Barking Dog: March 19, 2026
Tony Trischka - Old Cacklin’ Hen
Trischka is from New York and he’s considered one of the most influential contemporary banjo players
This is from his new album Earl Jam 2, which came out on March 13th
He recorded it after receiving a thumb drive of recordings of Earl Scruggs jamming with John Hartford at private gatherings during the 80s and 90s
It features collaborations with artists like Del McCoury, Sierra Ferrell, and Molly Tuttle
Ghost Train Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Sam Amidon, Aoife O’Donovan - Behold
Ghost Train Orchestra are an ensemble from New York that formed in 2006 when musician and composer Brian Carpenter was appointed musical director for a historic theatre, and began arranging a collection of lesser known music from the 1920s, which transformed into Ghost Train Orchestra
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet from San Francisco that formed over 50 years ago
Amidon is a contemporary folk artist from Vermont, now based in England, and O’Donovan is a musician from Boston known for her work with the band Crooked Still
This is from the 2023 album Songs & Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog
Moondog was an avant-garde composer, musician, poet, and inventor from Wyoming who influenced later artists including Steve Reich and Philip Glass
He wrote this song in 1969
Alexander Gallant - Fishes for the Seabirds
He’s a musician from Halifax, and this is from the forthcoming compilation album Big Turnips Vol. 3, a collection of recordings made by Dylan Jewers of Big Turnip Records of roots music from across Canada, which is set to be released in the next few months
Archie Edwards - Do Lord Remember Me
Was a Virginian Piedmont blues artist
In the 50s he owned a barbershop which other well-known blues musicians frequented, including Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James
From the 6th album in a series called Living Country Blues USA, which comprise field recordings made of American blues artists in 1980 by two German blues enthusiasts named Axel Kustner and Siegfried Christmann
This song is an African American spiritual from the 19th century
The Deighton Family - Going Down the Road
They’re a folk ensemble from Yorkshire, England, formed by parents Dave and Josie Deighton and their five children
They released their first album in 1980
This is off their 1988 album Acoustic Music to Suit Most Occasions
It’s a traditional song that’s been widely recorded by many well-known artists like Woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Cotten, and Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley
Also known as “Lonesome Road Blues”
Iron Horse - Trailer Trash
They’re a bluegrass group that formed in 2000 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama
They have released several of their own albums, and they were also commissioned by CMH Records to record a series of albums for the Pickin’ On series, which turns music from popular artists from various genres into bluegrass tunes
This is from the 2007 album Pickin’ on Modest Mouse
The song is from Modest Mouse’s 1997 album The Lonesome Crowded West
Kacy & Clayton - Go And Leave Me
Wood Mountain SK
This song is also known as “Fond Affection,” and it’s known all across England and Ireland and has also been found in Newfoundland
They included it on their 2017 album The Siren’s Song
Betsy Legg - Tomorrow is a Long Time
She’s a musician from Bristol, Tennessee who performed regularly at a venue in Georgia and recorded one album called Betsy in 1972, which is where this one comes from
It’s a widely covered Bob Dylan song, written in 1962
Hitoshi Komuro - City Morning
He’s a Japanese folksinger known as a member of the folk group Rokumonsen and as a composer for TV and movies
This song comes from his album Eyewitness, which was released in 1981
Pete Seeger - Mrs. McGrath
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist from New York who advocated for countless social causes through his music for 75 years
This is from the 1996 compilation album A Link in the Chain
It’s an Irish folk song, the narrative of which takes place during the Peninsular War of the early 1800s, possibly the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro against Napoleon in 1811
Utah Phillips - The Preacher and the Slave
Phillips was an anarchist folksinger, storyteller, and labour organiser from Ohio
Recorded live in British Columbia in February of 1981
The song satirizes the hymns of the Salvation Army, particularly “In the Sweet By and By,” from which it takes its tune
Robb Johnson - Why Not?
He’s a British musician known for his political satire, and he’s been playing since the 1970s, when he began performing in folk clubs
This comes from the 2012 album Celebrating Subversion: The Anti-Capitalist Roadshow, a collection of recordings by 11 musicians including Peggy Seeger and Leon Rosselson who oppose the “ideologically driven austerity programme imposed by [the British] government”
Cathie Taylor - Misty Blue
She’s a country music singer who was born in Winnipeg and began her career in California as a child
This is a recording from the 1960s country music TV Show Melody Ranch
Old Man Luedecke - Mountain Plain
From Chester, NS
This is from his 2010 album My Hands Are on Fire and Other Love Songs
Norma Tanega - Maggie My Dog
She was a musician and painter from California best known for her songs “Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog” and “You’re Dead”
She also spent several years in New York City, where she was involved in the Greenwich Village folk scene
This is off the 2022 compilation album I’m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964-1971
Sammy Walker - Talkin’ Skydiving Blues
He’s a folksinger from Georgia who recorded his first albums in the mid 1970s
This is an unreleased song from 1975
Helen Cockram - The Pinnacle Mountain Silver Mine
Written by Cockram in 1974 and is from an album of Virginia songs and ballads
It’s about the myth of a disappearing silver mine in the region, which she first heard from her father
Cockram is joined by her husband’s bluegrass band The Highlanders on this track
Leake County String Band - Cat Fight / Leather Britches
They were the longest-lived string band in Mississippi, though they only had one recording session, in 1971, which is where this one comes from
“Leather Britches” is one of America’s most widespread traditional tunes
Silvino Baró, Martín Catalá, Sergio Rodríguez, Rodolfo Viart - Vola volando nsaura (The Turkey Vulture)
This is from a Smithsonian Folkways album of Afro-Cuban recordings made in 1957, just prior to Fidel Castro’s rise to power
This song is about the turkey vulture, which holds an important place in Cuban Kongo religions, where it is closely associated with the dead
Bruce Cockburn - When the Sun Goes Nova
Artist from Ottawa with a career spanning over 300 songs, 33 albums, and 40 years
This is from his 1973 album Night Vision
Tucker Zimmerman - Welcome to Mass Media
He’s an American musician and writer who’s been living in Belgium since the 1960s
This is from his 2024 album I Wonder If I’ll Ever Come True, a collection of recordings from the 1970s
Fiddlin’ John Carson - Ain’t No Bugs On Me
He was a fiddle player and singer from Georgia who was one of the early performers of country music and the first rural fiddler to be recorded
He made this recording for Bluebird Records in 1934
It’s a song that he adapted from the song “Ain’t Gonna Rain No More”
Charlie Herald and His Roundup Rangers - Soldiers Joy / Speed the Plough
From Winnipeg
“Soldiers Joy” is a Scottish fiddle reel that dates back over 200 years
It’s one of the oldest and most widely distributed tunes
“Speed the Plough” is a traditional Irish tune
They made the recording in 1933
Moses Williams - Which Way Did My Baby Go
He was a blues musician born in Mississippi who moved to Florida to work in the citrus groves after travelling with several acts in the 30s and 40s
He played the diddly bow, essentially a plank of wood with a single string nailed on
This is Williams’ own song
John Angaiak - Irenian
A Yup’ik singer-songwriter born in Nightmute, Alaska in 1941
After serving in Vietnam in the US Armed Forces, he enrolled in the University of Alaska and became active in the school’s indigenous language workshop
This is from a 1983 album recorded live in Nuuk, Greenland as part of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s third General Assembly
Soledad Bravo - Porque los pobres no tienen
She’s a Venezuelan singer who began performing in the 1960s
This is from her 1997 compilation album Cantos revolutionarios de america latina (1968-1973) (Revolutionary Songs of Latin America)
This is a song by the folklorist Violeta Parra, and the title translates to “Because the Poor Have Nothing”
The Wailin’ Jennys - Old Churchyard
Folk group formed in Winnipeg in 2002
From their album Fifteen from 2017
This is an old hymn from at least the 1850s
Hazel Dickens - Aragon Mill
She was a musician from West Virginia who was born into a mining family and later moved to Baltimore, Maryland with her family, where she met members of the Seeger family and became active in the folk scene there, forming a collaborative relationship with musician Alice Gerrard
The song is by Si Kahn, and it’s about the end of mill village culture
It references the city of Aragon, Georgia, which grew around its mill, and it’s also been frequently performed in Ireland, which shares a similar milling history
Fred Redden - Highland Soldier (The Battle's O'er)
He was a farmer and traditional singer from Nova Scotia who came from a family of singers and musicians from Lindsay Lake in Halifax County, and learned many of his songs from his father
It’s a traditional Scottish tune
Stanley G Triggs - The Wreck of the Number Nine
He was originally from Nelson, BC, and worked throughout the province in different industries, including in forestry, on survey crews, and on railroad gangs, and he collected songs and stories from his colleagues as he worked
He was also a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
American train wreck song written by Carson Robison in 1927
Triggs collected this version in BC
Seamus Ennis - By the River of Gems / The Rocky Road to Dublin
He was an Irish musician and song collector known especially for his uilleann pipe playing
This is from his 1973 album The Pure Drop
Sheesham and Lotus - Brickyard Joe
Howard Zinn - The Power of the People
