Barking Dog: February 23, 2023
Willie Dunn - Louis Riel
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This is his ballad about Louis Riel, the founder of Manitoba, just in time for Louis Riel Day
Alash - Oglumga
From their 2017 album Achai
Alash are an ensemble of Tuvan musicians, who are an ethnic group indigenous to Siberia and now living in Russia, China, and Mongolia
They began playing together in 1999 while they were all studying music
This song was written by legendary Tuvan musician Aleksandr Sarzhat-ool
Cathy Fink - Time Draws Near
Cathy Fink is from Maryland, but began her career in the early 70s, busking and playing folk music in Canadian coffeehouses
She’s known for playing as a duo with her wife, Marcy Marxer, who she met in Toronto in 1980
Together, they have released about 35 albums and received 14 Grammy nominations and 2 Grammy awards
This is a traditional song that was found in the Ozarks and the Appalachian region after the American Civil War
Most of the lyrics used today come from Carl Sandburg’s 1927 book The American Songbag, and many versions seem to be influenced by Tommy Jarrell’s 1970s recording
David Nzomo - You Must Tell Me
He’s a musician from Kenya who recorded six albums of traditional Kenyan songs for Folkways records while he was studying at Columbia University in the 1960s and 70s
This song is about Nzomo’s frustrating experiences as he became acquainted with aspects of American culture—particularly the use of words like honey, sweetheart, darling, and baby to address people
Nzomo notes that the use of these words is “of such great significance as to stand out as a cornerstone in the process of acculturation”
He also states that he lost many a possible girlfriend because he could not use those words as freely
Leonard Cohen - Elegy
From a 1957 album of poems by six Montreal poets
Cohen wrote that one in 1955
Bruce Cockburn - Bird Without Wings
Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who’s been playing professionally for over 40 years
This is from the 2022 compilation album, Rarities, which presents 12 rarely heard recordings by Cockburn
He wrote this song in the 60s, and recorded it in Ottawa in 1966
This recording was first released on his Rumours of Glory box set in 2014
Big Dave McLean - Needed Time
A blues musician from Winnipeg who’s been playing for over 50 years
It’s off McLean’s 2008 album Acoustic Blues: Got ‘Em from the Bottom
“Needed Time” is a traditional American song, popularised in the 20th century by Lightnin’ Hopkins
It uses the same tune as “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”
Billy Connolly - Everybody Knows That
Though he may be better known as a comedian and actor, he started out as a folksinger with a comedic persona in the 1960s
This one was recorded live in 1974
Morley Loon - Caminconoch
He was a Cree musician and actor from Mistissini, Quebec
This one’s from his debut album, Northland, My Land, from 1981
The title translates to “Spirits”
Unspecified - Gumising Ka, Kabataan (Youth, Rise Up!)
From the 1976 album Philippines: Bangon! Arise!, which protests Ferdinand Marcos’ military dictatorship and American imperialism’s role in supporting his regime
Dave Van Ronk - The Jersey State Stomp
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
From the very first 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 1997
This one just lists place names in New Jersey
Ferron - Slender Wet Branches
She’s a musician and poet from British Columbia
This is off her 2013 album Thunder and Lighten-ing
Joanne Shenandoah - I May Want a Man
From the 1995 album Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women
She was a Grammy award-winning musician and composer from the Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York, and she performed internationally, including at Carnegie Hall and the Vatican
This love song is by her sister, Danielle
Kenneth Peacock - Green Shores of Fogo
He was an ethnomusicologist from Toronto who was on the staff for what is now the Canadian Museum of Civilization
His projects for the museum covered practically every part of Canada, and he seems to have learned this song while researching the folk music of Newfoundland in the 1950s
He’s remembered for the impact this research had on the folk music revival in Canada in the mid 20th century
This is a Newfoundland folk song from the area around Fogo, which has strong Irish ancestry
It’s likely based on the Irish-American emigrant ballad “The Country I’m Leaving Behind”
Arthur Russell - Sharper Eyes
He was a cellist, singer, composer, and producer from Iowa who was part of the New York avant garde scene in the 1970s
He died from AIDS in 1992 at the age of 40 when his work was still somewhat obscure, but rereleases, books, and a documentary about him brought more attention to his work throughout the 2000s, and more of his recordings have been released over time
This is off the 2019 compilation album Iowa Dream
Lord Myrie, Cecil Mitchel, James Convery - Goodnight Ladies
From a 1960 album of Jamaican calypso music
This is a medley of songs, which includes “Goodnight Ladies”, “Loch Lomond”, and “Show Me the Way to Go Home”
The McIntosh County Shouters - I Want to Die Like Weepin’ Mary
This is from a 1984 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, “saut,” and doesn’t refer to the vocalisation present in the songs
The most important stylistic components of the tradition are call-and-response singing, hand-clapping, and the movement of performers in a counterclockwise circle
The McIntosh County Shouters have been performing since 1980, though the slave shout tradition has been passed down since the time of slavery
Lucille Holloway leads this one
Ali Farka Touré - Bakoye
Toure was an internationally known Malian musician who blended traditional Malian music with North American blues
He collaborated with many other musicians, including Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal
From his 1988 self-titled album
Les Pine - Depression
A monologue off the 1959 album Hootenanny Tonight!
It was written and performed by standup comedian, playwright, and screenwriter Les Pine from Chicago
Art Samuels and the Montreal Youth Singers - Status Quo
Samuels was a Montreal musician
This song is from a 1956 album that includes both "songs of peace and protest" and "songs of fun and impudence”
Pete Seeger - Pepsi-Cola
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
Off his 1959 album Folk Songs for Young People
Stan Rogers - Down the Road
This is from the posthumous compilation album From Coffee House to Concert Hall from 1999
The song is by Mary McCaslin
Si Kahn - Sunrise
He’s a community organizer and musician from Pennsylvania who moved to the south as an activist during the Civil Rights Movement
This song was recorded in 1977 for the What Now People series that advocated song as political movement
He says about the song, “As far as information about the song, I can’t remember when or where I wrote it, so I’d just as soon let it stand on its own”
Fiver - Song of the Mournful Millionaire
Stage name of Toronto-based artist Simone Schmidt
This is off their recent album Soundtrack to A More Radiant Sphere: The Joe Wallace Mixtape
It was commissioned for the documentary A More Radiant Sphere, which tells the story of Joe Wallace, a Canadian communist, political prisoner and poet who was largely ignored within the country but admired in Eastern Europe and Russia
This song is by Wallace, and it was written in 1950
Schmidt says of the song, “When I read the poem for the first time in 2020, I was struck at how apt a roast it was of today's oligarch space colonists”
Nathan Doucet, Nick Dourado, and John Showman also play on this recording
The Carolinians - Bad Conditions
They were a gospel group that recorded a session for Bluebird Records in Rock Hill, SC in 1938
This is a traditional gospel song
Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Kaye, David Mansfield, Marc Ribot - New Stanzas for Amazing Grace
This was Ginsberg’s final musical project, which was released in July of 1996, 9 months before his death
He’s joined by David Mansfield, Marc Ribot, and Lenny Kaye on this one, though other tracks on the album feature Paul McCartney and Philip Glass
This is a musical version of a poem he composed at the request of the poet Ed Sanders
Lattie Murrell - Rollin’ and Tumblin’
A Tennessee musician nicknamed “The Wolf” because of all the Howlin’ Wolf songs he played
A version of “Roll and Tumble Blues”, first recorded by Hambone Willie Newbern in 1929
Tony Schwartz - Nancy Grows Up
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
This is off his 1970 album Tony Schwartz Records the Sound of Children, which was edited from hundreds of interviews with children
On this track, we hear a girl named Nancy as she grows from a baby into a teenager
Joe Hickerson, Howie Mitchell, Ed Trickett, John Dildine, Sara Grey, Neal MacMillan - Waterbound
A group of musicians from around the States who gathered several times in the 1970s in Sharon, Connecticut for several days of non-competitive, group music-making
Joe Hickerson leads this one—he’s a folk singer and songleader from Illinois who was Librarian and Director of the Archive of Folk Song at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress for 35 years
This is an old Appalachian song
Pedro Rocha, Lupe Martinez - Corrido Pensylvanio
From an album of some of the first Mexican-American border music recordings
They were the most popular duo to record in San Antonio in the 20s and 30s
This was recorded in Chicago in 1929, and it’s a farewell love song
Uncle Sinner - Long Gone
From Winnipeg
Off his 2020 album Trouble of This World
Smoky Babe - I’m Goin’ Home on the Morning Train
From an album of 17 Smoky Babe songs, recorded by the folklorist Harry Oster in the early 1960s but not released until 2014
Smoky Babe was an itinerant musician originally from Mississippi who grew up working on farms in his region, then travelled around Alabama and Louisiana working on barges and as a mechanic during the day, and playing at clubs at night
This seems to be a traditional African American spiritual, likely composed by an enslaved person and passed on through the oral tradition
Joseph Spence - In Times Like This
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 in 2021
The song was composed during World War II by Ruth Caye Jones, a Pennsylvania evangelist and gospel songwriter
Tomoya Takaishi - The Times They Are A-Changin’
He’s a Japanese folksinger who’s been active since the 1960s
While studying at Rikkyo University, he started singing folk songs that he translated from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger recordings to earn money for school expenses
This is off an album of songs recorded live at Osaka Sankei Hall in 1968
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
Pharis & Jason Romero - Cold Creek Shout
From Horsefly, BC
Off their 2022 album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which was recorded live over six days in a 60-year-old barn beside the Little Horsefly River
This tune is an homage to both “Coal Creek March” and “Baptist Shout”, two of the couple’s favourite banjo tunes
