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.
What the old Bachelors Made Out Of
The constituent materials of bachelors, old maids, doctors, and little dudes, are described.
I learned this song from Mike Seeger's epic banjo instruction series Southern Banjo Styles. Anyone who has the slightest interest in the history and playing of banjo show get this. It is priceless.
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.
Roll Down the Line
Miners, prisoners, exploitation: this story has everything
You'll find some good notes on the song and the struggle on Folklorist.org
Home Dearie Home
A song of seas and sweeties
Peggy Seeger gathered these verses together from the old "sailor/bar maid" tradition that gave us "Hame Dearie Hame";
The Old Frog
Complete non-sense
This little delight comes to us from the Ozarks by way of Ruth Crawford Seeger's "Animal Folk Songs for Children".
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.
John Hardy
A bad man ballad
Legend has it that John Hardy was an African American coal worker (or possibly a railroad man) who was executed for killing a co-worker in a gambling dispute in a West Virginia coal camp in 1894. And indeed there is record of a John Hardy who was tried and hanged around that place and time.
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.
Lost Gander
A quiet banjo instrumental
This is a rarity for me, a purely instrumental piece. It has no lyrics and so I guess it doesn't qualify as a song. It sings to me though.
Wabash Cannonball
Get on board!
The Wabash Cannonball is the subject of many speculations. Was there really a train by that name? Who is Daddy Claxton? What is a "combination?" Are there really jungles in Indianna? What do you mean, "no changes can be taken?"
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.