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.
The Devil and the Farmer's Cursed Wife
A testiment to strong women
A very old song, this is listed by Child and variants show up in seventeenth century broad sheets. Surely intended as being a song of complaint about women, over the years it has taken on a different meaning. The last verse says it all, they're "better than men, they can go down to hell and come back again."
Hares on the Mountain
A jolly old English girl chasing song
I've heard many variations of this favorite old English folksong this one comes from the singing of Tim Hart with Steeleye Span. I was most saddened to hear of Tim's death in 2009 from cancer. He was a year younger than me.
Who Killed Cock Robin
The birds hold a memorial
This version comes from the singing of Edith Harmon in a field recording made near Maryville, Tennessee in 1939. The original porem has origins in the 14th century or earlier. There is plenty of speculation about symbolic meanings or political significance. I just loved its haunting melody.
The Old Bell Cow
Moo
The Old Bell Cow appeared in 'American Mountain Songs' by Ethel Park Richardson, published in 1927. The earliest known recording is by the Dixie Crackers in 1929. Ethel was a folk song collector who frequently performed on NBC radio shows in the 1930's.
Lady Gay
A sad ballad from Buel Kazee
'Lady Gay' is an American variation of the Scottish ballad "The Wife of Usher's Well" (Child #79). I got the song from Pete Seeger who learned the melody and the banjo tuning from Buell Kazee.
Cruel Mother
A haunting murder ballad
The Cruel Mother (Child 20) is sung throughout the English speaking world in countless variations. It is full of the haunting images and symbols that show up in other songs: the while marble stone (see Young Collins), the oak and thorn, the un-cleanable blood stain (think of Lady Macbeth), the unquiet grave.
The Wonderful Crocodile
The true story of an amazing reptile.
This tall tale comes from Nova Scotia. But sightings have also been made in Ireland, Australia and England. Origins are unknown but it seems to come from broadsides of the 19th century, when the accounts of honest and stout-hearted seafaring men received the respect and credence they deserved. By golly.
No Es Culpa Mía
A tejano song of heartbreak
It has been said that the language of love can only be sung. And nobody understood this better than the great Mexican and Tejano singers like Lydia Mendoza.
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.