A songster Spotify playlist - about 600+ tracks.

Wikipedia on songster music: "The songster tradition both pre-dated and co-existed with blues music. It began soon after the end of slavery and the Reconstruction era in the United States, when African American musicians became able to travel and play music for a living. Black and white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as "songsters" rather than "blues" musicians. Songsters generally performed a wide variety of folk songs, ballads, dance tunes, reels and minstrel songs. Initially, they were often accompanied by non-singing "musicianers", who often played banjo and fiddle. Later, as the guitar became more widely popular, the songsters often accompanied themselves. Songsters often accompanied medicine shows, which moved from place to place selling salves and elixirs. As entertainers, songsters had the task of enticing a public, to whom the concoctions were then offered. As these shows declined, and listening to recorded music and dancing in juke joints and honky tonks became more popular, so the older songster style became less fashionable. Songsters had a notable influence on blues music, which developed from around the turn of the 20th century. However, there was also a change in song styles. Songsters often sang composed songs or traditional ballads, frequently about legendary heroes or characters such as "Frankie and Johnny" and "Stagger Lee". Blues singers, in contrast, tended to invent their own lyrics (or recycle those of others) and develop their own tunes and guitar (or sometimes piano) playing styles, singing of their own lives and shared emotional experiences."

A few tracks from the playlist:

• Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
• Leadbelly - The Bourgeois Blues
• Leadbelly - Cotton Fields
• Josh White - Waltzing Matilda
• Leadbelly - Irene, Good Night
• Mance Lipscomb - When Death Comes Creeping In Your Room
• Leadbelly - Big Fat Woman
• Leadbelly - Pick A Bale Of Cotton
• Josh White - House Of The Rising Sun
• Joseph Spence - Out On The Rolling Sea
• Joseph Spence - I Am Living On The Hallelujah Side
• Leadbelly - Poor Howard/ Green Corn
• Joseph Spence - Crow
• Leadbelly - In New Orleans
• Leadbelly - On A Monday (I'm Almost Done)
• Josh White - One Meat Ball
• Leadbelly - Line 'em
• Joseph Spence - Bimini Gal
• Leadbelly - Goodnight Irene
• Joseph Spence - Oh How I Love Jesus
• Leadbelly - Black Betty
• Mississippi Joe Callicott - You Don't Know My Mind - 2006 Remaster
• Josh White - Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
• Leadbelly Feat. Josh White - Pretty Flowers In My Backyard
• Leadbelly Feat. Sonny Terry - How Long Blues
• Joseph Spence - Diamond On Earth
• Josh White - Strange Fruit
• Leadbelly - John Hardy
• Josh White - Molly Malone
• Mance Lipscomb - Cocaine Done Kill My Baby - Previously Unreleased
• Josh White - Sam Hall
• Josh White - Peter
• Josh White - Free And Equal Blues
• Josh White - Home In That Rock
• Blind Willie McTell with Curley Weaver - You Was Born To Die
• Leadbelly - Salty Dog
• Leadbelly - Careless Love
• Leadbelly - Go Down, Old Hannah