Newest Songs
Hell Bound Train
A cautionary tale of damnation and redemption

You know about the train that was "bound for glory". Well, this train was going the other way on the opposite track.
Jolly Roving Tar
A sea song from Newfoundland

I found this jolly sea song from Newfoundland on one of the old 'American Folksay' albums produced on Stinson records by Moses Asch, performed by Frank Warner.
No Peas No Rice
A Bahamian jazz song

A Bahamian song recorded in the 1930s by big band leaders such as Mart Brit and Count Basie and in the Bahamas by Blind Blake Alfonso Higgs.
Thorneymore Woods
A song of the noble poacher, and mean gamekeepers

An English poaching ballad as performed by Louis Killen.
La Bruja
Vampire story from Vera Cruz, Mexico. Boo!

The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn
The devil takes his due

What a fine old Irish tale. But it derives from a history that is not so jolly - the mass evictions and house levelings that took place during the Irish famine of the mid-nineteenth century. No wonder the mother in the story cries "May the devil take that awful Bailiff!".
Spotted Cow
A naughty little English folk song

Here is a traditional English song, at least I think so, I heard it from Steel Eye Span, that parcel of rogues who brought fuzz-tone electric guitar to English folk music.
Italian Carol
A christmas song from Italy

An Italian carol adapted by Pete Seeger from an old tradition in Naples in which shepherds come down from the Calabrian mountains for a festive stay in that city during the Christmas celebration.
Wild Women Don't Have No Blues
A blues for strong women

Mean Old Bedbug Blues
A blues from Bessie Smith

Uncle Joe Gimme Mo
Calypso from Trinidad

Monsieur Banjo
A creole song for kids

This children's song in Louisiana Creole. My version is an adaptation of Pete Seeger's English language version on 'American Favorite Ballads' and a French language version from the Magnolia Sisters on their delightful children's album 'Lapin Lapin'
Featured Songs
Hopalong Peter
An old time banjo song

This was recorded by J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers in the 1930's. I learned it from the NLCR.
Ramblin Gambler
A very Texas version of this song. From Alan Lomax.

Alan Lomax performed this song on his Texas Folk Songs album, featuing Guy Carawan's banjo playing and John Cole's harmonica.
The Gypsy Girl
A ballad from Charlie Poole

Lady Margaret
A ghost ballad

Pete Seeger played ths variation of "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child 74) on his his Folkways 'American Favorite Ballads' albums. A recording session from the period that Pete describes in his musical autobiography, ‘Where have all the Flowers Gone:’
Goin' Across the Sea
Appalachian banjo song

The Monkey and the Engineer
Jesse Fuller sings of a speedy simian

Buckey Jim
Here is a lullaby from the Southern Appalachians

Little Sadie
A mountain bad man song

Clarence 'Tom' Ashley recorded Little Sadie in 1930 as did a number of other country singers around the same time. The earliest recording I have found was by Roy Hogshed in 1948 but I believe there were earlier renditions.
Cotton Mill Colic
A labor song from the North Carolina mills

Here's a mill song from the 1920's, as recorded by North Carolina singer and textile worker David McCarn for Victor in Memphis Tennessee,May 1930. I learned it from the singing of the brothers Seeger (Mike and Pete - separately).
Dink's Song
A blues from the Brazos

The Wreck of Old Number Nine
A sappy train wreck ballad

"The Wreck of the Old Nine" was written by Carson J. Robison, and popularized by Vernon Dalhart in the 1920's. Carson J Robison was one of the earliest radio show singing cowboys.
Backwater Blues - 1
Uncle Dave's flood song
