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 Hayseed
A farmer-labor song
This is a song from the American populst movement, possibly written by Arthur L. Kellogg. I learned it from the singing of Pete Seeger on the classic Folkways "American Industrial Ballads" 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,
Johnson Boys
A civil war song from the North and the South
Depending on which version of this song you hear either the Johnson boys were Civil War heroes (Flatt and Scruggs, NLCR) or complete idiots (Frank Proffit, J.E. Mainer). One theory has it that the heroic version was popular with sourthern troops and the idiot version came from northern soldiers who satirized the song.
Henry Lee
A very old murder ballad learned from Peggy Seeger
"Henry Lee" is Child #68. Pretty much the whole story you will hear in this rendition is contained in other variations, "Love Henry", "Earl Richard", “The Proud Girl.” And bits of the plot, scraps of lyrics and roughly related ideas cross fertilized still more songs like "Lady Margaret" and "Lost Henry."
The Soldier's Farewell
A soldier goes to Pensacola and meets a sad end.
This song from the American civil war was pieced together by Peggy Seeger from a number of traditional sources in field recordings. Like most war songs I know it is about the tragedy and stupidity of war. I wish I could say that the theme is unfamiliar today. But it is all to easy to substitute Afghanistan for Pensacola.
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.
Lord Bateman
A love ballad
This ballad is Child Ballad #53 (Lord Beichan). And, yes, it is long. As I've said before these old ballads are what people had for radio and TV back in the way-back-yander. So settle in for a story not a quick ditty.
Cotton Mill Colic
A labor song from the North Carolina mills
Here's a mill song from the 1920's, as recorded by North Carolina singer and textile worker David McCarn for Victor in Memphis Tennessee,May 1930. I learned it from the singing of the brothers Seeger (Mike and Pete - separately).
John Henry
Story of the steel driving man
If there is one single best known and best loved American folksong it is surely John Henry.
Kitty Waltz
A lovely waltz from the Carter Family
The Cater Family recorded Kitty Waltz in Atlanta in 1929. It is a lovely piece and quite unusual for them. It sounds more like nineteenth century parlor music than the traditional material they usually liked.
The Man that Wrote the Home Sweet Home
New lyrics to a disreputable old song
Once upon a time, in the late 1920’s and early 30’s, there was a pair of country recording artists named Charlie Parker and Mack Woolbright. Mack was a blind banjo player who pioneered a three-finger style that caught the attention of a young feller named Earl Scruggs.