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.
Round and Round
An old time string band song from Dr. Bate and his Possum Hunters.
From Dr. Humphrey Bate and his Possum Hunters. Dr. Bate was a master harmonica player but apparently not so hot as a lyricist. This song had one verse and one chorus. The verse was borrowed from another song and the chorus doesn't rhyme. So I decided to fill it out with some more borrowed lyrics and some of my own.
The Devil's Nine Questions
Riddles wisely expounded
This is an old chestnut is Child Ballad #1 as "Riddles Wisely Expounded" from as far back as the 15th century. This version, from the singing of Paul Clayton and Jean Ritchie, replaces the common refrain "And you are the weaver's bonny." with "The crow flies over the white oak tree." A haunting image.
Little Birdie
An essential mountain banjo song with its own tuning.
Every country banjo player, oldtime and bluegrass alike, does Little Birdie. I learned this tuning and style from Art Rosenbaum in "The Art of the Mountain Banjo" - Mel Bay. Art credits Pete Steele as the inspiration for his version. I also take some inspiration from Ralph Stanley.
Hard Times in the Mill
A labor song from cotton mills
Here's a song of struggle in the cotton mills in the 1890's. It comes to us from the singing of Lessie Croker, a knitting mill worker from Columbia South Carolina, by way of Pete Seeger's "American Industrial Ballads" on Folkways Records. It was recorded by Pete, Hedy West and Joe Glazer in the 1960's.
Mister Rabbit
An old children's song from the American South
Mister Rabbit is an African-American buck dance tune from the American South. It was published in the Lomax's "Best Loved American Folk Songs (Folk Song USA)" with this musical arrngement by Ruth Crawford Seeger. The best known recording is, of course, by Burl Ives. I've included some verses from other sources.
The Cat Came Back
The story of the indistructible kitty
Here we have Cisco Houston's adaptation of "The Cat Came Back", published by Harry S. Miller in 1893, recorded by Fiddlin' John Carson on OKey in 1924 and many others since.
Fod!
A really silly song
This song is a load of fun from Kenton County, Kentucky. I learned it from Mike and Peggy Seeger's 'Fly Down Little Bird' album. The first couple of verses remind me of "Rattlesnake Mountain and it is darned near as silly as that song.
Jackaro
A song of love, seamanship and cross-dressing
'Jackaro' is a Kentucky mountain variation on an old ballad called 'Jack Munroe.' The song was collected in Kentucky by Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway and in Arkansas by Max Hunter. Jean Ritchie knew it is part of her own family tradition.
The Chickens They are Crowing
Courtin' song
I learned this song in the good old sixties from Peggy Seeger through her 'Best of' album on Prestige records and her banjo instruction booklet - "Peggy Seeger, The five-string Banjo American Folk Styles. The Banjo Method - with a fine collection of FOLK SONGS"
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.
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.