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.
Sweet Nora Lee
A sweet old banjo blues
This song comes from J. T. Adams, a blues singer from Indianapolis. I'm grateful to Art Rosenbaum for collecting it and sharing with the rest of us. The tuning is standard open G but tuned down to F. The chimes are my contribution.
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.
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.
The Golden Willow Tree
An American version of this famous English ballad
Tne 'Golden Willow Tree' or 'Golden Vanity' (Child 286) dates back to a late 17th. century broadside in which Sir Walter Raleigh is pictured as this nasty captain. Practically everyone who sings folksongs has recorded it. Even Johnny Depp sang a bit of it in 'Pirates of the Carribean'.
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.
The Old Frog
Complete non-sense
This little delight comes to us from the Ozarks by way of Ruth Crawford Seeger's "Animal Folk Songs for Children".
Deep Blue Sea
Sailor lost at sea
This song was recorded by a few folksingers in the 1960's such as Pete Seeger, Odetta, Chad Mitchel and the Weavers. I'm especially fond of Odetta's performance. I heard her sing it when I must have been thirteen years old and it has stayed with me ever since.
Swannanoa Tunnel
A mountain railroad song
The Swannanoa Tunnel was constructed in Western North Carolina by more than 1800 workers. Some 500 of them were convict laborers, mostly African-Americans, who were transported from the eastern part of the state. The work started in 1855 and took 24 years to finish. In this time countless workers lost their lives.
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"
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.
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.