Barking Dog: January 13, 2022
Stanley Triggs - So Long to the Kicking Horse Canyon
Born in Nelson, BC in 1928
Worked throughout the province in different industries, and collected songs and stories from his colleagues
Also worked as a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
The Kicking Horse Canyon lies between Golden and Lake Louise in BC, and Triggs adapted this song himself from an old cowboy tune after a rough time pouring concrete with a construction gang in minus 42 degree weather
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Love Farewell
A new song about love during wartime from the Durham, NC artist that draws inspiration from the traditional ballad "Come Philanderers" by O.B. Campbell
From his forthcoming album Good and Green Again
Old Man Luedecke - Old High Way of Love
From Chester, NS
Off his 2015 album Domestic Eccentric, which he recorded inside a cabin he built in his backyard
Woody Guthrie - Dust Pneumonia Blues
Dust Bowl balladeer and important figure in folk music history who’s known particularly for his songs about the Okie migrants who travelled west during the Great Depression in search of work, though he composed and recorded songs on an enormous number of topics
This is one of those Dust Bowl songs, about one of the biggest diseases of the Dust Bowl
Dust pneumonia caused the lungs’ alveoli to become inflamed or scarred, with symptoms such as shortness of breath, asthma, bronchitis and silicosis
Guthrie’s song is from 1938
Pete Seeger - What a Friend We Have in Congress
He was a folk singer and an activist who, though blacklisted during the McCarthy era, remained a prominent public figure who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and international disarmament through his music
This is his own song
The Almanac Singers - The Strange Death of John Doe
Founded by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger in 1940
This is from an album of WWII songs that was released when the US had not yet entered the war and was still maintaining its neutrality
It’s related to a number of songs including “The Lazy Farmer Boy”
Willie Dunn - I Pity the Country
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This is from his 1978 album Akwesasne Notes
Larry Estridge - Spirits of the Revolution
He was a writer, musician, painter, and sculptor from New York who was a protest-organizer at Harvard in the 1960s and a political activist for his entire life
This one is from 1973
Jesse Matas - Peace River Song
From Manitoba
This is from his 2018 album Tamarock
Lillie Cogswell Knox - I’m Troubled About My Soul
This is from an album of field recordings from the Gullah enclave of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina made by the Lomaxes in the 1930s
It’s a traditional American gospel song
George Herod - I Shall Not Be Moved
This is from a 1956 album of field recordings of older musicians from the southern United States made by Frederic Ramsey, Jr.
Herod was about 64 years old when this album was made, and he was the retired leader of the Lapsey Brass Band
This recording was made in Alabama in May of 1954
This is a spiritual that became popular as a protest song and a union song during the Civil Rights Movement
Norfolk Jazz and Jubilee Quartet - This Old World Is In Bad Condition
They were the most influential vocal quartet of this kind to emerge from their region of Virginia at the time
They formed around 1919, and appeared in vaudeville and variety shows and in musical revues throughout the 20s
Their final recording session took place in April 1940
This recording is from the late 1930s, and it seems to be a traditional gospel song
Pharis & Jason Romero - We All Fall
Horsefly, BC
From their 2020 album Bet On Love
Kaia Kater - Canyonland
Grenadian-Canadian artist based in Toronto
This is from her 2018 album, Grenades
Dock Boggs - Coal Creek March
Influential old-time musician from Norton, Virginia who recorded in 1927 and 1929 but worked as a coal miner much of his life
His music career was revived during the folk revival of the 1960s and he spent his later life playing folk festivals and making recordings for the Folkways record label
This tune seems to relate to several mine incidents around Coal Creek, Tennessee, that occurred in the early 1900s
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Damned Old Piney Mountain
From Toronto
This recording is from their new live album, Lively Times, recorded in Vancouver
This song is by Craig Johnson, and the lyrics are mostly direct quotes from an old man he met in the mountains of West Virginia who was once a logger and fiddler
Hobart Smith - Short Life of Trouble
An old-time musician who was rediscovered in the 60s
Played in bands with many well-known musicians, including Clarence Ashley, who he had met first at a medicine show in the 30s
Sam Amidon - Short Life
Contemporary folk artist from Vermont
From his 2013 album Bright Sunny South
This is a traditional American song, but it’s hard to find anything about it from before its first recording by Dick Burnett and Leonard Rutherford in 1926
Charles Wallace, John Roberts, H Brown - Depend On Me
From a 1959 album of Bahamian music
This was recorded at the Fresh Creek Settlement on the island of Andros in August of 1958
It seems to be a traditional Bahamian song
Wade Hemsworth - The Shining Birch Tree
A respected Canadian folksinger from Brantford, Ontario
Only wrote about 20 songs during his career, though many of them, such as “The Black Fly Song,” “The Logdriver’s Waltz,” and “The Wild Goose” are so ingrained in Canadian culture that people consider them traditional Canadian folk songs at this point
This was written by Hemsworth, and is also known as “The Land of the Muskeg”
Uncle Sinner - Pearline
From Winnipeg
This is a song by Son House, a Mississippi delta blues artist who influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters
Uncle Sinner includes it on his 2008 album Ballads and Mental Breakdowns
Pelle Joner - Sven Svane
This is from an album of Norwegian folk songs from 1958
Joner was a musician from Oslo, Norway who travelled around Europe in the 1950s, performing as a troubadour on the streets and in cafes
It’s a folksong from Valdres that shows strong similarity to the English-language song “The Devil’s Nine Questions”
We’ll hear some other recordings from the song family after this
Paul Clayton, Jean Ritchie, Richard Chase - The Devil’s Question
Ritchie was known as the Mother of Folk; she learned traditional folksongs in the oral tradition from friends and family in her youth
Clayton was an American folksinger who was also a folklorist who specialized in traditional music, and Richard Chase was an American folklorist
This version of the song is from 1957
This form of the song comes from the Appalachian region of the US
Stray Hens - Riddles Wisely Expounded
They’re an Australian folk group that’s been playing together since 2013
This is a traditional English folk song, and it was known as far back as the 15th century
It has significant crossover with another English riddling song called “The False Knight Upon the Road,” as well as riddling ballads in other languages
Florida-Alabama Progressive Seven-Shape-Note Singing Convention - God’s Gonna Set the World on Fire
Off an album of field recordings made in Florida of African American traditional music between 1977 and 1980
It’s a traditional African American spiritual, the first recording of which was also made in Florida in 1922
Kacy & Clayton - Wood View
Second cousins from Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan
From their 2013 album The Day Is Past & Gone
Willard Artis “Blind Pete” Burrell - Do Lord Remember Me
This is from an album of rural Black religious music
Burrell was a Louisiana gospel musician, and “Do Lord Remember Me” is an African American spiritual from the 19th century
Dick Justice - Henry Lee
An early American folk and blues recording artist from West Virginia
This song was included on Harry Smith’s very influential 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music as the opening track
Tampa Red - Stockyard Fire
He was a Chicago blues musician originally from Florida who’s known particularly for his single-string slide style on the guitar
His career really began when he was hired to accompany Ma Rainey, and in 1928 he made his first recording
He remained in demand as a session musician during this time, and later formed the Chicago Five, a group of session musicians that created the Bluebird sound, which was a stylistic precursor to rock n’ roll
Tampa Red’s home in Chicago was a centre for the blues community, and he provided rehearsal space, helped with bookings, and offered lodging to travelling musicians
Like many earlier blues musicians, he received further attention through the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, and he made his final recordings in 1960
This recording is from 1934
Big Bill Broonzy - When Things Go Wrong
He was an American blues singer and guitarist and one of the leading figures of the emerging folk revival of the 1950s
It’s a blues standard that was first recorded by Tampa Red in 1940
The song is based on an earlier blues song, “Things ‘Bout Comin’ My Way,” first recorded in 1931
Broonzy recorded his version in Copenhagen in 1956
Taj Mahal - Cluck Old Hen
Taj is a Grammy-award-winning blues musician from New York City whose career has spanned over 50 years
Traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo tune
Ruth Moody - The Garden
From Winnipeg, a member of the Wailin’ Jennys
Off her 2010 album of the same name
The Wakami Wailers - Peter Emberley
They’re a band that formed in 1981 when four employees at Wakami Lake Provincial Park, near Chapleau, Ontario, started playing Canadian folk music together
They have continued playing since then, and have released four albums
This is off their 1985 album The Last of the White Pine Loggers
This is a folk song from New Brunswick that tells the story of a boy from Prince Edward Island who was fatally injured in the Miramichi logging woods when a log fell on him
One of the best-known New Brunswick songs, with lyrics written by Emberley’s friend John Calhoun in 1881, and a traditional Irish tune put to use for it by local singer Abraham Munn
Frank Jenkins - Baptist Shout
Jenkins was a North Carolina banjo and fiddle player who earned his living working on farms and in sawmills
Sheesham & Lotus - Saute de Lapin / Rooster on a Rail Fence
