Barking Dog: February 13, 2025
Michael Hurley - Just a Bum
Sent to us by Danielle
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
Harry McClintock - The Big Rock Candy Mountain
American cowboy, union organiser, hobo singer, and poet from Tennessee who’s known for writing this song
He wrote the song in 1895 and first recorded it in 1928, and it’s one of several songs about a hobo’s paradise
It became more well-known through Burl Ives’ 1949 recording, which was sanitised to appeal to parents and children
Pham Duy - Ho Lo
Sent to us by Alex
Off a 1965 survey album of Vietnamese music, recorded by the Vietnamese songwriter and musicologist Phạm Duy
This is a peasant song
The Incidentals - Flim
A Winnipeg duo
This is an acoustic cover of the Aphex Twin song, from their 2022 album Introducing the Incidentals
Fiver - Spinning Out & Going Nowhere
A single sent to us by Fiver prior to its release last August
Big Bill Broonzy - This Train
Sent to us by Jordan from Westelaken
Broonzy was an American blues singer and guitarist
Was one of the leading figures of the emerging folk revival of the 1950s
Traditional American gospel song first recorded in 1922
A Critical Mass Choir - You Ride Your Bike
Sent in to us by Patrick, who plays the ukulele on this one
It’s a recording reflecting on police violence that occurred at a Winnipeg Critical Mass rally in May of 2006
Critical Mass is a celebration of human-powered transportation that began in San Francisco in 1992, and has since spread to other cities worldwide
On May 3, 2006, about 50 Winnipeggers biked out to the Pioneer Arena to protest urban warfare training exercises that were taking place there
Seven people were arrested that night, one for simply photographing an arrest
23 days later, the police violently arrested 9 more people during the monthly Critical Mass ride, tackling them, holding them down with their knees, and even punching one person in the face
One of the people arrested was also beaten while in custody
Patrick Krawec, Ian La Rue, and Tara Norberg recorded this one in their kitchen in June of 2006
David Rovics - Winnipeg
He’s a topical singer-songwriter based in Oregon who’s been playing since the 1990s
A song about the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
The X-Seamen’s Institute - Three White Gulls
From Kelli, who requested we play our favourite sea shanty
They were a quartet founded in New York City’s South Street Seaport in 1968 who were dedicated to continuing the ancient tradition of singing songs of the sea
On Tuesday evenings in the summer they performed shanties, and were joined by hundreds of members of the public
This is from a 1973 album of their most-requested songs
It seems to be an Italian song that travelled to the States and was sometimes used as a lullaby
The Firesiders - Bay of Mexico
From an album called Songs of Camp, which was recorded for Folkways in 1958
The Firesiders were made up of Joan Lerner, who leads the song, Mary Badeaux with backing vocals, Bob Stein on guitar and vocals, and Ed Badeaux providing vocals and banjo
They organised the group to stimulate interest in the camp songs
Geoff Ursell - Moosejaw Meetin’
Krzysztof sent to us over the summer
Geoff Ursell was his wife Meredith’s uncle
He was a writer and musician from Saskatchewan known particularly for writing plays like The Running of the Deer and Saskatoon Pie, and for co-founding the literary press Coteau Books, which published authors from across Canada
The Stanley County Cutups - Petals and Permanents
From Winnipeg
This is their most recent release, from June
Old Man Luedecke - The Joy of Cooking
Requested by Sean
From Chester, NS
Off his 2006 album Hinterland
Kenji Endo - Curry Rice
He was a folksinger from Japan who started playing in the late 1960s while in university
This is from his 1971 album Manzoku dekiru kana
Sam Amidon - Fall On My Knees
From Dylan
Contemporary folk artist from Vermont
This is from his 2008 album All Is Well
It’s an old-time Appalachian tune
Selah Jubilee Singers - Royal Telephone
An American gospel vocal quartet active from 1927-1953
Written by pastor and songwriter Frederick M Lehman and first published in 1919
Recorded 1946
Bridget St. John - Like Never Before
Ophélie requested this one
She’s an English musician who’s been playing professionally for over 50 years
This is from her 1969 debut album Ask Me No Questions
Genticorum - Old Yamaska
They’re a traditional Quebecois trio from Montreal who have been playing together since 2000
This is from their 2023 album Au cœur de l’aube
Willie Dunn - I Pity the Country
Requested by Ryan
Dunn was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This is off his 1972 self-titled album
The song was included on the Grammy-nominated 2014 compilation album Native North America
Snooks Eaglin - Down by the Riverside
Eaglin an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
This was recorded in 1958
American spiritual that dates to before the American Civil War
Has often been used as an anti-war song
Nick Hart & Tom Moore - The Colour of Amber
They’re an English duo who have been performing together for over a decade
This is the title track from their 2023 album
They got it from the singing of Mary Ann Haynes of Bristol, which was recorded by Mike Yates in 1974
It’s related to other ballads including “Died for Love,” “Black is the Colour,” and “Sailor Boy”
Connie Converse - Two Tall Mountains
Began writing songs and performing for friends in NYC in the early 1950s but gave up after a decade of failed attempts at a music career and moved to Michigan to work at a university
In 1974 she wrote many letters to friends and family suggesting that she intended to start a new life somewhere else
Shortly after that she packed her things into her car and drove off, and was never seen again
Her music was widely rediscovered in 2004 when her friend Gene Deitch, who had recorded a number of her songs, played some of them on a radio show on the public radio station WNYC
In 2009 an album of 17 home recordings was released, called How Sad, How Lovely, which is where this song is from
Penknife - Edward
Sent in by Jordan
A group from Toronto
From their 2022 album One More Year
Jean Ritchie - Edward
Learned traditional folksongs in the oral tradition from friends and family during her youth in Kentucky, and in adulthood moved to New York to work as a social worker, where she met folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Alan Lomax
In 1952, she received a Fulbright scholarship to study the connections between American and British ballads, and travelled to the UK where she recorded many well-known traditional singers
She continued to perform for the rest of her life, and passed away at her home in Kentucky in 2015, at the age of 92
From her 1960 album British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains
Though this ballad is originally from Britain, it has been frequently collected in the United States as well
Ritchie learned her version from her sisters Patty, Edna, Una, and May, who learned it at school, and it’s similar to most versions found in southern Appalachia
Son House - Mississippi County Farm Blues
Requested by Uncle Sinner
Mississippi delta blues artist who influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters
He and his band were recorded for the Library of Congress by Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942, and in 1943 he left Mississippi for New York and gave up music
In 1964, though, a group of record collectors located him and persuaded him to relearn his music
He reestablished his music career, playing in coffeehouses, at folk festivals, and on tours
Recorded in 1930 for Paramount Records
Uncle Sinner - Pearline
From Winnipeg
This is a song by Son House
Uncle Sinner included it on his 2008 album Ballads and Mental Breakdowns
Jesse Matas - Peace River Song
This is from the first album ever sent to Barking Dog, Tamarock
Jesse Matas - Sleep
Six Boys in Trouble - Money Honey
Off the 1959 album Street and Gangland Rhythms, Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble
The boys were 11- and 12-year-old African American boys who lived in public housing in New York City, and they improvised their music on homemade instruments
