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 Gypsy Girl
A ballad from Charlie Poole
This song was recorded by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers in 1930. It is much older however.. I heard it from Tom Paley and the Old Reliable String Band on their one and only album. Tom formed this group with Roy Berkeley and Artie Rose after he left the NLCR in 1963.
The Devil and the Farmer's Cursed Wife
A testiment to strong women
A very old song, this is listed by Child and variants show up in seventeenth century broad sheets. Surely intended as being a song of complaint about women, over the years it has taken on a different meaning. The last verse says it all, they're "better than men, they can go down to hell and come back again."
The Golden Willow Tree
An American version of this famous English ballad
Tne 'Golden Willow Tree' or 'Golden Vanity' (Child 286) dates back to a late 17th. century broadside in which Sir Walter Raleigh is pictured as this nasty captain. Practically everyone who sings folksongs has recorded it. Even Johnny Depp sang a bit of it in 'Pirates of the Carribean'.
Jackaro
A song of love, seamanship and cross-dressing
'Jackaro' is a Kentucky mountain variation on an old ballad called 'Jack Munroe.' The song was collected in Kentucky by Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway and in Arkansas by Max Hunter. Jean Ritchie knew it is part of her own family tradition.
Tighten on the Backband
A song of plowing and country life
Sam Hinton put this song together from bits of mule and ox driver shouts and work songs. Sam was an East Texas songster who left home to become an aquatic biologist. As devoted to his academic career as he was, Sam kept on singing and recording throughout his life and left us some wonderful material.
I Know Where I'm Going
An old Scottish love song.
This Scottish love song is so old nobody seems to know its origins. It has been performed more effectively by lots of people and is best sung in a female voice, but I can't resist an old favorite.
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.
The Drovers Dream
A sheep drover's night visitation
This amusing little ditty and zoology lesson is another Australian bush ballad that I learned from the singing of A. L. Lloyd. It is one of many variants. The song likely derives from a poem appearing in The Kadina and Walleroo Times in 1889, called 'Visions of a Night Watch sent in by "C. J. 0. S" of New South Wales.
Down in the Valley
A favorite American ballad
Down in the Valley is one of the best known, best loved and one of the most authentically traditional of American folk songs. My parents sang it to me as a lullaby. There's another nice variant of this song on the site. See Little Willie's My Darlin'
Handsome Molly
An old banjo and fiddle tune.
Handsome Molly is a traditional banjo and fiddle tune known to practically all old time country players. Molly was recorded by Grayson and Whitter in 1929 on Victor records but probably was already quite an old tune even then. . Mike Seeger popularized it again in his first solo album for Folkways in 1962.
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!".