Folk music is tunes, beats, and songs that usually originated in the forgotten or dimly remembered past and have been passed from one generation to the next down to the present. It exists in the forms of tunes, songs, and ballads. Folk tunes are traditional melodies such as those played by fiddlers.
Folk songs are melodies with accompanying verses.
Ballads are folk songs that tell stories. Other folk music exists just for the stories it tells or the feelings it expresses. Its traditional nature means that it was played or sung long before being brought to Texas. There are as many varieties of folk music in Texas as there are cultures that came to Texas. Anglo-Texan folk music, the dominant strain, has taken the forms of tunes, songs, and ballads.