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.
The Soldier and the Sailor
An hour of prayer
Mike Seeger learned this song from Nancy Jones, a singer in North Carolina. I researched the song and found serveral very different versions. Some of them pretty rowdy. I adapted three of these verses and toned them down to fit better with Mrs. Jone's version which has a lovely innocence about it.
Blackjack Davy
A famous ballad aka Gypsy Davy
This is the oldest song I know. Wait, I already said that about 'Froggy' and 'Farmers Curst Wife'. Well, who knows, but this is known far and wide as Blackjack Davy, Gypsy Davy, Blackjack Daisy, and most creatively in Frank Proffit's version, 'The Gips of David'.
A Lusty Young Smith
A brittish ballad for adults only
The words to this very naughty song come from Thomas D'Urfey's "Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy," published in 1717. It was set to music by Ed McCurdy for his Electra series 'When Dalliance was In Flower and Maidens Lost the Heads." Ed was ably accompanied by Eric Darling and Alan Arkin.
Sourwood Mountain
A traditional banjo song from way back in the holler.
I learned this banjo tuning, eBEBE, from Frank Lee's instructional video 'Old-Time Banjo - Clawhammer Style'. Frank didn't play Sourwood Mountain but, I swear, when I put my banjo in that tuning those strings just started playing Sourwood Mountain all on their own. I guess I better let them have their way.
Since I Laid my Burden Down
A spiritual
This old African-American spiritual is well known especially in the Mississippi delta country. I have taken bits of lyric, tune and inspiration from the performances of Mississippi John Hurt, Furry Lewis, Mississippi Fred McDowel, Roy Acuff, and Odetta.
Make me a Pallet on Your Floor
A famous old blues/ragtime piece
This song has been a standard for blues, ragtime, jazz, folk and country musicians since before the turn of the century (the 20th, that is).
Bluey Brink
An Austrian drinking song
The pioneering English folklorist and singer A.L., Bert, Lloyd learned this song from "Old Dad Adams" of Cowra, New South Wales and sang it on two albums he made of Australian songs.
East Virginia Blues
A love song from the mountains
As sung br the Carter Family in 1929. A second and probably older version with a plain modal melody and more primitive sound was played by old timers such as Buell Kazee and Roscoe Holcombe.
Oh Baby You Done Me Wrong
A pastor goes astray
A song recorded by Uncle Dave Macon 1925 in Nashville. Uncle Dave seems to have invented a genre, old time country calypso. Nobody else has recorded this cautionary tale of a pastor gone astray.
Backwater Blues - 2
A flood song
Bessie Smith recorded 'Backwater Blues' for Columbia on February 17, 1927. You can read more background about flood songs in my comments on Uncle Dave Macon's song of the same title: Backwater Blues.
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.