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.
Meet Me in Rose Time Rosie
A wild old time among the roses. From Hobart Smith
Hobart Smith of Saltville, Virginia stared playing in string bands around 1915 and was still going strong until his death in 1965. I learned 'Rosie' from a recording made in the 1960's, his rediscovery period. Hobart was a terrific banjo player and just as good on fiddle, guitar and several other instruments.
Johnny Booker
A mule song
Songs about mules are almost a genre all their own like railroad songs or cowboy songs. This is an old song. Some versions came to us by way of minstrel shows but older variants can be found in England.
Common Bill
A courtship song
This song is a favorite of my granddaughters’ from Tom Paley’s rendition on ‘Old Timey Songs for Children.’ It is in Carl Sandburg’s American Song Bag. I took an additional verse from there.
Froggy Went a Courtin'
A classic children's song with old and new verses for kids and bigger folk.
My grandmother sang this song to me and most verses here are just as she sang them. I added a few more verses gleaned from David Highland's collection of over 170 verses on his delightful "Frog went a Courtin'" web site. And I made up a couple of new ones myself.
The Millers Will
The wages of greed
A dying miller, a true believer in the free maket, decides which of his three sons will inherit his mill by judging which is greediest and will do the best job of cheating the customers.
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.
Jenny Jenkins
A children's song about fashion
Jenny Jenkins is a very well known children's song from the mountains. It is especially associated with Vermont where it was collected and recorded by Mrs. Alice Brown, July 24, 1930, in Bethel, Vermont, from the singing of Mrs. Susan Chase, as learned from her aunt when a little girl.
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.
Choucoune
A song from Haiti
This Haitian song started as a poem written by Oswald Durand in 1883. He wrote the poem while jailed for criticizing political leaders in Cap-Haitien. Inspired by a lovely bird that lit on his cell window he was reminded of a girl whom he had met and admired. You may recognize the melody as 'Yellow Bird'
Down in the Valley
A favorite American ballad
Down in the Valley is one of the best known, best loved and one of the most authentically traditional of American folk songs. My parents sang it to me as a lullaby. There's another nice variant of this song on the site. See Little Willie's My Darlin'