Barking Dog: December 2, 2021
Margaret Christl, Ian Robb, Grit Laskin - Save Your Money While You’re Young
Laskin is an Ontario luthier and musician whose guitars have been exhibited in several art museums
Robb and Christl British-born artists who immigrated to Canada as young adults and recorded this collection of folk songs found in the eastern provinces of Canada in 1976
The folklorist Edith Fowke collected this song from Jim Doherty of Peterborough, Ontario
It was a popular song in the Canadian lumber camps
Ellen Stekert - The Raftsman’s Song
From Long Island
Obtained a Master’s degree in folklore from Indiana University
Learned the 18 lumberjack songs on this 1958 album from one man named Ezra “Fuzzy” Barhight
Logging men often took old tunes and wrote new words to them that referenced local events
This is an example of that practice, as this song uses the melody of the sea shanty “Blow Ye Winds”
Sarah Harmer - I Am Aglow
Canadian singer-songwriter from Ontario
Off her 2005 album I’m a Mountain
Pace Jubilee Singers - Oh Death!
They were a gospel group started by Charles Henry Pace in 1925, and they were one of the first gospel groups to be recorded
They recorded for Victor and Brunswick Records between 1926 and 1929
This recording is from 1927, and it’s a traditional American folk song
It is possible that this song originated from Lloyd Chandler’s 1920s song “A Conversation with Death”
We’ll hear a couple other versions of it after this
Joseph Spence - Death and the Woman
Joseph Spence was a Bahamian musician known for vocalizing and humming while playing guitar, and he influenced artists like Taj Mahal, The Grateful Dead, and John Renbourn, who recorded versions of his gospel arrangements
This is off an album of unheard Joseph Spence recordings, released by Smithsonian Folkways this year
Spence performs it with his sister, Edith
The Carter Family - Oh Death / Don’t Bury Me on the Lone Prairie
Very influential American country and folk singing family from Virginia
In the late 1930s, they recorded transcriptions for radio broadcast on Mexican border radio stations
The transcription discs were rediscovered in 1963 at a Mexican radio station, and in 1995, Arhoolie Records released 3 CDs of the music on those discs
We heard their version of “Oh Death,” and then what seems to be an adaptation of the song “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie,” which is itself an adaptation of the sea song "The Sailor's Grave”
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Cherry River Line / Gauley Junction
From Toronto
This is a medley of the West Virginian tune “Cherry River Line” by Jenes Cottrell and their own song, “Gauley Junction”
This version is from their new live album, Lively Times, recorded in Vancouver
Guitar Frank - Lonesome Road Blues
His name was Frank Hovington, and he was a Delaware guitarist spotted playing on a roadside porch by John Fahey, who was on a record-collecting trip
He became known by a few east-coast collectors, and was brought to the Smithsonian Folk Festival in 1971 but seemed reluctant to perform in public, and faded back into obscurity until Bruce Bastin and Dick Spotswood set out to find him in 1975 to record a few of his songs
They recorded that one in July of 1975
Algia Mae Hinton - Going Down This Road
She was a Piedmont blues musician from North Carolina who learned to play the guitar from her mother, an expert in the Piedmont fingerpicking style who often played at local parties and gatherings
She met the folklorist Glenn Hinson in 1978, who arranged for her to perform at the North Carolina Folklife Festival
She gave several concerts outside of North Carolina after that, even travelling to Europe to perform in 1998
Traditional song of uncertain origin, though it’s been widely recorded by many well-known roots artists like Woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Cotten, and Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley
Angelo Dornan - The Red Mantle
Folksinger from New Brunswick who lived most of his life in Alberta
Retired to his birthplace in his 60s, where researcher Helen Creighton collected about 135 traditional songs from him in the 1950s for use in her book of New Brunswick music
Creighton had never heard the song before or seen it in print, though it is clearly from England, and she liked the song immediately, as it is so “essentially human”
Clark Jones - Rye Whiskey
He was a folksinger from North Carolina who began playing guitar and ukulele as a child
This is from his 1982 album of early American folk music
The song is also known as “Way Up on Clinch Mountain” and “Jack of Diamonds”
Freddie Spruell - Let’s Go Riding
He was a Delta blues musician from Louisiana who is often considered the first Delta blues musician to be recorded
This is his best-known song, recorded in April 1935 for Bluebird Records
John Greenway - Talking Inflation Blues
American folklorist who specialised 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 song was originally published in a 1946 issue of the People’s Song journal that was dedicated to the topic of whether the Office of Price Administration in the US should remain open
It was created during WWII as an attempt to stop inflation and keep prices from rising
It ended up being abolished in May of 1947, and some of its functions were taken on by other agencies
Old Man Luedecke - Lost John
From Chester, NS
This is off his 2006 album Hinterland
Uncle Sinner - Long Gone
From Winnipeg
Off his 2020 album Trouble of This World
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
Though this song isn’t explicitly about the folk figure, it likely comes from the same tradition
Banjo Jim Erkiletian - Busted in Alaska
From an album of Southeast Alaskan folk music compiled in 1981
Banjo Jim travelled from Missouri to Canada to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War
He ended up settling in Whitehorse, where he raised a family
Years later, customs agents arrested him when he tried to cross the border to help his friend move
He wrote this song in his Anchorage jail cell
Paul Clayton - Pretty Polly and False William
An American folksinger and folklorist who specialized in traditional music
He collected this version from Finlay Adams of Big Laurel, Virginia
The Finnish scholar Dr. Iivar Kemppinen concluded that the ballad likely originated between 1100 and 1200 AD, and it’s remained popular since then
He recorded his version in 1957
George Davis - Love of Polly and Jack Monroe
Davis was known as The Singing Miner, and he became a disc jockey in Hazard, Kentucky, after working as a miner for 38 years
He started playing music when he was 27, when the mines were being organized by the United Mine Workers Union
He would practice on his front porch every evening, and the miners would come and stand on the railroad tracks to listen to him
That same year, his arm was seriously injured in a mining accident, and he had to reteach himself to play the guitar in a new way
He knew then that he could never be a great guitar player, but he continued to compose and perform his songs about life in the mines, because he knew they were important to the miners
In 1947, he was invited to do his first radio show, and at one time had at least three radio shows in three different towns, driving 480 km a day to record them, since these were the days before tape recorders were common
This is a version of the ballad more commonly known as “Jackaroe”
It’s a traditional ballad that’s likely Scottish in origin
Ella Jenkins - Old Joe Clark
An American folk singer and actress dubbed the “First Lady of the Children’s Folk Song”
This is from her 1963 album Rhythms of Childhood
It’s her version of “Old Joe Clark,” an American folk song that was popular with soldiers during WWI and remained popular afterwards
It refers to Joseph Clark, a Kentucky mountaineer who was murdered in 1885
Maria Dunn - Do You Know Slim Evans?
Albertan songwriter who started to become well known in the late 1990s after she left a career as a medical assistant
This is a song about the organizer Arthur “Slim” Evans who organized for the local One Big Union in the Drumheller Valley coalfields from 1919 to 1924
Rufus Crisp - Shady Grove
He was a banjo player from the mountains of eastern Kentucky
This was recorded at his home in the late 1940s for the Library of Congress
Traditional Appalachian folk song that may have originated in Ireland
There are many variations of this song, with at least 300 stanzas recorded by the early 21st century
Selah Jubilee Singers - Take My Hand, Precious Lord
An American gospel vocal quartet active from 1927-1953
Many popular doowop groups of the 50s were musically descended from prewar groups like the Selah Jubilee Singers
Words were written by Reverend Thomas A Dorsey in 1932 after the loss of his wife and infant son during childbirth
This one was recorded in 1939
Grebo - Kru Song with Guitar
This is from a 1954 album of folk music from Liberia
It’s a country in West Africa that’s populated by a number of Indigenous cultures, as well as the ancestors of Black settlers who came from America in the 18th century through the American Colonization Society, which believed that Black people had a better chance of freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States
This is a recording by a Grebo guitarist who worked as a mechanic's assistant on freighters along the African Coast—he learned this song from the sailors
Stan Rogers - Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her
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
This is from the posthumous album From Coffee House to Concert Hall, released in 1999
This song was usually sung during the last few tasks before leaving the ship after a rough voyage
It seems that this song is a modern form of an older farewell shanty called Across the Western Ocean, which originated around 1850 during the peak of Irish immigration to North America
The Wailin’ Jennys - Bring Me Li’l Water Silvy
Winnipeg folk group formed in 2002
This song was popularized by Lead Belly, who would often tell his audiences that the song was about his uncle Bob Ledbetter, who worked out on the fields plowing the soil
He said that when he got thirsty, he would call for his wife, Sylvie, to bring him some water
This version was recorded live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania in 2008
Marie Hare - Her Mantle So Green
Ballad singer from Strathadam, NB, known for her performances at the Miramichi Folksong Festival
Her parents loved this song, and she learned it from them as a child
It’s an English ballad, the theme of which appears throughout English balladry, with a young man returning from war and his sweetheart not recognizing him at first
Hare speaks the last few words to indicate that the song is over
Rick Lee, Lorraine Lee - As I Walked Out
Were a Massachusetts-based married duo who recorded a diverse album of folk songs in 1975
Rick a banjoist and pianist, Lorraine a skilled dulcimer player
They divorced in 1989 but both continued to play music
Rick died in 2014, and Lorraine is still playing, now in a duo with her second husband
This is a traditional American song
Willie Dunn - Big Red Sun (Where the Eagles Soar)
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This is a demo from 2000
Bruce Hutton - Wild Bill Jones
He’s a multi-instrumentalist from Maryland who’s been performing traditional folk music professionally since 1971
This is off his 1978 album Old Time Music - It’s All Around
A popular Appalachian murder ballad first recorded and released by Eva Davis in 1924
Pharis & Jason Romero - Goodbye Old Paint
Married duo from Horsefly, BC
Traditional western song written by a black cowboy named Charley Willis who was in demand on cattle drives because his voice was reportedly calming to the herds
Colin Alvarez, Henrici Anderson - Mna kai nam ra
From a 1981 album of music of the Miskitu people of Honduras and Nicaragua recorded by New York artist and designer David Blair Stiffler
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 men who perform the song, aside from their names
What we do have is a translation of the lyrics, which mean” Big room in front of you / the time passed and you didn't come / I came to your door like an old frog / my mother died, I was an orphan when I was small
EC Ball, Blair Reedy - Home Sweet Home
