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.
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:’
Hares on the Mountain
A jolly old English girl chasing song
I've heard many variations of this favorite old English folksong this one comes from the singing of Tim Hart with Steeleye Span. I was most saddened to hear of Tim's death in 2009 from cancer. He was a year younger than me.
Weevily Wheat
Charlie he's a good old man
This song shares verses with other play party songs from the Southern Appalachians. According to the North Carolina Folklore Society, the song descends to us from the Jacobite rebellion and "Charlie" refers to Bonny Prince Charlie. Sounds like some folklorist getting carried away to me,
The Monkey and the Engineer
Jesse Fuller sings of a speedy simian
This ditty comes to us from Jessie "Lone Cat" Fuller - the amazing one man band and also author of 'San Francisco Bay Blues.' Jessie was amazing. He played simultaneously 12-String Guitar, harmonica, the high-hat and the futdella. The futdella was a big base instrument of Jessie's invention that he played with his feet.
Rivers of Texas
A Texas love song and geography lesson.
A favorite with Texas songsters, the song's history is a little murky. It is always attributed as "traditional" although to my ear it doesn't sound like a real traditional ballad. It is not strictly a ballad, not much narrative story, and it does not borrow any verses from other songs.
Kicking Mule
The definitive mule song
Here's another good old standard mule song. My favorite version was recorded by Tom Paley and Peggy Seeger. I play at about half the speed. This is partly because I just am just not as fast as Tom and Peggy, but besides I just like these old songs at a less then break-neck pace.
Pretty Polly and False William
A different telling of Pretty Polly
The banjo arrangement is my own, using one of Peggy Seeger's dulcimer tunings that I learned from her Banjo method book 'Five String Banjo America Folk Styles' - 1960 .
Chewing Gum
A kids song from the Carter Family
The Carter Family sang this sweet little song. I heard it from John Cohen in an improptu concert in the basement auditorium of the old Dallas Art Museum when the New Lost City Ramblers came town, 1962 I think.
Little Willie's My Darlin
A nice variant of Down in the Valley
This variant of 'Down in the Valley' can be heard on Mike and Peggy Seeger's wonderfully tender album 'Fly Down Little Bird'. It included several songs they had learned as kids, listening while their mother Ruth Crawford Seeger transcribed field recordings for the Lomax's.
Trouble In Mind
A slow eight bar blues that everyone knows.
Here's a classic blues standard. 'Trouble in Mind' was written by Richard M. Jones and first recorded in 1924. Since then, anyone who sings blues has sung it. It is an irresistibly playable slow blues that invites you to noodle around to your heart's content and, if you are good enough, you audience's delight.