Barking Dog: July 28, 2022
Pharis & Jason Romero - Been All Around This World
From Horsefly, BC
Off their brand new album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which was recorded live over six days in a 60-year-old barn beside the Little Horsefly River
Little is known about this song, aside from the fact that it’s an American song first collected in 1917
It’s known by many names, including Hobo’s Blues and Hang Me, Oh Hang Me
Anna & Elizabeth - Old Kimball
Contemporary folk duo from Vermont and Virginia, respectively
That tune is also known as “Skewball,” or “Stewball,” and it’s an American folk song that has origins in the UK
I included it with the Coo Coo because they share very similar melodies, and the two versions I played also share a couple of lyrical verses
Steve Martin, Edie Brickell - The Coo Coo
Yes, that Steve Martin
He’s played the banjo since he was young, and has often incorporated his musical interests into his comedy routine
Since the 2000s, he’s turned more towards his music career, and he’s toured with a number of bluegrass artists, including Earl Scruggs
Brickell is a musician from Texas who’s been performing professionally since the 1980s
The two have been collaborating since the early 2010s
That one is from the documentary The American Epic Sessions
A traditional English folk song, though it’s also popular in the US, Canada, Scotland, and Ireland
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet - No Hiding Place
They were the most influential vocal quartet of this kind to emerge from their region of Virginia at the time
They formed around 1919, and appeared in vaudeville and variety shows and in musical revues throughout the 20s
Their final recording session took place in April 1940
Traditional African American spiritual, first collected in 1907
It’s based on a verse from the book of Revelations that talks about the futility of hiding from the wrath of God in mountains and rocks
This one was recorded in 1938
We’ll hear 2 other versions after this
Bessie Jones - No Hiding Place Down Here
Bessie Jones known for spreading folk music to a wider audience in the 20th century
She was one of the most popular performers of folk music in the 60s and 70s, often appearing with the Georgia Sea Island Singers and performing at colleges, festivals, and political events
This is from the 2020 album Get In Union, which is a collection of some of her recordings made between 1959 and 1966 by the folklorist Alan Lomax
It was recorded in 1961
The Carter Family - There’s No Hiding Place Down Here
Very influential American country and folk singing family from Virginia
Recorded in 1934
Hitoshi Komuro - Children and Adults
He’s a Japanese folksinger known as a member of the folk group Rokumonsen and as a composer for TV and movies
This one’s off his 2017 album Protest Song 2
Periwinkle - For the Children’s Sake
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 the artist, who goes by the name Periwinkle, though the liner notes for the album are worth checking out because they contain a lot of background on Indigenous issues in the United States
There isn’t specific information about the song, either, but on the page by the lyrics there are quotations from people like Malcolm X, who said, “If you are not careful, some newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing,” and Sitting Bull, who said, “Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we are going to make for our children”
Charles Owens & Family - Jacob’s Ladder / The Welcome Table
From the 2019 album Sankofa Songs, which consists of recordings made by or for the folklorist Helen Creighton between 1943 and 1967 of black Nova Scotian music
This is a gospel song that was also important during the Civil Rights Movement
It was likely brought to Nova Scotia when thousands of formerly enslaved people immigrated there after the war of 1812
The singer of this song, Charles Owens, was 99 years old when Creighton recorded him for her album
He was still walking to town every day when weather permitted, and made it to at least the age of 101
Alan Mills & Jean Carignan - Ti-Jean and the Devil
Carignan was from Levis, Quebec, and Mills was from Lachine, Quebec
Both were made members of the Order of Canada in 1974, Carignan for being “the greatest fiddler in North America” and Mills for his contributions to Canadian folklore
This is from their 1961 album
It’s a spoken word piece by Mills, with musical accompaniment by Carignan, and it’s a great example of Quebec folktale traditions
Joseph Able Trivett - The Car That Died
He was a farmer and labourer from Butler, Tennessee
This album that’s from was recorded in 1962, when he was 80 years old
That’s his own story, though it takes from the tradition of the Arkansas Traveler—tales about a rural fellow who, by playing dumb, makes a mockery of the unaware city slicker
Emmett Brand - Most Done Traveling
From a 1956 album of field recordings made by Frederic Ramsey Jr. in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi of older musicians he met during his travels through the southern states
He reckoned he was around 82 when he was recorded near Morgan Springs, Alabama on April 15, 1954
A traditional African American spiritual also known as “Rocky Road”
The Lapsey Band - I Shall Not Be Moved
That’s from an album of Black country brass band music from Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi from 1955
Brass music has a long history in the United States, and Black brass bands started popping up just after Emancipation in 1863
Their repertoire came from church and secular songs, often songs that they had sung before blowing them through horns, and they learned all their songs by ear
By all indications, this tradition of country brass music formed a necessary ingredient of the dance music that evolved into jazz in New Orleans
Recorded in May, 1954 near Scotts Station, Alabama
An instrumental version of a spiritual that later became popular as a protest song and a union song during the Civil Rights Movement
Star Thistle - Bigger Than Me
A project from the mind of Winnipeg artist Uncle Sinner
This is from Star Thistle’s debut album, The Best of Star Thistle, released in 2021
Bruce Molsky - Wandering Boy
American old-time musician who studied with celebrated North Carolina fiddle player Tommy Jarrell for a time
From his 2006 album Soon Be Time
A traditional tune first recorded by the Carter Family in 1927
Nora Brown - Little Satchel
She’s a 17 year-old banjoist and singer who carries on the old-time tradition
She’s found mentors in many folk masters, including the master banjo player Lee Sexton of Kentucky, the female bluegrass pioneer Alice Gerrard, and founder of the New Lost City Ramblers John Cohen
This is off her upcoming album, Long Time to Be Gone, which is out August 26 on Jalopy Records
This song is by Fred Cockerham, though he took elements from the older tune Silver Dagger
Townes Van Zandt - Colorado Girl
He was a musician from Texas, known mainly for his own compositions, though he recorded many traditional songs as well
Off his 1969 self-titled album
Paul Clayton, Jean Ritchie, Richard Chase - The Riddle Song
Ritchie was known as the Mother of Folk; she learned traditional folksongs in the oral tradition from friends and family in her youth
Clayton was an American folksinger, and both he and Richard Chase were folklorists
English folk song and lullaby that was brought over to the Appalachian region by settlers
It’s also known by the title “The Devil’s Nine Questions”
This version of the song is from 1957
We’ll hear a later version after this, and then a couple versions of another riddle song
Willie Dunn - Riddle Song
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician from Montreal
That one’s off his 1980 album The Pacific
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
David Francey - False Knight
Scottish-born Canadian folksinger who worked as a railyard worker and carpenter for 20 years before pursuing folk music at the age of 45
This is a British ballad, which he includes on his 2016 album Empty Train
The “false knight” in the tale is the devil in disguise, trying to trick the child he meets on the road, though as we heard, the child outwits his riddles
Loman Cansler - Far Away
He was a musician, high school counsellor, and folksongs collector from Missouri who learned over 1000 songs during his life
This is from his 1959 album Missouri Folk Songs, and he learned it from a man he had known since childhood
The lyrics are attributed to Miss M. Lindsay, and the music to Mrs. J.W. Bliss
It’s from at least 1909
Michel LaRue - Railroad Bill
From a 1960 album of African American songs
John Jackson - Railroad Bill
He was a piedmont blues musician from Virginia who had given up playing music in his community by the time folklorist Chuck Perdue found him in 1949
Arhoolie Records released his first recordings in the early 60s, and he toured Europe, played folk festivals, and recorded for a few other record companies during that time
The song is about Morris Slater, a former circus hand and turpentine worker who lived a life of danger and became Railroad Bill, an African American outlaw remembered through folklore and folk song
Ferron - Ain’t Life a Brook
She’s a Canadian musician and poet from BC
That one’s off her 1992 live album Not a Still Life, recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco
It’s originally from her 1980 album Testimony
Red Tail Ring - Come All Ye Fair & Tender Ladies
They’re a contemporary Michigan duo that have been performing together since 2009
That one’s off their 2016 album Fall Away Blues
It’s an Appalachian traditional ballad
Shirley Collins - Sweet England
She’s an English folk singer, and likely one of the best-known names from the English folk revival of the 1960s and 70s
That one is from her 1959 album of the same name
It’s a traditional American ballad also known as The Happy Stranger, sung from the perspective of an English immigrant to the country
Stanley Triggs - The Grand Hotel
Born in Nelson, BC in 1928
Worked in logging camps, construction camps, in forestry, with survey crews, and on railroad gangs
Also worked as a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
A song from the logging camps on the coast of BC, dating to the early part of the 20th century
He learned it from Al Cox, a Vancouver folk singer
Larry Penn - Come On Union
Penn was Wisconsin’s Labour Poet Laureate, a songwriter, truck driver, toymaker, activist, and union man
From his 1983 album I'm A Little Cookie and Other Songs that Can Taste Just as Good
Pete Seeger - Get Up and Go
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
A humorous song about ageing
Pete found the verses in Wisconsin on the back of a menu in a roadside diner
He said, “I had never seen them before except for the first two lines, which I had once seen scrawled on the door of a public toilet”
Lead Belly - By and By When the Morning Comes
Born in Louisiana in late 1880s
Went to prison for attempted murder in Texas in 1918
He won early release in 1925 by singing a song for the governor of Texas
Incarcerated again in 1930
Ethnomusicologists and folklorists John and Alan Lomax discovered him in prison while making field recordings
Once he was released, became widely known for both his blues and folk recordings
This is a hymn written by Charles Albert Tindley in 1905
We’ll hear another version after this
Sleepy John Estes - Bye and Bye When the Morning Comes
Estes was an American blues musician from Tennessee
Recorded in April of 1962 in Chicago
William Carridine - Poor Boy a Long, Long Way from Home
More commonly known as “Cat-Iron,” though that wasn’t a formal nickname but a mishearing of his last name by folk music collector Frederic Ramsey Jr.
Traditional blues song of unknown origin also known as “Poor Boy Blues”
Wallace House - Example 1: Sentence Pronunciation
House was a musician, actor, and English professor at New York University who was born in England and raised in Canada
This is from his 1956 album English Speech Instruction: A condensed course in the correction of frequent mistakes in enunciation
Pete Seeger - English is Cuh-Ray-Zee
Another one from Pete Seeger
Pete got this one from Josh White Jr., and it’s based on the book Crazy English by Richard Lederer
Adam Hurt - Flannery’s Dream
He’s a contemporary American banjo player who moved to the southern US 20 years ago and has placed in or won most of the major old-time banjo competitions since moving there
He also has an interest in gourd banjos, and this one is off his 2010 album of gourd banjo music, called Earth Tones
An old Kentucky Tune
Sheesham and Lotus - Old Billy Hell
From Wolfe Island, Ontario
