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.
Young Collins
A strange old ballad learned from Peggy Seeger
Here's another spooky and strange old English ballad (Child 85). Fair Ellen it seems is an enchantress. And poor Young Collins dies after making love to her. As everyone knows this is likely to happen to young men who play around with supernatural women. Didn’t your mother tell you not to frolic with them fairy folk?
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.
Rivers of Texas
A Texas love song and geography lesson.
A favorite with Texas songsters, the song's history is a little murky. It is always attributed as "traditional" although to my ear it doesn't sound like a real traditional ballad. It is not strictly a ballad, not much narrative story, and it does not borrow any verses from other songs.
The Fox
Famous exploits of the fox.
This is an old children's favorite dating possibly back to a Middle English poem from the fifteenth century. It has been recored by Burl Ives, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Tim Hart, and everyone else including even John Pertwee (the second Doctor Who).
Lewis Collins
A fine old guitar finger picking piece from Mississippi John Hurt
'The Death of Lewis Colins' was composed and recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928 for Okeh Records and then recorded again in 1963 when he was 'rediscovered' in the folk revival. I heard it first from Tom Paley who learned it from the old recording.
Cruel Mother
A haunting murder ballad
The Cruel Mother (Child 20) is sung throughout the English speaking world in countless variations. It is full of the haunting images and symbols that show up in other songs: the while marble stone (see Young Collins), the oak and thorn, the un-cleanable blood stain (think of Lady Macbeth), the unquiet grave.
The Wonderful Crocodile
The true story of an amazing reptile.
This tall tale comes from Nova Scotia. But sightings have also been made in Ireland, Australia and England. Origins are unknown but it seems to come from broadsides of the 19th century, when the accounts of honest and stout-hearted seafaring men received the respect and credence they deserved. By golly.
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.
NRA Blues
A song about the New Deal
Back in the days of the depression, the NRA was the 'National Recovery Administration' not the rifle association. NRA was a new deal program founded to bring business, government and labor together. Although it seemed a visionary idea at the time it did not completely please labor or business.
Oh Baby You Done Me Wrong
A pastor goes astray
A song recorded by Uncle Dave Macon 1925 in Nashville. Uncle Dave seems to have invented a genre, old time country calypso. Nobody else has recorded this cautionary tale of a pastor gone astray.
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.