Barking Dog: December 21, 2023
Emile Berliner - Auld Lang Syne
Berliner wasn’t a performer by trade—instead, he was a German-American inventor known for inventing the gramophone record
We’re going to hear the very first recording of “Auld Lang Syne,” which Berliner recorded in 1890 to test his technology
“Auld Lang Syne” is a very popular New Year’s song
The Scottish poet Robert Burns sent the lyrics of the song to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788, stating the it was an old song that had never been circulated in print until he took the lyrics down from an old man
Some of the lyrics were traditional, and the song is certainly based on an older song, though Burns wrote many of the lyrics himself
Burns deemed the original melody for the song “mediocre,” and the melody most commonly used today was first used in 1799; it’s also a traditional Scots folk tune
Hal Wylie, Roger Sprung, The Progressive Bluegrassers - Auld Lang Syne
Wylie was a guitarist and singer from New York City known for his collaborations with Roger Sprung, who was an American banjo player known for introducing traditional bluegrass banjo picking to folk musicians in the northern states
This is off the 1974 album Bluegrass Blast: A Mixed Bag of Ol’ Timey Music
Brian Wilson - Auld Lang Syne
From his 2005 album What I Really Want for Christmas
Pete Seeger - Passing Through
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and other important issues through his music
The song was written by American professor of English Dick Blakeslee in 1948
Flora Molton, The Truth Band - Your Enemy Can’t Harm You
She was a partially blind American gospel street musician known for singing and playing slide guitar on the streets of Washington, DC
She was born in 1908, but her first scheduled performance was at a coffee shop in 1963
She proceeded to give concerts, perform at folk festivals, and record her music after that first coffee shop performance
The Truth Band were her backing band on this recording, but it’s unclear who the band consisted of
This song is by Reverend EW Clayborn
It’s from the 3rd 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
The Watersons - The Holly Bears a Berry
English folk group from Yorkshire, England who performed acapella traditional songs beginning in the 1960s
They were three siblings: Norma, Mike, and Elaine, and their cousin John Harrison
The song is also known as “St. Day Carol,” as the first 3 verses were transcribed in the 19th century from a villager singing in St. Day, Cornwall
Neil & Pegi Young - Four Strong Winds
This is a song by Ian Tyson, who composed it in about 20 minutes while at his manager’s apartment in New York City in 1961
Neil and his wife Pegi recorded it together live in Barrie, Ontario in July of 2005
Lesley Frost - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
This is from a 1961 album of readings of Robert Frost’s work, performed by his daughter Lesley, who also shares stories of her childhood and her father throughout the recording
Jantina Noorman - Des Winters Als Het Regent
This is from a 1955 album simply called Dutch Folk Songs
While she was studying in Illinois in the 1950s, Noorman met a woman from South Africa who had recorded South African songs for Folkways Records, and the woman suggested Noorman send in recordings of songs from her childhood
A few weeks later, they were officially released on Folkways
The liner notes for the song state: “The fisherman must pass this girl’s house when he goes fishing in the winter. The girl knows when he comes and always stands and waits for him in the doorway. He cannot pass unless he kisses her three times.”
Eugene Rhodes - Who Went Out the Back?
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
Joe Hickerson - Last Winter Was a Hard One
Folk singer and songleader from Illinois
Was Librarian and Director of the Archive of Folk Song at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress for 35 years
Known for his work as a lecturer, researcher, and performer
This is from his 1976 album Drive Dull Care Away Vol. 2
It’s an Irish-American song from a time before organized labour, when new immigrants were exploited and pitted against one another to keep wages low
The Taylor Sisters - Rock-a-My-Soul
From an album of traditional music from Union County, North Carolina, released in 1980
The song is also known as “Bosom of Abraham” and it’s a traditional African American spiritual
Paul Clayton - Cold Winter’s Night
An American folksinger and folklorist who specialised in traditional music and collaborated with artists like Jean Ritchie and Dave Van Ronk
This is from his 1957 album Cumberland Mountain Folksongs
Clayton learned the song from Finlay Adams of Big Laurel, Virginia
The Wailin’ Jennys - Bright Morning Stars
Folk group formed in Winnipeg in 2002
From their 2011 album of the same name
The song is likely from Kentucky, and it was not widely known before Ruth Crawford Seeger included it in her 1953 book American Folk Songs for Christmas—it later entered into the common repertoire when folk musician Robin Christenson found it in the book and arranged it to be performed at the 1968 Fox Hollow Festival
Neal Morris - Sing Anything
This is a field recording made by the ethnomusicologist and folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in Alabama in October of 1959
Morris was the father of folk musician Jimmie Driftwood, and he also had many ballads, lyric pieces, and humorous songs in his repertoire
This song is from the 19th century, and was popular in the Ozarks
Leonard Cohen - Winter Lady
This is off his first musical album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, from 1967
Johnny Moses - Winter Walking Snow Song
He’s a Tulalip storyteller, oral historian, and spiritual leader who was raised in the Nuu-chah-nulth village of Huu-ay-aht on Vancouver Island
This is from his 2017 album Pacific Northwest Medicine Songs of the Four Seasons
Tony Schwartz - Stories About Your Child
He was a sound archivist, media theorist, advertising creator, and graphic designer from New York City who recorded copious amounts of ambient sounds, spoken word, and music for albums released by Folkways and Columbia and hosted a radio show called “Around New York” on WNYC for 30 years
From the 1970 album Tony Schwartz Records the Sounds of Children
Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger - Come Fill Up Your Glasses
A well-known married duo
MacColl was a British folksinger and labour activist known for his involvement in the 1960s folk revival
Peggy is an American folksinger and member of the Seeger family who’s been living and performing in the UK for over 60 years
Peggy wrote the lyrics to this song and put it to a traditional tune
Christine Lavin, The Mistletones - Tacobel Canon
She’s a musician who worked at a cafe in Saratoga Springs, New York, until the folksinger Dave Van Ronk convinced her to move to New York City to pursue a career as a musician
She’s recorded over 25 albums since the early 1980s, and this one’s from the 2003 album The Runaway Christmas Tree
It’s a take on Johann Pachelbel’s famous Canon in D, written in 1680
David Francey - A Winter Song
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who worked as a railyard worker and carpenter for 20 years before pursuing folk music at the age of 45
This is from his 2003 album Skating Rink
Gordon Lightfoot - Song for a Winter’s Night
From his 1967 album The Way I Feel
It was written on a hot summer night in Cleveland, Ohio
Art Thieme - Jim Bridger and the Winter of 1830
He was a folk musician, photographer, and radio host from Chicago who specialised in music and stories from the upper midwest United States, but he also had an interest in cowboy songs
This is from his 2006 album Chicago Town and Other Points West
Ferron - Snowing in Brooklyn
She’s a Canadian musician and poet from BC
This one’s off her 1992 live album Not a Still Life, recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco
Delta Big Four - I Know My Time Ain’t Long
Vocal quartet from Mississippi who travelled to Grafton, Wisconsin in 1930 to record for Paramount
This is their version of Charley Patton’s “Oh Death”
The leader of the group, Wheeler Ford, was friends with Patton, who helped them get their recording contract with Paramount
The next two songs are also versions of “Oh Death”
Bob Dylan - Whatcha Gonna Do
Dylan originally recorded the song as a demo for the Witmark publishing company, but the version we heard is an unreleased outtake from the sessions for his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Uncle Sinner - Oh Death
From Winnipeg
Off his album Let the Devil In from 2015
Stan Rogers - First Christmas
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 the summers of his childhood
This song is from his 1979 album Between the Breaks Live!
Old Man Luedecke - Tender Is The Night
Folk artist from Chester, NS
This is from his album of the same title, from 2015
Luz Morales - Magandang Pasko (Merry Christmas)
This is from an album of folk songs from the Philippines from 1960, sung by the Filipino soprano Luz Morales
Cousin Emmy - Chilly Scenes of Winter
Banjo player and country singer who was one of the pioneering female stars of the country music industry
Gained a new audience during the folk revival of the 1960s
A rare song recorded as “If One Won’t Another Will” by the Carter Family and “Dark Scenes of Winter” by Texas Gladden
Emmy recorded it in the 1940s
Lisa Null - Cold Scenes of Winter
Null was a folk musician who performed around the Washington, DC area for more than 40 years
This is from her 2015 album Legacies, released by Folk Legacy Records
Null got the song from the singing of Dennie Sloan of Glenville, West Virginia, from 1971, and she notes that the song is rare in the US and more often found in Canada under slightly different titles
The song possibly comes from Ireland, and it seems to be a variant of the song we heard before it
Essie Mae Brooks - I Got So Much to Talk About
She’s a gospel blues singer from Georgia who began writing her own songs at the age of 9
She is now in her 90s and still avidly writes music and sings with her church
This song is originally off her album Rain In Your Life from 2000, though backing instrumentation was added for the 2018 Music Maker Foundation album Grotto Sessions
Vera Keating - How Cold These Winds Do Blow
From an album of Ontario folk songs compiled by Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke in 1958
Sung by Vera Keating of Peterborough
A ballad rare in North America, with only one other version recorded in Canada at the time this album was made
The song likely came from Ireland
Sheesham and Lotus - Icy Mountain
Contemporary old-time stringband from Wolfe Island, ON
West Virginia old-time breakdown often played on fiddle
The John Renbourn Group - Nacht Tanz / Shaeffertanz
John Renbourn was an English musician known for founding the folk group Pentangle with Bert Jansch
This was composed by Tielman Susato of Antwerp in the 16th century
