Barking Dog: October 23, 2025
Dan Tate - Cluck Old Hen
He was a banjo player from Fancy Gap, Virginia
This is a traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo tune, recorded by Ray Alden in 1974
Richard Williams - Baby, Please Don’t Go
This is from an album of field recordings of African American music from Florida made between 1977 and 1980
This is a traditional blues song made popular through Big Joe Williams’s 1935 version
The song comes from an older web of African American songs that includes “Alabama Bound” and “Don’t You Leave Me Here”
Bridget St John - Like Never Before
She’s an English musician who’s been playing professionally for over 50 years
This is from her 1969 debut album Ask Me No Questions
Nancy Kerr, James Fagan - Still Is the Memory
They’re a married duo
Kerr is an English folk musician who has collaborated with a number of artists including Eliza Carthy; her mother, the singer-songwriter Sandra Kerr; and the Tim van Eyken band
Fagan is an Australian bouzouki player and singer now based in England
They began playing together in 1995, and were married in 2007
This is from the 2005 compilation album And They All Sang RosselSongs, a tribute to English singer and songwriter Leon Rosselson
Rosselson’s version was released in 1986
Eli Conley - All That Ends
He’s a folk musician from Virginia who states that his songs, “tell stories that aren’t often reflected in roots music,” and that he writes music for “queer and trans folks, justice seekers, and anyone who doesn’t easily fit in a box.”
This one is off his 2017 album Strong and Tender
Pete Seeger - Mack the Bomb
Seeger was a folk singer and activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
It’s a parody of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife,” written by Nancy Schimmel, a storyteller and singer and the daughter of songwriter and singer Malvina Reynolds
This one is from a 1963 recording session during which Seeger recorded songs from the pages of Broadside Magazine for Folkways Records
Gillian Welch - Tear My Stillhouse Down
Welch is one of the best-known contemporary American roots musicians, though she’s known particularly for her musical partnership with Dave Rawlings
This is off the 2016 album Boots No. 1, a collection of demos, outtakes, and alternate versions of songs from her 1996 album Revival
The McMillan’s Camp Boys, Ryan McNally - Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour
They’re a band originally from British Columbia, now based in Nova Scotia
This is from their EP The McMillan’s Camp Boys Sing Their Gospel Favourites: Live at Steeple Green, which they recorded in February in Musquodoboit Harbour in Nova Scotia
McNally is Yukon-based multi-instrumentalist who gravitates towards traditional blues, jazz, and old-time music
The music was written by William H Doane in 1870 to accompany a poem by Fanny Crosby
Boubacar Traoré - Narena
He’s a Malian musician who became very popular in his country as a symbol of their recent independence in the early 1960s
His popularity declined through the 1970s, but interest in his music was revived in 1987 after a TV appearance
A British record producer discovered a recording of one of his performances during that time, and he signed a record deal, releasing his first album in 1990
Since then, he’s released 10 more albums, had a film made about him, and has toured internationally
This is from his 1992 album Kar Kar
John Lee Zeigler - Going Away
He was a guitarist from Kathleen, Georgia, who played guitar upside down to accommodate his left-handedness
This one was recorded in 1995 by Tim Duffy
JW Warren - Rabbit on a Log
He was an Alabama musician who played at local juke joints and barbeques in his youth, and even dated Big Mama Thornton when they were young
The folklorist Tim Duffy met him later in life when he had given up playing, and convinced him to record his music
The Music Maker Relief Foundation, which Duffy founded, provided him with grants for medication, gave him a guitar, and recorded him for several albums
This is off an album of his music that was recorded in the early 1980s by George Mitchell
The recording combines “Rabbit on a Log,” a traditional song with other versions sometimes called “Feast Here Tonight,” and lyrics from “Georgia Buck”
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Georgia Buck
He’s a North Carolina artist who was raised in an artistic family and apprenticed with the blues musician Precious Bryant from a young age
This is an old-time Southern banjo breakdown off his 2015 self-titled debut album
He learned the song from Bryant
Lotus Wight - Big Business, Big Religion and Their Dance Partner: War
He’s from the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario, and he’s known as part of the group Sheesham, Lotus and Son
This is from his album Original Works for Voice and Banjo, which came out in May
John C Reilly - Live Slow, Die Old
You may know John C Reilly better as an actor and comedian, but he’s also a skilled musician with an interest in traditional music
This is from the 2024 album Tonight I’ll Go Down Swingin’: A Tribute to Don Heffington
Heffington was a drummer and songwriter who was a member of the bands Lone Justice and Watkins Family Hour, though he was also a solo artist and a session and touring musician for artists including Bob Dylan, Adam Sandler, and the Vic Chesnutt, among many others
Heffington passed away in 2021, and the album was organized by his friends and collaborators to raise money for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund
Heffington released the song on his 2016 album Contemporary Abstractions in Folk Song and Dance
Eric Bibb, Mamadou Diabaté - Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes
Bibb is an American musician who grew up around well-known musicians like Pete Seeger, Paul Robeson, and Bob Dylan, because his father was part of the 1960s New York folk scene
Diabaté is a Grammy-winning Malian kora player now based in the United States
This is from Bibb’s 2004 album Friends, which also features musicians like Taj Mahal and Odetta
David Crosby - Somebody Other Than You
He was an American musician best known as a member of the groups the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, though he also recorded as a solo artist throughout his career
This is from his 2016 album Lighthouse
Druhá Tráva - Rada snu (Series of Dreams)
They’re a Czech bluegrass group that formed in 1991
Czech bluegrass bands began cropping up in the mid-1960s after Pete Seeger toured the region in 1964 and spread traditional American music
This is a live recording made in the town of Telč in 2012
The song is by Bob Dylan, who recorded it during the sessions for his 1989 album Oh Mercy
Terre Roche, Maggie Roche - Down the Dream
They were sisters from New Jersey who dropped out of high school in the late 1960s to tour as a duo, and later formed a trio called The Roches with their sister Suzzy (rhymes with “fuzzy”)
After Maggie died in 2017, two fans sent Terre tapes of live recordings that the duo had made in both 1975 and 2000, which Terre and her friend Michael Tannen compiled into the album Kin Ya See That Sun, released in 2022, which is where this one comes from
The song is originally from their debut album Seductive Reasoning, from 1975
Jim Page - Take a Shot of the Usual
He’s a folksinger and activist based in Seattle, and this is off his debut album, A Shot of the Usual, from 1975, which he recorded in one take
Nuuskamuikkunen - En minä joku toinen (It Ain’t Me Babe)
From a 1976 album of Finnish translations of Bob Dylan’s songs recorded by the musician Timo Ulkuniemi
That’s his version of “It Ain’t Me Babe,” a song by Bob Dylan from his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan
John Prine - Rocky Mountain Time
Prine was one of the most influential songwriters of his generation
He died in April of 2020 from COVID, but he’s remembered for his social commentary and his unique style of singing
This is a live recording made at The Other End, also known as The Bitter End, in New York City in December of 1975
The Persuasions - Mr Tambourine Man
They were an a cappella group from New York City that formed in 1962 and remained active until 2020
This is from their 2010 album of Bob Dylan covers called Knockin’ on Bob’s Door
Dylan included the song on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home
The Humblebums - Travel Away
They were a Scottish folk rock band formed by Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey in 1965
Gerry Rafferty later joined the band
This is from their 1969 album First Collection of Merry Melodies
Jessie Lee Vortis - When My Baby Got on Board
He was a country blues musician from Mississippi
Recorded in Coldwater, Mississippi by music historian George Mitchell in 1967
Babe Stovall, OD Jones, Dink Brister - Big Road Blues
Stovall was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist from Mississippi who performed on the streets of New Orleans and made his first recordings in the late 1950s
This recording was made by David Evans
The song is by Tommy Johnson, who first recorded it in 1928
Uncle Sinner - Payday
From Winnipeg
Version of Mississippi John Hurt’s song, which takes a bunch of lyrics from the songs “Red Rocking Chair” and “Rabbit on a Log”
Uncle Sinner recorded it in 1999 and released it on his 2014 album A Pocketful of Glass Eyes
Great Lake Swimmers - Where In the World Are You
They’re an Ontario band that have been performing since the early 2000s
This is from the 2006 compilation album Sound the Hare Heard, which also features artists including Sufjan Stevens and Laura Veirs
Bull City Red - I See the Sign of Judgement
American Piedmont blues artist, closely associated with Blind Boy Fuller and Reverend Gary Davis
Recorded this under the name Brother George and His Sanctified Singers in July of 1939
The Western Thistles - When the Cherry Tree Blossoms
They’re a duo from Edmonton that have been playing together for two years
This is from their self-titled debut album, which they released in April
Neil Young - Bad News Comes to Town
