Barking Dog: July 17, 2025
The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem - Will Ye Go, Lassie Go?
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 a folk song from Ireland and Scotland, and Irish musician Frances McPeake adapted it in the 1950s into the version we know today from the 1822 song “The Braes of Balquhither”
This version is from 1962
Leonard Cohen - Passing Through
Recorded live in London in 1972
The song was written by American professor of English Dick Blakeslee in 1948
Bruce Cockburn - Going to the Country
Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Ottawa who’s been playing professionally for over 40 years
This is a live performance from a fundraising concert for the parish of St. Stephens-in-the-Fields in Kensington Market, Toronto in 2005
The song is originally from his 1970 debut album
Pete Seeger, Betty Sanders - Talking Un-American Blues
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
Sanders was a folk singer who performed throughout the US
She wrote this song with Irwin Silber, the editor of Sing Out! magazine
It’s about the persecution and blacklisting of left-wing individuals in the United States during the 40s and 50s
Seeger was one of many in the folk scene who were blacklisted
The Kossoy Sisters - Willie Moore
Identical twin sisters from New York City who began singing together at age 6 after hearing their mother and aunt sing harmonies in their home
As of 2023, the sisters are both divorced and living together in Guatemala
This is a ballad about star-crossed lovers, which likely originated in 19th century Appalachia
They recorded this version for their 1956 album Bowling Green and Other Folk Songs from the Southern Mountains
Snooks Eaglin - The Lonesome Road
Eaglin was an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
This is an alternate take of the song that was recorded in New Orleans in March of 1958, but not released until 2005
Joni Mitchell - Copper Kettle
This song was written by Albert Frank Beddoe around 1946 and popularised by Joan Baez
Mitchell recorded it at the Saskatoon radio station CFQC in 1963
Tim Heidecker - Maintain the Robots
Tim Heidecker is a comedian and musician from Pennsylvania known particularly as part of the comedy duo Tim & Eric
He released this song in April
Bob Dylan - Talking New York
This is a recording from his first concert, given at the Carnegie Chapter Hall on the fifth floor of Carnegie Hall on November 4, 1961, just 11 months after he arrived in New York
He later included the song on his debut album in 1962
Abigail Washburn - Fall On My Knees
She’s a well-known contemporary banjo player and singer from Illinois
This is an old-time Appalachian tune from her 2006 album The Sparrow Quartet
Alash - Kara Kush (The Black Bird)
From their 2017 album Achai
Alash are an ensemble of Tuvan musicians, who are an ethnic group indigenous to Siberia and now living in Russia, China, and Mongolia
They began playing together in 1999 while they were all studying music
The title of this song translates to “The Black Bird”
It’s a poem by Sayan Mongush set to music by band member Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, and it’s about an intelligent horse that was well-known amongst herders in southern Tuva
Enoch Kent - Bonny Lass Come O’er the Burn
A Scottish-born, Canada-based folksinger who began playing professionally in the 1950s
This was recorded in 1962, when Kent was still living in the UK
He got the song from Scottish folk singer Jeannie Robertson
Victor Jara - Preguntas por Puerto Montt
He was a Chilean musician, poet, teacher, theatre director, and activist who was tortured and killed in 1973 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
His work is widely remembered and celebrated throughout the world for its focus on peace, love, and social justice
This is from his fourth album, released in 1969
The title translates to “Questions about Puerto Montt,” and it’s about a massacre that took place on March 9, 1969 when Chilean police killed ten people and injured seventy as they carried out an eviction on poor families squatting on land that local politicians intended to build their future homes on
Ruthie Gorton - Free Palestine Now
This song was released in 1978 as part of the What Now People? record series that advocated song as political movement
In the liner notes, Gorton in part writes: As a Jew and a US citizen, I feel a special responsibility to speak out about the atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people in my name. I want[…] to help expose the twin lies which tell us 1. that opposition to Zionism is anti-Semitic and 2. that Zionism is in the interests of the Jewish people. The survival of all working people depends on our unity against anti-Semitism, whether it is directed at Jews or Arabs. The interests of working people must be defended against Zionism and all other forms of imperialism. Anything that serves to divide this struggle is not in our interests.
Jim Page - Collateral Damage
He’s a folksinger and activist based in Seattle, and this is off his 2002 album of the same name
Sam Amidon - All Is Well
Amidon is a contemporary folk artist from Vermont, now based in England
This comes from his 2008 album of the same name
It’s a Sacred Harp song, with music by J.T. White from 1844 and the lyrics from the 1842 songbook Revival Melodies
Fiver - Pile Your Silver
From a 2017 album of fictional field recordings collected from the files of people who were incarcerated at the Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane between 1856 and 1881
Tucker Zimmerman - Alpha Centauri
He’s an American musician and writer who’s been living in Belgium since the 1960s
This is from his 1969 debut album
Townes Van Zandt - Little Willie the Gambler
He was a musician from Texas, known mainly for his own compositions, though he recorded many traditional songs and many songs by other folks as well, including this one, by Bob Dylan
From the 1994 album Roadsongs
The Rhythm Rats - In the Pines
Old-time stringband trio formed in 1988
This is an American folk song that dates to at least the 1870s and likely originated from another folk song called “The Longest Train”
Their version’s from their 2006 album Pretty Crowin’ Chicken
Uncle Sinner - This World Can’t Stand Long
From Winnipeg
This is off his 2015 album Let the Devil In
Written by Jim Anglin and first recorded in 1947 by King’s Sacred Quartette
Uncle Sinner credits his version to both King’s Sacred Quartette and Bob Dylan
Daniel Lanois - O Marie
He’s a musician and record producer from Quebec who’s produced for artists including Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and Neil Young
This is off his 1989 album Acadie
Joseph Spence - Glory Glory
Joseph Spence was a Bahamian musician known for vocalizing and humming while playing guitar
This is from a 1964 album of recordings by Spence, John Roberts, and Frederick McQueen, three musicians from the island of Andros
Traditional American spiritual that has been recorded in a number of genres
Willie Dunn - Pontiac
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
From his 1980 album, The Pacific
Utah Phillips - I’ve Got to Know
He was an anarchist folksinger, storyteller, and labour organiser from Ohio who also rode the rails throughout the United States and worked as an archivist, a dishwasher, and a warehouse-man at various points in his life
Woody Guthrie wrote this song later in his life, and it’s been widely recorded since
It uses the tune of the hymn “Farther Along”
Roy Bailey - If They Come in the Morning
Bailey was an English sociologist and musician, known as a member of the group Three City Four
Jack Warshaw composed the song in 1974
He’s an American musician who moved to England in the 1960s to work as an architect, and stayed there because of the folk scene and his resistance to the Vietnam War
This version is from Bailey’s 1992 album What You Do With What You’ve Got
Nora Brown - Hills of Mexico
She’s a contemporary banjo player and singer from New York City
This is off her 2019 debut album, Cinnamon Tree
It’s a traditional American folk ballad also known as “On the Trail of the Buffalo” and “Buffalo Skinners”
Lead Belly, Josh White - Pretty Flowers in My Backyard
Lead Belly was a folk and blues musician from Louisiana who was incarcerated in Texas twice in the early 20th century, and met the folksong collectors John and Alan Lomax while they were making field recordings of inmates
Once he was released, he became widely known for both his blues and folk recordings
White was an American musician who started playing music in the late 20s and gained fame as a blues, jazz, and folk musician, as well as a film and Broadway actor
This recording was made in 1944
Morley Loon - Amendo Na Nooch
He was a Cree musician and actor from Mistissini, Quebec
This one’s from his debut album, Northland, My Land, from 1981
The title translates to “Friendship-Kinship”
Stanley Triggs - So Long to the Kicking Horse Canyon
Born in Nelson, BC in 1928
Worked throughout the province in different industries, and collected songs and stories from his colleagues
Also worked as a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
The Kicking Horse Canyon lies between Golden and Lake Louise in BC, and Triggs adapted this song himself from an old cowboy tune after a rough time pouring concrete with a construction gang in minus 42 degree weather
Daniel Koulack, Karrnnel Sawitsky - The Fall of Shannon Doah
From Winnipeg
Off the 2010 album Fiddle and Banjo
Rolf Cahn - Call Me Your Dog
