Barking Dog: February 2, 2023
Since today is Groundhog Day, we thought we’d kick off the show with some groundhog songs.
Ramblin’ Thomas - Ground Hog Blues No. 2
Country blues singer known for his slide guitar recordings of the 20s and 30s
Brother of Jesse “Babyface” Thomas, another blues musician
Recorded February 9, 1932 in Dallas, Texas
Joel Mabus - Groundhog
Contemporary folk multi-instrumentalist from southern Illinois
Off his 1993 album Flatpick & Clawhammer
A traditional song from the Appalachian region of the United States, first recorded by Jack Reedy and His Walker Mountain String Band in 1928
Sam Amidon - Groundhog
Contemporary folk artist from Vermont
From his 2013 album Bright Sunny South
The next three recordings are from people with birthdays today, February 2nd.
Graham Nash - Be Yourself
He’s an English musician now based in the United States who’s known primarily as a member of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and he’s 81 today!
This is a demo from 1971
It’s his own song
The Dubliners - Finnegan’s Wake
It’s the Irish writer James Joyce’s birthday today
He was born 141 years ago, in 1882
Joyce was a member of the modernist avant-garde movement of the first half of the 20th century, and is known both for his short stories and for his novels, which include Ulysses and Finnegans Wake
The latter is named after the traditional Irish-American ballad we heard
The song was published in 1864, and was popular in music halls of the time
It later became popular among Irish folk performers during the mid-century folk revival
The Dubliners were an Irish folk band who were active from 1962 until 2012
The Smothers Brothers - Laredo
It’s Tom Smothers’ 86th birthday today!
The Smothers Brothers are an American comedy duo consisting of brothers Tom and Dick Smothers, who began performing together professionally in the later 1950s
In 1967, they began hosting their own variety show on CBS called The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which was as controversial as it was influential
The show was cancelled in 1969, but the brothers have continued to work together, and are even planning to go on tour this year
When the Smothers Brothers started out, they considered themselves folk singers rather than comedians, and they’ve often incorporated folk music into their act
That was one of their humorous takes on a folk standard
“Streets of Laredo” is also known as “The Cowboy’s Lament” or “The Dying Cowboy”, and it’s an American cowboy ballad adapted from a sea song called "The Sailor's Grave” which was written by Edwin Hubbell Chapin, published in 1839
Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell - Free Little Bird
Loeb is from Maryland and Mitchell is from New York
They both began their careers in the late 1980s in the duo Liz and Lisa
They reunited in 2003 for the children’s album Catch the Moon, which is where this recording is from
It’s a traditional American folk song
Mimi and Richard Fariña - The Falcon
Mimi Fariña was the younger sister of Joan Baez and a talented folksinger in her own right, who founded Bread and Roses, an organisation that presents free music and entertainment to those in institutional environments
Richard Fariña was her husband, a musician and writer known for songs like “Pack Up Your Sorrows” and for his novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
Both were active during the folk revival of the 1960s
This is from their 1965 album Celebrations for a Grey Day
It takes some elements from the traditional folk song “The Cuckoo”
Pharis & Jason Romero - Rolling Mills
From Horsefly, BC
Off their recent album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which was recorded live over six days in a 60-year-old barn beside the Little Horsefly River
It’s a banjo-centric album, created to highlight the sound of the banjos that Jason makes
He plays a gourd banjo they call “Gourdo” on this one, which he built in 2019
The song seems to be by George Landers, a banjo player from Marshall, NC
Bob Gibson - John Riley
Gibson was an influential American folk singer known particularly for his work during the folk revival of the 50s and 60s
This is a traditional English folk song, and one of many about a lover who returns in disguise to test his sweetheart’s love then reveals his identity by showing her a ring they had broken together
Gibson recorded it in 1957
Sibylle Baier - Softly
German folk singer
She’s a German folksinger who came to prominence later in life with her 2006 album, Colour Green, which she released when she was 51 years old but recorded in the 1970s
This song is from that album
Uncle Sinner - Wolves A-Howling
Artist from Winnipeg
This is from his 2015 album Let the Devil In
It’s an old-time tune from the southwest United States
Utah Phillips - Joe Hill’s Last Will
He was an anarchist folksinger, storyteller, and labour organiser from Ohio who also rode the rails throughout the United States and worked as an archivist, a dishwasher, and a warehouse-man at various points in his life
From the 1990 compilation album Don’t Mourn—Organize!: Songs of Labour Songwriter Joe Hill
Faith Petric - Grandma’s Battle Cry
She was a folksinger and activist originally from Idaho who was the head of the San Francisco Folk Music Club for 50 years
Petric was involved in activism for her entire life, participating in the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches of 1965, sitting on anti-fascism committees, and assisting Spanish Civil War refugees
From a 1985 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine, a cooperative that was dedicated to reinvigorating the New York folk scene, and released over 100 albums between 1982 and 1998
The issue this one is from is dedicated to female folksingers
Petric was 72 when she recorded it
David Rovics - Corporations Are People, Too
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
Off his 2013 album Everything Can Change
He says on his website (a great resource!) that this the song was a response to Mitt Romney’s statement to that effect, but also a response to the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, which suddenly allowed corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections in the United States
Miriam Makeba - Khawuleza (Hurry, Mama, Hurry!)
She was a musician, actor, and activist from South Africa
She met the American singer Harry Belafonte in London in the late 1950s, and he became her mentor as she recorded her first album after moving to New York City in 1960
Makeba gained popularity in the United States during this time, and she and Belafonte recorded an album together in 1965 called An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba, which is where this song is from
Makeba was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement and anti-apartheid activism, and married Black Panther Party leader Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s, which lost her the support of many white Americans
After this, the US government revoked her visa while she was out of the country, and she and her husband relocated to Guinea, where she continued to perform and take part in political activism until her death in 2008
Aggeok Pitseolak - Illukitaaruti (Juggling Song)
Off a 1976 album of Inuit songs and games
This is a song that accompanies a juggling game
Tony Schwartz - The Sound of Numbers
He was an agoraphobic sound archivist who spent much of his life documenting the sounds of his neighbourhood in New York City, though he also collected recordings from around the world by corresponding with international musicians
From the 1962 album “You’re Stepping on My Shadow”, which was originally broadcast on WNYC’s Around New York program
In the liner notes, Schwartz states: “It is hoped that this record will demonstrate the use of the tape recorder as a tool similar to the portable camera and that someday soon, the term "the art of recording" will really mean something more than the technique of recording.”
William Riley - No More Auction Block for Me
From an album of recordings made by or for the folklorist Helen Creighton between 1943 and 1967 of black Nova Scotian music
William Riley was 87 when he recorded this song for Creighton in 1943, and he was very passionate about anti-slavery songs, which is what this song is
It is a post-slavery freedom song commonly found in Canada and also known as “Many Thousands Gone”
Jeff Ampolsk - The Wood Cutter’s Song
The only information I can find about him comes from the Smithsonian Folkways website, which says: “A string of childhood offenses (from killing lizards to schoolyard fighting), being parented by a village of "home-grown southern reactionaries," dropping out of school, divorcing at age twenty, suffering harsh winters at the mercy of a New York City slumlord—these are just a few of the experiences that have contributed to folksinger/guitarist Jeff Ampolsk’s gritty message.”
Old Man Luedecke - I Quit My Job
From Chester, NS
Off his album Hinterland from 2006
Shirley Collins - Two Brethren
She’s an English folk singer, and likely one of the best-known names from the English folk revival of the 1960s and 70s
This recording was made in London in 1966
This is a traditional English ballad also known as “Come All You Jolly Ploughboys” and “Here’s April, Here’s May”
Mary Elizabeth Remington, Adrianne Lenker - Dresser Hill
Remington is a musician based in Massachusetts
Lenker is from Minnesota, and is known as a member of the band Big Thief
This one is from Remington’s forthcoming album In Embudo, which comes out on February 10th and was recorded in a small house in Embudo, New Mexico
Tucker Smallwood - Walkin’ Blues
Off a 1984 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine that focuses on The Blues
Smallwood is an actor, writer, and musician originally from Washington, DC who’s appeared in shows like The X-Files, Seinfeld, and Star Trek, and in movies like Contact and Deep Impact
In the liner notes for the album, he’s described as “a New York-based actor who has been greatly influenced by the music and spirit of Robert Johnson”
Smallwood even recorded a Robert Johnson tribute album in 1981
This song is associated with Johnson, who recorded his own version in 1936, though it was written by Son House in 1930
Pete Seeger, Frank Hamilton - Pygmy Tune
Pete Seeger was a very influential folk singer and activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmentalism, and other social causes through his music
Hamilton is an American folk musician and collector of folk songs who was a member of the Weavers along with Pete Seeger and appeared at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959
He was also the house musician at the Gate of Horn, the first folk music club in the United States
From their 1959 album Nonesuch and Other Folk Tunes
There isn’t any information provided about this song, but we’ll hear another recording from the same region of Africa after this
Baka People - Hut Song
The Baka live in the rainforests of Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Gabon, and have retained their own language and cultural traditions for centuries
That recording was made in the mid 1970s by Simha Arom and Phillipe Renaud
Arom is an expert on the music of central Africa
That song was sung by thirteen girls using a method called the yeyi, which is physiologically similar to yodelling
Allen Ginsberg - A Supermarket in California
He was a poet and writer from New Jersey, known as one of the leading figures in the Beat Generation
From the album At Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems, recorded in February of 1956
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes - I’d Rather Be the Devil
Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is the last living member of the original Bentonia School, a style of blues which is defined by its preference for minor tunings and its shared repertoire of songs
He learned to play from Henry Stuckey, whose music was never recorded despite the fact he may have been the originator of the Bentonia blues style
Holmes began the Bentonia Blues Festival with his mother Mary Holmes in 1972, and it still takes place every year
He also owns the Blue Front Cafe in Bentonia, which is the oldest remaining juke joint in the state of Mississippi
They say that if you go down to the Blue Front Cafe, if you’re lucky, Holmes will play for you, and if you’re really lucky, he’ll teach you to play
This is a song by Skip James, another member of the Bentonia School, who recorded it in 1931 as “Devil Got My Woman”
Harrison Kennedy - Bad Luck and Trouble
Harrison Kennedy a Hamilton, Ontario artist with a career in blues and roots music spanning over 50 years
From his 2005 album Voice + Story
Big Dave McLean - Police and High Sheriff
A blues musician from Winnipeg who’s been playing for over 50 years
This song seems to come from the 1927 Ollis Martin recording “Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down”, and the song was undoubtedly the inspiration for the newer folksong “Gotta Travel On”
McLean includes it on his 2008 album Acoustic Blues: Got ‘Em from the Bottom
Silvertone Jubilee Quartette - Wait on the Rising Sun
A gospel quartet presumably from South Carolina
Recorded in Columbia, South Carolina in 1938 for Vocalion Records
David Francey - Come Rain or Come Shine
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 2003 album Skating Rink
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 2014 album Old Time
Richard Brautigan - Love Poem
He was a writer from the Pacific Northwest best known for his novel Trout Fishing in America, though he wrote numerous other novels and collections of poetry and short stories
This one is from his 1970 spoken word album Listening to Richard Brautigan
It was first published in his 1969 poetry collection The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster
