Barking Dog: April 20, 2023
Dave Van Ronk - Talking Cancer Blues
He was a member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, and was known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, MacDougal Street being where practically every coffeehouse was located in New York City in the 1960s
This song comes off the album Inside Dave Van Ronk from 1964
John Prine - Illegal Smile
Prine was and is one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, if not to the general public, then to other musicians and artists
He died in April of 2020 from COVID at age 73, but he’s remembered for his social commentary, his unique style of singing, and his humorous turns-of-phrase
This is from his 2011 album The Singing Mailman Delivers, which is a collection of Prine’s earliest solo studio recordings from 1970
The New Lost City Ramblers - Wildwood Weed
John Cohen, Mike Seeger, and Tracy Schwarz
They formed in 1958, and focused on playing music taken from 78s from the 20s and 30s
This is off their 2001 album 40 Years of Concert Performances
Gaither Carlton - Ommie, Let Your Bangs Hang Down
He was an American old-time fiddle and banjo player from North Carolina who often appeared with the renowned singer and guitarist Doc Watson, who was his son-in-law
This is essentially the same song as “Mole in the Ground,” a traditional American folk song
Bob Dylan - Handsome Molly
It’s an Appalachian love song, though it’s possible it has its roots in older English ballads
Recorded in October, 1962 at the Gaslight Cafe coffeehouse in New York City
Mick Jagger - Handsome Molly
From his 1993 album Wandering Spirit
David Francey - Hard Steel Mill
Scottish-Canadian folksinger who was a railyard worker for 20 years before pursuing a career in music at the age of 45
He’s now been performing for over 20 years
Many of his songs are influenced by his experiences of working-class life—this is one of them from his 1999 debut album, Torn Screen Door
Townes Van Zandt, Barb Donovan - I’ll Be Here in the Morning
Van Zandt was a musician from Texas known mainly for his own compositions, though he recorded many traditional songs as well
Barb Donovan is a singer-songwriter from Michigan who’s lived and performed in Texas since the 1980s
The recording was likely made around 1991, 6 years before Van Zandt died
Rosalie Sorrels - I Think of You
She started out as a folksinger and collector of folk songs, and left her husband in the 1960s to travel across America with her five children, establishing herself as a performer and making connections with other folk musicians, writers, and artists
She died in June 2017 but is remembered, amongst other things, for her storytelling abilities
From her 1967 album If I Could Be the Rain
The song is by Utah Phillips, who Sorrels was friends with
Birmingham Jubilee Singers - I’m Going to Sit at the Welcome Table
A prewar jubilee quartet from Birmingham, Alabama
This is a gospel song that was also important during the Civil Rights Movement
Recorded in 1930
Jesse Fuller - I’m Going to Sit Down at the Welcome Table
He was an American one-man band born in Georgia in 1896
Though he had already learned two styles of guitar by the age of 10, Fuller only decided to try making a living from music in the early 1950s
He started by working locally in clubs and bars in San Francisco and other nearby cities, but became better known by performing on TV
In 1958 when he was 62, Fuller recorded his first full-length album
He could play multiple instruments simultaneously, using a harmonica holder to hold a harmonica, a kazoo, or a microphone, playing guitar, and tap-dancing or soft-shoeing as he played
Charlie Brown - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Real name was Charles Artman and he was called “Utah’s first hippie”
He never wore shoes, which got him in trouble with the law on multiple occasions
Brown also lived in a teepee and drove an old yellow bus
He hosted the Teton Tea Party, an all-night event for mountaineers and folk musicians, which is where this recording comes from
It’s a well-known Christian hymn written around 1907 by Ada R Habershon and Charles H Gabriel
Ed McCurdy - A Nice Old Man
He was a musician and songwriter from Pennsylvania best known for the anti-war song “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”
He also had a career as a CBC radio host in the 1940s and 50s, which was where he met musicians like Pete Seeger, Josh White, and Oscar Brand
He retired to Nova Scotia with his wife in the 1980s, and spent the rest of his life working sporadically as a character actor on Canadian TV
This is from his children’s album Songs and Stories, recorded in 1959 and released in 1980
It’s his own story
Pharis & Jason Romero - Train on the Island
From Horsefly, BC
Off their 2022 album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which was recorded over six days in a 60-year-old barn beside the Little Horsefly River
They learned especially from Tom Sauber and Mark Graham, and also from Matokie Slaughter, Tommy Jarrell, Bruce Molsky, and J.P. Nestor
Traditional song from the Appalachian region of the US
Patrick Sky - Rattlesnake Mountain
Patrick Sky was a musician from Georgia who was involved in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 60s
Later in his life, he became an expert in building and playing Irish pipes with his wife Cathy
This is from his debut album from 1965
It’s a traditional American folk song which comes from the early American ballad “On Springfield Mountain”
Based on the events surrounding the death of Timothy Merrick in Wilbraham, Massachusetts on August 7, 1761
Tom Parrott - The Aberfan Coal Tip Tragedy
Parrott is a folk singer from Washington, DC who was part of the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene
This is from his 1968 album Neon Princess
It’s his own song about a mine disaster that occurred in Aberfan, Wales in 1966, killing 144 people, the majority of them children whose school was engulfed in coal waste
From Broadside Magazine #76
David Rovics - The Village Where Nothing Happened
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
Off his 2002 album Hang a Flag in the Window
Stan Rogers - Barrett’s Privateers
Born and raised in Ontario, but known for his maritime-influenced music that was informed by his time spent visiting family in Nova Scotia during his childhood
This is one of his best known songs
This specific version (in my opinion the best version) is off the 1979 album Between the Breaks Live!
Old Man Luedecke - Wakeup Hill
From his live album, recorded at the Chester Playhouse in his hometown of Chester, Nova Scotia
Pete Seeger - Business
He was a folk singer and an activist who, though blacklisted during the McCarthy era, remained a prominent public figure who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and international disarmament through his music
The lyrics for the song come from a sonnet called “Love Song of the Resistance,” written by the French poet Guillevic in 1954 and translated by the American poet Walter Lowenfels
Wade Hemsworth - Ye Girls of Old Ontario
A respected Canadian folksinger from Brantford, Ontario
This is a lumberjack song similar in content to many other English and French shanty songs
Uncle Sinner - Jesus is a Dying Bed Maker
From Winnipeg
Off his 2015 album Let the Devil In
It’s his version of Charley Patton’s song, which is based on the traditional song “Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed”
Blind Willie Johnson - Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There
Texan blues singer born in 1897
Johnson is joined on this one by Willie B Harris, his first wife who accompanied him on many of his recordings
Recorded December 11, 1929 in New Orleans
The song is a spiritual composed by African American minister Charles A Tindley in 1916
Harrison Kennedy - Shake Em Free
Harrison Kennedy a Hamilton artist with a career in blues and roots music spanning over 50 years
Off his 2011 album Shame the Devil
JW Warren - Sundown Blues
He was an Alabama musician who played at local juke joints and barbeques 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 music, 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
Kacy & Clayton - Rocks and Gravel
From Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan
This is their own song, from their 2013 album The Day Is Past & Gone
Willie Dunn - The Lovenant Chain
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This is off his fourth album The Vanity of Human Wishes, from 1984
Mark Spoelstra - The Civil Defense Sign
He was an American folk artist known for his work in Greenwich Village, New York City, during the folk revival of the 50s and 60s
Written and recorded in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis
The yellow and black fallout shelter sign was a common sight during that time
Spoelstra said, “We in New York City really were scared, we felt this was it. We let it be known to our enemies that we were preparing for war instead of peace, and the preparation for war was an invitation for it to happen.”
Sammy Walker, Phil Ochs, Sis Cunningham - I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore
Walker is a folksinger from Georgia who recorded his first albums in the mid 1970s
He’s joined on this one by Phil Ochs, a well-known protest singer from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, and Sis Cunningham, the founding editor of Broadside Magazine, an important publication for the Greenwich Village folk scene
Cunningham was one of the first people to be blacklisted as a communist sympathiser in post WWII America
This song is by Woody Guthrie, who based it on the old gospel song “Can’t Feel at Home”
It reflects more specifically the plight of those made homeless by the Dust Bowl that afflicted prairie states and provinces in the 1930s
Miriam Makeba - Mbube
She was a musician, actor, and activist from South Africa
She met the American singer Harry Belafonte in London in the late 1950s, and he became her mentor as she recorded her first album after moving to New York City in 1960
Makeba gained popularity in the United States during this time, and she and Belafonte recorded an album together in 1965 called An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba
Makeba was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement and anti-apartheid activism, and married Black Panther Party leader Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s, which lost her the support of many white Americans
After this, the US government revoked her visa while she was out of the country, and she and her husband relocated to Guinea, where she continued to perform and take part in political activism until her death in 2008
This song was written by Solomon Linda and first recorded by Solomon Linda’s Original Evening Birds in 1939
This song is the origin of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which was adapted into English by The Tokens in 1961
The Weavers previously introduced it to western audiences through their 1951 recording under the title “Wimoweh”
Makeba’s version is from her 1960 self-titled album
Sheesham and Lotus - Ora Lee / Old Folks Played While the Young Folks Danced
From Wolfe Island, Ontario
A medley of two traditional reels
Sir Lancelot - Atomic Energy
