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 Soldier and the Sailor
An hour of prayer
Mike Seeger learned this song from Nancy Jones, a singer in North Carolina. I researched the song and found serveral very different versions. Some of them pretty rowdy. I adapted three of these verses and toned them down to fit better with Mrs. Jone's version which has a lovely innocence about it.
Sweet Nora Lee
A sweet old banjo blues
This song comes from J. T. Adams, a blues singer from Indianapolis. I'm grateful to Art Rosenbaum for collecting it and sharing with the rest of us. The tuning is standard open G but tuned down to F. The chimes are my contribution.
Mole in the Ground
A mountain banjo song from Bascomb Lamar Lundsford
I loved this song when I first heard it from Pete Seeger. Then I heard Bascom Lamar Lunsford's classic recording and fell in love all over again. The lyrics are surreal. Who knew that railway workers were vampires?
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.
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:
Lewis Collins
A fine old guitar finger picking piece from Mississippi John Hurt
'The Death of Lewis Colins' was composed and recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928 for Okeh Records and then recorded again in 1963 when he was 'rediscovered' in the folk revival. I heard it first from Tom Paley who learned it from the old recording.
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".
Yo Soy un Pobre Vaquero
A mexican cowboy song
I learned this song from a Folkways album, "Traditional Songs of Mexico." I have not been able to find out more about it but it sounds very old and traditional. The lyrics are too strange to be anything but a folksong.
Tighten on the Backband
A song of plowing and country life
Sam Hinton put this song together from bits of mule and ox driver shouts and work songs. Sam was an East Texas songster who left home to become an aquatic biologist. As devoted to his academic career as he was, Sam kept on singing and recording throughout his life and left us some wonderful material.
Kitty Waltz
A lovely waltz from the Carter Family
The Cater Family recorded Kitty Waltz in Atlanta in 1929. It is a lovely piece and quite unusual for them. It sounds more like nineteenth century parlor music than the traditional material they usually liked.