Barking Dog: May 9, 2024
Pete Seeger - John Brown’s Body
Seeger was a folk singer and activist from New York who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and other important issues through his music
This is from his 1960 album Champlain Valley Songs
John Brown was born 224 years ago today
He was a radical American abolitionist who believed he was being used by God to finally end slavery in the country, first through pacifist resistance and later, after years of civil disobedience proved ineffective, through the organisation of violent revolts
After leading a raid on a federal armoury in 1859 with the intention of arming enslaved people, Brown was captured, charged with treason, and hanged
He became a hero and martyr to the Union army, who marched to this song during the American Civil War
The song uses the tune of the hymn “Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us,” both of which emerged out of the American camp meeting tradition, where people without a regular church gathered to worship with itinerant preachers
Gregory Alan Isakov - John Brown’s Body
He’s a Grammy-nominated musician from Pennsylvania
This is from his 2007 album That Sea, The Gambler
Nora Brown - John Brown’s Dream
She’s a contemporary singer and banjo player who carries on the old-time tradition
This is off her 2019 debut album, Cinnamon Tree
It’s an old-time fiddle reel
Joy Harjo - Remember
It’s her 73rd birthday today
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 2006 album She Had Some Horses
Stephen Addiss, Bill Crofut - Ragaputi
From their 1962 album World Tour with Folk Songs
They travelled to China, Southeast Asia, and Africa in the early 1960s as part of the State Department’s Cultural Exchange Program
The album was a result of their journey, and includes both songs from their own repertoire and songs they learned on their trip
This is an Indian song that was apparently one of Gandhi’s favourite Hindu hymns
Junkanoo Band - We’re Gonna Tear Down the Iron Bed
This is from the 1964 album Junkanoo Band - Key West
Junkanoo is a festival practised in the Caribbean and in parts of the southern United States that have large West Indian populations
The festival originated during the time of slavery in the British American colonies and was held near Christmas, when enslaved people were granted three days of holiday to celebrate in a style similar to Carnival or Mardi Gras
Heather Dale - Martin Said to His Man
She’s a folk musician and author from Ontario who mainly performs traditional Celtic music and music based on Arthurian legends
This is off her 2010 album The Green Knight
It’s a traditional English tall tale drinking song that likely dates back to the 16th century
Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk - The Ship Is at the Landing
A gospel quartet from Virginia that recorded for OkEh records between 1928 and 1931
This was recorded in New York in February of 1930
Ian & Sylvia - Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad
Traditional song first recorded by John and Ruby Lomax in the 1930s at Cummins State Farm in Arkansas, performed by incarcerated singers while they were chopping wood
From their 1962 self-titled album
Taj Mahal - Ricochet
Taj Mahal is a Grammy-winning blues musician from New York City whose career has spanned over 50 years
This is off his 1972 album Recycling the Blues & Other Related Stuff
Dave Van Ronk - On Top of Old Smoky
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
This is off a collection of rare recordings from 2005
It’s a well-known traditional American folk song, first collected in North Carolina by the English folklorist Cecil Sharp during a trip to the Appalachian region in 1916
The song was popularised during the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s through the Weavers’ 1951 recording of the song, which reached Number 2 on the Billboard chart
The song has since been recorded by a wide variety of artists, including Bing Crosby and Bruce Springsteen
This version was recorded in 1957
Alvin & The Chipmunks - On Top of Old Smokey
They’re an animated band of singing chipmunks created by Ross Bagdasarian in 1958 after he developed a method of pitching up his voice with a tape recorder
Off the 1962 album The Chipmunk Songbook
Good Lovelies - Torn Screen Door
They’re a Juno-winning Toronto folk trio that formed in 2006
This is a single that they recorded live in Huntsville, Ontario in 2019
It’s a song by David Francey
Stan Rogers - 45 Years
He was a musician from Hamilton, Ontario, whose music was largely inspired by Maritime folk music and the lives of working-class Canadians
This song is off the live album Home in Halifax, recorded in March of 1982 and released in 1993
Raul Quispe - Tuta Kashwa (Courting Song)
This is from a 2015 Smithsonian Folkways / UNESCO compilation of Andean music from Peru, collected from the archives of the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Catholic University of Peru
This is a courting song recorded in the province of Canas in the Cusco region of Peru in November of 1981
It’s played on the charango, a ten-to-fifteen-stringed guitar that traditionally used an armadillo shell as the body
Haya Zaatry - Borders & Promises
She’s a Palestinian musician and architect, and this is a single from 2015
Art Matchett - The Banks of the Miramichi
This is from a 1962 album of folk songs recorded during the 1959 Miramichi Folksong Festival in Newcastle, New Brunswick
Matchett was from Strathadam, New Brunswick
Pat Hurley from Trout Brook, NB wrote the lyrics to the song, and it is likely from the early 1900s
Old Man Luedecke - Little Bird
This song was recorded live at the Chester Playhouse in his hometown of Chester, NS
It was originally included on his 2008 album Proof of Love
William Carlos Williams - Work in Progress, Section
Williams was a poet and physician from New Jersey who’s known for his involvement in the imagist movement of the early 20th century
He influenced younger generations of poets, including members of the Beat movement, who we’ll hear from later
This is off the album William Carlos Williams Reading His Poems, recorded at his home in New Jersey in 1954
It became his poem “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,” published in 1955
Howard Da Silva - Lincoln and Liberty
We’re going to take a deep dive now into a tune that’s been used for several different songs
The tune is regularly referred to “Old Rosin the Beau” on this side of the Atlantic, but it was written by the Irish poet Riocard Bairéad (anglicised as Richard Barrett) in the 18th century with the title “Eoghan Coir”
Upon gaining popularity in the United States, the tune was used for several presidential campaign songs, including the one we’re about to hear, “Lincoln and Liberty,” from 1860
The song’s lyrics are attributed to Jesse Hutchinson Jr. of the Hutchinson Family Singers
This version is performed by Howard Da Silva, an actor, director, and singer from Ohio
United Sacred Harp Musical Association - Sawyer’s Exit
This is a hymn written by Seymour Boughton Sawyer in 1850 and published in the Sacred Harp songbook
Oscar Brand - Tyler and Tippecanoe
Brand was a Winnipeg-born American folk musician and author who also hosted a weekly folk music show on WNYC Radio in New York City for 70 years, the longest running radio show with a single host in broadcasting history
This is from his 1960 album Election Songs of the United States
It’s from the election of 1840, during which, the liner notes for the album say, songs played a “significant role in whipping up popular enthusiasm” for the first time
This song was in support of William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate
John Tyler was his vice president (and later president after Harrison died just 31 days into his presidency), while “Tippecanoe” refers to the Battle of Tippecanoe, in which Harrison, then governor of Indiana, led his forces against tribal forces who opposed European colonization
Herta Marshall - Down in the Willow Garden
Traditional murder ballad that originated in Ireland from a number of sources in the early 19th century but became popular in the Appalachian region of the US in the early 20th century
Marshall was an actor who began folk singing while on a tour with Burl Ives, and later sang and acted with Woody Guthrie and Will Geer
It’s from her 1957 album To You with Love: American Folk Songs for Women
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott - Acres of Clams
He’s a folk singer from New York City who was a protege of Woody Guthrie, a collaborator with Derroll Adams, and a major influence for Bob Dylan
Elliott ran away from home at the age of 15 to join Colonel 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
This is from an album of songs that Elliott recorded on a yacht at Cowes Harbour in England in 1957 that were rediscovered years later and released in 2004
The lyrics were written by Francis D. Henry in the 1870s
Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem - The Men of the West
The Clancy Brothers were a very influential Irish folk group primarily known for their involvement in the American folk revival of the 1960s
Makem was an Irish artist best-known for his work with the Clancy brothers, with whom he performed throughout the 1960s
This is from their 1967 album Irish Songs of Rebellion
The lyrics are by Irish nationalist, journalist, and poet William Rooney, who wrote them for the centenary celebrations of the 1798 Irish Rebellion
Bob Dylan, The Band - Ol’ Rosin the Beau
We just heard four more songs that use the tune of that last song, “Ol’ Rosin the Beau”
The version we heard was recorded during the sessions for the Basement Tapes in 1967
The song was first published in Philadelphia in the early 19th century, though it’s likely older than that, and it’s been found throughout North America, Ireland, and England
Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Pennycandyhorse
He was a poet, artist, and activist from New York who founded City Lights bookstore in San Francisco
Though he didn’t consider himself a Beat poet, he published many of the Beat poets, including Allen Ginsberg, and is often aligned with members of that movement
Ferlinghetti died in 2021 at the age of 101
The city of San Francisco named his birthday, March 24, “Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day” on the occasion of his 100th birthday
This poem appears on his 1958 album Tentative Description of a Dinner to Promote the Impeachment of President Eisenhower and Other Poems
Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney - Great Day
This is off the 2020 archive collection version of his 1997 album Flaming Pie, and his wife Linda joins him on the song, which was recorded in 1992
The Wainwright Sisters - The Hobo’s Lullaby
They’re a duo made up of half sisters Martha and Lucy, who began performing together professionally in 2015
Martha is the daughter of musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright, and Lucy is the daughter of musicians Loudon Wainwright and Suzzy Roche
This song is by Goebel Reeves, a Texas folk singer from the early 20th century
They recorded the song for their first album, Songs in the Dark
Willie Dunn - Charlie
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
From his 1971 self-titled album
The song is about Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack, an Anishinaabe boy who ran away from the residential school he was forcibly sent to in Kenora, Ontario, and died of hunger and exposure in 1966 while trying to return home
David Rovics - Song for Gaza
He’s a topical singer-songwriter based in Oregon who’s been playing since the 1990s
This song is off his latest album, Bearing Witness
It’s a rewrite of his 2001 track “Song for Basra” which is about the 1990s sanctions against Iraq and the bombings the US Air Force carried out on the country—he notes that he only had to change a few words for it to fit current events
Allen Ginsberg - In Back of the Real
He was a poet and writer from New Jersey, known as one of the leading figures in the Beat Generation
This is from the 1959 album Howl and Other Poems
Ginsberg wrote it in 1954
Marie Hare - Jenny Dear
Ballad singer from Strathadam, NB, known for her performances at the Miramichi Folksong Festival
This is from her 1962 self-titled album, released on Folk-Legacy Records
Its story is a common one in balladry, in which a young woman who had previously rejected a young man changes her mind, only to discover that he has also changed his
This particular ballad wasn’t as well-known in Canada as it was in other countries, and this version was only one of two collected in the country
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,” a traditional American folk song
Willie Green - Baby Please Don’t Go
Green was a popular Zydeco accordion player from Texas who regularly performed at Irene’s Cafe in Houston from the 1940s until his death in the 1960s, which is where Chris Strachwitz made this recording of him in the early 1960s
This is from a compilation album of early Zydeco music, released by Arhoolie Records in 1989
Uncle Sinner - Little Dutch Girl
Winnipeg
It’s a traditional song that may have originated near Dutchtown, Missouri, and was later brought to Oklahoma
It was popular with fiddle players, and uses the same tune as the song “Liza Jane”
Lee Cremo Trio - Jig Medley
