Barking Dog: April 11, 2024
JW Warren - Hoboing into Hollywood
He was an Alabama musician who played at local juke joints and barbecues in his youth, and even dated Big Mama Thornton when they were young
The folklorist Tim Duffy met him later in life when he had given up playing, and convinced him to record his music
The Music Maker Relief Foundation, which Duffy founded, provided him with grants for medication, gave him a guitar, and recorded him for several albums
This is off an album of his music that was recorded in the early 1980s by George Mitchell
Bill Garrett, Curley Boy Stubbs - Railroad Line
Garrett is a producer and musician from Québec who’s performed across the continent
Stubbs is also known as Paul Mills, and he’s a musician, producer, engineer, and graphic designer who produced all but one of Stan Rogers’ albums
Garrett and Mills are both cofounders of Borealis Records along with Grit Laskin and Ken Whiteley
This is from a 1989 issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine that highlights Canadian folk musicians
Fast Folk Musical Magazine was a cooperative that was dedicated to reinvigorating the New York folk scene, and released over 100 albums between 1982 and 1997
The song is by American singer-songwriter Paul Craft
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott - It’s Hard Ain’t It Hard
Elliott ran away from home at the age of 15 to join Col. Jim Eskew’s Rodeo, rather than become a surgeon as his father intended
He was only with them for 3 months before his parents found him and dragged him home, but his first exposure to a singing cowboy left him rapt, and at home he taught himself guitar and began busking for a living
That song is related to the British ballad “The Butcher Boy,” which was a popular song for country musicians in the 20s and 30s
Elliott included it on the 1964 album Roll On Buddy, which he recorded with Derroll Adams
Willie Dunn - The Dreamer
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This song is off his 1980 album The Pacific
Connie Converse - Connie Checks the Mic
This is off the 2020 EP Sad Lady, which is the second collection of Converse’s home recordings to be released
Converse was a musician and songwriter in New York City in the 1950s
She never found commercial success, and in the 1970s, she wrote letters to friends and family saying that she intended to leave home and start a new life somewhere else
Soon after that, she drove off and was never seen again, but interest in her music was revived in the early 2000s, and several collections of her music have been released in recent years
Big Thief - There Is a Vine
American folk-rock band from New York City
This is from a 2017 Connie Converse tribute album called Vanity of Vanities
This song was originally released on the 2009 compilation album How Sad, How Lovely
David Rovics - They’re Building a Wall
He’s a topical singer-songwriter based in Oregon who’s been playing since the 1990s
This is from his 2004 album Songs for Mahmud
Fairport Convention - Lay Down Your Weary Tune
They’re a folk rock band from London, England that formed in the late 1960s and have remained active since then except for 6 years in the early 1980s
This is from the 2018 compilation album A Tree With Roots - Fairport Convention And Friends And The Songs Of Bob Dylan
Dylan wrote it in 1963 for his album The Times They Are A-Changin’, though his version remained unreleased until 1985
Jean Ritchie - Dulcimer Pieces: Shady Grove, Old King Cole, Skip to My Lou
She learned traditional folk songs in the oral tradition from friends and family during her youth in Kentucky, and in adulthood moved to New York to work as a social worker, where she met folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Alan Lomax
She continued to perform for the rest of her life, and passed away at her home in Kentucky in 2015, at the age of 92
This collection of dulcimer tunes comes from the 1957 self-titled album
Wade Hemsworth - The Shining Birch Tree
A respected Canadian folksinger from Brantford, Ontario
This was written by Hemsworth, and is also known as “The Land of the Muskeg”
It’s from his 1955 album Folk Songs from the Canadian North Woods
Courtney Marie Andrews - To Ramona
Artist from Arizona who’s been touring since age 16
Dylan wrote this in 1964, and it’s inspired by Mexican Corrido music
Similarities have also been drawn between this song and Rex Griffin’s 1937 song “The Last Letter”
The Beach Boys - The Road Not Taken
This is Al Jardine’s adaptation of the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken
It’s from the recording sessions for their 1972 album Carl and the Passions – "So Tough"
The poem was first published in 1915
Donovan - John Riley
Donovan is a Scottish musician who’s released music in many different genres since he began performing in the 1960s, though he began as a folksinger
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
Donovan recorded it in 1970, but it remained unreleased until 2016
Donald Crowder - Hambone
From a 1980 album of traditional music from Union County, North Carolina
This is an example of hambone, also known as buckdancing, Juba dance, or patting juba
It was used to keep time for other dancers at parties, and involves stomping, slapping and patting one’s legs, arms, chest, and cheeks
The tradition was originally brought by enslaved people to the southern United States
Lyrics and music were added in the mid 19th century, and the tradition was publicly performed
Aşık Veysel - Esti Bahar Yeli
He was a Turkish ashik, which is a poet who accompanies his poetry with music played on a long-necked lute
He was very highly regarded, and is known particularly for writing sad music
The title of this song translates to “Spring Wind Blew, Snow Melted”
Reverend Pearly Brown - Help Me to Understand
He was a blues musician from Georgia who was known mainly as a street performer
He was blind from birth, but received an education at a school for blind people and completed eight grades in six years
He was later ordained a minister and began singing on the streets in 1939
This one is off his 1975 album It's A Mean Old World To Try To Live In
Uncle Sinner - Old Grey Mule
From Winnipeg
He got the song from a recording by Mississippi bluesman Belton Sutherland from 1978
Kacy & Clayton - Green Grows the Laurel
Second cousins Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum who grew up playing music together on their family’s ranch in Saskatchewan
The song is likely English or Irish in origin, though it’s widespread in the US as well
Their version is from their 2013 album The Day Is Past & Gone
Daniela Gesundheit, Old Man Luedecke, Tony Dekker - Welcome to the Dark
From the National Parks Project, a 2011 music and film project to mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Canadian national parks system
The project sent 3 musicians and a filmmaker to one of the 13 Canadian national parks to create and score a short documentary film about the park
This is the result of the Cape Breton Highlands project
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
This is his own song, named after his 1957 book of the same name
It’s from the 1999 album Jack Kerouac Reads On The Road, and the American jazz guitarist Victor Juris and jazz keyboard player John Medeski provide instrumentation
Verdell Primeaux - Walking Down That Road
He’s an Indigenous musician based in Arizona, and he’s known as half of the duo Primeaux and Mike, along with Johnny Mike
This is from the 2011 compilation album Spiritual Medicine: A Collection of Peyote Songs
Neil Young - Letter from ‘Nam
This is from the 2020 album Neil Young Archives Vol. II (1972-1976)
This song was previously unreleased, and is an earlier version of the song “Long Walk Home,” released on the 1987 album Life
Brendan Behan - The Old Triangle
Behan was a writer and Irish Republican activist from Dublin, and the brother of Dominic Behan, who made the first commercial recording of the song in 1958
The song was written by Dubliner Dick Shannon in the 1950s, and has been recorded by many artists, including The Dubliners, Ian & Sylvia, and Jeff Tweedy
Brendan Behan was friends with Dick Shannon, and popularised the song by including it in his 1954 play The Quare Fellow, though Shannon never received royalties for the song
This is off his 1960 album Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folksongs and Ballads
The Pogues - The Auld Triangle
Recorded for the John Peel Show on BBC Radio in April of 1984
Casey Smith - Shorty George
He recorded 11 tracks for the Library of Congress on April 16, 1939 while he was a prisoner at Clemens State Farm in Brazoria, Texas
This is the very first recording of the song
It’s a traditional American dirge for a friend
We’ll hear another version of it after this
Bob Dylan - He Was a Friend of Mine
Dylan got it from Rolf Cahn, the first professional musician to pick up the song from the Library of Congress collection
This is a live performance Dylan gave at the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village in September of 1961
It was recorded by Dave Van Ronk and his wife Terry Thal
Richie Havens - Of Time and Rivers Flowing
He was a musician from New York City and was the opening act at Woodstock
This is off the 1998 compilation album Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger
The song is by Seeger, and he adapted it from the German carol “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”
Georgia Browns - Joker Man
They were a Georgia country blues trio consisting of Curley Weaver, Buddy Moss, and Fred McMullen, and they recorded this track for Vocalion Records in New York City in January of 1933
Alex Campbell - Johnny Lad
He was a Scottish musician, and one of the first folksingers to tour Europe and the UK during the folk revival of the 1960s
Though he was never commercially successful, he’s said to have recorded over 100 records, and he collected his songs from many different sources and believed in recording quickly, in the style of early American bluesmen
This is from his 1964 album Alex Campbell Sings Folk
Kermit the Frog - Frogs in the Glen
Kermit the Frog is an entertainer, producer, and director from the southern United States, known for his role as the host of The Muppet Show, which ran from 1976 until 1981
He’s remained a popular performer for nearly 50 years, and has appeared in films and television as recently as 2021
Though he’s known for playing the banjo, this recording features bagpipes, and is inspired by traditional Scottish music
This is from the 1983 album Sesame Street: Surprise!
Ferron - The Return
She’s a Canadian musician and poet from BC
This is off her 2013 album Lighten-ing
Elisha Shelton - In Zepo Town
He was from Allegheny on the Big Laurel River in North Carolina, and was known in the region for playing the banjo at parties that were held after community events like corn-shucking and barn-raising
From the 1964 album Old Love Songs & Ballads from the Big Laurel, North Carolina
Shelton sings the title lyric as “Zepo Town” but the actual words are “Seaport Town”
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
Trudie Richman - Hush Little Baby
She was a musician, folk song collector, and sociologist originally from Vienna, though she was taking a PhD in American Studies at the University of Hawaii when she recorded this song for her album Lullaby and Goodnight in 1978
Fred Cockerham - Fortune
