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.
Froggy Went a Courtin'
A classic children's song with old and new verses for kids and bigger folk.
My grandmother sang this song to me and most verses here are just as she sang them. I added a few more verses gleaned from David Highland's collection of over 170 verses on his delightful "Frog went a Courtin'" web site. And I made up a couple of new ones myself.
The Country Life
The joy of a ramble in the new mown hay
I heard this song by chance and when I went looking for lyics and background, I discovered the Watersons of Yorkshire. I don't know how I had overlooked them all these years. They have been singing traditional English songs in their glorious harmonies since the 1960s.
Sourwood Mountain
A traditional banjo song from way back in the holler.
I learned this banjo tuning, eBEBE, from Frank Lee's instructional video 'Old-Time Banjo - Clawhammer Style'. Frank didn't play Sourwood Mountain but, I swear, when I put my banjo in that tuning those strings just started playing Sourwood Mountain all on their own. I guess I better let them have their way.
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.
Yo Soy un Pobre Vaquero
A mexican cowboy song
I learned this song from a Folkways album, "Traditional Songs of Mexico." I have not been able to find out more about it but it sounds very old and traditional. The lyrics are too strange to be anything but a folksong.
The Gray Goose
A wild old mountain banjo song
I learned this song from Tom Paley's 10" Electra record 'Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachian Mountains' It is very close to a song called 'Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel' as recorded by Uncle Dave Macon and later revamped by Jimmy Driftwood.
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.
The Knot in the Devil's Tail
A cowboy song of Satan
This favorite cowboy song was recorded by rodeo star and cowboy singer “Powder River” Jack Lee and his wife "Pretty Kitty" Lee for Victor Records in 1930. The original lyrics came from a poem by Gail Gardner.
East Virginia Blues
A love song from the mountains
As sung br the Carter Family in 1929. A second and probably older version with a plain modal melody and more primitive sound was played by old timers such as Buell Kazee and Roscoe Holcombe.
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.