Barking Dog: January 4, 2024
Ewan MacColl - Poor Paddy Works on the Railway
He was a well-known British folksinger and labour activist known for his involvement in the 1960s folk revival
There were many songs about “Paddy” in the English-speaking seafaring trade after the Irish potato famines of the 1830s and 40s and the political upheaval and poverty in the country led to waves of mass migration to factories and mills in England and North America
This was a shanty used when pumping out the bilges and weighing anchor, and it also became popular along the canals and railways in the United States, where many Irish immigrants worked
His version is from 1951
Cheick Hamala Diabate & Bob Carlin - Danaya / Jonny Boker
Diabate is a Malian musician now based in Maryland who’s been performing since the mid-1980s
He primarily performs on the ngoni, and is recognized as a master of the instrument, which is related to the banjo
Carlin is an old-time singer and banjo player from NYC
He’s toured Europe and North America playing on historical banjos, and has also learned more about African banjo traditions through his collaborations with Diabate
This is from their 2007 album From Mali to America, which was nominated for a Grammy award
The short shanty was sung when only a few strong pulls were needed to finish a job
This version combines it with a song called “Danaya,” which means “Trust”
Alan Mills - Johnny Boker
Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec
Made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian folklore
From the 1957 album Songs of the Sea
David Francey - Nearly Midnight
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who worked as a railyard worker and carpenter for 20 years before pursuing folk music at the age of 45
This is from his 2003 album Skating Rink
Karen Dalton - Reason to Believe
American singer, guitarist, and banjo player known for her association with the 60s Greenwich Village folk music scene—including with artists Fred Neil and Bob Dylan
She was largely unrecognised for her contributions to the folk genre during her life, but has become an important influence for artists like Nick Cave, Devendra Banhart, and Joanna Newsom
This is from the album 1966, recorded in 1966 at Dalton’s cabin in Colorado and released in 2012
Willie Dunn - Broker
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
From the 2021 anthology album Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies
Pete Seeger - Talking Ben Tre
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and other important issues through his music
This is from the 1968 live album Pete Seeger Now, about the American attack on the Vietnamese city of Ben Tre that occurred that same year
Big Dave McLean - Police and High Sheriff
A blues musician from Winnipeg who’s been playing for over 50 years
This song seems to come from the 1927 Ollis Martin recording “Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down”, and the song was undoubtedly the inspiration for the newer folksong “Gotta Travel On”
McLean included it on his 2008 album Acoustic Blues: Got ‘Em from the Bottom
Pedro Pietri - Warning
He was a New York poet and a founding member of the Nuyorican movement, which consisted of artists of Puerto Rican descent living in New York City
This is from his 1979 album Loose Joints: Poetry by Pedro Pietri
Sam Hinton - Crawdad Song
He was an American folksinger, marine biologist, and visual artist
This is off his 1964 album of children’s songs called Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts
Relatively well-known song which developed out of white American play-party traditions and Black American blues songs
Other versions of the song are called “Sweet Thing” or “Sugar Babe”
Hinton traces the song to East Texas, where he was raised, and where they fished for crawdads with pieces of bacon tied to strings
Charlie Sangster - Crawdad Song
Born into a musical family in Brownsville, Tennessee in 1917
Learned to play mandolin and guitar at the age of 12
Recorded by Gianni Marcucci for the Blues at Home record series
Marcucci travelled from Italy to the United States five times during the 70s and 80s to document blues music
This one was recorded in August of 1978 in Brownsville, Tennessee
Joe Glazer - Dump the Bosses Off Your Back
Glazer was a folk musician and labour activist from New York who recorded over 30 albums during his career
This one’s from his 1977 album I Will Win: Songs of the Wobblies
The lyrics are by John Brill, and it’s to the tune of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” which was composed by Charles Crozat Converse in 1868
Elizabeth Cotten - Hallelujah, It Is Done
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 began 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 spiritual was written by the American singing evangelist PP Bliss in 1876
The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
That’s from the special edition reissue of the Beatles 1966 album Revolver
It’s a recording of John Lennon playing through the song while the band was still writing it
John Cohen, The Dust Busters - Waltz of Roses
Cohen was a musician, musicologist, photographer, and filmmaker who was an instrumental member of the 1960s folk music revival
He was a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers, a traditional stringband that played music taken from 78s from the 20s and 30s
Later in his life he played and recorded with The Dust Busters, now known as the Down Hill Strugglers, an old-time stringband from New York City
This is off their 2012 album Old Man Below
They got the song from the playing of Prince Albert Hunt, who arranged it himself from older songs like “Waiting for a Train” and “Cowboy Waltz”
Michele Monteleone - Canzuna del Calabrisello
This is off a 1979 album of Italian folk music collected in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, though this one was recorded during a tour stopover in Baltimore, Maryland
It’s a love song from Calabria
Joni Mitchell - Copper Kettle
This song was written by Albert Frank Beddoe around 1946 and popularised by Joan Baez
Mitchell recorded it at the Saskatoon radio station CFQC in 1963
Pharis & Jason Romero - Old September
A married duo from Horsefly, BC
From their 2015 album A Wanderer I’ll Stay
Mitchell’s Christian Singers - Out on the Ocean Sailing
They were a gospel group from North Carolina that recorded over 80 songs between 1934 and 1940
The group were all former farmers who were good friends and began singing together after work in the evening
A talent scout for the American Record Company discovered them, and put them under the management of the singer Willie Mitchell, hence their name
After their recording career, they still performed at community events in their region
This one was recorded in April of 1936
It seems to be one of the only recordings of the song, and it’s likely a traditional American gospel song
Golden Eagle Gospel Singers - Do Lord Remember Me
They were an a capella group from Alabama that formed in the 1930s
They were unique among gospel groups of the time because they were Sanctified rather than Baptist and the group consisted of both men and women, rather than just men
Recorded in Chicago in May of 1937 for Decca records
This song is an African American spiritual from the 19th century
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B Williams, Richard Williams - Do Lord, Remember Me
This is from an album of field recordings made in Florida between 1977 and 1980, called Drop On Down in Florida
Tony Schwartz - Sound Snapshots
He was a sound archivist, media theorist, advertising creator, and graphic designer from New York City who recorded copious amounts of ambient sounds, spoken word, and music for albums released by Folkways and Columbia and hosted a radio show called “Around New York” for 30 years on WNYC
From the 1970 album Tony Schwartz Records the Sounds of Children
Peter, Paul & Mary - The Times They Are A-Changin’
One of the most famous groups to come out of the 60s folk revival
This is a live version of Bob Dylan’s song, from their 2005 Very Best Of album
Morley Loon - Deb Skum
He was a Cree musician and actor from Mistissini, Quebec
This is from his debut album, Northland, My Land, from 1981
The title means “My Own”
Stanley Thompson, Clifford Ellis - Kneelin’ Down Inside the Gate
This is off a compilation album from 1995 called Kneelin’ Down Inside the Gate: The Great Rhyming Singers of the Bahamas
This is the title track, performed by Stanley Thompson and Clifford Ellis in New York City in May of 1965 at a Friends of Old Time Music concert, which was a series that brought many legendary traditional musicians to city audiences for the first time
This is an example of rhyming singing, a tradition that started with sponge fishermen, known as “spongers”, who sang to pass the long days and nights aboard their boats
The leader, or “rhymer” would improvise fast verses, often about biblical stories or local legends, against a background of bass or tenor singers
This was one of the more popular rhyming songs
Ethel Minifie - The Poor Little Girls from Ontario
From an album of folk songs of Ontario, collected and compiled by Edith Fowke in 1958
Minifie from Peterborough
This song began circulating in Ontario in the late 19th century when the young men of Ontario were being lured to Saskatchewan and Alberta (then part of the Northwest Territories) by the offer of free homesteads
Minifie learned this around 1908 in her home in Frankford in eastern Ontario, though Fowke collected versions from all over Ontario, some learned around 1890 by their singers
Sam Amidon - Reuben
Contemporary folk artist from Vermont
Off his 2021 self-titled album
This song is interesting because he calls it “Reuben” and uses the melody of the railroad song “Reuben,” but the lyrics are entirely from “Georgia Buck,” an old-time southern banjo breakdown
Kokomo Arnold - Milk Cow Blues
American blues musician known for his intense style of slide guitar
Began playing in the 1920s and left the music industry in 1938 to work in a factory
When located by researchers in the early 1960s he had no interest in returning to perform for white audiences who were showing interest in the music of Arnold and his contemporaries
This song written and recorded by Arnold in 1934
It made him a star, and has since been adapted by many artists across different genres
We’ll hear two possibly related songs after this
Robert Johnson - Milkcow’s Calf Blues
Johnson was a Delta blues musician from Mississippi who mainly performed as a traveling musician and participated in two recording sessions in the late 1930s
He was not widely known during his lifetime, but he has come to be recognized as one of the most important musicians of the 20th century
He recorded this one during his 1937 recording session for Vocalion Records in Dallas, Texas
Bob Dylan - Milk Cow’s Calf’s Blues
Recorded in April of 1962 during the recording sessions for Dylan’s 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Uncle Sinner - Red Rocking Chair
From Winnipeg
Off his 2008 album Ballads and Mental Breakdowns
Traditional American old-time song known variably as “Sugar Baby,” “Honey Babe Blues,” and “Red Apple Juice,” amongst other names
Michael Stipe - My Gang
This is off the 1997 album Kerouac—Kicks Joy Darkness, a spoken word Jack Kerouac tribute album featuring people like Hunter S Thompson, Joe Strummer, and Patti Smith
Old Man Luedecke - My Love Come Stepping Up the Stairs
From Chester, NS
From his 2010 album My Hands Are on Fire and Other Love Songs
David Rovics - Song the Songbird Sings
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
This is off his 2004 album Songs for Mahmud
He wrote it after reading about the death of 10-year-old Palestinian Mahmud Al-Qayyed, one of many children killed for catching songbirds too close to the fence separating Gaza from Israel
Tom Paxton - The Last Thing On My Mind
American folksinger and songwriter who first emerged as a member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s
He’s now semi-retired, though he occasionally performs with friends in both the US and the UK
Paxton wrote the song in the early 1960s based on the traditional song “The Leaving of Liverpool”
He included it on his 1964 album Ramblin’ Boy
The Lonesome Ace Stringband - Fox Hunt
Based in Toronto, ON
They got this one from a field recording made by Charles Seeger of the singer Israel Alston in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1939
It’s from their 2014 album Old Time
