Barking Dog: June 20, 2024
Anne Murray - Why (Why, Why, Why)
It’s her 79th birthday today
She’s a Grammy-winning musician from Springhill, Nova Scotia who’s been performing since the 1960s
This is from her 1977 children’s album There’s a Hippo in My Tub
The song is by Woody Guthrie
Jimmy Driftwood - On the Banks of the Buffalo
He was born 117 years ago today
Driftwood was a folk musician from Arkansas who wrote over 6,000 songs during his career
Though he learned to play the guitar when he was young, he first began writing songs when he was a teacher, to teach his students about historical events
This is from his 1965 album Down in the Arkansas
It’s a traditional American folk song also known as “The Bonny Bonny Banks of the Virgie-O” that’s descended from the English ballad called “Babylon” or “The Bonnie Banks o’ Fordie”
Jeff Tweedy - Love and Mercy
He’s a musician, author, and producer from Illinois who’s best-known as a member of the bands Uncle Tupelo and Wilco
He recorded this on the radio show Idiot’s Delight on April 14, 1996
The song is by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, who turns 82 today
Sons of the Pioneers - Old Man Atom
One of the earliest western bands in the US
Formed in 1933, originally Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan, and Tim Spencer
The band still exists but there have been countless changes in membership since the beginning
This song was written in 1946 by Vern Partlow, an American reporter and folksinger
Unlike many protest songs at the time, this one became well-known through the many recordings made of it, rather than through the oral tradition
The Sons of the Pioneers recorded it in 1950
Bob Dylan - Diamond Joe
That song was first recorded for Okeh Records in 1927 by Paul and Leon Cofer
It seems that the Diamond Joe referred to in the song was a steamboat line that ran between St. Paul and St. Louis on the Mississippi River
Dylan recorded this version in character as Jack Fate for his 2003 film Masked and Anonymous
Frederick McQueen, Rev. WG McPhee - Long Summer Days
From an album of Bahamian rhyming music from 1995
Recorded in Nassau, Bahamas, in June of 1965
Sleepy John Estes - Time Is Drawing Near
Estes was an American blues musician from Tennessee
He recorded this song in 1940 for Decca Records
Old Man Luedecke - Song for Ian Tyson
From Chester, NS
Off his album Tender is the Night from 2012
Judee Sill - Lady-O
She was a musician from California who had a rough childhood and, after a few stints in reform school and jail, started to work as a composer in her early 20s
She released her first album in 1971 and her second in 1973, neither of which sold well, but were nonetheless critically acclaimed
Sill didn’t deal well with the poor sales of her albums, and was dropped from her label, though she continued to write songs and record demos
She struggled with addiction after a string of car accidents and failed back surgery, and died from a drug overdose in 1979
This is from the 2018 compilation album of rarities and live recordings called Songs of Rapture and Redemption
Sill recorded this one at the Boston Music Hall in October of 1971
She originally wrote it for the Turtles, who released their version in 1969
Sterling A Brown - Puttin’ On Dog
Brown was an American folklorist, poet, and literary critic known for being the first poet laureate of the District of Columbia
From the 1995 Folkways album The Poetry of Sterling Brown
He wrote the poem based on observations he made at a pool hall in Washington, DC in his youth
Tomoya Takaishi - Little Boxes
He’s a Japanese folksinger who’s been active since the 1960s
While studying at Rikkyo University, he started singing folk songs that he translated from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger recordings to earn money for school expenses
This song was written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962 and popularised by Pete Seeger through his 1963 recording
Takaishi recorded the song for his 1967 debut album
Vern Smelser - The Morning of 1845
This is off the 1964 album Fine Times at Our House: Traditional Music of Indiana, which is a collection of music recorded by Pat Dunford and Art Rosenbaum
Smelser was a guitarist and singer from northeastern Indiana who came from a musical family
He learned this song from his grandfather, who learned it in Wyoming, though it seems to have been written in Vermont
Woody Guthrie - Better World A-Comin’
This is off the 1956 album Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie
Guthrie was an influential folk musician who’s known for his songs about the Okie migrants who travelled west during the Great Depression in search of work
Geer was a well-known actor, musician, and activist from Indiana
Uncle Sinner - Little Margaret
From Winnipeg
This is an English ballad from at least the 17th century, often titled “Lady Margaret and Sweet William”
The tune and most of the words of the American version come from Bascom Lamar Lunsford, a NC lawyer who collected songs and accompanied himself on banjo
Uncle Sinner included it on his 2014 album A Pocketful of Glass Eyes
Viola Penn - One Bright Summer Morning
From the 1960 Folkways album Caribbean Folk Music
This one was recorded on the largest of the British Virgin Islands, Tortola
It’s a member of the “Unfortunate Rake” song family, which includes “St. James Hospital,” “The Cowboy’s Lament,” and “The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime,” though it’s lyrically closest to “One Morning in May”
Chumbawamba - The Untraditional
A British band active between 1982 and 2012 and best known for their 1997 hit “Tubthumping”
This is from their 2005 album A Singsong and a Scrap, which is one of their folkier albums
It’s a song about a same-sex relationship in the style of a traditional English ballad
Dyad - Red Rocking Chair
From Victoria, BC
Song popular in the Appalachian region and southeast US and first collected in 1909
It’s also known as “Honey Babe Blues”, “Sugar Babe”, and “Red Apple Juice”
Their version is from their 2002 album Who’s Been Here Since I’ve Been Gone
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Gone to Hilo
He’s a musician from Georgia who was raised in an artistic family and apprenticed with the blues musician Precious Bryant from a young age
It’s the third single off his forthcoming album, When I’m Called, which comes out on July 12
This one came out on June 12
He says of it: “It’s important to remember that a lot of the songs we call sea chanties might have only functioned as such for a short period of time before escaping (or becoming culturally irrelevant to) their original contexts,” Fussell explained. “Even in its original work song context, the song abstracts time and place. From whose point of view is this song sung? Who is Johnny? And why is he sometimes ‘Tommy?’ And where is Hilo anyway? Is it Ilo, Peru, or did they mispronounce Hawai’i? And where is Rye-o? Are they singing about Rio de Janeiro or Ryo, Georgia? That’s folk music, baby.”
Periwinkle - The Promised Land
This is from a 1981 album called The Promised Land: American Indian Songs of Lament and Protest
There’s not much else to be found about Periwinkle, though the liner notes for the album are worth checking out because they contain a lot of background on Indigenous issues in North America
Eddie Vedder - Girl from the North Country
He’s an American musician known as a the lead singer and guitarist for the band Pearl Jam
This is from the film Water on the Road, which documents his 2008 solo tour
Bob Dylan wrote the song in late 1962, and it’s from his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Haya Zaatry - Manakir
She’s a Palestinian musician and architect
This is a single from 2013
The title translates to “Nail Polish”
John Jacob Niles - I Wonder as I Wander
American musician, composer, folklorist, and collector of traditional ballads
Influential figure during the folk revival of the 1960s
This song is by Niles, who based it on a song fragment he collected in 1933, and it’s often been confused for a completely traditional song
Johnny Doran - An Chuileann
Off a 1997 album of folk music collected from the archives of the Department of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin
Doran was a travelling piper who was known across Ireland
This recording was made in 1947
Brendan Behan - An Chuileann (The Fair Maiden)
Behan was a writer and Irish Republican activist from Dublin
This is from the album Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folksongs and Ballads from 1960
Magnolia Sisters - Braille pas, jolie ‘tits yeux bleus (Don’t Cry, My Bonny Blue Eyes)
They’re Louisiana-based musicians Ann Savoy and Jane Vidrine
This is from their 1995 album Prends Courage, a collection of some of their favourite Cajun songs
This song has been recorded in both English and French, so they decided to combine the two versions into their own
Geoffrey Ursell - Moosejaw Meetin’
He was a writer and musician from Saskatchewan known particularly for writing plays like The Running of the Deer and Saskatoon Pie, and for co-founding the literary press Coteau Books, which published authors from across Canada
Thanks to Krzysztof and Meredith for sending this along to me!
Etulu Etidloie - Ayuqsanartumik (Hard Times)
He was a musician and carver from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, who began writing music in the 1960s, and recorded one album for the CBC in 1978 called Today’s Thoughts, which is where this song comes from
Bull City Red - Everybody Wants to Know How I Die
American Piedmont blues artist, closely associated with Blind Boy Fuller and Reverend Gary Davis
Recorded this under the name Brother George and His Sanctified Singers in Memphis, Tennessee in July of 1939
Penny Lang - Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
She was a folk musician from Montreal who was part of the folk revival of the 1960s
She first began playing professionally in 1963, and later began touring North America, playing folk festivals and coffeehouses throughout Canada and the US
This is from her 1992 album Live at the Yellow Door
The song is by Pennsylvania musician and songwriter Ed McCurdy
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Going Down to the River
He was a hill country blues musician originally from Tennessee, though he moved to Mississippi in 1928 and continued to farm there full-time while playing music on the weekends
His music caught the attention of producers and blues fans in the early 1960s due to the recordings Alan Lomax and Shirley Collins made of him while they were travelling across the southern states to collect field recordings
Within a couple of years of this attention, he became a professional musician and recording artist who played at folk festivals and toured clubs around the world
This is from the new album The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert, which Smithsonian Folkways released a few days ago
It’s a recording of a concert given by McDowell, The Georgia Sea Island Singers, and Ed Young in April of 1965
He recorded several songs under the title “Going Down to the River”
This one shares lyrics with some of the other recordings but has a unique melody
Fred Cockerham - June Apple
Fiddle and banjo player from North Carolina
This is off musician, musicologist, photographer, and filmmaker John Cohen’s 1975 compilation album High Atmosphere, which is composed of recordings he made in 1965 of Appalachian folk music in North Carolina and Virginia
This is a traditional American old-time reel
Willie Dunn - Son of the Sun
Dunn was a Mi’kmaq musician and film director from Montreal, known for songs like “I Pity the Country” and this song, “Son of the Sun”
It was first released on his 1984 album The Vanity of Human Wishes, but this is a studio outtake from 2002
David Francey - Flowers of Saskatchewan
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
Judith Reyes - Gorilita, Gorilon (Little gorilla, big gorilla)
Reyes was a composer, musician, and writer who’s known as a pioneering protest singer in Mexico
This is from the 1973 album Mexico: Days of Struggle, which covers topical issues including land reform, state violence, exploitation, and income inequality
This song is about the government sending soldiers and police to deal with student protests
Boharm Breakdown
This is off the 1975 album Prairie Grass, Prairie Sky, which is a collection of contemporary music from Saskatchewan
Willie Williams - Boll Weevil Been Here
