Barking Dog: November 6, 2025
Stanley Triggs - So Long to the Kicking Horse Canyon
He passed away on August 30th at the age of 97
He was originally from Nelson, BC, and worked throughout the province in different industries, including in forestry, on survey crews, and on railroad gangs, and he collected songs and stories from his colleagues as he worked
He was also a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
The Kicking Horse Canyon lies between Golden and Lake Louise in BC, and Triggs adapted this song himself from an old cowboy tune after a rough time pouring concrete with a construction gang in minus 42 degree weather
Archie Fisher - Dark Eyed Molly
He passed away on November 1st at the age of 86
He was a Scottish folksinger, songwriter, and radio host who came from a musical family and began performing professionally in the early 1960s
He’s known for writing songs including “Witch of the Westmorland,” “The Final Trawl,” and this one, “Dark Eyed Molly,” which he included on his 1976 album The Man with a Rhyme
The melody comes from a Basque lullaby and the words were inspired by some lines of Gaelic poetry
Bob Dylan, Jim Kweskin - Railroading on the Great Divide
This is from Dylan’s latest bootleg series release, which includes some of his earliest recordings
He and Jim Kweskin made this recording at Gerde’s Folk City, a coffeehouse in Greenwich Village, New York City in 1961
The song is by Sara Carter of the Carter Family, who read about a drifter who worked on the railroad in Wyoming and composed the song after being reminded of the story while travelling through the state
Ellen Stekert - John Highlandman
Stekert is a folklorist, musician, and scholar from New York (now based in Minnesota) who began her career in Greenwich Village in the 1950s
In the last couple of years, she’s been working with the producer Ross Wylde on cleaned up archival recordings, and with writer Christopher Bahn on a website where they share music, writing, and photography from her archives
The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote this song in 1785 as part of his cantata “The Jolly Beggars,” which was never published during his life and first appeared in print as a chapbook in 1799, three years after Burns’s death
Laura Baird - under blue
She’s a multi-instrumentalist from New Jersey known for her work with her sister Meg as the Baird Sisters, and with guitarist Glenn Jones
This is the title track from her new album, which came out on the 31st
Réalta - Kellswaterside
Réalta are a Belfast-based group that play traditional Irish music
This is off their 2016 album Clear Skies
This song comes from County Antrim, they they got it from the collection of Sam Henry, an Irish customs officer, artist, and folklorist who collected almost 700 songs from Northern Ireland in the first half of the 20th century
Buell Kazee - Darling Corey
He began recording in 1927
In fact, he’s considered one of the most successful folk musicians of the 1920s
Kazee grew up in Kentucky playing traditional 5-string banjo in a style he called “thrashing”, and he also had formal voice training, which was considered unusual for a mountain musician at that time
“Darling Corey” is an American folk song based on verses from the song “The Gambling Man”
It’s pretty new as far as folk songs go—the earliest version comes from 1918
This version is from Kazee’s 1958 album Buell Kazee Sings and Plays, which he recorded for Folkways Records
Mama’s Broke - Black Rock Beach
They’re a duo from Nova Scotia who have been playing together for a decade
This is from their 2017 album Count the Wicked
Clarence Edwards, Cornelius Edwards, Butch Cage - Thousand Miles from Nowhere
Cage was a fife, guitar, and fiddle player originally from Mississippi, though he moved to Louisiana in the 1920s as a result of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927
Clarence and Cornelius Edwards were brothers and blues musicians from Louisiana who first began playing in bands together in the 1950s
Clarence became more widely known in the 1980s, when he performed at blues festivals throughout the country
This one was recorded at the home of Butch Cage in Zachary, Louisiana by the musicologist Harry Oster in either the late 50s or early 60s
The song is a folk variant of Mercy Dee Walton’s 1953 hit song “One Room Country Shack”
Georgia Sea Island Singers, Mississippi Fred McDowell - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
This is from the 2024 Smithsonian Folkways album The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert
It’s a recording of a concert given by the Georgia Sea Island Singers, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Ed Young in New York City in April of 1965
The Georgia Sea Island Singers are a folk music ensemble that’s been around since the early 1900s
They often performed with Bessie Jones, who was one of the most popular performers of folk music in the 60s and 70s
Fred McDowell was a hill country blues musician originally from Tennessee, though he moved to Mississippi in 1928 and continued to farm there full-time while playing music on the weekends
His music caught the attention of producers and blues fans in the early 1960s due to recordings Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins made of him in the 1950s, and within a couple of years of that attention, he became a professional recording artist and played at folk festivals and clubs around the world
It’s a traditional American gospel song
Uncle Sinner - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
From Winnipeg
This is a new release from his forthcoming album Everybody Wants to Know How I Die, which comes out on December 11th
Amaury Perez Vidal - Siempre Con Puerto Rico (Always With Puerto Rico)
He’s a Cuban musician who began playing music at the age of 14, and became involved in the Cuban Nueva Trova music movement in 1972
This song was recorded in 1977 for the What Now People album series that advocated song as political movement
Vidal wrote the song in the mid-70s when Cuba took up the cause of Puerto Rican independence
Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick - Such a War Has Never Been
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
Carthy is an English musician who came to prominence in the 1960s during the English folk revival and has collaborated with artists including his wife Norma Waterson and daughter Eliza and the bands Steeleye Span and Albion Country Band, and maintained a collaborative relationship with Swarbrick for many years
This song comes from their 1992 album Skin + Bone
The lyrics are by Les Barker, with music by Carthy
Damien Dempsey - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Dempsey is an Irish musician who’s been playing since the mid 1990s
This is from the 2005 compilation album Even Better Than the Real Thing Vol. 3, a collection of U2 covers recorded for the Ray D’Arcy Show on the Irish radio station Today FM
U2 released the song on their 1983 album War
Husband & Knife - Black Dog
The stage name for Nova Scotia artist KC Spidle
This is off his 2008 album An End
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Pinnacle Mountain Silver Mine
Contemporary stringband based in Toronto
From their 2020 album Modern Old-Time Sounds for the Bluegrass & Folksong Jamboree
Written by Helen Cockram in 1974
About the myth of a disappearing silver mine in her region of Virginia, which she first heard from her father
Amy Lou Keeler - A Maid I Am In Love
She’s a member of the Halifax duo Mama’s Broke
This version comes from a field recording the folklorist Helen Creighton made of Mrs. Stan Marshall from Amherst, Nova Scotia
In her liner notes, Creighton explains that she was surprised that the name of the hero of the song was Jutney, when more typical names like Willy, John, and Jimmy often appear in song
In fact, the hero’s name is most often Johnny in other versions of the song
The song is most often called “Short Jacket and White Trousers” or “Maid That’s Deep In Love”
It’s unclear where the song comes from, but it’s likely an English sea ballad
Henry Thomas - When the Train Comes Along
American country-blues musician born 1874
His style was an early example of Texas blues guitar and he influenced artists like Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, and Canned Heat
He recorded this one for Vocalion Records in Chicago in 1927
Big Bill Broonzy - South Bound Train
He was an American blues singer and guitarist, and was one of the leading figures of the emerging folk revival of the 1950s
This is from the posthumously released 1961 anthology The Big Bill Broonzy Story
It was recorded in Chicago in July of 1957, and it’s one of his most famous songs
David Liebe Hart, Pregnant - The 2200 CTA Rapid Transit L Cars
Hart is an outsider artist who came to prominence through his appearances on the TV show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and continues to perform around the Los Angeles area and on tours around the United States
Pregnant is a band formed by Daniel Trudeau in California in 2004
This is off Hart’s 2024 album Peace & Harmony
Hart has written several songs about the history of the American railroad system
The New Lost City Ramblers - How Can You Keep On Moving?
They were a group formed by John Cohen, Mike Seeger, Tom Paley in 1958
This is off their 2001 album 40 Years of Concert Performances, which is a collection of 48 live recordings made between 1958 and 1998
The song is by Sis Cunningham, who says that it “comes out of the late thirties when certain states, especially California, were posting signs at roads crossing their borders: NO MORE MIGRATION. Armed guards were stationed at these points to direct homeseekers to turn around and ‘keep moving’.”
Atis Indepandan - Ki Sa Pou-n Fe? (What Is to Be Done?)
The title track from an album of Haitian protest songs released in 1975 during the repressive reign of Jean-Claude Duvalier
The name of the group means “independent artists” in Haitian Creole
They were a New York-based group that played traditional Haitian troubadour music with contemporary American and Brazilian influences
The words are by the group, with music by Robert Molin
The liner notes for the song say, in part: “we must rely on ourselves, just as the Vietnamese did, and we must believe in the strength of our own people when they are united in a common goal: revolution.”
Scott Dunbar - Blue Yodel
He was a blues musician and fishing guide from Wilkinson County in southwest Mississippi
This is off his 1970 album From Lake Mary
It’s a version of Jimmie Rodgers’ 1928 song “Blue Yodel No. 3 (Evening Sun Yodel)”
Joe Glazer - The Fox and the Chickens
Glazer was a folk musician and labour activist from New York who recorded over 30 albums during his career
This is from his 1982 album Jellybean Blues: Songs of Reaganomics
George “Bongo Joe” Coleman - George Coleman for President, Nobody for Vice President
He was a street musician from Florida known for his drum kit, which he made from 55-gallon oil drums and perfected over the years as he performed around Texas
Coleman was well-respected and was often offered performance time at venues that would have paid more than street shows, but he preferred to play on the streets rather than the stage
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 2023
McCormick made the recording in Galveston, Texas in October of 1966
Domingo Chompi, Luisa Sera Chompi - Wallata
This is from a 1991 album of mountain music from Peru, recorded in the 1960s
This song features the pina pinculu, a 4-hole vertical flute from the Q’ero people who live in the Cusco Region of Peru in the Andean mountains
The Chompis lived in the village of Kiku
“Wallata” are the geese that fly through the mountains
Frank Proffitt - Going Across the Mountain
Appalachian banjo player, known for preserving the murder ballad “Tom Dooley”
He worked worked as a carpenter, tobacco farmer, and in a spark plug factory
His carpentry skills also extended to making instruments - he was a talented luthier and the banjos he played were homemade
This is off the 1962 album Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina
This is a Civil War song sung from a Northerner’s perspective
Though North Carolina joined the Confederacy, it was a border state, and many rural citizens were reluctant to accept the decision
The liner notes for the album state that Proffitt’s grandfather was an admirer of Lincoln, and chose to “go across the mountain” himself to join the Union army instead of taking the easy way out and going along with his neighbours, friends, and even his own brother
Precious Bryant - Hey Baby
She was an American musician described as one of Georgia’s great blueswomen
She was first recorded by George Mitchell in 1967, and by the mid 1980s her fanbase had grown enough for her to perform internationally
This is from her 2005 album My Name Is Precious
Suni Paz - Prisioneros Somos (We Are All Prisoners)
Paz is a musician, folklorist, and poet from Argentina
This comes from her 1973 album Breaking out of the Silence
She wrote the song and dedicated it to the US Committee for Justice for Latin American Prisoners
Scrüj MacDuhk - Cragie Hills
They were a folk band from Winnipeg that were active in the 1990s
This is from their 1999 album The Road to Canso
It’s a traditional Irish song that likely dates to the mid-19th century
Paul Ely Smith - The Newton Jig
He’s a California musician and composer who plays both fiddle and banjo
In the 1980s he quit playing the modern banjo to focus on building and playing the traditional gourd banjo
This is from his 2016 album American Akonting, which represents the culmination of his work on the gourd banjo
He got the song from James Buckley’s New Banjo Book from 1860
D.Rangers - Double Gobble
From Winnipeg
This is from their new album Sketch, which came out on October 25th and is their first full-length album in almost 20 years
