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.
Mole in the Ground
A mountain banjo song from Bascomb Lamar Lundsford
I loved this song when I first heard it from Pete Seeger. Then I heard Bascom Lamar Lunsford's classic recording and fell in love all over again. The lyrics are surreal. Who knew that railway workers were vampires?
Swing and Turn, Jubilee
A slightly updated version of a mountain play-party song
An old standard appalachian party song that Jean Ritchie sang on her classic album with Doc Watson. Another nice version was sung by Carolyn Hester on one of her early Columbia records. Carolyn is a great Texas singer who never seemed to get the attention she deserved. The minor key in the chorus is from Carolyn.
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.
Kicking Mule
The definitive mule song
Here's another good old standard mule song. My favorite version was recorded by Tom Paley and Peggy Seeger. I play at about half the speed. This is partly because I just am just not as fast as Tom and Peggy, but besides I just like these old songs at a less then break-neck pace.
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."
Who Killed Cock Robin
The birds hold a memorial
This version comes from the singing of Edith Harmon in a field recording made near Maryville, Tennessee in 1939. The original porem has origins in the 14th century or earlier. There is plenty of speculation about symbolic meanings or political significance. I just loved its haunting melody.
Dear Okie
A dustbowl song by a cowboy singer
From Texas radio songster Doye O'Dell with help fellow Cowboy actor Rudy Sooter. Doye grew up on a Texas cotton spread in the dustbowl era. He started a radio career with WDAG in Amarillo and then the famous Mexican border station XCPM. He finally landed his own NBC radio show produced in New York.
Poor Ellen Smith
A North Carolina murder ballad
‘Poor Ellen Smith’ is a classic mountain murder ballad in which the accused killer protests his innocence. The song was recorded by Henry Whitter in 1924 and was sung by many traditional musicians such as Texas Gladden, Frank Proffitt, Hobart Smith, and Pete Steele. The Country Gentlemen made it a bluegrass standard.
Bluey Brink
An Austrian drinking song
The pioneering English folklorist and singer A.L., Bert, Lloyd learned this song from "Old Dad Adams" of Cowra, New South Wales and sang it on two albums he made of Australian songs.
Joshua Fought the Battle of Jerico
A well known african american spiritual
Surely you know this one. It is said to have originated in slave times. The first known recorded version was by Herrod's Jubilee Singers on Paramount Records in 1922. Harrod's was the successor, at Fisk University, to the pioneering Fisk Jubilee Singers of the nineteenth century.
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.