Barking Dog: January 16, 2025
The New Harmony Sisterhood Band - Draglines
The New Harmony Sisterhood Band was formed in the mid-1970s by students at the Goddard-Cambridge Graduate School for Social Change
This is from a collection of some of the best recordings from Broadside Magazine, an independent underground publication that circulated original songs by artists including Bob Dylan, Malvina Reynolds, and Pete Seeger between 1962 and 1988
The liner notes describe draglines as “giant shovels that are used in strip mining to scrape away the tops of mountains”
The lead vocalist, Deborah Silverstein, wrote the song after witnessing the effects of strip mining near her home in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania
Willie Dunn - I Pity the Country
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This one is off his 1972 self-titled album
The song was included on the Grammy-nominated 2014 compilation album Native North America
Derroll Adams - Mr. Rabbit
He was a musician from Portland, Oregon who got his start busking on the West Coast of the US during the 1950s, where he met Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the two began travelling and recording together
He moved to Europe in 1957 and never returned to the States, instead finding a solid fanbase and community among fellow musicians like Donovan, Bert Jansch, and Rod Stewart
This is off his 1972 album Feelin’ Fine, and his wife Danny sings with him on it
It’s a traditional African American folk song
Lawrence Walker, Elton Walker - What’s the Matter Now
Lawrence and Elton were brothers from Louisiana, and they began performing together as teenagers around 1920
This is a pre-war Cajun recording, made for Bluebird Records at a mobile recording facility in New Orleans in 1935
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes - What’s the Matter Now
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is the last living member of the original Bentonia School, a style of blues which is defined by its preference for minor tunings and its shared repertoire of songs
He learned to play from Henry Stuckey, whose music was never recorded despite the fact he may have been the originator of the Bentonia blues style
Holmes began the Bentonia Blues Festival with his mother Mary Holmes in 1972, and it still takes place every year
He also owns the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, which is the oldest remaining juke joint in the state of Mississippi, and he can often be found playing there
This is from his album Gonna Get Old Someday, recorded in 2003
Liam Clancy - The Rocky Road to Dublin
He was an Irish singer best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers, which he formed with his older brothers and Tommy Makem, with whom he later performed as a duo
It’s an Irish song written by the poet DK Gavan in the 19th century for the music hall performer Harry Clifton
Clancy included it on his 1965 debut solo album
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Damned Old Piney Mountain
From Toronto
This recording is from their 2021 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
Woody Guthrie - Worried Man Blues
Guthrie was an influential folk musician who’s known for his songs about the Okie migrants who travelled west during the Great Depression in search of work
He recorded this one with his friend Cisco Houston in April of 1944
This traditional song was first popularised by the Carter Family through their 1930 recording, though Guthrie’s version led to the song becoming popular once again during the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s
Susmit Bose - Friend of a Friend
He’s an Indian musician who’s been playing since the 1970s, and appeared in the 2019 documentary If Not for You, which is about Calcutta’s long-lasting affinity with Bob Dylan
This is from his 2005 album Public Issue, which was his first release after a 25-year hiatus
Charlie Panigoniak - Piqatiga Iqaluksurma
He was an Inuk songwriter and musician from Nunavut who began recording in the 1970s
This is from the deluxe edition of his 1973 album Inuktitut Songs, released by Aakuluk Music in 2023
One of the label’s founders went to Rankin Inlet to meet with his wife Lorna prior to re-releasing the album, and she brought out an iPod that had a bunch of unreleased songs by Charlie
They succeeded in getting the music off the iPod and onto a laptop, and were then able to include them on the new edition of the album
This is one of those songs
Jesse Fuller - Just Like a Ship on the Deep Blue Sea
Was an American one-man band born in Georgia in 1896
He could play multiple instruments simultaneously, using a harmonica holder to hold a harmonica, a kazoo, or a microphone, playing guitar, and tap-dancing or soft-shoeing as he played
This seems to be his own song
Snooks Eaglin - I’ve Had My Fun
Eaglin was an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
Recorded in New Orleans in 1958
It’s a version of St. Louis Jimmy Oden’s 1941 piano hit “Going Down Slow,” retitled by Ray Charles for his 1950 recording of the song
It’s been widely recorded by blues artists including Mance Lipscomb, Pink Anderson, and Howlin’ Wolf
Réalta - An Trucailín Donn
Réalta are a Belfast-based group that play traditional Irish music
This is from their 2012 album Open the Door for Three
This appears to be an original song, and the title translates to “The Little Brown Cart”
It refers to the 1905 court case of Irish poet, farmer, and songwriter Neil McBride, who was fined for printing his name in Gaelic instead of English on his farm cart
Uncle Sinner - Idumea / Catfish Blues
Winnipeg
“Idumea” is also commonly known as “And Am I Born to Die”
It’s a standard Sacred Harp hymn written by Charles Wesley and first published in 1788
“Catfish Blues” is credited to Robert Petway, an American blues musician, based on the fact that he was the first to record it in 1941
Uncle Sinner also credits Muddy Waters’ version
He recorded this one in 2012
AA Bondy - I’m On Fire
Musician from Birmingham, Alabama who’s been playing since 1990
He recorded this one in 2009
It’s a version of Bruce Springsteen’s 1985 song
Alan Mills and the Four Shipmates - Drunken Sailor
Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec
From a 1957 album of sea shanties
This song was apparently sung as a “run-away” shanty, used when bringing the sails around to catch the wind
It’s from at least the early 19th century, though likely earlier
Mitch Miller & The Gang - Medley
He was a choral conductor and record producer from New York who was head of artists and repertoire at Columbia Records from 1950 until 1965 and also hosted the TV show Sing Along with Mitch on NBC in the early 1960s
This is from the first in the series of albums that inspired the show, simply titled Sing Along with Mitch, from 1958
It’s a medley of songs including “There is a Tavern in the Town” and “Show Me the Way to Go Home”
The Halifax Three - The Man Who Wouldn’t Sing Along with Mitch
They were a folk group that formed in Halifax in 1960, performed in Montreal and Toronto, then became part of the New York City folk scene
After they broke up in 1965, one member, Zal Yanovsky, joined the Lovin’ Spoonful, while Denny Doherty joined the Mamas & the Papas
This is from their 1963 album The San Francisco Blues
It’s their own humorous song about Mitch Miller
The song was written by a musician in Miller’s band, and got the Halifax Three a guest spot on the show
Isabelita Alonso, Karen James - Mi Burro
James is an English-born Canadian folksinger who began her career at the age of twelve, hosting a radio show on CBC called “Karen Discovers America”
Alonso was her mother, an English singer and actress of Spanish heritage, who often performed in both English and Spanish
This is from their 1963 album Children’s Songs from Spain
The title translates to “My Donkey”
It’s about a donkey with many ailments
Pete Seeger - Little Birdie
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist from New York who advocated for countless social causes through his music for 75 years
This is from his 1963 album Children’s Concert at Town Hall, recorded in April of 1962 in New York City
It’s an old southern banjo tune that Pete learned from the banjo player Lily May Ledford in 1940
Tommy Jarrell - John Hardy
Fiddler, banjo player, and singer from Mount Airy, NC
Made his living in road construction but was an influential musician and received the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1982
This is his version of the traditional American folk song based on the life of John Hardy, a railyard worker who was living in West Virginia in the Spring of 1893
Likely got into a drunken argument during a craps game and killed a man
Was subsequently found guilty of murder and hanged on January 19, 1894
Jarrell’s version is from his 1974 album Come and Go with Me
Elizabeth Cotten - Fare You Well, My Darling
She was from North Carolina, and began playing her older brother’s banjo when she was seven
During her teens, Cotten composed a number of songs, most notably “Freight Train”, which became a skiffle hit in the UK several decades later, in the 1950s
She gave up guitar around 1910, but she met the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger in the 1950s and began working as a housekeeper in the Seeger household
While she was there, she started playing the family’s guitar one day, and Mike Seeger made recordings of her songs, which later became an album
They began playing concerts together, and by the early 1960s, Cotten was playing at national festivals
She continued touring and releasing music well into her 80s
This recording is from the mid-1960s
She learned the song from her mother, and it’s related to the song “My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains”
Dan Wriggins - Going Away
He’s a musician and poet originally from Maine who’s a member of the band Friendship
This is from a Utah Phillips tribute album that he released in 2021 called Still Is
The song is by Phillips, who included it on his 1973 album Good Though!
Charley Patton - I Shall Not Be Moved
Patton a Mississippi blues musician known as the Father of the Delta Blues
“I Shall Not Be Moved” is a spiritual that became popular as a protest song during the Civil Rights Movement and as a union song
Patton’s version was recorded in December of 1929 in Grafton, Wisconsin
Ruth Moody - Dancing in the Dark
From Winnipeg and a member of the Wailin’ Jennys
A folky cover of the classic 1984 Bruce Springsteen tune, and our second Springsteen cover of the show
June Lazare - Jim Fisk
She was a musician and ethnomusicologist from California who specialised in 19th century parlour music, and she taught and performed in the clothing of the period
This is from her 1966 album of folk songs of New York City
It’s a song about the murder of the railroad and oil robber baron James Fisk by Edward Stiles Stokes, his business partner, on the steps of the Grand Central Hotel in January of 1872
Fisk had Stokes falsely arrested after Stokes became involved with his love interest, which led to retaliation on both sides until the murder
While in jail, Stokes maintained his opulent lifestyle, keeping a carriage close to the jail and riding around the city each day, which infuriated the public and led to the undeserved glorification of Fisk
Tim Heidecker - Trump Talkin’ Nukes
Tim Heidecker is a comedian and musician from Pennsylvania known particularly as part of the comedy duo Tim & Eric
This is from his 2021 live album An Evening with Tim Heidecker
It’s originally off his 2017 album of Trump songs
Quilapayún - La Carta
Quilapayún are a Chilean folk group that have been around since 1965, and are one of the most influential groups in the Nueva Cancion Chilena
This is from the 2000 album Quilapayún Sings to Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara and Great Popular Masters
The song is by Parra, a hugely influential Chilean musician, folklorist, and artist, and the title translates to “The Letter”
It’s about the many men who were disappeared during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s
Teta Jean Claude, Chryzanto Zama, Joël Rabesolo - Maro Valy
This is from the 2016 album Malagasy Guitar Masters, which combines three generations of musicians from Madagascar
The title translates to “Many Answers”
Joe Hickerson - Joe Hill’s Last Will
Folk singer and songleader from Illinois
Was Librarian and Director of the Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress for 35 years
This is from his 1976 album Drive Dull Care Away Vol. 1
Joe Hill was a Swedish-American labour activist and union songwriter who was convicted of the murders of a former police officer and his son after a controversial trial and was executed in 1915
He wrote this as his will the night before his execution, and Ethel Raim wrote the tune for it in 1961
Kendall Morse - Life Gets Tedious
He was the captain of a fisheries inspection vessel who build up a strong repertoire of folk songs and shanties over his career
He released two albums with Folk-Legacy Records, published two collections of stories, and hosted the Maine Public Television series In the Kitchen with Kendall Morse, during which he sat in the kitchen swapping stories with different storytellers
This is from his 1976 album Lights Along the Shore
It’s a country song by Carson Robison, released in 1948
Arko Mukhaerjee - Paal Uraiya De
He’s a musician and music researcher Calcutta, India who sings in more than 20 languages and plays several instruments
This is off his 2015 album FIVE, on which he collaborated with artists from around the world
On this one, Rajarshi Barman provides harmonies
The song is by Jasimuddin, a Bangladeshi poet and songwriter
The title appears to translate to “Raise the Sails,” but correct me if I’m wrong
John Tinsley - Red River Blues
He was a musician from Chestnut Mountain, Virginia who played at local events in his youth, then quit playing for a few decades until he returned to music in the 1970s, when he played at several folk festivals across the United States
This is an incredibly popular blues song from the southeast United States
It’s also been recorded under the titles “Blood Red River” and “Bye Bye Baby”
Tinsley learned the song from local performers as a boy in the 1930s
Chaim Tannenbaum - Paddy Doyle
He’s a folk musician and philosophy professor from Montreal who’s been performing since the 1960s and has collaborated with artists like Kate & Anna McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, though he only began recording his own music at the age of 68 after retiring and moving to New York
This is from his self-titled first album from 2016, and Loudon Wainwright joins him on it
He got the song from a recording by Ewan MacColl
Pharis & Jason Romero - Old Bill’s Tune
