Barking Dog: August 6, 2026
Charlie Parr - Rooming House
Contemporary country blues musician from Minnesota
This is the first single from his upcoming album of the same name, which is a “conceptual folk opera” about the lives of Upper Midwesterners
Alan Sparhawk, Trampled by Turtles - Heaven
Sparhawk is a musician from Duluth, Minnesota, known as half of the duo Low and as a solo artist
Trampled by Turtles are a band also from Duluth who have been performing since 2003
This is from the 2025 album Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles
It’s a song originally from Sparhawk’s last album, White Roses, My God, which came out in 2024
Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott - White Freightliner Blues
O’Brien is a Grammy-winning musician from West Virginia who’s been playing professionally for almost 50 years, and has performed both as a solo act and with his band Hot Rize
Scott is a musician and producer from Indiana, now based in Nashville, Tennessee, who began playing music as a child in his family band
This is off their 2012 live album We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This
It’s a Townes Van Zandt song from 1978
Hesperus, Mike Seeger - All in Down and Out Blues / Muit’ Amar
Seeger was a folklorist and musician who co-founded the New Lost City Ramblers in the 1950s
Hesperus is a traditional music ensemble originally founded in 1979 to play early European music and American traditional music, though more recently it has focused on scores for 1920s silent films
From the 1988 album Crossing Over: A Fusion of Medieval and Appalachian Music
“All in Down and Out Blues” is an Uncle Dave Macon song from the 1930s
“Muit’ Amar” is a 13th century devotional song to Mary, compiled in the Cantigas de Santa María by King Alfonso the Wise of Castile on the Iberian Peninsula
Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train
She was from North Carolina, and began playing her older brother’s banjo when she was seven
During her teens, Cotten composed a number of songs, including this one, which became a skiffle hit in the UK several decades later, in the 1950s
She gave up music around 1910, but she met the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger in the 1950s and began working as a housekeeper in the Seeger household
While she was there, she started playing the family’s guitar one day, and Mike Seeger made recordings of her songs, which later became an album
They began playing concerts together, and by the early 1960s, Cotten was playing at national festivals
She continued touring and releasing music well into her 80s
This is a live recording made at the New Lost City Ramblers’ 20th anniversary concert in 1978
Wilma Lee, Stoney Cooper - This World Can’t Stand Long
They were both American country musicians who married in 1941 and formed a group called Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper and the Clinch Mountain Boys
This recording is from 1948, and the song was written by Jim Anglin and first recorded in 1947 by King’s Sacred Quartette
Leo Kottke - Jack Gets Up
He’s a guitarist based in Minnesota who’s recognized for his involvement in the development of the American primitive guitar style
This is from his 1990 album Leo Live, though he originally released it on his 1989 album My Father’s Face
Bruce Cockburn - Call It Democracy
Singer-songwriter and guitarist from Ottawa who’s been playing professionally for over 40 years
This is from Cockburn’s edition of Jan Douwe Kroeske’s 2 Meter Sessions series, released in 2020, though Cockburn originally released it on his 1986 album World of Wonders
It’s about the International Monetary Fund, which Cockburn says fosters “insupportable debt” in Third World countries
Leon Rosselson - Voices
Rosselson is a musician and children’s book writer from England who first became widely known in the 1960s
This is from his 1986 album Bringing the News from Nowhere
Howie Mitchell - I’m Sad and I’m Lonesome
Mitchell was a Virginian folk musician best known as a dulcimer player, who was first introduced to the instrument during the folk revival of the 1950s, though he plays the guitar on this recording
This is from his 1963 self-titled album
The song was originally published by Carl Sandburg in his 1927 book The American Songbag
He stated he got it from a “Dallas, Texas woman who got it from Tennessee folks”
The lyrics in Mitchell’s version are a mixture of “The Cuckoo” and “The Moonshiner”
Derroll Adams - I’m Sad and I’m Lonesome
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
He moved to Europe in 1957 and never returned to the States, instead finding a solid fanbase and community among fellow musicians like Donovan, Bert Jansch, and Rod Stewart
This is from the 1966 album Riding in Folkland, which he recorded with Elliott
Joan O’Bryant - The Cuckoo
Kansas folksinger and folklorist who taught folklore and English at the University of Wichita
The album this is from was recorded in 1958, when O’Bryant was only 26 years old
She learned this version of “The Cuckoo” from the singing of Mary Jo Davis of Fayetteville, Arkansas
It’s a traditional English folk song, though it’s also popular in the US, Canada, Scotland, and Ireland
O’Bryant says of the song: “The words and images travel freely from song to song, so that it is impossible to say that any one of these songs is a version or variant of another.”
Greg Brown - On Records, the Sound Just Fades Away
Brown is a contemporary folk musician from Iowa who’s been playing since the 1960s
This is from his 1983 live album One Night…which was recorded at the Coffeehouse Extempore in Minneapolis in 1982
Bartleby - Things Have Changed
He’s an author, musician, and radio host from Nantes, France, and this is a cover of Bob Dylan’s Oscar-winning song, originally written for the film Wonder Boys from 2000
Morley Loon - Ginscoom-Tin
He was a Cree musician and actor from Mistissini, Quebec
This is from his debut album, Northland, My Land, from 1981
The title translates to “Thanks to You”
John Samson Fellows - Heart of the Continent
He’s a Winnipeg musician, artist, and community worker who’s known as a member of the bands The Weakerthans and Propagandhi, and as a solo artist
This is from a concert he gave at the U of M’s Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture in 2013, and he’s joined by his partner Christine Fellows
He originally released it on his 2012 album Provincial
Harry Dean Stanton - Hands on the Wheel
He was a musician from Kentucky, though he’s probably better known for his acting career, which included credits in films like Cool Hand Luke, Alien, Pretty in Pink, and Straight Time
This is from his 2014 album Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, which is also the name of a documentary film about Stanton’s life
The song is by Bill Callery and was first recorded by Willie Nelson for his 1976 album Red Headed Stranger
Joseph Spence - I Bid You Good Night
Joseph Spence was a Bahamian musician known for vocalising and humming while playing guitar
This is from the posthumously released 1990 album Good Morning Mr. Walker, which was recorded in one take in 1971
It’s a funeral spiritual that originated as a poem called “The Christian’s Good Night” by English writer Sarah Doudney, who wrote it in 1871 after a friend’s death
American gospel composer Ira David Sankey came across the poem while in Bristol, England and put it to music
By the 1930s, it had made its way to the Caribbean, where it’s been recorded by several artists
Woody Guthrie - Jesus Christ
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
He wrote this song while living in New York City in the winter of 1940 and made this recording for Asch records—which later became Folkways Records—in 1944
Vera Johnson - Jesus Was a Preacher
She was a musician and author from Vancouver who began playing music in 1949, when she was in her late 20s
This is from her 1974 album Bald Eagle
Claire Mann, Aaron Jones - Saints and Sinners
They’re musicians from England, now based in Scotland, who perform both as solo artists and in groups including as a duo and in the band Litha
This is off their 2005 album Secret Orders
It’s a song by Scottish-Canadian musician David Francey, from his 1999 album Torn Screen Door
Peggy Seeger - Voices from the Mountains
Seeger is an American folksinger who’s been living and performing in the UK for over 60 years
This is from her 1982 album From Where I Stand: Topical Songs from America and England
It’s a song by Ruthie Gorton, a Californian folksinger
Margaret MacArthur - My Dearest Dear
She was an American singer and dulcimer player originally from Chicago, though she moved to Vermont in the 1940s and lived there until her death in 2006
This is from her 1975 album The Old Songs
This song is commonly known as “The Blackest Crow,” and it was popularized by North Carolina banjo and fiddle player Tommy Jarrell
Andru Bemis - Curtains of Night
He’s a musician from New Mexico who tends to tour by traveling by train, public transit, and hitchhiking
This is from his 2006 album Rail to Reel
Pharis & Jason Romero - Georgie
From Horsefly, BC
This is a track from their new album album These Are the Days That Turn in to Years, which came out in June
Charlie Carscallen - Waiting for Friday
He’s a musician and archaeologist from Brampton, Ontario and this is from his 2022 album Pictures with Trees
Preston Fulp - Little Darling
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 is from his 2001 album Sawmill Worker
A traditional song first recorded by the Carter Family in 1928
Moes Haven - Let’s Go Down to the Deli
They’re a band formed by Matt Farley and Tom Scalzo while they were studying at Providence College in Rhode Island in the 1990s
In 2006, they completed a project where they recorded one album every day
Farley is also known for cult-classic films including Magic Spot, Freaky Farley, and Adventures in Cruben Country (all of which we at Barking Dog recommend), and Scalzo often appears as an actor in those films
This one comes from the 2017 compilation album Songs from Deep in the Vault, Vol. 2
The Stanley County Cutups - Russian Grass
Howard Zinn - The New Deal
