Barking Dog: June 13, 2024
Slim Dusty - When the Rain Tumbles Down in July
He was born 97 years ago today
Dusty was an Australian country musician whose career spanned nearly 70 years
He adopted the name “Slim Dusty” at the age of 11, and released his first album in 1945, when he was 18
That’s the same year he wrote this song, “When the Rain Tumbles Down in July”
This is off his 1979 album Walk a Country Mile
Gaelynn Lea - Red Rocking Chair
Lea is a folk musician and disability advocate from Minnesota
She was born with the genetic condition osteogenesis imperfecta, which prompted her to develop a method of playing the violin that involves holding the violin in front of her like a cello
She’s collaborated with other artists including Alan Sparhawk of the band Low, Charlie Parr, and Billy McLaughlin
This is from her debut solo album, All the Roads that Lead Us Home, from 2015
It’s a traditional American old-time song known variably as “Sugar Baby,” “Honey Babe Blues,” and “Red Apple Juice,” amongst other names
Kenneth Faulkner, Edmund Henneberry - The False Knight Upon the Road
Off a 1956 album of folk music from Nova Scotia, collected by the folklorist Helen Creighton
A field recording from Devil’s Island, Nova Scotia
Creighton describes the ballad as “one of the oldest versions of any English or Scottish popular ballad found anywhere”
She also notes that in “olden times” a suitor could win a lady’s hand by cleverly solving riddles, and vice versa
Willie Dunn - Down by the Stream (Starlight Maiden)
Dunn was a Mi’kmaq musician and film director from Montreal, known for songs like “I Pity the Country” and “Son of the Sun”
He also won the NDP’s federal nomination for the Ottawa-Vanier riding in the 1993 federal election, though he lost to the Liberal incumbent
From the 2021 anthology of Dunn’s music called Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies
Amythyst Kiah - In the Pines
A Tennessee roots musician and member of the roots supergroup Our Native Daughters
This is an old American folk song that probably came from the Appalachian region of the United States
She released her version in April
Uncle Sinner - Illinois Blues
From Winnipeg
Off his 2014 album A Pocketful of Glass Eyes
This is a Skip James song, first recorded in 1931
Uncle Sinner recorded it on a dobro in 2008
Lead Belly - Rock Island Line
Born in Louisiana in late 1880s
Went to prison in Texas in 1918, but was released early by singing a song for the governor of Texas
He was incarcerated again in 1930, and the ethnomusicologists and folklorists John and Alan Lomax met him in prison while they were making field recordings of inmates
Once he was released, he became widely known for both his blues and folk recordings
An American folk song about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
Earliest known version written in 1929 by Clarence Wilson who was a member of a singing group formed by employees of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
This recording was made in New York City in February of 1942
He first heard this song from an inmate at Cummins State Farm in Arkansas while he was working as the Lomaxes’ driver after his release
Scatman Crothers - Rock Island Line
He was a musician and actor from Indiana known for his roles in films like The Aristocats and The Shining
His version of the song is from 1956
The Kentucky Colonels - Roll On Buddy
They were a bluegrass band from California that was active during the folk revival of the 1960s
They began as a family band called Three Little Country Boys, formed by guitarist Clarence White—who would later join The Byrds—and his two brothers, Eric and Roland
This song is part of a large song family that includes other songs like “John Henry,” “Spikedriver Blues,” “Roll On John,” and “Take This Hammer”
This is a live recording from the 1964 Newport Folk Festival
David Francey - A Thousand Miles
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who worked as a railyard worker and carpenter for 20 years before pursuing folk music at the age of 45
From his 2001 album Far End of Summer
Steve Fisher - Anything
He’s a musician from Texas who’s been recording since at least the 1990s
This is a song by Adrianne Lenker of the band Big Thief, released on her 2020 solo album Songs and Instrumentals
She provides backing vocals on this recording
Old Man Luedecke - Inchworm
Contemporary artist from Chester, NS
From his 2010 album My Hands Are on Fire and Other Love Songs
Geraldine Sullivan - Johnson’s Hotel
From an album of Ontario folk songs, gathered by the folklorist Edith Fowke and released in 1958
This is a song about the Peterborough county jail, which stood on the banks of the Otonabee River across from the Quaker Oats factory
Dalton Johnston was governor from around 1920-1950
The song originated in the 1930s, likely from a prisoner at the jail
John Hinckley - This Land is Your Land
Hinckley is probably best known for attempting to assassinate US president Ronald Reagan in 1981, reportedly in an attempt to impress the actress Jodie Foster
He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and stayed in psychiatric care until 2016, when he was conditionally released
In 2020, he was given permission to publicly share his music, art, and writing using his own name, and he started a YouTube channel to share his music
Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 after he heard the patriotic song “God Bless America” during his travels throughout America and felt that it didn’t speak to the things he had seen and the people he met as he travelled
For better or worse, the song has since become almost a second national anthem for the States
Unfortunately, the song in its simplified version sometimes seems to go against Guthrie’s original intentions
Derroll Adams - I Ain’t Got a Home
He was a musician from Portland, Oregon who got his start busking on the West Coast of the US during the 1950s, where he met Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the two began travelling and recording together
This song is by Woody Guthrie, who based it on the old gospel song “Can’t Feel at Home”
It reflects more specifically the plight of those made homeless by the Dust Bowl that afflicted prairie states and provinces in the 1930s
Adams’ version was recorded live in Haarlem in the Netherlands in 1977
Mance Lipscomb - Cocaine Done Killed My Baby
Texan blues artist born Beau De Glen Lipscomb
Took the nickname Mance at a young age, which was short for Emancipation
He worked as a tenant farmer in Texas most of his life, but came to prominence 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
This song is related to the songs “Let the Cocaine Be” and “Take a Whiff on Me,” all traditional American blues songs that have been collected across the country
Lipscomb recorded it in May of 1964 in Berkeley, California
Reverend Gary Davis - Cocaine Blues
He was from South Carolina but moved to Durham, North Carolina in the 20s
Was ordained a Baptist minister in 1933, and began to play gospel music instead of the secular music he was previously known for
In 1935, Davis made his first recordings, for the American Record Company
He moved to New York in the 40s, and he was later active in the 1960s folk revival
He played at Newport Folk Festival and was an important figure in the Greenwich Village scene in New York, teaching and performing with popular artists including Dave Van Ronk
Davis learned the song in around 1905 from a travelling carnival musician named Porter Irving, and Dave Van Ronk learned the song from him and further spread it to other folk musicians in the 1960s New York folk scene
Nick Drake - Cocaine Blues
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 off the 2007 compilation album Family Tree, which presents home recordings and demos made by Drake before the release of his first album
Bob Dylan - Cocaine Blues
Off the 2008 bootleg collection Tell Tale Signs
Recorded live in Vienna, Virginia in August of 1997
David Rovics - Free
He’s a topical singer-songwriter based in Oregon who’s been playing since the 1990s
This is off his 2010 album Ten Thousand Miles Away
Rickie Lee Jones - Catch the Wind
Grammy-winning musician from Illinois who’s been active since the 1970s
This is from her 2012 collection of covers The Devil You Know
The song was written by Donovan in 1965
Myriam Gendron - La Luz
She’s a musician from Montreal
This is off her new album, Mayday, which came out in May
Mr. LO Smith - Charles Guiteau
A field recording made by folksong collector and travelling salesman Max Hunter in Springfield, Missouri in March of 1960
Charles Guiteau was an American writer and lawyer who was convicted of the 1881 assassination of James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States
Art Thieme - Mister Garfield
He was a folk musician, photographer, and radio host from Chicago who specialised in music and stories from the upper midwest United States, but he also had an interest in cowboy songs
This is from his 1986 album On the Wilderness Road
Thieme got it from the musician Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and it recounts the last days of James Garfield
Cordelia’s Dad - Booth Shot Lincoln / Hangman’s Reel
Folk and alt rock band from Northampton, Massachusetts active between 1987 and 1998
This is from their 1995 album Comet
It’s a medley of two traditional American fiddle tunes
John Renbourn - White House Blues
John Renbourn was an English musician known for founding the folk group Pentangle with Bert Jansch
This is from his 1971 album Faro Annie
It’s an American folk song, first recorded by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers in 1926
It’s about the 1901 assassination of 25th president of the United States William McKinley
John Craigie - Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
He’s a musician from California who’s known for his comedic storytelling
This is from his 2022 live album Abbey Road Lonely, on which he covers the entirety of Abbey Road
Kaia Kater - Sun to Sun
Grenadian-Canadian artist based in Toronto
This is from her 2015 album Sorrow Bound
Wade Hemsworth - The Bad Girl’s Lament
A Canadian folksinger from Brantford, Ontario
Hemsworth learned this song in the Canadian north woods, and it is closely related to early versions found in the Maritime provinces and in Maine
It’s a member of the “Unfortunate Rake” song family, which includes “St. James Hospital,” “The Cowboy’s Lament,” “One Morning in May,” and “The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime,” though this is the story of a young girl “gone wrong”, rather than a ballad about a misguided boy, or “rake”
Jimmie Strothers, Joe Lee - Do, Lord, Remember Me
Strothers was a Virginian musician active in the 30s and 40s
He performed in medicine shows and made a living as a musician after being blinded in a mine explosion
In 1936, he made recordings of thirteen of his songs while imprisoned for killing his wife
He performs this song with his fellow inmate Joe Lee
This song is an African American spiritual from the 19th century
Clarence Ashley - Rising Sun Blues
Clarence Ashley was a musician known for his performances at medicine shows in the 1920s
He retired from medicine shows in 1943 but regained popularity when his recordings were included on the very influential album Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952
Though his music was experiencing a renaissance, Ashley was nowhere to be seen until he met musician and festival organizer Ralph Rinzler in 1960 at a fiddler’s convention and Rinzler set up a recording session in Ashley’s home
Ashley learned it from his grandfather
Jandek - House of the Rising Sun
He’s an enigmatic musician from Houston, Texas who’s been releasing music since 1978, and has independently released over 120 albums on his label Corwood Industries
This one is off his 1987 album Blue Corpse
It’s an American folk song that could have origins in either England or France
The oldest published version of the lyrics were printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925, but it was known to miners around 1905
Belton Sutherland - I Got Trouble
He was a blues musician from Mississippi who the folklorist Alan Lomax recorded in 1978
Lee Cremo Trio - Sheehan’s Reel / Pigeon on the Gate
Utah Phillips - The Two Bums
