Barking Dog: October 26, 2023
Amy Nelson - Been All Around This World
She’s a musician from Calgary, Alberta
This is off her 2019 album Educated Woman
Little is known about this song, aside from the fact that it’s an American song first collected in 1917
It’s known by many names, including “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” and “Hobo’s Blues”
Jackson C Frank - October
He was a musician from New York who’s known for writing the song “Blues Run the Game”
He only recorded one album during his career, and had a difficult life, during which he struggled with depression and found it hard to maintain his career
Although he influenced many well-known musicians including Paul Simon and Nick Drake, he was never commercially successful, though interest in his music was revived later in his life and many of his recordings have been re-released in recent years
This one was recorded around 1965 and first released in 2002
Lesley Frost - October
This is from a 1961 album of readings of Robert Frost’s work, performed by his daughter Lesley, who also shares stories of her childhood and her father throughout the recording
This poem was first published in 1913 in Frost’s first published book of poems, A Boy’s Will
Gordon Dick - Siwash Rock
He was a musician from the Lil’wat Nation near Pemberton, BC
Recorded in 1973 in Vancouver, BC
Released on the Grammy-nominated 2016 compilation album Native North America (Vol. 1)
Bob Dylan - North Country Blues
His own song, from his 1964 album The Times They Are a-Changin’
The version we heard was recorded live at Carnegie Hall 60 years ago today
Myriam Gendron - Go Away From My Window
She’s a musician from Montreal
This is off her 2021 album Ma Délire - Songs of Love, Lost & Found
The song is by American musician, composer, folklorist, and collector of traditional ballads John Jacob Niles
He wrote it in 1907, and it was actually the first song he wrote, though he only first performed it over 20 years later, in 1930
He based it on a line in a song that he heard an African American farm worker named Objerall Jacket sing
Narratives by Palestinians
We’ll hear three recordings now off the 1974 album Palestine Lives! Songs from the Struggle of the People of Palestine
Here are three narratives by members of the Palestinian Liberation Movement following the Six-Day War of 1967, during which around 300,000 of about 1 million Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the West Bank and Gaza
David Francey - Time for the Wicked to Rest
He’s a Juno award-winning singer-songwriter based in Elphin, Ontario, who immigrated to Canada from Scotland with his family when he was 12
This song is from his recent album The Breath Between, which came out on September 15th
Pete Seeger - What Did You Learn in School Today?
Pete Seeger was a very influential folk singer and activist from New York who advocated for important social causes through his music
This song was written by folksinger Tom Paxton in the early 1960s, though Seeger was the first person to record it
He recorded this version live at Carnegie Hall in June of 1963
Alistair Hulett - Yuppietown
He was a folksinger from Glasgow, Scotland, known as a member of the folk punk band Roaring Jack
This song was originally included on Roaring Jack’s 1987 album Street Credibility
This version is from his 1991 album Dance of the Underclass
Vera Monaghan (Mrs. Jack Keating) - The Weaver
A field recording made by the folklorist Edith Fowke for her 1958 album Folk Songs of Ontario
Lived near Ormsby, fifty miles from Peterborough
Learned this song from her father, which is largely known as “The Nightingale” or “One Morning in May”, though in this version the man who charms the lady is a weaver instead of a soldier
This version is likely of Irish origin
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
Walter Smith, Norman Woodlieff, Posey Rorer - It Won’t Be Long Till My Grave Is Made
Smith was a Virginia old-time musician who was relatively popular during the 1920s and 30s, though he was unusual for the time in that he only sung on his recordings, and did not accompany himself
On this recording from either 1929 or 1930 we can hear Woodlieff accompanying him with guitar and backing vocals, and Rorer with a beautiful fiddle part
This is likely a traditional tune, but this version seems to be the most popular
Hank Schwartz - Chilly Winds
He’s an American banjo player who performed at coffee houses and Folk Festivals in the 50s and 60s, but opted for a career outside of the limelight, only returning to public performance with the album this song is from, Notes Along the Way, from 2003
This song is related to “Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad,” with both categorised as versions of “Lonesome Road Blues”
All these songs come from a traditional Ozark fiddle tune
The Kingston Trio - Chilly Winds
They were a very prominent American folk group that emerged out of and helped launch the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s
This is from the 1995 compilation album The Capitol Years, a collection of music from their time recording with Capitol Records between 1957 and 1964
Eugene Rhodes - Don’t Talk Me to Death
He was a musician from Kentucky who travelled through the southern states as a one-man-band until he ended up in Indiana State Prison, where he continued to play
Folklorist Bruce Jackson went to the prison to record an album of Rhodes’ music in 1963, which is where this song comes from
Rhodes didn’t know where he learned it, and Jackson wasn’t able to find other versions
Richard Chase - The Big Toe
This is off the 1957 album American Folk Tales and Songs by Jean Ritchie, Richard Chase, and Paul Clayton
This story is told by Chase, a folklorist from Alabama
This was a very popular tale in the Appalachian mountains, and Chase first heard it near Beech Mountain, North Carolina, from an 11 year old boy who flagged his car down just to tell him the story
It’s what they call a “jump tale”—you’ll see why, and we’ll hear another one after this
Robin Christenson - Skin and Bones
From an album of songs the singer and schoolteacher recorded with a group of children in summer camp in the late 1950s
A popular ghost song that’s been collected on both sides of the Atlantic
Tina Meltzer - Bones
She was an American musician and music teacher, and this is from her 1984 album Faces: New Songs for Kids
This is her own song
JC Burris - Bones Blues
Burris was the nephew of famous harmonica player and singer Sonny Terry, and he also played the harmonica
Terry said of him: “If you didn't see him, you'd think he was me.”
This is from the 1959 album On the Road, featuring Burris, Terry, and Sticks McGhee
Burris plays the bones on this recording—literally animal bones used as percussion instruments
Tom Waits - Two Sisters
Waits a very well known American musician, composer, and actor who’s been playing professionally for 50 years
This is a traditional Northumbrian murder ballad also known as “Cruel Sister” and “The Squire’s Daughter,” among other names
The first written version appeared in a 1656 broadside, and at least 21 versions of the ballad exist in English
Waits’ version is from his 2006 album Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Tony Schwartz - Death of a Turtle
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
This is off his 1970 album Tony Schwartz Records the Sound of Children
Sam Hinton - It’s a Long Way from Amphioxus
Was an American folksinger, marine biologist, and visual artist
Off his 1961 album Sam Hinton Sings the Song of Men
The song dates back to at least the 1920s, and although the information is no longer completely accurate, it’s a fun tune
You might have recognized the tune as “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”
Fred Cockerham - Little Maggie
Cockerham was a fiddle and banjo player from North Carolina
“Little Maggie” is related to the songs “Country Blues” and “Darlin’ Corey,” and was first collected in the Appalachian region of the US in the 1800s
Elliott Smith - Little Maggie
He was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
He recorded this one live in 1995
It’s mainly influenced by Bob Dylan’s version of the song, which was included on his 1992 album Good As I Been to You
Dock Boggs - The Death of Jerry Damron
Influential old-time musician from Norton, Virginia who recorded in 1927 and 1929 but worked as a coal miner much of his life
This is from the 1965 Folkways album Dock Boggs Vol. 2, recorded by musician and folklorist Mike Seeger
Jerry Damron was a railroad brakeman who was killed on the job in the 1930s
Someone gave the lyrics to his sister, who passed them along to Boggs and asked him to put them to music and record it
Ked Killen - Worried Blues
He was a Kentucky country musician who formed the Western All Stars and played throughout Kentucky and Virginia
He didn’t make any recordings of his music until he was 55 years old, when he recorded 20 songs for Western Ranch Music in the late 1960s after reading their newspaper ad calling for singers
This is one of those recordings he made for them
It’s his own song, though based on earlier songs in the “Worried Blues” song family
Tom Bell - Worried Blues
Off an album of field recordings made by the folklorists John and Ruby Lomax in Sumter County, Alabama between 1937 and 1940
They recorded Bell in Livingston, Alabama in November of 1940
Charlie Kyle - Kyle’s Worried Blues
He was a blues musician from Texas
This is one of his first recordings, made on September 1, 1928 in Memphis, Tennessee
Lonesome Ace Stringband - First Frost / Blue Grouse
From Toronto, ON
This is from their new album Try to Make it Fly, which came out on October 13th and is their first album of all-original songs
Karrnnel Sawitsky, Daniel Koulack - Sally in the Garden
