Barking Dog: November 2, 2023
David Rovics - Song for the Mavi Marmara
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
This is from his 2011 album Big Red Sessions, which he recorded at Big Red Studio in Portland, Oregon
This song is about the history of refugees in Gaza, and the attempted efforts of international activists to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza in 2010, which ended in a massacre by the Israeli military
Bob Dylan - Masters of War
Dylan wrote the song in the winter of 1962 and released it on his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in the spring of 1963
This version was recorded live at Town Hall in New York City in April of 1963
Jean Ritchie - Nottamun Town
Learned traditional folksongs in the oral tradition from friends and family during her youth in Kentucky, and in adulthood moved to New York to work as a social worker, where she met folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Alan Lomax
In 1952, she received a Fulbright scholarship to study the connections between American and British ballads, and travelled to the UK where she recorded many well-known traditional singers
She continued to perform for the rest of her life, and passed away at her home in Kentucky in 2015, at the age of 92
This is an American folk song, and nearly all modern versions of it come from this recording
The melody for “Masters of War,” which we heard before, is based on “Nottamun Town”
“Nottamun Town” had been in Ritchie’s family for generations, and she wanted a writing credit on Dylan’s song
Dylan’s lawyers paid Ritchie a legal settlement of $5,000, though it appears Dylan mainly got the melody from a version recorded by folksinger Jack Landrón
The Weather Station - Came So Easy
Band from Toronto
This is from their 2011 album All of It Was Mine
Phil Ochs - When I’m Gone
He was an American protest singer who grew up all over the United States, but moved to New York City in 1962 to establish himself as a folksinger in the Greenwich Village folk scene
This is from the 1966 live album Phil Ochs in Concert
AA Bondy - Black Rain, Black Rain
Musician from Birmingham, Alabama who’s been playing since 1990
From his 2007 album American Hearts
Alistair Hulett, Dave Swarbrick - The Siege of Union Street
Hulett was a folksinger from Glasgow, Scotland, known as a member of the folk punk band Roaring Jack
Swarbrick was a folk musician from England who’s known as a member of Fairport Convention, and emerged as an important member of the 1960s British folk revival
This is off Hulett and Swarbrick’s 1997 album The Cold Grey Light of Dawn
Hulett wrote the song about a battle that took place in Melbourne, Australia between Unemployed Workers Union members and the police during the Great Depression after landlords tried to evict destitute families for not paying their rent
Wu Fei, Abigail Washburn - Four Seasons Medley: Four Seasons / Dark Ocean Waltz
Washburn a contemporary banjo player from Illinois
Wu Fei a composer and musician from Beijing who now lives in the US
They met in 2006 and started playing together in the trio The Wu Force in 2011
They released their first album together in 2021, which combines American and Chinese folk music
The liner notes for the album state that there are a dozen folksongs in China called “Four Seasons,” with each using the four seasons as metaphors for love and friendship
This specific version of the song originated in a 1956 stage show called “Hua’er and Youth,” and was adapted from the original folksong
Periwinkle - Ode to an Indian Swan
This is from a 1981 album called The Promised Land: American Indian Songs of Lament and Protest
The song has an alternate title: “The Ballad of Yvonne Swan Wanrow”
Wanrow is a Sinixt activist who, in 1972, shot and killed a man who had attacked other children and attempted to assault her son
She was found guilty by an all-white jury and sentenced to 20 years, though the conviction was later reversed and the charges changed to manslaughter, for which she received five years of probation
After these events, she returned to her reservation and began working to improve the community and protect the environment
She is still actively supporting land rights for the Sinixt people, especially in Canada, where the government declared the Sinixt legally extinct in 1956 (this declaration was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2021)
Blind Joe Taggart - Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down
Taggart was a country blues and gospel musician from South Carolina who recorded between 1926 and 1948
Traditional spiritual song
This is the first recording of the song, from 1931
Spartanburg Famous Four - Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
They were a gospel vocal quartet from Spartanburg, South Carolina that recorded for Decca Records in 1938
Frank Proffitt - Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
Appalachian banjo player from North Carolina, known for preserving the traditional ballad “Tom Dooley”
Worked in a spark plug factory, as a carpenter, and as a tobacco farmer
His carpentry skills extended to making instruments—he was a talented luthier, and the banjos he played were homemade
This is off musician, musicologist, photographer, and filmmaker John Cohen’s 1975 compilation album High Atmosphere, which is composed of recordings he made in 1965 of Appalachian folk music in North Carolina and Virginia
Proffitt learned the song from an African American man who played blues and spirituals
This recording was the last Proffitt ever made, as he died a few days after Cohen’s visit
Woody Guthrie - The Ludlow Massacre
Guthrie an important figure in folk history who’s known for his songs about the Okie migrants who travelled west during the Great Depression in search of work
He wrote this song in 1944
It’s about a labour conflict that took place in Ludlow, Colorado, in 1914, resulting in the mass killing of striking coal miners, their wives, and their children by an anti-strike militia at a tent colony
Ola Belle Reed - I’ve Always Been a Rambler
She was an American musician from Ashe County, North Carolina
She was born to a musical family, and her uncle Dockery Campbell taught her to play the banjo as a child, while her mother and grandmother taught her songs and ballads
Reed formed the band The New River Boys and Girls with her brother Alex, and they went on to open the New River Ranch music park in Maryland, which hosted a number of well-known artists
This is from her 1973 self-titled album
The song travelled extensively in the 19th century, and it’s unclear whether it originated in Britain or the United States, as it was popular on both sides of the Atlantic
Bruce Cockburn - Soul of a Man
Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Ottawa who’s been playing professionally for over 40 years
This is a Blind Willie Johnson song, first recorded in 1930
This version is from Cockburn’s 2009 live album Slice O’ Life
Rory and Alex McEwen - Bonnie George Campbell
They were Scottish aristocrats turned folk singers
The brothers were some of the first Scottish folk singers to visit the US, and they recorded several albums for Folkways Records there
This is from their first album for Folkways, Great Scottish Ballads, from 1956
This is a ballad also known as “Bonnie James Campbell,” and it’s likely from the late 16th century, when many Campbells were being killed either in battle or by feud
The McEwens learned it from an old Scots Highland aunt
Tom Paxton - The Willing Conscript
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
He wrote this in 1963 after reflecting on his army basic training exercises
Robert Dennis - Early One Foggy Morning
This is from an album of field recordings made in Florida between 1977 and 1980, called Drop On Down in Florida
This one was recorded on March 16, 1980
Lonesome Ace Stringband - You’ll Be There
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
Philippe McKenzie - Mistashipu
He’s an Innu musician from the Mani-utenam reserve in Quebec who’s been playing since the 1960s
He and musician Florent Volant of the group Kashtin founded the Innu Nikamu festival in 1984, which presents traditional Innu music and art, and is recognized as one of the origins of contemporary Innu music
This song was released on the Grammy-nominated 2016 compilation album Native North America (Vol. 1)
Janis Ian - Shady Acres
She’s a musician from New Jersey who first began performing in the mid-1960s during the American folk revival
She wrote her first song at the age of 12, which was published in Broadside Magazine, an important publication for the Greenwich Village folk scene
The song we just heard was also published in Broadside, and appears on a 1967 album of songs from Broadside
Ian wrote and recorded that song when she was 16 years old
The Men of No Property - The Multi-Storey
This is from the 1977 Folkways album England’s Vietnam—Irish Songs of Resistance: Sung by the Men of No Property
The Men of No Property were Belfast-born musicians Barney McIlvogue, Brian Whoriskey, and Irene Clarke, all college students who took part in protests and marches in Northern Ireland in 1969 during the Northern Ireland civil rights campaign
Old Man Luedecke - Notes from the Banjo Underground
From Chester, NS
From his 2006 album Hinterland
Uncle Sinner - Old Country Stomp
From Winnipeg
This is an unreleased track recorded between 2007 and 2011
Walter Britten - Auctioneer
This is a field recording made by Mack McCormick, off a compilation album of McCormick’s recordings called Playing for the Man at the Door, released by Smithsonian Folkways Records in August
Britten was a famous Texan auctioneer who began his career in 1935 at the age of 16, performing at the Amarillo Livestock Show
He even had an academy named after him, the Britten Auction Academy, which trained some of the finest auctioneers in Texas
McCormick made this recording of him in 1966
Steve Goodman - The Auctioneer
Goodman was a folk musician from Chicago
He studied at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where he met his friend John Prine, and they frequently performed together until Goodman’s death in 1984
In 2007, the governor of Illinois named October 5 Steve Goodman Day in the state, and a bill was introduced and signed by President Obama in 2010 to rename a post office after him
This song was written in 1956 by Leroy Van Dyke and Buddy Black
Goodman’s live recording was included on the reissue of his 1972 album Somebody Else’s Troubles
Bryan Bowers - Satisfied Mind
He’s an American musician often credited with introducing the autoharp to younger generations of musicians
The song was written by Jack Rhodes and Red Hayes in 1947
From the 1985 live compilation album Tribute to Steve Goodman
Cora Fluker - Out in the Woods
She was a musician from Alabama who learned to play guitar from her uncle when she was a child
From the 9th album in a series called Living Country Blues USA, which comprise field recordings made of American blues artists in 1980 by two German blues enthusiasts named Axel Kustner and Siegfried Christmann
Sammy Walker - Funny Farm Blues
He’s a musician from Georgia who first began recording in the mid 1970s
This is off his first album, Song for Patty, from 1975
It’s his own song
Eugene Rhodes - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
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 called Talkin’ About My Time, which is where this song comes from
Written by Blind Lemon Jefferson and first recorded in 1927
Stan Rogers - The Maid on the Shore
Born and raised in Ontario, but known for his maritime-influenced music that was informed by his time spent visiting family in Nova Scotia during summers
From his 1977 album Fogarty’s Cove
