Barking Dog: May 21, 2026
Ellen Stekert - Old Devil Time
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 her latest release
She learned this song from a woman named Elli Winters while teaching in Detroit
She later found out that it was written by her friend Pete Seeger at the last minute when he was asked to write a song for the 1970 film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
Martin Simpson - The Recruited Collier
Simpson is an English folk musician who began playing professionally in 1970 and has collaborated with artists including June Tabor and Dom Flemons
This is a new single, released on May 8th
This song is also known as “Jenny’s Complaint,” and sometimes tells the story of a ploughman, rather than a miner, who is recruited to go to war
The song was composed by Robert Anderson and included in his 1808 songbook Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect
Anderson was a folksong collector, but he also wrote his own songs, and this song has sometimes been mistaken for an older traditional ballad
The mid-century English folksong collector and singer AL Lloyd put the song to its current tune, though he could not remember whether he made it up or took it from another song
Pharis & Jason Romero - These Are the Days
From Horsefly, BC
This is a new single and the title track for their upcoming album These Are the Days That Turn in to Years, which comes out in June
Happy Traum - Sailing Down My Golden River
Traum was an artist known for his involvement in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s and the Woodstock music scene of the 70s and 80s
This is a song by Pete Seeger, which Traum recorded for the 2015 compilation album Sing for the Silenced
In 1966, Seeger and his wife Toshi founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc., a nonprofit organisation that aims to protect the Hudson River in New York from pollution
Its main goal at the beginning was to force a clean-up of the Polychlorinated biphenyl contamination that plagued the river beginning in the 1940s, as a result of nearby manufacturing activities by General Electric and other companies
Their protests led to the passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972 and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, and operations still continue to reduce pollution in the river
Dave Van Ronk - Four Strong Winds
The song is by Ian Tyson of the Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia, and Van Ronk recorded it for his 1994 album To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places, on which he performed versions of songs written by people he knew
Gordon Lightfoot - Changes
Written and recorded by Phil Ochs in 1966, the same year this cover was released
Guitar Frank - Freight Train
His name was Frank Hovington, and he was a Delaware guitarist spotted playing on a roadside porch by John Fahey, who was on a record-collecting trip
He became known by a few east-coast collectors, and was brought to the Smithsonian Folk Festival in 1971 but seemed reluctant to perform in public, and intentionally faded back into obscurity until Bruce Bastin and Dick Spotswood sought him out in 1975 to record a few of his songs
Frank’s version is from the 8th album in a series called Living Country Blues USA, which comprise field recordings made of American blues artists in 1980 by two German blues enthusiasts named Axel Kustner and Siegfried Christmann
Willie Dunn - Hit-Run Mow Down
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
This was recorded for CBC Radio in 1967
Marc Nerenberg - Long Train A-Rollin’
He’s a musician and former lawyer from Montreal, and this is from his 2021 album of the same name
It’s his own song
Sid Hemphill - Soon in the Morning
He’s known as a fife and drum bandleader, and he was described as the “musical patriarch of the Mississippi Hill Country” and "the best musician in the world”
This recording was made by the folklorist Alan Lomax in September of 1959 at Hemphill’s home in Senatobia, Mississippi
Hemphill is joined on banjo by his collaborator Lucius Smith
Star Thistle - Starting Over
A project from the mind of Winnipeg artist Uncle Sinner
Off his debut album The Best of Star Thistle, from 2021
John Renbourn, Robin Williamson - Wheel of Fortune
John Renbourn was an English musician known as a founding member of the folk group Pentangle
Williamson is a Scottish musician and storyteller who was a founding member of the Incredible String Band
This is from their 1993 live album of the same name, recorded both in St. Louis, Missouri and at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago
The song is also known as “The False Lover,” and it’s a traditional folk ballad
Jim Reynolds - The Panic Is On
He’s a musician from Bristol, England who began playing music as a teenager
This is off his 1995 album Dream On
The song was written by vaudeville artist Hezekiah Jenkins, who recorded it for Columbia Records in 1931
Faith Petric - The Little Red Hen
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
This is a version of the American fable of the same title, adapted by folksinger Malvina Reynolds into a socialist tale
Petric recorded this version in Australia in 2001
Howard Zinn - Civil Disobedience
He was a historian from New York City who focused on labour history, civil rights, and the anti-war movement, and is known particularly for his 1980 book A People’s History of the United States
This is a recording made in Denver, Colorado in October of 2008
Fred Holstein - The Rock & The Egg / The Magic Penny
He was a folk musician and folk club operator from Chicago who started playing folk music after seeing Pete Seeger perform
This is from a collection of his recordings, released in 2001
“The Rock and The Egg” is by musician Ed Bronstein, who wrote it under the pseudonym Biggs Tinker
“The Magic Penny” is a song by Malvina Reynolds
Michael Stern - Come Rain or Come Shine
He’s a musician, composer, and nurse practitioner from Washington State
This is off his 2011 album Higher Ground
It’s a song by Scottish-Canadian musician David Francey
Paper Wings - Morning Again
They’re a duo based in Nashville, Tennessee who became friends through music camps and festivals growing up and made their first recordings in 2015
This is off their latest album, Mountains on the Moon, which came out in March
Tucker Zimmerman - Dream Me a Dream
He’s an American musician and writer who’s been living in Belgium since the 1960s
This is his latest release, a single and the title track from his forthcoming album, out on June 19th
The song is based on a poem he included in his first book, When In Flows the Sea, which came out last year
Son of Dave - Be My Angel
He’s a musician based in London, England, and this is a track off his new EP Four Sod Kickers
He made it in collaboration with Winnipeg’s Stanley County Cutups and Daniel Koulack
Veranda - Pour ne pas oublier
They’re a country and bluegrass group that formed in Montreal in 2018, and this is off their latest album, which came out in January
Federico Borluzzi - Early Roman Kings
He’s a musician from Italy, and this is a cover of Bob Dylan’s song, off his 2012 album Tempest
John Arcand - Whoa-Ha-Gee
He’s a Métis fiddle player, luthier, teacher, and composer from Saskatchewan who grew up learning traditional Métis fiddle tunes from his father and grandfather, and his family’s history with the fiddle has been traced back through nine generations
This is from his album of the same name, released in 2000
The title refers to the oral commands given to horses while horseback riding
Sunny War - Don’t Let Me Stray
She’s a folk-punk artist based in LA who taught herself to play guitar and write music at the age of 13
This is from her 2014 album Worthless
Selah Jubilee Singers - We Shall All Meet In Heaven
An American gospel vocal quartet founded in Brooklyn, New York and active between 1927 and 1953
They made this recording for Decca Records in 1939
The Halifax Three - Fare-Thee-Well
They were a folk group that formed in Halifax in 1960, performed in Montreal and Toronto, then became part of the New York City folk scene
After they broke up in 1965, one member, Zal Yanovsky, joined the Lovin’ Spoonful, while Denny Doherty joined the Mamas & the Papas
This is from their 1963 self-titled album
It’s their version of the 18th century folk ballad also known as “The Turtle Dove” or “Ten Thousand Miles”
The earliest published version of the song appeared in England in 1710
Cora Fluker - Amazing Grace
She was a musician from Alabama who learned to play guitar from her uncle when she was a child
“Amazing Grace” is a hymn published in 1779 by John Newton
It became popular again in the 1960s and has since become a folk standard
This recording was included on a 2014 Music Maker Foundation album called We Are the Music Makers!
Joan Armatrading - Let’s Go Dancing
She’s an English musician who’s been performing since the 1960s
This one is from her 1975 album Back to the Night
KC is Lazy - Hide
She’s a musician from Winnipeg who writes music inspired by the folk tradition
She released this track in 2024
Snooks Eaglin - Mean Old Frisco
Eaglin an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
From a 1958 album of Mardi Gras music from New Orleans
It’s a version of Mississippi delta blues musician Arthur Crudup’s 1942 song
Son House, Woody Mann - Come to Die
Mississippi delta blues artist who influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters
He and his band were recorded for the Library of Congress by Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942, and in 1943 he left Mississippi for New York and gave up music
In 1964, though, a group of record collectors located him and persuaded him to relearn his music
He reestablished his music career, playing in coffeehouses, at folk festivals, and on tours
Mann was a guitarist from New York City who studied with blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis as a teenager and later studied music performance and composition at Juilliard
This is from a collection of recordings that Mann made of himself accompanying Son House on the guitar in the early 1970s, when Mann was a teenager
Chris While, Kellie While - Orphan Girl
They’re an English mother-daughter duo who have performed both as solo acts and in groups including the Albion Band
This is from their 2015 album Indigo
It’s a cover of Gillian Welch’s song, which she originally included on her 1996 album Revival
The Good Time Gals - Old Mother Flanagan
They’re an old-time stringband from Montréal, and this is an old Irish reel also popular in the United States
