Barking Dog: October 8, 2026
Wu Man - Autumn Flowers and Leaves
Wu Man is a Chinese musician who plays the pipa, a stringed instrument sometimes called the Chinese lute
She’s a member of the Kronos Quartet and has premiered works by composers including Philip Glass and Terry Riley
This is off the 2023 album Nowruz, a collection of recordings by the Aga Khan Master Musicians, a group of musicians who play new music inspired by old traditions
The song is by Wu Man
Gerry Axelrod - Marching Through the Autumn Leaves
He was a naturalist who worked at the West Rock Nature Center in New Haven, Connecticut, and used his music to discuss the importance of saving the environment
This is off his 1980 children’s album Turtles and Snakes and Snowstorm
Bob Dylan - Autumn Leaves
From his 2015 album Shadows in the Night, a collection of songs made famous by Frank Sinatra
The song is an adaptation of a French song by Jacques Prévert and Joseph Kosma
Johnny Mercer wrote the English lyrics
Shannon Lay - I Lost Something in the Hills
She’s a folk and punk musician from California who began playing music when she was 15
This is from her 2023 album Covers Vol. 1
It’s a cover of the song by Sibylle Baier, who released the song on her 2006 album Colour Green, which she recorded in the 1970s
Mama’s Broke - Wildflowers
They’re a duo from Nova Scotia who have been playing together for a decade
This is from their new album Reunion, which came out on August 28
Frankie Armstrong - Idumea
She’s an English singer and music teacher who began performing in 1957
This is from her 2008 album The Garden of Love
“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
Vera Johnson - The Gentle Rain of England
She was a musician and author from Vancouver who began playing music in 1949, when she was in her late 20s
This is from her 1974 album Bald Eagle
Emmylou Harris, Rufus Wainwright, Dick Gaughan, Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Wild Mountain Thyme
This is from the first series of the Transatlantic Sessions, a series of collaborative live performances by folk and roots artists from both sides of the North Atlantic that began in 1995
This is a folk song from Ireland and Scotland, and Irish musician Frances McPeake adapted it in the 1950s into the version we know today from the 1822 song “The Braes of Balquhither”
John Roberts, Tony Barrand - The False Lady
They began playing together as students at Cornell University in 1969, and performed as a duo until Barrand’s death in 2022
This one’s from their 1977 album Dark Ships in the Forest, a collection of supernatural ballads recorded for Folk Legacy Records
It’s a New England version of the tragic ballad “Young Hunting,” which was widespread throughout Britain and North America
Dan Wriggins - Going Away
John Snipes - Going Where I’ve Never Been Before
He was a farmer and banjo player from Chatham County, NC
He was known in the region for being a marathon dance musician, and would often play a single tune at lightning speed for as long as an hour
This tune uses what are often called “wandering” or “floating lyrics”, which are used in a number of different traditional songs and are often swapped out depending on the song’s desired meaning
Leon Rosselson - I’m Going Where the Suits Will Shine My Shoes
Rosselson is a musician and children’s book writer from England who first became widely known in the 1960s
From Rosselson’s final album Where Are the Barricades?, from 2016
Ward Churchill
He was an activist, author, and academic from Illinois whose work largely focused on the historical treatment of Native Americans and political dissenters by the United States government
This is from a lecture he gave in Washington, DC in January of 2001
Eugene Powell - Dark Road Blues
More commonly known as Sonny Boy Nelson, he was a Delta blues musician from Mississippi who played guitar, banjo, mandolin, violin, horn, and harmonica
Gianni Marcucci made this recording for the Blues at Home record series in 1976
Michael Hurley - Blue Mountain
Hurley was a musician who got his start as a member of the 1960s Greenwich Village scene, and continued performing around the world until his death in 2025
He got mononucleosis before he was able to record his first record and had to wait a few years before it was safe, but when it was, he recorded first album on the same reel-to-reel that recorded Leadbelly’s Last Sessions
This is from that album, aptly titled First Songs, from 1961, which is receiving a reissue soon after the album was remastered from the original tapes
Daniel Koulack, Karrnnel Sawitsky, Joey Landreth, Amy Matysio - Red Rocking Chair
Four artists from Manitoba
This song is known by a bunch of other names, including “Honey Babe Blues”, “Sugar Babe”, and “Red Apple Juice”
It varies greatly both in lyrics and melody, but it is recognized as one song or one song family
Ken Whiteley - I Like Picking Apples
Ken Whiteley is a musician from Toronto who’s been playing folk music since the early 1970s
This off his 2022 album All of the Seasons
Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson - Pumpkin Pie
They’re both founding members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an old-time string band from North Carolina that performed between 2005 and 2014
This is a traditional tune off their 2025 album What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow: Fiddle and Banjo Music of North Carolina
It’s a tune from the Piedmont region of the United States
Sarah Wood - Glory in the Meetinghouse
She’s an old-time banjo player and traditional ballad singer from Kentucky
This is from her 2014 album One May Morning
Old-time breakdown from the Kentucky River basin that was a popular tune to play at fiddle contests in the region
Sam Amidon - Maggie
Amidon is a contemporary folk artist from Vermont, now based in England
This is off his 2020 self-titled album
The song is related to “Country Blues” and “Darlin’ Corey,” and it was collected in the Appalachian region in the 1800s
Anna & Elizabeth - Don’t Want to Die in the Storm
Contemporary folk duo from Vermont and Virginia, respectively
This is from their 2015 self-titled album
It’s a traditional American spiritual
Ella Hanshaw - I’ll Cry Tomorrow
She was a country and gospel singer from West Virginia who wrote her own songs rather than performing traditional hymns
Her music was never professionally recorded, but her granddaughter recently collaborated with Spinster Records to release her home recordings and church performances on an album called Ella Hanshaw’s Black Book, which came out last year
That’s where that one comes from
Pharis & Jason Romero - Rolling Mills
From Horsefly, BC
Off their 2022 album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which was recorded live over six days in a 60-year-old barn beside the Little Horsefly River
It’s a banjo-centric album, created to highlight the sound of the banjos that Jason makes
He plays a gourd banjo they call Gourdo on this one, which he built in 2019
Seems to be by George Landers, a banjo player from Marshall, NC
Peggy Honeywell - Eons Later
Uses this name for folk music, she is also a visual artist working under her real name, Clare Rojas
This is from her 2005 album Faint Humms
The McMillan’s Camp Boys - Runty in the Tallgrass
They’re a band originally from British Columbia, now based in Nova Scotia
This is from their new album of the same name, which came out on September 4th
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Altamont
Contemporary stringband based in Toronto
This one is from their latest album, Afield 2, which came out on June 21st
Her Only Light - Talkin’ Like You (Two Tall Mountains)
Kate Wolf - The Lover’s Return
