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.
Bill Morgan and his Gal
An old time string band tune from Charlie Poole
Heard the New Lost City Ramblers play this in concert in the tiny auditorium in Lee Park, Dallas in 1961. I was around thirteen and learning songs on my Sears and Roebuck Silvertone banjo from Pete Seeger's 'How to play the Five-String Banjo.' I had never heard anything quite like this and it knocked my socks off.
What the old Bachelors Made Out Of
The constituent materials of bachelors, old maids, doctors, and little dudes, are described.
I learned this song from Mike Seeger's epic banjo instruction series Southern Banjo Styles. Anyone who has the slightest interest in the history and playing of banjo show get this. It is priceless.
The Horse with a Union Label
Even the broncos support the union
Here's a cowboy song by Mike Stratton and Saul Aarons from the People's Songbook.
Goin' Across the Sea
Appalachian banjo song
Uncle Dave Macon called this song "an old familiar tune from waaaay back yander." I heard it first from Art Rosenbaum on an Elecktra album, "Folk Banjo Styles", an eclectic set of banjo performances by Art, Tom Paley, and Eric Weissberg that ranged from Tom’s ancient sounding fretless tunes to Eric’s high power bluegrass.
La Cárcel de Cananéa
A sad Mexican song of incarceration
A classic Mexican corrido that I leared on one of my trips to Ciudad Juarez with my dad and brothers looking for great mariachi music.
Luis Pulido
A cowboy shoot-out in old Mexico
Nobody plays Mexican songs on the Banjo! Well except Pete Seeger (Cielito Lindo). But he played everything from Bach (Ode do Joy) to Flamenco (Quince Brigada) on the banjo.
Home Dearie Home
A song of seas and sweeties
Peggy Seeger gathered these verses together from the old "sailor/bar maid" tradition that gave us "Hame Dearie Hame";
The Millers Will
The wages of greed
A dying miller, a true believer in the free maket, decides which of his three sons will inherit his mill by judging which is greediest and will do the best job of cheating the customers.
Little Sadie
A mountain bad man song
Clarence 'Tom' Ashley recorded Little Sadie in 1930 as did a number of other country singers around the same time. The earliest recording I have found was by Roy Hogshed in 1948 but I believe there were earlier renditions.
Pajarillo Barranqueño
An old Mexican love song
Pajarillo Barranqueño is a well known traditional song from Mexico. It has been done plain and fancy; mariachi style, ranchero style, conjunto style, huapango style. The great Tejana singer Lydia Mendoza recorded it. Tish Hinojosa and Joan Baez did a lovely version. But I'll bet nobody has done it on the banjo before.
The Keeper of the Eddystone Light
A seafaring song from the English music hall
This song was popularized in the 1950's by Burl Ives and became a folk revival standard. It originates from an English music hall song published in the mid nineteenth century. Various sheet music publications from this time make conflicting claims of authorship.