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.
When the Works All Done this Fall
Another cowboy tear-jerker. Get your hankie out pard.
I heard this tear-jerker a aan old 78 by Vernon Dalhard. Dalhart, born Marion Slaughter in Jefferson,Texas, was a hit in the 20's with 'Wreck of the Old 97'/ He event sang light opera when he moved to New York. But early in life he punched cattle around the Texas towns of Vernon and Dalhart. Hmm.
Widdicombe Fair
A bad end comes to those who mistreat poor old horses
Here is a famously celebrated English ballad. I think it qualifies as a murder ballad, though the victim be equine, as well as a ghost story.
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.
Pretty Polly and False William
A different telling of Pretty Polly
The banjo arrangement is my own, using one of Peggy Seeger's dulcimer tunings that I learned from her Banjo method book 'Five String Banjo America Folk Styles' - 1960 .
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.
Wild About My Lovin'
A jug-band blues
A song from Jim Jackson of Hernando, Mississippi who performed and recorded in the 1920's and 30's either solo or with such artists as Gus Cannon, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Jim left us a legacy of songs like Grizzly Bear, Hesitation Blues, Kansas City Blues, Old Dog Blue and this one.
Make me a Pallet on Your Floor
A famous old blues/ragtime piece
This song has been a standard for blues, ragtime, jazz, folk and country musicians since before the turn of the century (the 20th, that is).
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
a banjo dance number
Pretty Little Miss, aka Pretty Little Pink, is one of the standard country dance songs that's been around as long as anyone can remember. Every old southern banjo player plays and everyone dances. So please dance.
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
A Carter family song about the newspaper business
This song comes from the Carter family in the 1920's. The guitar arrangement, however, comes from Earl Scruggs who is of course better known for the banjo. Earl was a very sensitive and creative guitarist as well.
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.