and collector of traditional folksongs in the late 1950s. During the early 1960s she left her husband and began traveling and performing at music festivals and clubs throughout the United States. She and her five children traveled across the country as she worked to support her family and establish herself as a performer. Along the way she made many lifelong friends among the folk and beat scene. Her career of social activism, storytelling, teaching, learning, songwriting, collecting folk songs, performing, and recording has spanned six decades.
Rosalie's first major gig was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966. Rosalie recorded more than 20 albums including the 2005 Grammy nominated album "My Last Go 'Round" (Best Traditional Folk Album.) She authored two books and wrote the introduction to her mother's book. In 1990 Sorrels was the recipient of the World Folk Music Association's Kate Wolf Award. In 1999 she received the National Storytelling Network Circle of Excellence Award for "exceptional commitment and exemplary contributions to the art of storytelling." In 2000 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Idaho. In 2001 she was awarded the Boise Peace Quilt Award. She had been featured several times on National Public Radio and profiled on Idaho Public Television.
Throughout her career, she has performed and recorded with other notable folk musicians, including Utah Phillips, Mitch Greenhill, Dave Van Ronk, Peggy Seeger and Pete Seeger. Oscar Zeta Acosta, Hunter S. Thompson and Studs Terkel wrote introductory notes for her albums. She was strongly influenced by Malvina Reynolds and went on to record several of her songs on the album What does it mean to love? She credits Reynolds with helping turn rebelliousness from a destructive force into an artistic one.
Rosalie Ann Stringfellow was born on June 24, 1933 in Boise, Idaho to Walter Pendleton Stringfellow and Nancy Ann Kelly Stringfellow. Her parents met while attending Idaho State University in Pocatello. Her parents, like their parents before them, had a love of language and song which they passed to their children. Her father worked for the highway department and the family often travelled with him as he did field work.
Her cultural heritage was one of language, song, and poetry from both sets of grandparents. Her father’s parents were Robert Stanton Stringfellow and Rosalie Cope who settled near Idaho City, Idaho on the Grimes Creek property. Robert was an Episcopal missionary working with various tribes and rural churches in Idaho and Montana. His wife, Rosalie Cope, was a photographer and journalist. The Cope family were journalists in Salt Lake City.[5] Rosalie developed a love of the outdoors while spending summers on Grimes Creek. Her mother’s parents were James Madison Kelly and Arabel Beaire who married and settled on a farm in Twin Falls, Idaho where Rosalie was a frequent visitor.
In interviews for a biography of Rosalie, Nancy Stringfellow explained
“She finds something … in a piece of poetry … that shines out like a precious jewel, and you can see her cupping her hands and holding it. We all have a streak of that … We are delighted with words. We’re drunk with words.”[4]
During high school Rosalie participated in theater as had her parents while in college. She acted and sang in many productions, garnering praise for her performances in the local media. It was during this period that Rosalie became pregnant and had an illegal abortion. This experience had a profound effect on her, showing up in later poetry and song.[5] She earned a scholarship to the University of Idaho, but as a result of a rape, she became pregnant and went to a home for unwed mothers in California to await the birth of her child, a daughter. Again, the experience of making the difficult choice of adoption shows in her later writings and music.
Sorrels did not go to college as planned, but returned to Boise after the birth of her child. She acted in local theater and partied with her friends. She enjoyed the love and support of her family during this unsteady time in her life. She recounted that her parents loved her and did not judge her.
Jim Sorrels and Rosalie Stringfellow met while performing in theater in Boise, Idaho. Jim worked for the phone company as a lineman and was seven years older than Rosalie. The two married in 1952 and his job took them to Salt Lake City where they opened their home to actors, musicians, and poets living or visiting in the area. During the marriage, they had five children and the house was filled with love, laughter, music, books and words. Both loved jazz music and Rosalie joked that Jim married her to get access to her collection of jazz recordings. Over time, her interest in the folk music of her childhood was piqued and she began to study at the University of Utah with noted folklorist, Wayland Hand. She learned to accompany herself on guitar during this period and attended folklore society meetings and seminars.
There was a strong tradition in both the Stringfellow and Kelly families to celebrate the written and spoken word. The families encouraged reading and learning for their children and this was passed to the succeeding generations. Writing; whether sermons, magazine articles, poems or Personal journaling, were all activities Rosalie experienced in her youth. She followed in the same path of expressing herself in word by journaling and writing poetry and prose.
Songs and music were a natural extension of this interest in words and her love of music began early in life as she listened to her father, Walter Pendleton Stringfellow, sing. She had access to a scrapbook of folk songs collected by her grandmother, Rosalie Cope Stringfellow. She began her music career collecting folksongs and performing them, first with her husband Jim in the late 1950s, then later on her own. It was during this time that the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage recorded Rosalie and Jim performing her collection of traditional songs. Many of these have been released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in various compilation albums throughout the last fifty years.
Sorrels was a regular in the Utah folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s when she and her husband taught folk guitar classes at the University of Utah. She participated in workshops and folk festivals in the area, such as the Utah Folklore Workshop and Festival (1959). In this way she met other folklorists and performers at "song swaps"; as well as formal sessions. Sorrels also was a concert promoter and brought Joan Baez to Salt Lake City the first time in 1963.
In 1963 Rosalie began a four decade relationship with Manny Greenhill and Folklore Productions. She performed with Manny's son, Mitch at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival and produced an album in 1964 for Folk-Legacy Records entitled If I Could Be the Rain. This is her first album which included her original songs, as previous recordings contained her renditions of traditional songs she had collected. She and her children lived for a time with Lena Spencer in Saratoga Springs, New York where she performed at Caffè Lena. She continued working on her craft, and was one of the performers at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Sorrels maintained an active performance schedule throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, often touring solo or with close friend Utah Phillips. By the midpoint of the new century's first decade, health considerations were slowing her pace. By the end of the decade, she had mostly retired to her home in Idaho, maintaining an interest and presence in the region's cultural life.
The Fox
Rosalie Sorrels Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'The Fox' by these artists:
916frosty 916frosty woah, okay, woah, let's go Woah, it's on, woah, we…
Adam & S.Fox Was it worth it? Yes Dog goes up to the ducks So cute Here…
ApeY Go black saint fire I've been calling you to the…
Beggar's Opera The Fox: Right behind me as I rush across the meadow…
Ben Rudnick and Friends My cheeks are getting red Flushed on account of you There's …
Bernie Taupin/Elton John Being wiry and thinking loudly About the things sent to mak…
Booker T. Jones She walks through the corn leadin' down to the river Her…
Burl Ives The fox went out to the chase one night Prayed to…
CDM Project Dog goes "woof" Cat goes "meow" Bird goes "tweet" And mouse …
Dob Russkin Yesterday the palm of your hand was big enough for me to…
E.C. Ball Un dia me quiere Al otro …
E.C. Ball And Orna I hate to see that evening sun go down I hate…
E.L.O. PART II Turn me up a lil bit What he say, where he…
Electric Light Orchestra I wait till everyone`s asleep Then out into the night I…
Electric Light Orchestra Part Two I wait till everyone`s asleep Then out into the night I…
ELO Part II I wait till everyone's asleep Then out into the night I…
Elton John Being wiry and thinking loudly About the things sent to make…
F. O . E. I found the fox in the woods She was cold and…
Foe Late night, roaming streets I found a body in the…
FOX & Friends Was it worth it? Yes Dog goes up to the ducks So cute Here…
Fred Penner A fox went out one chilly night Prayed for the moon…
Glee Cast Dog goes woof cat goes meow Bird goes tweet and mouse…
Glee Cast Feat. Adam Lambert Dog goes woof Cat goes meow Bird goes tweet And mouse goes s…
Glee Cast feat. Demi Lovato & Adam Lambert Dog goes woof cat goes meow Bird goes tweet and mouse…
Glee Cast feat. Ylvis Dog goes "woof" Cat goes "meow" Bird goes "tweet" And mouse …
Harry Belafonte The fox went out to the chase one night Prayed to…
here/now Did you think you chased me away? I'm the fox in…
It's On Dog goes woof Cat goes meow Bird goes tweet And mouse goes s…
Jaguar You're smiling as you shoot to kill the animal that…
K-Hitz! Just kiss me already Real lucid like lucy Real humid like ja…
Kidz Bop Dog goes woof Cat goes meow Bird goes tweet And mouse goes s…
Kidz Bop Kids (Children's) Dog goes woof Cat goes meow Bird goes tweet And mouse goe…
L.Shiffrin Turn me up a lil bit What he say, where he…
Laura Veirs The Fox went out on a chilly night And then he…
Leo Dog goes "woof" Cat goes "meow" Bird goe…
Me and The Captain You said you can't get to heaven unless you get…
mewithoutYou Provisionally I, practically alive Mistook sign for signifi…
MF Grimm [Chorus:] Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge The fo…
Nada Surf The fox, the fox Lied Eyes under my prize The fox, the …
Nickel Creek The Fox went out on a chilly night He prayed for…
Niki Whenever she is weary She climbs uphill And crosses a…
North Bloom I thought I was always awake I thought I wouldn't make…
O S I found the fox in the woods She was cold and…
O+S There's a fox in the henhouse run run run You let…
O.S. I found the fox in the woods She was cold and…
Odetta The fox went out to the chase one night Prayed to…
OS I found the fox in the woods She was cold and…
Ozark Mountain Daredevils The rain let up when the sun went down I was…
Pete Seeger The fox went out to the chase one night Prayed to…
Peter Paul & Mary Oh the fox went out on a chilly night Prayed for…
Roger Whittaker The fox went out to the chase one night Prayed to…
Sleater-Kinney On the day the duck was born The fox was watching…
Sleater‐Kinney On the day the duck was born The fox was watching…
Steeleye Span Knight You can hound me now you've found me But I'm far…
The Brothers Four The fox went out to the chase one night Prayed to…
The Dove Whenever she is weary She climbs uphill And crosses a…
The Fox Was it worth it? Yes Dog goes up to the ducks So cute Here…
The Irish Rovers Well The fox came out on the chase one night he…
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils The rain let up when the sun went down I was…
waco brothers Folks we have a special song we′d like to play…
Xiu Xiu I like people who are wrong Could you then feel like…
Ylvis Dog goes "woof" Cat goes "meow" Bird goes "tweet" And mouse …
We have lyrics for these tracks by Rosalie Sorrels:
Apple Of My Eye What can I say, but that it's not easy I cannot…
Empty cot in the bunkhouse tonight There′s an empty cot in the bunkhouse tonight Pinto's head h…
I Feel Drunk All the Time I feel drunk all the time Jesus it's beautiful Great mother …
If I could be the rain Sometimes I wonder how the simple rain can weep Why the…
Rosalie You Can't Go Home Again So much silence to my hometown streets Gonna put my cheek…
The Wreck Of The Number Nine 'T was a cold winter's night, not a star was…
Up Is a Nice Place to Be Up is a nice place to be On the ceiling or…
Way Out In Idaho I was walking around in Denver One luckless rainy day When K…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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