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.
Rattlesnake Mountain
A really funny song from Jimmy Driftwood
Here's a song from Jimmy Driftwood of Timbo, Arkansas. Jimmy gave us The Battle of New Orleans and Tennesee Stud and a weath of other songs drawn from traditional sources and the unique mind of Jimmy Driftwood.
Round and Round
An old time string band song from Dr. Bate and his Possum Hunters.
From Dr. Humphrey Bate and his Possum Hunters. Dr. Bate was a master harmonica player but apparently not so hot as a lyricist. This song had one verse and one chorus. The verse was borrowed from another song and the chorus doesn't rhyme. So I decided to fill it out with some more borrowed lyrics and some of my own.
A Short Life of Trouble
A sad old time country song
The earliest recordings of this song were done in the mid 1920's by Burnett and Rutherford (1926), Buell Kazee (1928) and Grayson and Whitter (1928). I first heard it from Hobart Smith. My favorite recent recording is by the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
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."
Little Willie's My Darlin
A nice variant of Down in the Valley
This variant of 'Down in the Valley' can be heard on Mike and Peggy Seeger's wonderfully tender album 'Fly Down Little Bird'. It included several songs they had learned as kids, listening while their mother Ruth Crawford Seeger transcribed field recordings for the Lomax's.
The Chickens They are Crowing
Courtin' song
I learned this song in the good old sixties from Peggy Seeger through her 'Best of' album on Prestige records and her banjo instruction booklet - "Peggy Seeger, The five-string Banjo American Folk Styles. The Banjo Method - with a fine collection of FOLK SONGS"
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.
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.
Riley and Spencer
A drinking song of the South
Unlike most of the country songs I sing there are no early recordings of 'Riley and Spencer.' This one comes to us from some more recent traditional singers such as Tommy Jarrell and Betsy Rutherford. Betsy said that she learned "Riley and Spencer" from her relative Fields Ward, who wrote it.
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.
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.