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.
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 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.
Betty and Dupree
A song of love and armed robbery.
Here's a good old blues that has been recorded by the likes of Brownie McGee, Josh White, Georgia White, Robert McCoy, Washboard Willie and Big Joe Duskin. Chuck Willis give it a rock-and-roll treatment in 1958 and the Grateful Dead rocked with it in 1966. I learned this version from the singing of Dave Van Ronk.
Sourwood Mountain
A traditional banjo song from way back in the holler.
I learned this banjo tuning, eBEBE, from Frank Lee's instructional video 'Old-Time Banjo - Clawhammer Style'. Frank didn't play Sourwood Mountain but, I swear, when I put my banjo in that tuning those strings just started playing Sourwood Mountain all on their own. I guess I better let them have their way.
Since I Laid my Burden Down
A spiritual
This old African-American spiritual is well known especially in the Mississippi delta country. I have taken bits of lyric, tune and inspiration from the performances of Mississippi John Hurt, Furry Lewis, Mississippi Fred McDowel, Roy Acuff, and Odetta.
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.
Cindy
A well known play-party song
Cindy is one of our best known and loved America folksongs. There are versions from the southern African-American tradition, the Appalachians and other sources. It's been sung by everyone from Granpa Jones to Elvis Presley and heard on countless movies and TV shows. So it is a song that truly belongs to everyone.
Statesboro Blues
A blues from Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell recorded this song in 1928 and it is probably of his own composition. A few people have revived it recently, notably Taj Mahal, Rory Block, Dave Van Ronk, Chris Smithers, the Allman Brothers and the Holy Modal Rounders, those bizarre purveyors of psychedelic old time country.
Duncan and Brady
Another bad man murder ballad
A "bad man murder ballad" in the mold of Staggolee, Frankie and Johnny, or Ella Speed. The earliest known recording was by a white string band, Wilmer Watts & Lonely Eagles, in 1929 but it has its roots in the African American tradition.
The Man that Wrote the Home Sweet Home
New lyrics to a disreputable old song
Once upon a time, in the late 1920’s and early 30’s, there was a pair of country recording artists named Charlie Parker and Mack Woolbright. Mack was a blind banjo player who pioneered a three-finger style that caught the attention of a young feller named Earl Scruggs.