Barking Dog: November 30, 2023
Brownie McGhee - Long Gone
Brownie McGhee was born 108 years ago today
He was a folk and blues musician from Tennessee who regularly performed as a duo with harmonica player Sonny Terry
This is from his 1951 album Traditional Blues, released by Folkways Records
It’s an old-time song from the southern US
Several tunes that refer to “Lost John” tell the story of the folk figure John the Trickster Slave, who outwitted possible captors by wearing shoes with backwards soles
McGhee learned it from the oral tradition, rather than through published versions of the song
Lilly’s Chapel School - Green Green Rocky Road
From an album of play songs from Alabama
This was recorded in York, Alabama in early 1950
Dave Van Ronk - Green Rocky Road
A member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, MacDougal Street being where practically every coffeehouse in New York was located in the 1960s
Folk musician Len Chandler adapted the song into the more straightforward folksong version that Van Ronk recorded
Marcel Khalife - Jaffra
He’s a Palestinian-Lebanese singer and oud player who’s been playing since the 1970s
From his 1983 album Promises of the Storm
The lyrics of the song are a poem by Izzidine Al Munassrah that Khalife put to music
Jaffra is a young girl of Palestinian legend, who the liner notes for the album say “represents all for which the Palestinian people are fighting—for hope, victory of humanity over evil, and the transformation of Palestinian society”
Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel
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 one of her better-known recordings, from her 1971 album In My Own Time
It’s a traditional American folk song, though it likely originated in Scotland
The American version likely dates to the Revolutionary War
Old Man Luedecke - Lulu My Darling
From Chester, NS
From his 2008 album Proof of Love
Daniel John - Song Of The Snow Geese Flying Over The Mouth Of The Yukon
This is from a 1974 album of music of the Gwich’in people of northwestern North America
The song was recorded in Fort Yukon, Alaska
The lyrics translate to: “The snow geese and the ducks are coming in at the mouth of the Yukon. You can see the orange colour of the sky at dawn”
Kaia Kater - Hangman’s Reel
Based in Toronto
From her 2016 album Nine Pin
A traditional Irish tune
Raffi - Abiyoyo
He’s an Armenian-Canadian children’s musician who’s been active since the 1970s and is known for songs like “Baby Beluga” and “Bananaphone”
This one is from his 2016 album Owl Singalong
Pete Seeger adapted the story from a South African folktale
Hayes McMullan - Fast Old Train
American Delta blues artist from Mississippi who was also a sharecropper, deacon, and civil rights activist
Seems this is his own song
Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Fisherman Song
A demo from his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat
Christine Fellows - Un Canadien errant
She’s a well-known Manitoban musician who’s been performing since 1993, both with groups like Helen, the Mountain Goats, and Old Man Luedecke, and on her own
This is from her 2011 album Femmes de chez nous
Song written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–38
Jim Wilkie - Bad Lee Brown
A field recording made for 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
McCormick didn’t provide much information about Wilkie, except that he was a Texan who stopped in Houston in 1958 and recorded a few songs for him
He later moved to a ranch and became a writer
This is Wilkie’s version of “Bad Lee Brown,” also known as “Little Sadie,” which is a 20th century American folk ballad, the earliest known version of which is from 1922
Louise Foreacre - Little Sadie
Off the 1957 Folkways album The Stoneman Family—Sutphin, Foreacre, and Dickens: Old-Time Tunes of the South
The Stoneman family was originally from Virginia but moved to Washington, DC during the Great Depression, where they continued to play the old-time music they brought from the south
John Renbourn - Little Sadie
Renbourn was an English musician known for founding the folk group Pentangle with Bert Jansch
From his 1971 album Faro Annie
Verdell Primeaux - Lost and Lonely
He’s an Indigenous musician based in Arizona, and he’s known as half of the duo Primeaux and Mike, along with Johnny Mike
This song, “Lost and Lonely,” is from his 2009 album of the same name
Joan O’Bryant - The Lily of the West
Kansas folksinger and folklorist who taught folklore and English at the University of Wichita
The album this song is from was recorded in 1958, when O’Bryant was only 26 years old
This is a traditional Irish folk song that is now considered a traditional American folk song
The melody is related to the song “Buffalo Skinners,” also known as “The Hills of Mexico”
Fred Eaglesmith - Things Is Changin’
He’s an Ontario musician who hopped a freight train going west as a teenager and began writing and performing his music
Off his 1993 album, also called Things Is Changin’
Pharis & Jason Romero - Only Gold
Married duo from Horsefly, BC
This is from their 2011 album A Passing Glimpse
Sarah Harmer, Jason Euringer - Oh Bury Me Not
They’re both from Ontario
This is a cowboy folk song also known as “The Cowboy’s Lament” and “The Dying Cowboy”
It’s an adaptation of a sea song called "The Sailor's Grave” which was written by Edwin Hubbell Chapin, published in 1839, and put to music by George N Allen
It became popular on ships and in lumber camps
Harmer and Euringer released their version in 1999
Furry Lewis - Furry Lewis’ Careless Love
American country blues artist from Memphis, Tennessee who began his recording career in 1927
This was recorded by the music historian George Mitchell in Memphis, Tennessee in 1967
Tony Saletan, Irene Kossoy - All Around My Hat
Irene Kossoy is one of the Kossoy Sisters who we’ve played before on the show
Tony Saletan is her former husband, a folk singer and educator who is credited with the modern rediscovery of the songs “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” and “Kumbaya”
It’s an English song from the early 19th century
Neil O’Brien - All ‘Round My Hat
A Nova Scotia singer recorded by Helen Creighton for her album Maritime Folk Songs from the Collection of Helen Creighton
Creighton recorded 4 other versions of the song throughout Nova Scotia during her travels, and noted that “It took over fifteen years to find enough singers to put their bits and pieces together and make a complete song”
Tinariwen - Izarharh Ténéré
They’re a Grammy-award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from Mali who formed in 1979 and are considered one of the pioneering forces behind desert blues
This is from their 2007 album Aman Iman (Water Is Life)
The title translates to “I lived in the desert,” and the liner notes describe it as “A hymn to the beauty and mystery of the desert”
Scott Dunbar - Easy Rider
This is from his 1972 album From Lake Mary
Dunbar was a Mississippi musician whose first guitar was one he made when he was eight years old from a cigar box, a broomstick, and some wire, which he played like a violin
Bob Dylan - Hero Blues
An outtake from the recording sessions for Dylan’s 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Uncle Sinner - Special Rider
From Winnipeg
This is from his 2014 album A Pocketful of Glass Eyes
The song is by Mississippi blues musician Skip James, who recorded it in 1931
Uncle Sinner recorded it in 2007
Pete Seeger, Brother Kirk, Big Bird, The Sesame Street Kids - This Land Is Your Land
This is from the 1974 album Pete Seeger and Brother Kirk Visit Sesame Street
Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 after he heard the patriotic song “God Bless America” during his travels throughout America and felt that it didn’t speak to the things he had seen and the people he met as he travelled
For better or worse, the song has since become almost a second national anthem for the States
Unfortunately, the song in its simplified version sometimes seems to go against Guthrie’s original intentions
This version includes all the lyrics, including commentary about Great Depression bread lines and a verse against private property
Nimrod Workman - Talk on Dock Boggs / Wild Bill Jones
American singer, coal miner, and union organiser who spent much of his life in West Virginia
He was a coal miner for 42 years until he had to retire after contracting black lung
After his retirement, he advocated for miners with black lung and also became known as a folk singer
He performed all around the Appalachian region and at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
He also received a National Heritage Fellowship from the United States National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honour in folk art in the US
Died in November, 1994 at the age of 99
That recording was made in 1982, and released in 2008 on the album I Want To Go Where Things Are Beautiful
The origins of the song are unclear, though it was first recorded in 1924 by Eva Davis, and is a favourite among banjo players
Dock Boggs - Wild Bill Jones
Influential old-time musician from Norton, Virginia who recorded in 1927 and 1929 but worked as a coal miner much of his life
This one’s from the 1964 album Dock Boggs: Legendary Singer and Banjo Player
Boggs learned the song from his brother before he even started playing the banjo
He recorded it in December of 1963
Michael Hurley - Captain Kidd
He’s an American musician, cartoonist and painter
Got mononucleosis before he was able to record his first record, had to wait a few years, but when he had recovered enough, he recorded his first album on the same reel-to-reel that recorded Leadbelly’s Last Sessions
This is from that album from 1961
The album is aptly called First Songs
John Showman, Chris Coole - Elzic’s Farewell
Sheesham and Lotus - Ida Red
