Barking Dog: November 4, 2021
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Love Farewell
Durham, NC artist who grew up travelling across the Southeast US with his folklorist father
This is a brand new one, a single from his forthcoming album Good and Green Again, which comes out in January
Fiver - Pile Your Silver
Stage name of Toronto-based artist Simone Schmidt
This is from a 2017 album of fictional field recordings collected from the files of people who were incarcerated at the Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane in Kingston, Ontario between 1856 and 1881
The album is called Audible Songs from Rockwood
Michael Hurley - The Animal Song
Member of the 1960s Greenwich Village scene, also a 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
Woody Guthrie - Little Black Train
Dust Bowl balladeer and important figure in folk music history who’s known particularly for his songs about the Okie migrants who travelled west during the Great Depression in search of work, though he composed and recorded songs on an enormous number of topics
Based on an African American gospel hymn likely from the 1800s
The Carter Family recorded a version in 1935, though it differs slightly from Woody’s 1944 version, for which he wrote several stanzas not found in the known variants
The Blasting Company - Old Black Train
They’re a band from Los Angeles known particularly for their soundtrack for the show Over the Garden Wall, which is where this song is from
It’s an adaptation of “Little Black Train”
Lesley Riddle - One Kind Favour
Artist who collaborated with the Carter family, gathering songs from the region around the Carter family home and memorizing their melodies while AP Carter transcribed the lyrics
Retired from music in the 1940s but was rediscovered by Mike Seeger in 1965, who persuaded him to return to music
Over the next 13 years, Seeger made a number of recordings of Riddle’s music
Written by Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Father of Texas Blues
Josh White - While the Blood Runs Warm in Your Veins
Started playing music in the late 20s and by the end of the 30s he gained fame as a blues, jazz, and folk musician in New York City
Also acted in films and on Broadway
From 1935
Seems to be an African American hymn, first recorded in 1929 by Reverend AA Gundy
Josh White Jr. - Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed
Son of Josh White, and a Grammy-award nominated folk and blues musician in his own right
This song also known as “In My Time of Dying” and is a traditional gospel song
Bruce Cockburn - Soul Of A Man
Canadian singer-songwriter and skilled guitarist who’s been playing professionally for over 40 years
This is a Blind Willie McTell song
Ruth Moody - One Light Shining
A member of the Wailin’ Jennys
Australian-born, though she grew up in Winnipeg
From her 2013 album These Wilder Things
Cisco Houston - My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Folksinger and singer of cowboy songs born in Delaware and raised in California
This is from the 1963 album Nursery Rhymes, Games, and Folk Songs
Daniel Saunders Brass Band - My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
This is from an album of Bahamian instrumental music from 1959
There was a strong brass band tradition in the Bahamas at the time, and there were three on Andros, including the Daniel Saunders Brass Band
They played at local celebrations and funerals, but also sailed, sometimes hundreds of miles, to perform off the island at special events
A traditional Scottish folk song that’s still popular, and often sung as a children’s song
Guiermo Kiyat - Simian
From a 1981 album of music of the Miskitu people of Honduras and Nicaragua recorded by New York artist and designer David Blair Stiffler
This is a song about a man whose name is Simian Coleman
The lyrics were likely made up on the spot on the theme of a recent personal situation
Unfortunately, because Stiffler was not trained in folklore fieldwork, we don’t get much context beyond that in the liner notes for the recording, and we know nothing about the man who performs the song, aside from his name
Lamont Tilden - The Murder of FC Benwell
Singer a radio announcer from Toronto
Ballad about a famous Ontario murder case that happened in 1890
Tune comes from the American ballad Charles Guiteau, President Garfield’s assassin
Cyril O’Brien - Derby Ram
Newfoundland field recording of this English tall tale folk song about an enormous ram and the troubles in pursuing, catching, and butchering it
First transcribed by Llewellyn Jewitt in 1867, likely from at least a century before then
Shorty and Juanita Sheehan - The Soldier and the Lady
From a 1964 album of ballads, fiddle tunes, and folksongs from Indiana
Shorty was originally from the mountains of Tennessee, and learned to play fiddle, banjo, and guitar in his youth
He tried to establish himself as a country music artist there, but was interrupted by World War II, and served as an entertainer and translator
When he returned to the States, he moved to Indiana, where he met Juanita, a girl from his hometown who learned to sing from her parents and was a talented guitarist
They married and began singing together professionally in many genres, and even had a country music TV show in Indianapolis for many years
Shorty was also a fiddler with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys for two different periods of time
This was recorded in 1962, and it’s a version of “One Morning in May,” also known as “The Nightingale”
Shorty learned the song from his mother, and it had special meaning to Juanita because he sang it for her when he was a soldier and a fiddler, paralleling the lyrics of the song
Alan Mills and the Four Shipmates - Clear the Track, Let the Bullgine Run
Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec
Known for popularizing Canadian folk music, and for writing the music for “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”
Made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian folklore
From his 1957 album Songs of the Sea
This is a shanty about the famous clipper line, the Blue Cross, which operated in the cotton trade between Mobile and Liverpool
It seems to have come from both Irish and African American tradition
Harrison Kennedy - Mountain Stomp
Hamilton, ON artist with a career in blues and roots music spanning over 50 years
From his 2017 album Who U Tellin’?
Mrs. Peter Kelly - Love Song
This is from an album of Haida music recorded by the musicologist Ida Halpern and released in 1987
Halpern was originally from Austria, but arrived in Canada in 1944 to flee Nazism
She’s known mainly for her work with the First Nations people of British Columbia, which she conducted at a time when the government was working against efforts to celebrate and preserve Indigenous cultures in Canada
Reading her biography, it seems as though her work reflected more recent efforts for reciprocal relationships between ethnographers and the people whose work they study, which was pretty unusual for an ethnographer working in the 40s and 50s
She also seems to have built relationships enough to be entrusted with these songs, which were largely withheld from people outside of the communities from which they came
That was partially a response to Haida visual art being exposed by European missionaries in the 19th century, which understandably caused Haida elders to more firmly protect their creative heritage from western influence
At the same time, it’s noted that Halpern’s work is criticized for its “cultural material”, probably meaning the contextual information for the music, including misspellings and improper citation of the songwriters
Her work on the music itself is described as “flawless” though, and her contributions and many recordings are extremely valuable for the preservation of these older songs, though her work has been largely overlooked by anthropologists, folklorists, and ethnomusicologists even in recent years
This recording was made in 1974 with Mrs. Peter Kelly (the only name given)
She was the wife of a missionary and the daughter of a missionary, and was brought up accepting the social attitudes of church authorities, but also retained a strong belief in the importance of her traditional culture
Her main reason for speaking with Halpern was the fear that the old songs would be lost if they weren’t recorded
We’ll hear her talk about the song and translate the words in this recording
Ian & Sylvia - Mary Anne
Ian & Sylvia performed together from 1959 until their divorce in 1975
Known for performing a number of songs including “Someday Soon,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “Four Strong Winds”
This is a sea ballad, likely from England, from at least the mid 19th century
Jake Blount - Goodbye, Honey, You Call That Gone
He’s a musician and scholar from Rhode Island who specializes in the music of Black and Indigenous communities in the southeastern US
This is off his 2020 debut album, Spider Tales, which is named for Anansi, a trickster figure in Akan mythology
Blount carefully chose the songs on the album from his extensive research of Black and Indigenous mountain music
He got this one from Mississippi banjo, fife, and fiddle player Lucius Smith, whose version we heard last week on the show
Furry Lewis - Waiting for a Train
American country blues artist from Memphis, Tennessee
This is a Jimmie Rodgers song first recorded in 1929, and it’s based on the older English broadside ballad “Standing on the Platform”, from the mid-19th century
Lewis’s version is off his 1969 album Presenting the Country Blues
Snooks Eaglin - Helping Hand
Eaglin an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
This is a Fats Domino song from 1955
It shares several lyrics with the song we heard before it
Old Man Luedecke - Chester Boat Song
From Chester, NS
Off his 2015 album Domestic Eccentric, which he recorded inside a cabin he built in his backyard
Joaquin Bautista - Mexico Bonito
From a 1970 album of music from the Indigenous Purepecha people of northwestern Mexico
This is an instrumental transcription of a pirecua, a type of song that’s usually sung as a duet with guitar accompaniment, and is often a love song
Peter Hurd - La Calandria
Off a 1957 album of Spanish folk songs from New Mexico, sung by the fresco painter Peter Hurd
He learned many of the songs as a child, but some of them he discovered during trips to Mexico
Chago Rodrigo - Young Man’s Song
A 1957 album of Latin American children’s songs
It’s a traditional song that seems widely recorded
Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir - Go Back Home
Raucous folk blues band from Calgary that played from 2001 to 2013
This is off their 2008 album Ten Thousand
Uncle Sinner - Old Rub Alcohol Blues
From Winnipeg
This song is by Dock Boggs, an influential old-time musician from Norton, Virginia who worked as a coal miner much of his life
H Brown, Charles Wallace, John Roberts - Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There
From a 1959 album of Bahamian music
This was recorded on Andros in 1958
It’s a spiritual composed by African American minister Charles A Tindley in 1916
Pete Seeger - A Hayseed Like Me
Even if you don’t know his music, you’ve likely heard his name--he was a very influential folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
This is from his 1956 album American Industrial Ballads
It’s from the 1890s
It uses the tune of “Rosin the Beau,” and it was a popular campaign song for the People’s Party, which had a lasting effect through legislation that benefited farmers and labourers
John Greenway - Talking Union
American folklorist who specialized in social protest songs
Recorded an album called Talking Blues in 1958 on the Folkways label
Included 15 covers of songs by different artists
This one was written by the Almanac Singers in 1941, and was possibly responsible for the popularity of the talking blues style at the time
Joseph Able Trivett - Joe Bowers
He was a farmer and labourer from Butler, Tennessee
This album of his music was recorded in 1962, when he was 80 years old
This was a very popular song amongst cowboys and farmers in the US
Bowers was a 49er--someone who took part in the California gold rush of 1849
Trivett first learned the song from someone who came from Arkansas
Ben Douglas - Fox Hunt
Off a 1960 album of informal recordings taped at the homes of different musicians in southwest Louisiana by the musicologist Harry Oster
This is a rhythmic instrumental with percussion on a Coke bottle and sticks beaten against wooden cylinders
David Francey - Saints and Sinners
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who started to pursue music as a career at the age of 45 after working as a carpenter and in railyards for 20 years
From his 1999 album Torn Screen Door
Stanley G. Triggs - The Kettle Valley Line
Born in Nelson, BC in 1928
An anthropologist and photographer who worked in logging camps, construction camps, in forestry, with survey crews, and on railroad gangs
Also worked as a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
About a train line that ran across southern BC
The D9 Stringband - Sally Ann
From Horsefly BC
Composed of Pharis and Jason Romero, Grace Forrest, and Max Heineman of Horsefly, BC
They got this song from the Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio
They recorded this version in Pharis & Jason’s sauna in January
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Katy Hill
