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.
Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
A hard times blues as sung by Etta Baker
I learned this one from my Dad and it was one of the first songs I played on the guitar. I adapted this banjo arrangement from the playing of Etta Baker of North Carolina with her unusual up-picking style. Etta was better known for her skillful and sensitive blues on electric guitar and other instuments.
The Horse with a Union Label
Even the broncos support the union
Here's a cowboy song by Mike Stratton and Saul Aarons from the People's Songbook.
Ella Speed
A great old ragtime blues from Leadbelly
This was among the songs from a ten-inch Capitol LP recorded by Leadbelly in Hollywood in 1944. Paul Mason Howard accompanies Leadbelly on the "Dulceola" (the blues zither!) absolutely rocked.
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 Swapping Song
A song of free wheeling commerce
This appalachian song has versions going back many generations in England and Scotland. I got it from the singing of Paul Clayton on 'American Folk Tales and Songs' on Tradition records, jewel of an album featuring the singing of Paul Clayton and Jean Ritchie as well as story telling by Richard Chase.
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.
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.
The Drovers Dream
A sheep drover's night visitation
This amusing little ditty and zoology lesson is another Australian bush ballad that I learned from the singing of A. L. Lloyd. It is one of many variants. The song likely derives from a poem appearing in The Kadina and Walleroo Times in 1889, called 'Visions of a Night Watch sent in by "C. J. 0. S" of New South Wales.
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'
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.