Barking Dog: March 13, 2025
Neil Young - Sail Away
This is from the newly released album Oceanside Countryside, which Young recorded in 1977
Ellen Stekert - The Walker Outside
She’s a folklorist, musician, and scholar from New York (now based in Minnesota) who began her career in Greenwich Village in the 1950s
In the last year or so, she’s been working with the writer Christopher Bahn on a website where they share music, writing, and photography from her archives
They’re working on putting together an album of archival recordings, and they just released this single, recorded at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 1975
As Ellen says at the end of the recording, the song is by Malvina Reynolds, who was a good friend of hers
Sons of Membertou - Ko’jua
They’re a Mi’kmaw group from Unama’kik (also known as Cape Breton, Nova Scotia)
This is from the brand new Smithsonian Folkways reissue of their 1995 album Wapna’kik: The People of the Dawn
This is one of several versions of a traditional partridge dance, a favourite social dance in Mi’kmaw communities
The liner notes state that the dance itself is even more important than the song, and it involves fast footwork
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Chao Tian - The White Snake Song
This year’s Folk Fest lineup was announced a few days ago, so we’re going to play three acts we’re looking forward to seeing, starting with Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, and Chao Tian
A married duo that has been performing together for over 35 years
Cathy Fink is from Maryland, but began her career in the early 70s, busking and playing folk music in Canadian coffeehouses, and played the very first Folk Fest in 1974
She met Marcy Marxer, originally from Michigan, in Toronto in 1980, and they started writing songs together in 1983
Since then, they have released about 35 albums and received 14 Grammy nominations and 2 Grammy awards
Chao is a Chinese hammered dulcimer player, sound designer, and visual artist who has performed in over 30 countries and has been fostering cultural exchange between the United States and China since 2015
This is off their album From China to Appalachia, which came out last August
This is the theme song for a Chinese TV drama based on a well-known folktale about a white snake spirit who turns into a human and falls in love with a scholar, despite interference by a monk, who imprisons the spirit
The song was composed by Zuo Hongyuan, with lyrics by Gong Min
Ye Vagabonds - The Foggy Dew
They’re an Irish folk duo made up of brothers Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn
This’ll be their first time at Folk Fest
“The Foggy Dew” is a traditional Irish tune
Their version is from their 2019 album The Hare’s Lament
Gillian Welch, David Rawlings - Howdy Howdy
Welch and Rawlings are one of the best-known contemporary American roots duos, and they’ve been nominated for an Oscar and have won a Grammy together
This is from their album Woodland, which came out in August
It’s their first album of original music since 2011 for Welch and 2017 for Rawlings
JD Short - Help Me Some
Short was a blues musician from Mississippi who performed under a number of different aliases beginning in 1930
This one was recorded in July of 1962 in St. Louis, Missouri by music historian and writer Samuel Charters
Katie Lee - The Canyoneers
She was a folksinger, writer, actress, and activist from Arizona known for her opposition to river dams, particularly Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona
From her 1964 album of folk songs from the Colorado River
She learned the song from its writer, Loy Clingman, a cowboy, musician, and trail guide at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon
Édith Butler - Vishten Avina Vi
She’s an Acadian musician and folklorist from New Brunswick who began her career in the early 1960s
This is from her 2021 album Le Tour du Grand Bois, which was produced by fellow New Brunswickan Lisa Leblanc
She wrote and composed this song, which is inspired by a traditional song
Terry Telson - I Am Grey
He’s a musician and poet born and raised in Chicago, who moved to the mountains of Prescott, Arizona in the 1970s to hone his craft, which resulted in his little-known 1975 album While in Exile
He says, “Figuring I got what I wanted from the mountains, I moved to San Francisco and the rest is yesterday’s look in the rearview mirror”
This is from While in Exile, which was repressed by Skull Valley Records in 2023
Shelby Gospel Four - How About You?
This group seems to have recorded only 4 songs, all in North Carolina on June 7, 1938 for Decca Records
The song was composed by gospel choir leader Thomas A Dorsey and first published in 1930
Pete Seeger - How About You?
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
This one was written by the miner and folksinger Jim Garland of Kentucky in 1932
He wrote this song because after 6 months of work in the mines he still wasn’t able to afford to buy his wife a pair of slippers
He and the other miners went on strike but they received an injunction stating that they would likely have to face the Federal Courts
This song describes his feelings on the matter
Seeger’s version was recorded in 1975 as part of the What Now People? record series that advocated song as political movement
Robin Roberts - Little Birdie
She was a folksinger and actress from Utah who assisted the folklorist Alan Lomax when he travelled to the UK to make field recordings and produce a BBC series
This is from her 1959 album Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies
The song is widespread in the south, and many different lyrical verses have been collected
Elizabeth LaPrelle - Pretty Polly
She’s one half of the folk duo Anna & Elizabeth
She’s from Virginia, and grew up performing Appalachian ballads and old-time songs
This is from the 2023 album STOP MVP: Artists from West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline
“Pretty Polly” is a mid-eighteenth-century American murder ballad that’s also popular as a banjo tune
It comes from several older British ballads including “The Gosport Tragedy” and “The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter”
Uncle Sinner - You Got to Die
From Winnipeg
Off his 2008 album Ballads and Mental Breakdowns
This song is by Blind Willie McTell, and it’s very similar to the traditional gospel song “Climbing High Mountains”
Corinne Morgan, Frank C Stanley - When You and I Were Young, Maggie
She was a contralto singer from Ohio who was one of the earliest recording artists, beginning her career in 1902
She recorded for all the major recording companies of the day, starting with Edison and Columbia and moving to Victor Records in 1904
She recorded several duets with Frank Stanley, including this one
Stanley was a singer and banjo player, active beginning in 1891 when he recorded several banjo solos for Edison
This is the first recording of “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” from 1905
The song is a popular standard with lyrics originally written as a poem by Hamilton, Ontario school teacher George W Johnson in 1864 and later put to music by James Austin Butterfield
Paul Eakins - When You and I Were Young Maggie
This comes from the 1972 album Circus Calyope
It’s performed on a 1928 Wurlitzer Caliola by Paul Eakins
Stompin’ Tom Connors - Maggie, When You and I Were Young
He was a musician from New Brunswick known for a number of classic Canadian songs like “Bud the Spud” and “The Hockey Song”
Connors grew up poor in Saint John, and first began hitchhiking at the age of 13
He was still hitchhiking around the country in his 20s, and found himself at a bar in Timmins, Ontario, where the bartender offered him a second beer if he played a few songs
From those songs, he got a 14-month run as an entertainer at the bar, a radio show, and a recording career
Connors’ version is from his 2004 album And the Hockey Mom Tribute
Utah Phillips - Kid’s Liberation Song
He was an anarchist folksinger, storyteller, and labour organiser from Ohio
This comes from the 1980 album Silly Songs and Modern Lullabies, featuring Phillips, Peter Alsop, Happy Traum, and Dan Crow
Dick Gaughan - The World Turned Upside Down
Gaughan is a Scottish musician who began playing professionally in 1970, though he stopped playing publicly in 2016 due to a stroke that affected his ability to perform
This is from his 1997 album A Different Kind of Love Song
It’s a 1975 song by Leon Rosselson about the 1649 revolt of the dispossessed Diggers in England, who cultivated common land and fought against the property holders to gain equality
Joe Glazer - Song of the Guaranteed Wage
Glazer was a folk musician and labour activist from New York who recorded over 30 albums during his career
This is from his 1985 album The UAW: Fifty Years in Song and Story, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Auto Workers union
The Wakami Wailers - Log Driver’s Waltz
They’re a band that formed in 1981 when four employees at Wakami Lake Provincial Park, near Chapleau, Ontario, started playing Canadian folk music together
They have continued playing since then, and have released four albums
This is off their 1993 album Waltz with the Woods
The song is by the Canadian folksinger Wade Hemsworth
Reverend Gary Davis - She’s Funny That Way
He was from South Carolina but moved to Durham, North Carolina in the 20s and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1933, after which he began to play gospel music instead of the secular music he was previously known for
He moved to New York in the 40s, and he was later active in the 1960s folk revival
He played at Newport Folk Festival and was an important figure in the Greenwich Village scene in New York, teaching and performing with popular artists including Dave Van Ronk
This seems to be his own song, though it’s related to the popular song of the same name
Tom Kines - Tim Finnegan’s Wake
He was a folklorist and musician born in Roblin, Manitoba
This is from his 1962 album An Irishman in North Americay
“Finnegan’s Wake” is an Irish-American ballad published in 1864 that was popular in music halls of the time
It later became popular among Irish folk performers during the mid-century folk revival
Kines’ version comes from the singing of Frank Faulkner of South East Passage, NS, recorded by the folklorist Helen Creighton
AJJ - Normalization Blues
They’re a folk punk band from Arizona that’s been performing for 20 years
This is from their recent EP of demos called Good Luck Everybody
Susmit Bose - The Economic Hit Man
He’s an Indian musician who’s been playing since the 1970s, and appeared in the 2019 documentary If Not for You, which is about Calcutta’s long-lasting affinity with Bob Dylan
This is from his 2006 album Be the Change
The Men of No Property - Jesus and Jesse
This is from the 1977 Folkways album England’s Vietnam—Irish Songs of Resistance: Sung by the Men of No Property
The Men of No Property were Belfast-born musicians Barney McIlvogue, Brian Whoriskey, and Irene Clarke, all students who took part in protests and marches in Northern Ireland in 1969 during the Northern Ireland civil rights campaign
The liner notes for this song state: “The last person to write surrealist fantasies like this in Ireland was Oliver St. John Gogarty—and he's dead. If you're not from Belfast you'll have difficulty in understanding Brian Whoriskey's song. Don't worry, so does he.”
Bob Dylan - The Ballad of the Gliding Swan
This was recorded as part of the now-lost 1963 BBC television play Madhouse on Castle Street, in which Dylan was cast to provide musical interludes
The song was likely written by the playwright, Evan Jones, but was apparently and unsurprisingly substantially rewritten by Dylan
Genticorum - Belle alouette au champs
They’re a traditional Quebecois trio from Montreal who have been playing together since 2000
This is from their 2023 album Au coeur de l’aube
It’s a traditional French-Canadian song
Zachary Lucky - The Wind
That was Zachary Lucky, a musician from Saskatchewan who just released a new album called The Wind in November, and that was the title track from it
Carlos Puebla and His Tradicionales - Yankee, Go Home!
This is from the 1975 album Cuba: Songs for Our America
Puebla was a Cuban musician and songwriter, and a member of the Trova movement that was started by 19th century troubadours who earned a living performing songs they or their contemporaries had composed
This is a bolero song, a style that originated as part of the trova movement
The song begins: “I know little about English / as I only speak Spanish / but I understand the people when they say: ‘Yankee go home!’”
Bob Connelly - Ewell T Otis
From his 1975 Folkways Records album Yankee Go Home: Songs of Protest Against American Imperialism
It was commissioned by Pete Seeger, and Connelly recorded it in one day on a borrowed guitar
The day he recorded it happened to be the same day that Seeger was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee
The next day, Moses Asch, head of Folkways Records, called him up and said, “Mr. Connelly, Mo here. Have you heard the news or read the newspaper? I do not think the time is right to release an album about American imperialism.” Connelly replied, “Darn right,” but the album ended up being released after all
This song is about the Filipino fight for independence after the United States “purchased” the Philippine Islands from Spain
In describing the situation, the liner notes state: “In short, the American ‘liberators’ took on all of the brutality and grotesqueness of the Spanish ‘oppressors’—and all this was done in the name of freedom, democracy, and peace”
Riley Puckett - McKinley
Puckett was an American country music artist known as a member of Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers
The song is about the assassination of the 25th US president, William McKinley, who annexed the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam and raised import tariffs to nearly 50%
On September 6, 1901, the anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot him inside a concert hall at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo New York, and McKinley died a week later
Czolgosz was sentenced to the electric chair, stating “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people—the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime. I am sorry I could not see my father.”
As a result of the assassination, Congress passed legislation that officially tasked the Secret Service with protecting the president
Puckett recorded the song in 1929 for Columbia Records
James Reaney - The Heart and the Sun
From the 1958 album Six Toronto Poets
Reaney was a poet from Stratford, Ontario who became one of Canada’s best-known poets
He was a professor at the University of Manitoba in the 1950s, and later taught at the University of Western Ontario
Brad Leftwich & the Hogwire Stringband - Susan’s Gone
