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 Horse with a Union Label
Even the broncos support the union
Here's a cowboy song by Mike Stratton and Saul Aarons from the People's Songbook.
Goin' Across the Sea
Appalachian banjo song
Uncle Dave Macon called this song "an old familiar tune from waaaay back yander." I heard it first from Art Rosenbaum on an Elecktra album, "Folk Banjo Styles", an eclectic set of banjo performances by Art, Tom Paley, and Eric Weissberg that ranged from Tom’s ancient sounding fretless tunes to Eric’s high power bluegrass.
The Hayseed
A farmer-labor song
This is a song from the American populst movement, possibly written by Arthur L. Kellogg. I learned it from the singing of Pete Seeger on the classic Folkways "American Industrial Ballads" album.
Oh, Watch the Stars
A finger picking treatment of a song from the Georgia Sea Islands
Watch the Stars is a song from St. Helena Island, South Carolina that was published in Ruth Crawford Seeger's "American Folk Songs for Christmas" and recorded by the Seeger sisters on the Folkways album of the same name.
Buckey Jim
Here is a lullaby from the Southern Appalachians
I couldn't do better than Alan and John Lomax to describe this song:
The Old Bell Cow
Moo
The Old Bell Cow appeared in 'American Mountain Songs' by Ethel Park Richardson, published in 1927. The earliest known recording is by the Dixie Crackers in 1929. Ethel was a folk song collector who frequently performed on NBC radio shows in the 1930's.
Beans, Bacon and Gravy
An industrial ballad from Pete Seeger
In honor of Pete Seeger's ninety-fourth birthday I am playing this depression era song just as he did on American Industrial Ballads.
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".
Hop Up Ladies
A mountain dance tune
'Hop Up Ladies' is a timeless old mountain song sung to an a fiddle tune 'McLeod's Reel'. It is suitable for children, grown-ups and anybody who wants to get up an dance around.
The Wreck of Old Number Nine
A sappy train wreck ballad
"The Wreck of the Old Nine" was written by Carson J. Robison, and popularized by Vernon Dalhart in the 1920's. Carson J Robison was one of the earliest radio show singing cowboys.
Backwater Blues - 1
Uncle Dave's flood song
This 'Backwater Blues' was recorded for Vocalion Records by Uncle Dave Macon and Sam McGee on May 11, 1929 in New York City. This is just after flooding in the Mississippi River valley covered 27,000 miles to a depth of 30 feet. It affected 630,000 many of whom were forced to live in relief camps for log periods.