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!
La Bruja is a song and traditional dance in the Huapango tradition from the state of Vera Cruz. The dance usually involves a number of women with lighted candles on their heads.
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
This song was recorded by Ida Cox in 1924, Ida was one of great, if lesser known, female blues singers in the era of Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Sippie Wallace.
Mean Old Bedbug Blues
A blues from Bessie Smith
Each of these are classic blues performance in their own right and provide an interesting contrast between country blues and early jazz band styles. I always favored Bessie's rendition. I think her slower tempo with piano and guitar accompaniment captured the true creepiness of bedbugs.
Uncle Joe Gimme Mo
Calypso from Trinidad
This great Trinidadian Calypso song comes from an early recording by Wilmuth Houdini. I love the way these Calypsonians took "uncle joe and his old ban-jo", a common stereotype in minstrel shows, and transformed him into a rock star.
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.
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
A hard times blues as sung by Etta Baker
I learned this one from my Dad and it was one of the first songs I played on the guitar. I adapted this banjo arrangement from the playing of Etta Baker of North Carolina with her unusual up-picking style. Etta was better known for her skillful and sensitive blues on electric guitar and other instuments.
Rattlesnake Mountain
A really funny song from Jimmy Driftwood
Here's a song from Jimmy Driftwood of Timbo, Arkansas. Jimmy gave us The Battle of New Orleans and Tennesee Stud and a weath of other songs drawn from traditional sources and the unique mind of Jimmy Driftwood.
Little Birdie
An essential mountain banjo song with its own tuning.
Every country banjo player, oldtime and bluegrass alike, does Little Birdie. I learned this tuning and style from Art Rosenbaum in "The Art of the Mountain Banjo" - Mel Bay. Art credits Pete Steele as the inspiration for his version. I also take some inspiration from Ralph Stanley.
Oh, Watch the Stars
A finger picking treatment of a song from the Georgia Sea Islands
Watch the Stars is a song from St. Helena Island, South Carolina that was published in Ruth Crawford Seeger's "American Folk Songs for Christmas" and recorded by the Seeger sisters on the Folkways album of the same name.
Beans, Bacon and Gravy
An industrial ballad from Pete Seeger
In honor of Pete Seeger's ninety-fourth birthday I am playing this depression era song just as he did on American Industrial Ballads.
Pajarillo Barranqueño
An old Mexican love song
Pajarillo Barranqueño is a well known traditional song from Mexico. It has been done plain and fancy; mariachi style, ranchero style, conjunto style, huapango style. The great Tejana singer Lydia Mendoza recorded it. Tish Hinojosa and Joan Baez did a lovely version. But I'll bet nobody has done it on the banjo before.
Little Joe the Wrangler
'Little Joe the Wrangler' was written by Jack Thorpe in 1898
'Little Joe the Wrangler' was written by Jack Thorpe in 1898 on a trail drive from Chimney Lake, New Mexico, to Higgins, Texas. The tune is the same as 'Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane' by Will Hayes, 1871.
Cruel Mother
A haunting murder ballad
The Cruel Mother (Child 20) is sung throughout the English speaking world in countless variations. It is full of the haunting images and symbols that show up in other songs: the while marble stone (see Young Collins), the oak and thorn, the un-cleanable blood stain (think of Lady Macbeth), the unquiet grave.
John Henry
Story of the steel driving man
If there is one single best known and best loved American folksong it is surely John Henry.
Duncan and Brady
Another bad man murder ballad
A "bad man murder ballad" in the mold of Staggolee, Frankie and Johnny, or Ella Speed. The earliest known recording was by a white string band, Wilmer Watts & Lonely Eagles, in 1929 but it has its roots in the African American tradition.