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.
Two Hobo Songs
Hobo songs from Jimmy Rogers, Cisco Houston and Blind Boy Grunt
Two songs written on the same sad theme. The first by Jimmy Rogers. The second was recorded in the 1960's on Broadside Ballads. The singer was billed as Blind Boy Grunt and he sounded remarkably like Bob Dylan who was under contract at Columbia at the time.
Sail Away Ladies
A traditional dance song from Uncle Dave Macon
This is, of course, a big favorite. The best known version comes from Uncle Dave Macon. I'm fond of Mike Seeger's rendition on autoharp and pan pipe. You can hear this on his wonderful 'True Vine' album.
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,
Texian Boys
A warning to young ladies.When other good folk are all gone to bed, the devil is a workin' in the Texian's head.
This song was collected by John Lomax, recorded on his Folkways "John A. Lomax Jr. Sings American Folksongs." Texian Boys is not very complimentary about Texas, but pretty accurate actually.
La Cárcel de Cananéa
A sad Mexican song of incarceration
A classic Mexican corrido that I leared on one of my trips to Ciudad Juarez with my dad and brothers looking for great mariachi music.
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.
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.
Eight Hour Day
A labor anthem
The demand for the eight hour day was one of the earliest and most important achievements of the labor movement in Europe and North America. These verses, as sung by Pete Seeger on 'American Industrial Ballads', come from a song by John Hory of the Knights of Labor written in 1886.
Willie the Weeper
A jazz tune about the perils of opium smoking
"Willie" is a New Orleans jazz band standard dating back before the turn of the century (nineteenth). There are hundreds of verses and almost as many variations of the tune. I learned this one from a ten-inch record album by Shep Ginandes called "Songs of Delinquency."
Railroad Bill
A bad man on the railway.
Any young finger-picker must master 'Railroad Bill'. It's a rite of passage. The song has been recorded hundreds of times going back to the 1920's by the best country, blues and folk musicians.