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.
Ramblin Gambler
A very Texas version of this song. From Alan Lomax.
Alan Lomax performed this song on his Texas Folk Songs album, featuing Guy Carawan's banjo playing and John Cole's harmonica.
Woody Knows Nothin'
One of those lovely old animal songs from the mountains
This tender little folk song borrows a number of standard verses from other songs but it has a sweetness all its own. I hope you like it. Eric Darling recorded this version on his 'True Religion' album for Vanguard in 1961 and it showed up on thier folk sampler record where I heard it.
Goodbye Old Paint
A classic cowboy song. With "Woo-ha!" lessons.
One day, "I Ride an Old Paint" and "The Waggoner's Lad" were grazing in the back pasture and this song is the result of their acquaintance. The the tune and words I sing here are the same as in Tex Ritter’s 1933 recording. Not that this is any different from traditional versions, but it gives me an excuse to mention Tex.
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.
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.
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.
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
a banjo dance number
Pretty Little Miss, aka Pretty Little Pink, is one of the standard country dance songs that's been around as long as anyone can remember. Every old southern banjo player plays and everyone dances. So please dance.
Hop Up Ladies
A mountain dance tune
'Hop Up Ladies' is a timeless old mountain song sung to an a fiddle tune 'McLeod's Reel'. It is suitable for children, grown-ups and anybody who wants to get up an dance around.
Statesboro Blues
A blues from Blind Willie McTell
Blind Willie McTell recorded this song in 1928 and it is probably of his own composition. A few people have revived it recently, notably Taj Mahal, Rory Block, Dave Van Ronk, Chris Smithers, the Allman Brothers and the Holy Modal Rounders, those bizarre purveyors of psychedelic old time country.
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.
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.