Barking Dog: April 28, 2022
Karen James - Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship
A folksinger and daughter of Spanish musician Isabelita Alonso, who grew up in England, Spain, and France, and moved to Canada as a teenager
From her 1961 self-titled album
This is a Scottish ballad from at least the late 18th century, also known as “Lord Roslyn’s Daughter”
Hubby Jenkins - I Must Be Blind, I Cannot See
Born and raised in Brooklyn
Traditional American spiritual
Pharis & Jason Romero - Souvenir
From Horsefly, BC
Brand new one off their forthcoming album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which will be out on Smithsonian Folkways on June 17
Willie Turner - Now Your Man Done Gone
Recorded near Livingston, Alabama
Song was well known in Alabama and Mississippi when this version was recorded in 1951
Also known as “Another Man Done Gone”
We’ll hear a later version of it after this
James “Son” Thomas - Baby Please Don’t Go
He was a Delta blues musician from Mississippi, and he was also a gravedigger and sculptor
Thomas became better known after William Ferris included him in the films he made for the Center for Southern Folklore in the 1970s
He’s also known for making sculptures from the clay he dug up on the banks of the Yazoo River, many of which were skulls that contained real human teeth, reflecting his philosophy that "we all end up in the clay"
He died in 1993 but his son Pat continues to play his father’s music
“Baby Please Don’t Go” was made popular through Big Joe Williams’ 1935 recording, though it clearly originated from “Another Man Done Gone,”
Union Jubilee Quartet - Please Don’t Drive Me Away
They were Bozie Sturdivant, John Skipper, and Booker T. Garner
Recorded at Silent Grove Baptist Church in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in July of 1942
David Francey - Rain
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who started to pursue music as a career at the age of 45 after working as a carpenter and in railyards for 20 years
Off his 2013 album So Say We All
Patrick Sky - Many a Mile
Patrick Sky was a musician from Georgia who was a member of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 60s
He later became an expert in building and playing Irish uilleann pipes, and played events with his wife Cathy Sky, an Irish fiddler
Allen Ginsberg - My Pretty Rose Tree
From his 1983 album First Blues, which was recorded between 1971 and 1981 and re-released in 2016 as The Last Word On First Blues
He’s joined on that one by Jon Sholle, Steven Taylor, David Amram, and Arthur Russell, who we’ll hear later on, and who Ginsberg briefly dated in 1973
Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder - What a Beautiful City
Both Grammy-award-winning musicians with careers spanning over 50 years
This one is from their brand new album, Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
This song was written by Reverend Gary Davis, a blues and gospel musician from South Carolina who we’ll hear later on
Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Coyal McMahan - The Midnight Special
Terry a blind musician who lost his vision at 16, which prevented him from doing farm work and caused him to rely on music as a living
McGhee a folk and blues singer known for his collaboration with Sonny Terry
Little information about McMahan, though we know he plays maracas on this recording
That one is from the 1952 album Get On Board
Traditional folk song that likely originated from prisoners in the American south
Refers to the passenger train the Midnight Special
Old Man Luedecke - Am I Strong Enough?
From Chester, NS
Off his 2010 album My Hands are on Fire and Other Love Songs
George Kazoka - Ulayinda Kubota
From a 2014 album of guitar songs from Tanzania, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
This one was recorded at the teacher training college in Eastern Zambia in 1979
The song praises the singer's fiance Maria, talking about her beauty and the beautiful clothes she wears
Ellen Froese - Life Oh Life
Artist who grew up on a dairy farm in Saskatchewan
From her 2017 self-titled album
Arthur Russell - Sharper Eyes
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 off the 2019 compilation album Iowa Dream
Charlie Sangster - Crawdad Song
Born into a musical family in Brownsville, Tennessee in 1917
Learned to play mandolin and guitar at the age of 12
Relatively well-known song which developed out of white American play-party traditions and Black American blues songs
Other versions of the song called “Sweet Thing” or “Sugar Babe”
Dave Van Ronk - The Jersey State Stomp
A member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, MacDougal Street being where practically every coffeehouse was located in the 60s
From the very first issue of Fast Folk Musical Magazine, a cooperative that was dedicated to reinvigorating the New York folk scene, and released over 100 albums between 1982 and 1997
This one just lists place names in New Jersey
Blind Boy Fuller - Flyin’ Airplane Blues
He was a popular North Carolina Piedmont blues artist known for his masterful guitar playing and expressive singing
Recorded in 1938
Anne Briggs - The Cuckoo
She’s a folksinger from Nottinghamshire, England, who performed throughout England and Ireland in the 1960s and 70s
She never really aimed for commercial success, but was nonetheless influential in the English folk revival
This is from her 1971 self-titled album
A traditional English folk song, though it’s also popular in the US, Canada, Scotland, and Ireland
We’ll hear a different version after this
Otis Taylor - Cuckoo
He’s a blues musician from Colorado who left the music industry in the late 70s to become an antique dealer
He started playing professionally again in the mid 90s and has now released 15 albums
That one is from 1997
Uncle Sinner - Creation Myth
He’s from Winnipeg
This is off of his recent album Trouble of This World
Although it’s his own song, he includes a version of the old time tune “Greasy Coat” at the end
Reverend Gary Davis - I’m Gonna Sit Down on the Banks of the River
Born 1896 in Laurens, SC
In the 20s he moved to Durham, NC, which was a centre of Black culture at the time
Taught Blind Boy Fuller, collaborated with a number of Piedmont blues artists
Was ordained a Baptist minister in 1933, and began to prefer gospel music
Was first recorded in 1935 for the American Record Company
Moved to New York in the 40s, career revived in the 1960s with the American folk revival
Played at the Newport Folk Festival and was an important figure in the Greenwich Village scene, teaching artists like Dave Van Ronk, Bob Weir, and Tom Winslow
This is his own song
Sarah Wood - Snake Winder
She’s an old-time banjo player and traditional ballad singer from Kentucky
This song is off her 2017 album 25 Tunes for Old Time Banjo and Singing, Vol. 1
It seems to be a tune by Buddy Thomas of Kentucky
Stan Rogers - The Witch of the Westmorland
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 the summers of his childhood
This song is by English folksinger Archie Fisher, who first recorded it in 1976
Rogers recorded it for his 1979 album Between the Breaks Live!
Leonard Cohen - Solidarity Forever
Recorded live in 1970
Written by the writer and labour activist Ralph Chaplin in 1915
Bobbie McGee - I Am a Union Woman
From her 1981 album Bread and Raises: Songs for Working Women
This song was written during the bitter labour battles of Kentucky coal miners in the early 1930s by the folksinger and union activist Aunt Molly Jackson
Rosalie Sorrels - Schofield Mine Disaster
Very interesting figure in the folk revival
She was raised by parents who celebrated the written and spoken word
She started out in folk 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 for her storytelling abilities
About a mining explosion that happened at the Winter Quarters coal mine on May 1, 1900 near Scofield, Utah
Around 200 people died, and every family in Scofield was affected
It is still one of the worst mining disasters in American history
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, but we’ll hear two later versions after it
It’s a traditional American dirge for a friend
Mance Lipscomb - Shorty George
Texan blues artist born Beau De Glen Lipscomb
Took the nickname Mance at a young age, which was short for emancipation
Worked as a tenant farmer in Texas most of his life, but was discovered in 1960 during the resurgence of country blues
This led to him recording an album in 1961, called Trouble in Mind, and appearing at the first Monterey Folk Festival in 1963
He recorded that one either in summer of 1960 in Navasota, Texas, or in April 1966 in Berkeley, California
Josh White Jr. - He Was a Friend of Mine
From 2003
Son of the actor and folk, blues, and jazz musician Josh White, and a Grammy-award nominated folk and blues musician in his own right
That was a great live version that differs nicely from earlier recordings
Joanne Shenandoah - I May Want a Man
From the 1995 album Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women
She was a Grammy award-winning musician and composer from the Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York, and she performed internationally, including at Carnegie Hall and the Vatican
This love song is by her sister, Danielle
Joan O’Bryant - Single Girl
Kansas folksinger and folklorist who taught folklore and English at the University of Wichita
The album that song is from was recorded in 1958, when O’Bryant was only 26 years old
This is a song popularized by the Carter Family
Catherine McKinnon - Fair and Tender Ladies
She’s a singer and actress from New Brunswick who began performing as a young child
This is from her first album, Voice of an Angel, from 1964
It’s an Appalachian traditional ballad
Cary Tate - Early One Morning, About the Dawn of Day
Blues artist from Humboldt, Tennessee
Recorded July 27, 1976 by Gianni Marcucci, who travelled from Italy to the United States five times during the 70s and 80s to document blues music in the country
Karrnnel Sawitsky, Daniel Koulack - Rubin
