Barking Dog: April 30, 2026
Pharis & Jason Romero - Last Call
From Horsefly, BC
This is the first single from their upcoming album These Are the Days That Turn in to Years, which comes out in June
Ellen Stekert - Omie Wise
Stekert is 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 couple of years, she’s been working with the producer Ross Wylde on cleaning up archival recordings, and with writer Christopher Bahn on a website where they share music, writing, and photography from her archives
This is from the newly restored and re-released version of her album Ballads of Careless Love, which she recorded in 1956 while attending Cornell University and hosting a folk radio show
The song is based on the true story of a murder that took place in Randolph County, North Carolina in 1808
The lyrics to the original version were written very shortly after the events took place, which was common with this style of ballad
Star Thistle - Rock the Machine
From Winnipeg
This is a cover of a song by Irish musician Lisa O’Neill
Howard Fishman - Santa Fe
Fishman is a writer, musician, and playwright from New York, who bought a guitar and began playing music as a teenager in the 1980s after being introduced to Cat Stevens’ music through the movie Harold and Maude
This is off his 2007 album Howard Fishman Performs Bob Dylan & The Band's 'Basement Tapes' Live at Joe's Pub, which was recorded over the course of three evenings, during which Fishman and his bandmates performed almost every song recorded during the Basement Tapes sessions
Dylan and The Band recorded this one in 1967
Malinda Herman - El Cóndor Pasa
She’s a musician from Bangkok, Thailand who became known through her YouTube channel, where she uploads videos of herself playing traditional and popular songs
Several decades ago, she lost movement in the left side of her face after a serious car accident
Her son bought her a guitar and she began playing and singing as a form of physical therapy, and she now estimates that she’s regained about 75% of her facial movements through singing
Siskiyou - El Cóndor Pasa
They’re a band from Vancouver that were formed by former Great Lake Swimmers member Colin Huebert in 2010, the same year they released this single
It’s a song best known through Simon and Garfunkel’s 1970 version, with English lyrics by Paul Simon, though the music was originally written as an orchestral piece by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles in 1913
It’s based on traditional Peruvian folk music
Herkja - Wicked Games
They’re a Scottish group that formed in 2019 and combine traditional and contemporary Scottish, Irish, and Scandinavian influences
This is off their 2020 self-titled EP
It’s a cover of Chris Isaak’s 1989 song
Iron Horse - Dark Center of the Universe
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
Modest Mouse included it on their album The Moon & Antarctica, from 2000
Wu Man - I’m Going Back to North Carolina
Wu Man is a Chinese-American musician who plays the pipa, a stringed instrument sometimes called the Chinese lute
She’s a member of the Kronos Quartet and has premiered works by composers including Philip Glass and Terry Riley
This is from her 2005 album Wu Man and Friends
She’s joined on this track by Lee Knight, who sings and plays banjo and mountain dulcimer
The song was first recorded by the Carolina Tar Heels in 1929
It’s also known as “My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains”
Marisa Anderson - Quodlibet
She’s a musician based in Portland, Oregon, known for her compositions inspired by the American primitive guitar style
This is a new single from Anderson’s upcoming album The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music, which was inspired by the private record collection of Harry Smith, who compiled the highly influential Anthology of American Folk Music in the early 1950s
Anderson’s album focuses on music from places the US has had conflict with since 1970
She got this track from an album of Afghan music, on which it was performed by a dambura player whose name is given as Bābā Querān, though that just means “old man” in Kurdish
It’s a medley of a traditional Uzbek dance tune, a popular Radio Afghanistan song, and a favourite teahouse song
Anderson states that she’s happy with her version, though “the song feels a bit simplified when compared to the original, perhaps making it a good illustration of what is lost in the transposition of music from the east to the west”
Fiver - Daybreak
Solo project of Sackville, New Brunswick-based artist Simone Schmidt
This is their latest release
They wrote it 14 years ago, and recorded this version in January during the sessions for their upcoming album, Cleaning House, which is out in July
Joy Harjo - Perhaps the World Ends Here
She’s a poet, author, playwright, and musician who was the first Native American to serve as Poet Laureate of the United States
This is off her latest album, Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace, which came out on April 24th
She originally included it in her 1994 book The Woman Who Fell From the Sky
Guitar Gabriel - Hospital Blues
He was a blues musician from Georgia who played what he called “Toot Blues,” a combination of Piedmont, Chicago, and Texas blues
He began playing guitar on the streets of Durham, North Carolina as a teenager, and later traveled the country playing guitar in medicine shows, collaborating with artists including Lightin’ Hopkins, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters
This one is from his 1994 album Guitar Gabriel, Vol. 1, which was recorded by Tim Duffy, a cofounder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation who was inspired to start the organization after meeting Gabriel and other musicians like him who required financial aid and were still able and willing to perform
Billy Joe Green - Wi-Ni-Beeng Blues
He’s an Anishinaabe musician from the Lac Seul First Nation who began his music career in the 1960s, and recorded his first album in the 1990s
This is off his 2004 album Muskrat Blues and Rock & Roll
Rick & Lorraine Lee - Broken Toy
Were a Massachusetts-based married duo who recorded a diverse album of folk songs in 1975
This song is by Lorraine, who wrote it on a rainy November day
Walter Roast - Barbara Allen
This field recording was made by the folklorist Helen Creighton in East Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia in 1943
It’s an old Scottish ballad that has been collected all over North America and the British Isles
David Campbell - Listen to Me
He’s a Guyanese-Canadian musician based in Vancouver who began playing professionally in the 1960s
This is off his 2005 album My Kind of Song
Graham Nicholas - Black Creek
He’s a musician based in Toronto and this is the title track from his 2023 album
Marie Manning - Hard Luck and Trouble
She was a blues musician from North Carolina who sang old-time gospel music, often with her husband, the musician and bishop Dready Manning
This recording was made by Tim Duffy of Music Maker Relief Foundation in the 1990s
Westelaken - Whiskey Girl
They’re a band based in Toronto, and this is a cover of Gillian Welch’s 1998 song “Whiskey Girl,” from their 2020 EP The Pool of Blood
Jordan from the band recently curated a really great playlist for the music journal The Ugly Hug that’s inspired by songs he’s heard on Barking Dog
Barry Coope, Jim Boyes, Lester Simpson - Spring 1919
They were an English vocal folk trio that formed in the early 1990s and performed together for nearly 20 years
They often collaborated with members of the Watersons as the supergroup Blue Murder and with the band Chumbawamba
This is off their 2010 album As If…
The song is by Boyes
Groucho Marx, Ken Lane Singers - Omaha, Nebraska
Marx wrote that song with pianist and songwriter Harry Ruby, and recorded it with the Ken Lane Singers in 1952
Calliope of NY Museum of Transportation - Sidewalks of New York
“Sidewalks of New York” began as a pop song written in 1894 by vaudeville actor Charles B Lawlor, with words by James W Blake
It’s an idealised, nostalgic song about childhood and lost places, and it became popular right after it was published
Jon Wilcox - Sidewalks of New York
He’s a musician from California, known as a member of the groups Marley’s Ghost and Rincon Ramblers
This is off his debut album, Stages of My Life, from 1972
He wrote it while spending a month staying with friends in New York City after hitchhiking across the United States and Canada, and he set it to the tune of “Sidewalks of New York”
Norman Blake - Time
He’s an American musician who’s been playing professionally since the mid 1950s
He toured with Johnny Cash for a decade, played on Bob Dylan’s album Nashville Skyline, and appeared on Joan Baez’s recording of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
He’s also well-known as a duo with his wife, Nancy, and they’ve been playing together for almost 50 years
This is from his 2021 album Day by Day
It’s his own song
Captain Luke - One of These Days
He was a musician from North Carolina who began singing professionally in King’s Gospel Quintet after catching the attention of Otis King while singing the low parts in his church choir
In the 1970s, he began a long collaboration with Guitar Gabriel, a blues musician who we heard earlier in the show, and the two played at bars around Winston-Salem
This is the title track from his 2008 album
Cara Luft - Garbage Hill
Winnipeg
This is a track from her new album, My Heart Will Always Be, which comes out in May
Son of Dave - I Feel No Pain
He’s a musician based in London, England, and this is a single off his upcoming EP Four Sod Kickers
He made it in collaboration with TJ Blair of Winnipeg’s Stanley County Cutups
Ross Ainslie, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Steven Byrnes - Green Light Set
Ainslie and Chaimbeul are both Scottish pipe players, while Byrnes is an Irish guitarist
This is from their 2022 album LAS, and it’s a set of three tunes by Ainslie and one by Damien O’Kane
Tír na nÓg - Hey Friend
They’re an Irish folk duo that formed in Dublin in 1969 and were part of the first wave of progressive folk groups
The song is by Irish musician and songwriter Ray Dolan
Lonesome Ace Stringband - I’m Gonna Go Hunting for the Buffalo
Contemporary stringband based in Toronto
This is their latest release
Rita Dove - Dawn Revisited
