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.
Bill Morgan and his Gal
An old time string band tune from Charlie Poole
Heard the New Lost City Ramblers play this in concert in the tiny auditorium in Lee Park, Dallas in 1961. I was around thirteen and learning songs on my Sears and Roebuck Silvertone banjo from Pete Seeger's 'How to play the Five-String Banjo.' I had never heard anything quite like this and it knocked my socks off.
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.
Johnson Boys
A civil war song from the North and the South
Depending on which version of this song you hear either the Johnson boys were Civil War heroes (Flatt and Scruggs, NLCR) or complete idiots (Frank Proffit, J.E. Mainer). One theory has it that the heroic version was popular with sourthern troops and the idiot version came from northern soldiers who satirized the song.
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.
Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms
An old time string band song
A Bluegrass standard. usually played at breakneck speed. But I prefer a more laid back old time country treatment. I first heard it from the New Lost City Ramblers who played a varsion that came from the singing and playing of Buster Carter and Preston Young - recorded in 1927.
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.
Deep Blue Sea
Sailor lost at sea
This song was recorded by a few folksingers in the 1960's such as Pete Seeger, Odetta, Chad Mitchel and the Weavers. I'm especially fond of Odetta's performance. I heard her sing it when I must have been thirteen years old and it has stayed with me ever since.
Dink's Song
A blues from the Brazos
John Lomax collected this song from a woman named Dink whom he encountered on the Brazos river levees around 1913 and published in American Ballads and Folk Songs, 1934.
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).
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
A Carter family song about the newspaper business
This song comes from the Carter family in the 1920's. The guitar arrangement, however, comes from Earl Scruggs who is of course better known for the banjo. Earl was a very sensitive and creative guitarist as well.
The Drovers Dream
A sheep drover's night visitation
This amusing little ditty and zoology lesson is another Australian bush ballad that I learned from the singing of A. L. Lloyd. It is one of many variants. The song likely derives from a poem appearing in The Kadina and Walleroo Times in 1889, called 'Visions of a Night Watch sent in by "C. J. 0. S" of New South Wales.