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 Gypsy Girl
A ballad from Charlie Poole
This song was recorded by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers in 1930. It is much older however.. I heard it from Tom Paley and the Old Reliable String Band on their one and only album. Tom formed this group with Roy Berkeley and Artie Rose after he left the NLCR in 1963.
What the old Bachelors Made Out Of
The constituent materials of bachelors, old maids, doctors, and little dudes, are described.
I learned this song from Mike Seeger's epic banjo instruction series Southern Banjo Styles. Anyone who has the slightest interest in the history and playing of banjo show get this. It is priceless.
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.
Blackjack Davy
A famous ballad aka Gypsy Davy
This is the oldest song I know. Wait, I already said that about 'Froggy' and 'Farmers Curst Wife'. Well, who knows, but this is known far and wide as Blackjack Davy, Gypsy Davy, Blackjack Daisy, and most creatively in Frank Proffit's version, 'The Gips of David'.
Henry Lee
A very old murder ballad learned from Peggy Seeger
"Henry Lee" is Child #68. Pretty much the whole story you will hear in this rendition is contained in other variations, "Love Henry", "Earl Richard", “The Proud Girl.” And bits of the plot, scraps of lyrics and roughly related ideas cross fertilized still more songs like "Lady Margaret" and "Lost Henry."
Home Dearie Home
A song of seas and sweeties
Peggy Seeger gathered these verses together from the old "sailor/bar maid" tradition that gave us "Hame Dearie Hame";
Pretty Polly and False William
A different telling of Pretty Polly
The banjo arrangement is my own, using one of Peggy Seeger's dulcimer tunings that I learned from her Banjo method book 'Five String Banjo America Folk Styles' - 1960 .
Leatherwing Bat
Love life of birds and other flying things
Bits of melody and lyrics from "Leatherwing Bat" show up an many old play songs such as "The Jolly Miller" (Same old man livin' at the mill, Mill turns around by its own free will), "The Birds Courting Song", "The Crow Song". These seem to be related to some Irish songs and eighteenth century broadsides.
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.
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.
Down in the Valley
A favorite American ballad
Down in the Valley is one of the best known, best loved and one of the most authentically traditional of American folk songs. My parents sang it to me as a lullaby. There's another nice variant of this song on the site. See Little Willie's My Darlin'