Barking Dog: April 24, 2025
Ellen Stekert, Jim Stekert - The Green Grass Grew All Around
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’ve just released an album of archival recordings called Go Around Songs, Vol. 1, which is where this one comes from
Her older brother, Jim, joins her on it
This is a cumulative song similar to other folk songs like “The Tree in the Valley” and “The Rattlin’ Bog”
Marianne Faithfull - She Moved Thru’ the Fair
She was an English singer who performed between the mid-1960s and her death at the beginning of this year
This is a single that came out on April 11th
Traditional Irish folk song
Lyrics first published in 1909
Peggy Seeger - Slow
Peggy is an American folksinger and member of the Seeger family who’s been living and performing in the UK for over 60 years
This is a new single from her forthcoming final album, Teleology, which will round off her 70-year music career
Peggy co-wrote this song with her son Calum, and he and her other son Neill perform on it
Damien Jurado - Passing the Elephants
He’s a singer-songwriter from Seattle who began his career in the 1990s
This is from the new album of home demos from his 2023 album Motorcycle Madness called I Lost My Wig
Lee Ranaldo - Take Me Up
He’s a musician best-known as a cofounder of Sonic Youth, though he’s been releasing solo work since the late 1980s
This is a new release that appears on the compilation album The Suzanne Langille Songbook
Nick Drake - Strange Face
He was an English musician who had a short career and died at the age of 26, though he’s remained highly influential for many artists, including Kate Bush, Beck, and Robert Smith
This is a new single from the forthcoming box set The Making of Five Leaves Left, which comes out in July and features demos, outtakes, and previously unreleased songs from Drake’s recording sessions for his 1969 album Five Leaves Left
It was recorded in March of 1968
Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson - Old Joe Clark
They were both founding members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an old-time string band from North Carolina that performed between 2005 and 2014
This one’s off their new album What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow: Fiddle and Banjo Music of North Carolina
An American folk song and fiddle tune that was popular with soldiers during WWI and remained popular afterwards
It refers to Joseph Clark, a Kentucky man who was murdered in 1885
Faith Petric, Mark Ross - Ain’t Done Nothing if You Ain’t Been Called a Red
She was a folksinger and activist originally from Idaho who was the head of the San Francisco Folk Music Club for 50 years
Petric was involved in activism for her entire life, participating in the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches of 1965, sitting on anti-fascism committees, and assisting Spanish Civil War refugees
She died in 2013 at the age of 98
Ross is a folksinger and historian from Oregon who’s been playing since the 1960s
This one is from the 1988 album Rebel Voices: Songs of the Industrial Workers of the World
It’s by the folksinger Eliot Kenin
Bernie Sanders - Democrats, Republicans, and Capitalists
In 1979, he wrote and recorded a narrative album for Folkways Records about the legacy of trade unionist Eugene V. Debs, who was a major organiser of the American Railway Union and the Industrial Workers of the World
Debs received almost a million votes during his Presidential campaign in 1916 while incarcerated for his opposition to World War I
Sanders recorded this as part of his work for the American People’s Historical Society, and soon after, he began his own political career as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981
Willie Dunn - Wounded Lake
Dunn was a Mi’kmaq musician and film director from Montreal, known for songs like “I Pity the Country” and “Son of the Sun”
This is from his 1984 album The Vanity of Human Wishes
Leon Rosselson - Consider the Majority
Rosselson is a musician and children’s book writer from England who first became widely known in the 1960s by performing his satirical songs on the BBC show That Was the Week That Was
This is off his 1986 album Bringing the News from Nowhere
Sabreen - On Man
They were a Palestinian band that formed in 1980 and focused on developing modern Palestinian music that merged Eastern and Western sounds
This comes from their 1982 album Smoke of the Volcanoes
The lyrics are a poem by Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish
Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin’
This is his own song, recorded several times throughout his career but never released on an original album
Memphis Jug Band - Oh Ambulance Man
A Tennessee jug band that was very popular during the 1930s and continued to play through the 1950s when jug bands had declined in popularity
Recorded in May of 1930 for Victor Records
James Kokomo Arnold - Paddlin’ Madeline Blues
American blues musician known for his intense style of slide guitar
Began playing in the 1920s and left the music industry in 1938 to work in a factory
When located by researchers in the early 1960s he had no interest in returning to perform for white audiences who were showing interest in the music of Arnold and his contemporaries
He recorded this one under the name Gitfiddle Jim in May of 1930
Fred Eaglesmith, Tif Ginn - Someday Soon
They met at a music festival in 2009 and were married in 2014
Since then, Ginn and Eaglesmith have been collaborating and released their first album, Alive, in 2020, which won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Traditional Album
This is from that album
An Ian & Sylvia song first recorded in 1963
Levon Helm - Anna Lee
He was a musician from Arkansas known as the drummer for The Band, though he played other instruments including the guitar and mandolin
This is from his Grammy-winning album Dirt Farmer from 2007, which he recorded after regaining vocal strength after losing his voice due to throat cancer in the late 90s
Tucker Zimmerman, Big Thief, Iji, Twain - Leave It On the Porch Outside
He’s an American musician and writer who’s been living in Belgium since the 1960s
This is from Zimmerman’s 2024 album Dance of Love, on which Big Thief played as his backing band, along with members of the bands Iji and Twain
His wife of over 50 years, Marie Claire, sings on it
Harry McClintock - Goodbye Old Paint
American cowboy, union organiser, hobo singer, and poet from Tennessee who’s known for writing this song
Traditional western song written by a black cowboy named Charley Willis who was in demand on cattle drives because his voice was reportedly calming to the herds
McClintock’s version is from 1928
Arthur Russell - Goodbye Old Paint
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 from the posthumously released album Love Is Overtaking Me
Jean Carignan - Le poteau blanc
Carignan born in Levis, Quebec
Made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for being “the greatest fiddler in North America”
This is from his 1960 album Old Time Fiddle Tunes, and he’s accompanied on banjo by Pete Seeger
David Francey - Tonight in My Dreams
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who worked manual labour jobs for 20 years before pursuing folk music at the age of 45
This is from his 2006 live album The First Set
Catie Curtis - Passing Through
She’s a musician from Maine who got her start in in the folk-rock circuit in Boston in the 1980s
This is from a 2016 live album, recorded in Evanston, Illinois
It originally appeared on her 2006 album Long Night Moon
Lonnie Johnson - Too Late to Cry
American blues and jazz singer born into a family of Louisiana musicians in 1899
Pioneer of jazz guitar and jazz violin
Recognized as the first to play an amplified violin and as one of the originators of the single-string guitar solos that are so popular in contemporary rock, blues, and jazz
This is a live recording from the 1963 American Folk Blues Festival, an annual event that toured Europe for several years in the 60s, 70s, and 80s
Angelo Dornan - Marrow Bones
Folksinger from New Brunswick who lived most of his life in Alberta
Retired to his birthplace in his 60s, where researcher Helen Creighton collected about 135 traditional songs from him in the 1950s for use in her book of New Brunswick music
This is a humorous song popular in Atlantic Canada, Ireland, England, and New England
Creighton recorded five different versions of the song between 1949 and 1957, and published this version in her book Folksongs from Southern New Brunswick
The McMillan’s Camp Boys - Lost Gander
They’re a band originally from British Columbia, now based in Nova Scotia
This is from their 2024 EP So Long To The Kicking Horse Canyon & Other Folk Songs
Tony Saletan, Irene Kossoy - K’ang Ting Love Song
He’s a folk singer and educator who is credited with the modern rediscovery of the songs “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” and “Kumbaya”
This is a very popular traditional folk song from Kangding, China that became well-known throughout the country in the 1940s
Fraser & DeBolt - I Threw It All Away
They were a Canadian folk duo that met at a workshop at the 1968 Mariposa Folk Festival
They were signed to Columbia Records at one point but never experienced commercial success, though their music has gained a cult following in recent decades
This is from the 2016 album This Song Was Borne, a compilation of previously unreleased music from the band’s career
The song is by Bob Dylan, who included it on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline
Blind Willie McTell, Kate McTell - I Got Religion, I’m So Glad
He was a piedmont blues and ragtime artist who made many recordings with different companies under different names, but who never had a major hit
Despite his lack of commercial success, he actively played and recorded during the 40s and 50s, unlike many of his peers
He did not live to see the folk revival of the 1960s through which many other bluesmen were rediscovered, but he influenced many artists, including Taj Mahal and The White Stripes
Kate was Willie’s wife who accompanied him on several recordings
This recording was made for Decca Records in Chicago in 1935
Emtidi - Yvonne’s Dream
They were a Canadian and German folk rock duo that recorded two albums in the early 1970s
This is from their self-titled debut album from 1970
Daniel Koulack, Karrnnel Sawitsky - The Little Mountain Stream
From Winnipeg
Off the 2010 album Fiddle and Banjo
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Traditional
