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.
Woody Knows Nothin'
One of those lovely old animal songs from the mountains
This tender little folk song borrows a number of standard verses from other songs but it has a sweetness all its own. I hope you like it. Eric Darling recorded this version on his 'True Religion' album for Vanguard in 1961 and it showed up on thier folk sampler record where I heard it.
Common Bill
A courtship song
This song is a favorite of my granddaughters’ from Tom Paley’s rendition on ‘Old Timey Songs for Children.’ It is in Carl Sandburg’s American Song Bag. I took an additional verse from there.
Weevily Wheat
Charlie he's a good old man
This song shares verses with other play party songs from the Southern Appalachians. According to the North Carolina Folklore Society, the song descends to us from the Jacobite rebellion and "Charlie" refers to Bonny Prince Charlie. Sounds like some folklorist getting carried away to 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
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.
Billy Barlow
A hunting song for kids
For great traditional childrens songs look fror records by various folks named Seeger - 'American Folk Songs for Children' (Mike and Peggy) and 'Animal Folk Songs for Children' (Mike, Peggy, Penny and Barbara), adapted from Ruth Crawford Seeger's two song books by the same names. Here is one from the collection.
Jenny Jenkins
A children's song about fashion
Jenny Jenkins is a very well known children's song from the mountains. It is especially associated with Vermont where it was collected and recorded by Mrs. Alice Brown, July 24, 1930, in Bethel, Vermont, from the singing of Mrs. Susan Chase, as learned from her aunt when a little girl.
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
a banjo dance number
Pretty Little Miss, aka Pretty Little Pink, is one of the standard country dance songs that's been around as long as anyone can remember. Every old southern banjo player plays and everyone dances. So please dance.
Jay Gould's Daughter
A railroad song.
Here's one version of a classic railroad song. I got it from Pete Seeger. It has been around in many other variations such as Charlie Poole's "Milwaukee Blues" recorded in the twenties.
Anjelik o!
Another Haitian folk song
Here's another Haitian song. It's quite old and well known in Haiti but I have only heard two recordings of it in Haitian Creole. One is from the Lolita Cuevas' "Haitian Folk Songs" the other is part of Jocelyne Dorisme's Choucoune, which is really a medley of Haitian songs. In the 1950's.
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.