Barking Dog: August 3, 2023
David Francey - I Called It Love
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 new single he released last week, off his forthcoming album The Breath Between, which is out September 15th
Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, AL Lloyd - Homeward Bound
MacColl was a well-known British folksinger and labour activist known for his involvement in the 1960s folk revival
He and Peggy Seeger were married
She’s a member of the Seeger family—Mike and Pete Seeger were her brothers, her father was Charles Seeger, a folklorist and musicologist, and her mother was Ruth Crawford Seeger, a composer and the first woman to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship
She’s been living in the UK for over 60 years
Lloyd was an English folk singer important to the English folk revival of the 1950s and 60s
This is from the soundtrack to a 1962 film called Whaler Out of New Bedford, which was inspired by a painted panorama of whaling scenes from 1848
It’s a song traditionally sung when heaving the anchor and preparing to return to the home port
This particular version is from the journal of the ship Minerva Smythe, which sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts
We’ll hear another song from the New Bedford whalers later on in the show
Ernest V Stoneman - The Fate of Talmadge Osborne
Ernest Stoneman was one of the most prominent country musicians during the genre’s first decade, and was raised by his father and three musically inclined cousins, who taught him the instrumental and vocal traditions of Blue Ridge mountain culture
This appears to be his own ballad, which warns listeners to walk carefully when in the presence of trains
Stoneman knew Osborne, and remembered that he used to hop freight trains while drunk, which was likely the reason for his death
Released 1927
Old Man Luedecke - Wake Up Hill
From Chester, NS
Off his 2008 album Proof of Love
Margaret Barry - Her Mantle So Green
She was an Irish Traveller musician who became a well-known member of the 1950s London folk scene, and later became well-known in North America, even performing at Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Center in New York during the 1970s
This is an English ballad, the theme of which appears throughout English balladry, with a young man returning from war and his sweetheart not recognizing him at first
Hedy West - The Unquiet Grave
She was a folk singer from Georgia, known particularly for writing the song “500 Miles,” who was heavily influenced by her upbringing in a creative, politically active family
English folk song that tells the story of a man who mourns his lover’s death so hard that her soul cannot find peace
The song is also found in Scotland, Canada, and the United States
Ruslan Jumabaev - The Nightingale
This is off a 2002 Smithsonian Folkways album called The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan
The song was recorded in Kyrgyzstan, which is where Jumabaev is from
The nightingale is a recurring image in the art of Central Asia, and Jumabaev reproduces the sound of the bird on the komuz, a fretless string instrument
Cara Luft - Black Water Side
From Winnipeg
Traditional folk song that likely originated near River Blackwater in Ulster, Ireland
This is from her 2011 album Black Water Side and Other Favourites
Miles Pratcher, Bob Pratcher - All Night Long
This is a field recording made of the Pratcher brothers on their front porch by Alan Lomax in Como, Mississippi in September of 1959
They were neighbours of the blues musician Mississippi Fred McDowell, but they came from an earlier musical generation, and retained the country dance music that would’ve been heard at local picnics and parties in their region at the turn of the century
Lomax wrote that, “Their music represents an early, important, but little known stage in the development of the blues”
Hobart Smith, Texas Gladden, Preston Smith - Lonely Tombs
Hobart was an old-time musician who was rediscovered in the 60s after performing throughout the first half of the 20th century, often with his sister Texas Gladden, who we hear on this recording along with their brother Preston, who was a preacher
This is a Baptist hymn written in the late 1800s by William M Golden
The siblings learned it from their mother
It was recorded in Bluefield, Virginia in August of 1959
Pete Seeger - How About You?
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
This one was written by the miner and folksinger Jim Garland of Kentucky in 1932
He wrote this song because after 6 months of work in the mines he still wasn’t able to afford to buy his wife a pair of slippers
He and the other miners went on strike but they received an injunction stating that they would likely have to face the Federal Courts
So this song describes his feelings on the matter
David Rovics - If They Defunded the Police
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
Rovics says of the song: “No matter what is said about it, the ruling class in the US will not defund the police. To do so would be to overthrow their brutally unequal, sick form of society. But it's nice to imagine what it might be like to be liberated.”
June Lazare - Billy Barlow
She was a musician and ethnomusicologist from California who specialised in 19th century parlour music, and she taught and performed in the clothing of the period
This is from her 1981 album of New York City folksongs from the mid 19th century
Billy Barlow was a character used in social and political songs in the theatre district in New York, who commented on the events of the times
He first appeared in 1840, which is when this song is from, and remained popular until the 1860s
Joy Harjo - Call It Fear
She’s a poet, author, playwright, and musician who was the first Native American to serve as Poet Laureate of the United States
This is off her 2006 album She Had Some Horses
Bruce Cockburn - Foxglove
Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Ottawa who’s been playing professionally for over 40 years
From his 2005 album Speechless
Uncle Sinner - Blow, Gabriel
Off his 2015 album Let the Devil In
This is a song largely from the slave shout singing tradition of the islands off the coast of the state of Georgia
Both the McIntosh County Shouters and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, two prominent groups of that tradition, recorded the song in the 20th century
We’ll hear a more traditional performance of the song after this
John Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, Georgia Sea Island Singers - Blow Gabriel
From an album of Alan Lomax recordings from the southern states from between 1959 and 1960
Bessie Jones is 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, a folk music ensemble that’s been around since the early 1900s
That one was recorded October 12, 1959 in Saint Simons, Georgia
The song urges the angel Gabriel to blow his trumpet on the Day of Judgement
It’s the antecedent of later spirituals on the same theme
Wade Frugé, Ann Savoy - The Milk Cow is Dead
Frugé was a farmer and fiddler from Louisiana who played traditional Cajun fiddle, which he learned from his grandfather and other local musicians
Savoy is a musician from Virginia who’s based in Louisiana
This is off the 1998 album Old Style Cajun Music
Kenneth Peacock - Lots of Fish in Bonavist’ Harbour
He was an ethnomusicologist from Toronto who was on the staff for what is now the Canadian Museum of Civilization
His projects for the museum covered practically every part of Canada, and he’s remembered for the impact his research had on the folk music revival in Canada in the mid 20th century
He collected this song while working on Newfoundland folklore, and it’s also known as “Feller from Fortune”
It’s a very popular Newfoundland party song
Patrick Sky - Wreck of the 97
Patrick Sky was a musician from Georgia who was involved in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 60s
Later in his life, he became an expert in building and playing Irish pipes with his wife Cathy
This is from his debut album from 1965
The song is based on the September 27, 1903 wreck of the Southern Railways Mail Train, which derailed and flew off the side of a bridge while trying to maintain its schedule with excessive speed
Originally recorded by Henry Whitter and GB Grayson in 1924
Snooks Eaglin, Lucius Bridges, Percy Randolph - John Henry
American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
This is one of many tunes about folk hero John Henry, a railroad worker who raced a steam drill and won, but died shortly after
This was recorded in 1959
Morley Loon - Nee Dumphs
He was a Cree musician and actor from Mistissini, Quebec
That one’s from his debut album, Northland, My Land, from 1981
The title translates to “I Wish To See Her”
Victor Jara - A Desalambrar
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 1969 album Pongo en tus manos abiertas, which means “I Put Into Your Open Hands”
It’s a song by Uruguayan folk musician Daniel Viglietti, another of the main figures in the Nueva Canción movement of 1960s Latin America
It starts with the lyrics, “I ask you people, did you ever stop to think / that this land is ours, and not his who ‘owns’ so much of it?”
Susan Zavrian - Housewife
This is from the 1980 album Poets Read Their Contemporary Poetry, compiled by the Before Columbus Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of contemporary American multicultural literature
Alan Mills, the Four Shipmates - New Bedford Whalers
Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec
Known for popularising Canadian folk music, and for writing “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”
Made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian folklore
This was the most famous whaling song, and was popular among merchant sailors as well
It refers to whalers who sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts
Roger McGuinn, Pete Seeger - Alabama Bound
He’s a musician from Chicago best known as a member of the Byrds
This is from his 2001 album Treasures from the Folk Den
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B Williams, Richard Williams - Trial in Judgment
This is from an album of field recordings from Florida made between 1977 and 1980
A spiritual that Lillie B Williams learned from her grandmother and taught to Ella Mae and her other children
It’s a variant of the well-known song “Lonesome Valley,” and we hear Ella Mae leading, her mother Lillie B Williams backing her up, and her father Richard Williams accompanying them on guitar
Preston Fulp - In the Pines
He was a North Carolina artist who worked in sawmills for much of his life, playing music on weekends and at special events in the community
This song is likely African American in origin, and probably came from the Appalachian region of the United States around the late 1800s
Fulp included it on his 2001 album Sawmill Worker
Jake Blount - Where Did You Sleep Last Night
He’s a musician and scholar from Rhode Island who specialises in the music of Black and Indigenous communities in the southeastern US
This is off his 2020 debut album, Spider Tales, which is named for Anansi, a trickster figure in Akan mythology
Blount carefully chose the songs on the album from his extensive research of Black and Indigenous mountain music
He says of his version of the song: “Connecting with my family history and my father’s childhood history, he’d talk about people disappearing. Those lynchings didn’t all happen in broad daylight; my dad talked about people in his community ‘disappearing’ and you’d kind of assume what had happened. For me there was a very direct connection between what I’d gone through in the queer community and this narrative of disappearance and loss that surrounded the Black community in the South throughout much of our nation’s history, and still arguably does.”
Herbert Sills - O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
All I know is that he was a member of the Regina folk choir in the 1960s when this album was recorded
Another version of “The Cowboy’s Lament”
The person who collected this song got it from a Saskatchewan cowboy
Bob Dylan - Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues
This was recorded live at Carnegie Hall in October of 1963
The John Birch Society is a far-right political advocacy group founded in 1958 and known for its promotion of conspiracy theories related to everything from communism to water fluoridation
Sam Amidon - Roll On John
Contemporary musician from Vermont
From his 2015 album But This Chicken Proved Falsehearted
The song belongs to a cluster of Black railroad and mining work songs that were adapted by white Appalachian banjo players
Emerson Woodcock - Jimmy Whelan
From an album of songs from the Ontario lumber camps, collected by Edith Fowke and released in 1961
Sung by Emerson Woodcock of Peterborough, who was 58 when this was recorded, and thus the youngest of the men who sung on this album
Unlike other lumbering ballads that tell the story of a young riverman’s tragic death, this one can be traced to a specific incident
The man’s name was actually Jimmy Phelan, and he was killed on the Mississippi River in Ontario in 1878
Two rafts of logs coming out of Cross Lake collided in swift waters, and formed a dangerous log jam
The rivermen worked to untangle it, but Phelan slipped off a moving log and the current pulled him under
His companions worked for an hour to retrieve his body from the swift-moving river
Jesse Lee Vortis - When My Baby Got on Board
He was a country blues musician from Mississippi
Recorded in Coldwater, Mississippi by music historian George Mitchell in 1967
Suni Paz - Con los Animals Sé Gentil (Be Kind to Animals)
Paz is a musician, folklorist, and poet from Argentina
This is from a 2018 album of children’s songs sung in Spanish
It was written by her song Ramiro
Daniel Littleton plays the marimba and piano on this recording
The lyrics translate to:
Be kind to animals, great and small
Be kind to others, one and all
And be kind to the trees, old and tall
And be kind to yourself, most of all.
Unspecified - Hike Reports
From an album called Sounds of Camp, which was recorded for Folkways at a children’s sleepaway camp in Hancock, Vermont, in 1958
The notes for the track state: “After supper on the evening of hike day the camp gathers to hear one or two especially appointed persons from each hiking group tell about his experiences of the day. These reports usually run to four minutes, at which time the speakers are gently but firmly removed. The hike report given here, was given by Marny Cherkasky and Kathy Weingarten of a lost iron mine expedition led by counsellor Tom Pererra.”
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Crossing the Junction / Deer River
Contemporary stringband based in Toronto
This is from their forthcoming album Try to Make it Fly, which comes out October 13th and is their first album of all-original songs
