This publication and accompanying CD present the folklore of Lithuanian immigrants as recorded by Dr. Jonas Balys in 1949–1951. On magnetic tape he recorded about 1200 items, mostly songs, also folktales, instrumental music and other folklore genres. The collection is deposited in Indiana University in Bloomington and in the American Folklife Centre at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The edition includes 40 recordings from the collection made by this noted Lithuanian folklorist and ethnologist. They are immigrant songs relating the pain of parting from loved ones, the journey’s hardships, the first impressions of the strange new land, and reminiscences of the homeland. There are also songs representing other genres: songs of youth, ballads, love songs, family songs, wedding songs, work songs, calendar songs and others that tell of the traditional rural way of life.

The Lithuanian immigrants who came to USA at the end of 19^th and beginning of the 20^th c. where sons and daughters of farmers and, having grown up in rural villages, they had a hard time adjusting to their new surroundings. They returned to their homeland in their thoughts, and, of course, through their songs. “Even today I see everything in my imagination and I don’t forget anything, because <…> I never let go of those images of my dear Lithuania. Lithuania stands like a mirror, like an altar before my eyes”. Those words belong to Uršulė Žemaitienė, J. Balys’ most prolific singer, who came from Suvalkija, the southwest region of Lithuania. The results of expeditions, with their numerous recordings of songs and spoken folklore, proved that many of those first immigrants always remained Lithuanians in their lifestyle as well as in their hearts, retaining their traditional culture and its regional characteristics.