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.
When the Works All Done this Fall
Another cowboy tear-jerker. Get your hankie out pard.
I heard this tear-jerker a aan old 78 by Vernon Dalhard. Dalhart, born Marion Slaughter in Jefferson,Texas, was a hit in the 20's with 'Wreck of the Old 97'/ He event sang light opera when he moved to New York. But early in life he punched cattle around the Texas towns of Vernon and Dalhart. Hmm.
Hares on the Mountain
A jolly old English girl chasing song
I've heard many variations of this favorite old English folksong this one comes from the singing of Tim Hart with Steeleye Span. I was most saddened to hear of Tim's death in 2009 from cancer. He was a year younger than me.
Johnson Boys
A civil war song from the North and the South
Depending on which version of this song you hear either the Johnson boys were Civil War heroes (Flatt and Scruggs, NLCR) or complete idiots (Frank Proffit, J.E. Mainer). One theory has it that the heroic version was popular with sourthern troops and the idiot version came from northern soldiers who satirized the song.
A Lusty Young Smith
A brittish ballad for adults only
The words to this very naughty song come from Thomas D'Urfey's "Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy," published in 1717. It was set to music by Ed McCurdy for his Electra series 'When Dalliance was In Flower and Maidens Lost the Heads." Ed was ably accompanied by Eric Darling and Alan Arkin.
Candy Man
A blues on the banjo
Everyone with finger picking guitar aspirations learns this tune from Reverend Gary Davis. Reverend Davis did not sing these words, at least not after his religious convictions moved him to abandon such sinful singing. I'm not sure where these verses came from.
Six Songs for Children
A little collection of kid's songs. I'm especially fond of 'Little Black Bull'
Here are six very short songs selected from Ruth Crawford Seeger's books of children's songs Most of these songlets last just a minute or less. Kids don't mind. You can sing it again. If they like the song you may have to sing it again.. and again... and again.
Lady Gay
A sad ballad from Buel Kazee
'Lady Gay' is an American variation of the Scottish ballad "The Wife of Usher's Well" (Child #79). I got the song from Pete Seeger who learned the melody and the banjo tuning from Buell Kazee.
No Es Culpa Mía
A tejano song of heartbreak
It has been said that the language of love can only be sung. And nobody understood this better than the great Mexican and Tejano singers like Lydia Mendoza.
One Misty Moisty Morning
A jolly wedding song
This song comes from a seventeenth century broadside "The Wiltshire Wedding betwixt Daniel Doo well and Doll the Dairy Maid, with the Consent of her Old Father Leather-Coat, and her dear and tender Mother Plod-well." The tune is shared with another mischievous ditty , "The Friar and the Nun."
Duncan and Brady
Another bad man murder ballad
A "bad man murder ballad" in the mold of Staggolee, Frankie and Johnny, or Ella Speed. The earliest known recording was by a white string band, Wilmer Watts & Lonely Eagles, in 1929 but it has its roots in the African American tradition.
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.