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.
Rise When the Rooster Crow
A minstrel era song from Uncle Dave Macon
This song was recorded by Uncle Dave Macon in 1926. My version also draws a rendition by Art Rosenbaum on his "The Art of the Mountain Banjo." I liked the way Art combined Uncle Daves' three-finger style but shifted to a hard driving clawhammer/frail in the last part.
Two Hobo Songs
Hobo songs from Jimmy Rogers, Cisco Houston and Blind Boy Grunt
Two songs written on the same sad theme. The first by Jimmy Rogers. The second was recorded in the 1960's on Broadside Ballads. The singer was billed as Blind Boy Grunt and he sounded remarkably like Bob Dylan who was under contract at Columbia at the time.
Hares on the Mountain
A jolly old English girl chasing song
I've heard many variations of this favorite old English folksong this one comes from the singing of Tim Hart with Steeleye Span. I was most saddened to hear of Tim's death in 2009 from cancer. He was a year younger than me.
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
Candy Man
A blues on the banjo
Everyone with finger picking guitar aspirations learns this tune from Reverend Gary Davis. Reverend Davis did not sing these words, at least not after his religious convictions moved him to abandon such sinful singing. I'm not sure where these verses came from.
My Sweet Farm Girl
A naughty banjo blues from Tom Ashley
Tom Ashley recorded this naughty little song for Vocalion in 1932. Later it turns up on an obscure 10 inch Folkways LP called "Earth is Earth", sung by the New Lost City Ramblers under a thinly disguised pseudonym. The album included a few other songs of a similarly questionable nature.
Canción Mixteca
A sweet song was by José López Alavez of Oaxaca, Mexico, 1912.
This short and very sweet song was written by José López Alavez of Oaxaca, Mexico in 1912. Though by some accounts it has traditional origins. It has been a favorite of mine since I heard it from our local Tejano crooner Freddie Fender.
Wild About My Lovin'
A jug-band blues
A song from Jim Jackson of Hernando, Mississippi who performed and recorded in the 1920's and 30's either solo or with such artists as Gus Cannon, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Jim left us a legacy of songs like Grizzly Bear, Hesitation Blues, Kansas City Blues, Old Dog Blue and this one.
Trouble In Mind
A slow eight bar blues that everyone knows.
Here's a classic blues standard. 'Trouble in Mind' was written by Richard M. Jones and first recorded in 1924. Since then, anyone who sings blues has sung it. It is an irresistibly playable slow blues that invites you to noodle around to your heart's content and, if you are good enough, you audience's delight.
Handsome Molly
An old banjo and fiddle tune.
Handsome Molly is a traditional banjo and fiddle tune known to practically all old time country players. Molly was recorded by Grayson and Whitter in 1929 on Victor records but probably was already quite an old tune even then. . Mike Seeger popularized it again in his first solo album for Folkways in 1962.
Morning Blues
A blues from the country
Like most of us jug band geeks from the 60's I learned this song from a Jim Kweskin album. I should not have been too surprised to learn that it comes from the boundless repertoire of Uncle Dave Macon.