Barking Dog: February 20, 2025
David Francey - February Morning Drive
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who worked as a railyard worker and carpenter for 20 years before pursuing folk music at the age of 45
Off his 2001 album Far End of Summer
Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band - Si tu Veux Amuser (If You Want to Have Some Fun)
They were a group that recorded four albums of Cajun music for Arhoolie Records between 1981 and 2000
This is from their last album, Sam’s Big Rooster
The McIntosh County Shouters - Drive Ol’ Joe
This is from a 2017 album of slave shout songs, a tradition that’s localised largely to the coast of Georgia
Many elements of the slave shout tradition come from West Africa, though the tradition is also related to other African diasporic traditions from Brazil and Cuba
The word “shout” in this case comes from an Afro-Islamic term for a sacred dance, and doesn’t refer to the vocalisation present in the songs
The McIntosh County Shouters have been performing since 1980, though the slave shout tradition has been passed down since the time of slavery
Dave Van Ronk - I’ve Had My Fun
A member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, MacDougal Street being where practically every coffeehouse was located in the 60s
Recorded live in Monterey, California in 1998
It’s a blues standard written by St. Louis Jimmy Oden and released in 1941
Joe Hickerson - Drive Dull Care Away
He’s a 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
He got this version from Sandy Ives, who collected folk music on the east coasts of the United States and Canada
Ives heard it from Charles Gorman of PEI in 1957, and it is an exceptionally rare song, though Hickerson found two other versions of it, one with a different tune that has been printed by The Sacred Harp since 1844, and another with only the words, from a 1775 edition of The Pennsylvania Ledger, so it is rather far reaching despite its uncommon nature
Roberto Murolo - Funiculi Funiculà
He was an Italian musician and actor whose career spanned over 60 years
The song was written in 1880 by Peppino Turco and Luigi Denza to commemorate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius
Alan Mills - The Badger Drive
Mills was a Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec known for popularizing Canadian folk music
Made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian folklore
This is from his 1953 album Folk Songs of Newfoundland
The song is about the hardships and hazards of log-driving
Unspecified - Women having fun (Fiji)
A field recording from Swedish composer and musician Åke Parmerud’s 1997 album Grains of Voices
Members of the Girl Guides of Molepolole - Drive Away the Birds!
This is from the 1983 Folkways album Traditional Music of Botswana, Africa: A Journey with Tape Recorder along Southern Botswana from Mochudi to Kang
Jesse Winchester - Dangerous Fun
He was an American-Canadian musician who was originally from the southern States but moved to Quebec in the late 1960s to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War
This is off his second album, Third Down, 110 to Go, from 1972
Two Gospel Keys - Stranger, Don’t Drive Me Away
1940s gospel duo, with Emma Daniels singing and playing guitar and Mother Sally Jones singing and playing tambourine
This one was released on Apollo Records in 1948
Dervish - Last Nights Fun
They’re a traditional Irish group from County Sligo, Ireland, who have been active since the late 1980s
This is from their 1995 album Playing with Fire
Blind Willie McTell - Drive Away Blues
He was a piedmont blues and ragtime artist who made many recordings with different companies under different names, but who never had a major hit
Despite his lack of commercial success, he actively played and recorded during the 40s and 50s, unlike many of his peers
He did not live to see the folk revival of the 1960s through which many other bluesmen were rediscovered, but he influenced many artists, including Taj Mahal and The White Stripes
He recorded this one in 1929 for Victor Records
Bob Carlin, John Hartford - The Fun of Open Discussion
Carlin is an old-time singer and banjo player from NYC
He’s toured Europe and North America playing on historical banjos, and has also learned more about African banjo traditions through his collaborations with Malian musician Cheick Hamala Diabaté
Hartford was an American roots artist known for his fiddle and banjo playing and for his knowledge of Mississippi River lore
This is the title track from their 1995 album
Sons of the San Joaquin - Trail Drive
They’re a Western family band that began performing together in 1987
This is off their 1999 album Horses, Cattle & Coyotes
This song is by Jack Hannah, one of the members of the band
Furry Lewis - Just a Little Fun
American country blues artist from Memphis, Tennessee who began his recording career in 1927
Recorded at his home in Memphis in 1969
Willie Harris - Never Drive a Stranger from Your Door
He was a blues musician born in Louisiana who lived and recorded in Chicago
He recorded this one in 1930 for Brunswick Records
The Monkees - Good Clean Fun
This is from their 1969 album The Monkees Present
Bo Carter - Please Don’t Drive Me From Your Door
Bo Carter was an early blues musician, born Armenter Chatmon
His brothers, Lonnie and Sam Chatmon, were also blues musicians, and they were all members of the blues group the Mississippi Sheiks
This one is from 1934
Snooks Eaglin - Well, I Had My Fun (Goin’ Down Slow)
Eaglin an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
Union Jubilee Quartet - Please Don’t Drive Me Away
They were Bozie Sturdivant, John Skipper, and Booker T. Garner
Recorded at Silent Grove Baptist Church in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in July of 1942
Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee - I Have Had My Fun
They were an American folk and blues duo who were very popular during the folk revival of the 1960s, and performed together for nearly 40 years
This one is from their 1958 self-titled album
Fred Eaglesmith - Drive In Movie
He’s an Ontario musician who hopped a freight train going west as a teenager and began writing and performing his music
This is from Volume 1 of his official bootleg series, from 2001
Cayouche - C’est du fun à être fou
He was an Acadian musician from New Brunswick, and one of the few Acadian artists to have sold over 100,000 albums
This is from his first album, Un Vieux Hippy, from 1994
Gordon Bok - River Drive
Bok is a folklorist and musician from Maine who’s released almost 40 albums since the mid-1960s
This is from his 1999 album In the Kind Land
Jesse Milnes, Emily Miller - Fun’s All Over
They’re an old-time duo from West Virginia
This is from the 2015 album Deep End Sessions, Vol. 2
The Wailin’ Jennys - Driving
Winnipeg folk group formed in 2002
This was recorded live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania in 2008
Will Weldon - Hitch Me to Your Buggy and Drive Me Like a Mule
Weldon was a blues musician from Memphis, Tennessee, who is known as a member of the Memphis Jug Band
This one’s from 1927
