Barking Dog: September 17, 2026
Béla Fleck - Blue Mountain Hop
He’s probably the most widely known contemporary banjo player, and has won 14 Grammy Awards and been nominated for 33
This is the first single from his upcoming album Live Heart, out on October 16th
The album was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee in January of 2022, with a group of bluegrass artists that included Tony Trischka, Molly Tuttle, and Billy Strings
This is his own song, which he first released on his 1999 album The Bluegrass Sessions
The Tallest Man On Earth, Sofia HK - Overboda
The stage name of Swedish musician Kristian Matsson, who’s been playing professionally since the early 2000s
This is his latest release, a single from his upcoming album Just Beyond Endless Mountain
It’s a duet with Sofia HK, who is also a Swedish musician who released her debut EP last year
Mama’s Broke - Failing
They’re a duo from Nova Scotia who have been playing together for a decade
This is from their new album Reunion, which came out on August 28
Randy Burns - Waiting for an Old Friend
He’s a folk musician from Connecticut who moved to New York City in the 1960s and began playing at coffeehouses in Greenwich Village
This is off his 2008 album Simple Things
Sid Selvidge - I’ve Got a Secret (Didn’t We Sugaree)
He was a musician, anthropologist, and radio producer from Mississippi who got his start in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1960s, where he played both solo and in several bands
This is from his 1976 album The Cold of the Morning
The song is by Elizabeth Cotten, and the lyrics are by her great grandchildren, though parts of Selvidge’s version differ from Cotten’s
Elizabeth Cotten - Till We Meet Again
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 “Freight Train”, 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 Ruth’s son, the folk musician Mike Seeger made recordings of Cotten’s 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 an instrumental version of a traditional hymn, which Cotten recorded in the 1960s
Mississippi John Hurt - Blue Harvest Blues
American country blues singer and guitarist from Avalon, Mississippi
He made a couple of recordings for OkEh Records in the late 1920s but they were commercial failures, and when OkEh Records closed shop during the Great Depression, Hurt returned to his work as a sharecropper, continuing to play music at local events
His early recordings were included on the incredibly influential 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, and in 1963 a copy of his song “Avalon Blues” was discovered, which led the musicologist Dick Spottswood to locate Hurt in Avalon in Mississippi
Hurt performed at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, which brought further attention to his music, and he toured extensively throughout the US and recorded 3 albums
This is one of his early recordings, made for OKeh Records in New York City in December of 1928
Li’l Andy - When the Fire Comes Down
Li’l Andy is the stage name of Montreal-based musician, writer, and producer Andrew McClelland
This is off his 2022 album The Complete Recordings of Hezekiah Procter (1925-1930), part of a multimedia project centring on Procter, a fictional 1920s country musician played by McClelland
McClelland also released a biography-style novel to accompany the recordings
Richard, Cam & Bert - Ain’t It a Shame
They were a trio formed in Greenwich Village, New York City in 1968 by Richard Tucker, Cam Bruce, and Bert Lee
This is off the 2024 release Somewhere in the Stars, a collection of previously unreleased publishing demos
Jan Hammarlund, Turid, Lena Ekman - Santiago är i sorg
They’re three Swedish musicians who have all been active in the Swedish folk scene since the 1970s
This one is off their 1976 album Igår, idag, imorgon (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow), and it’s a song by Chilean composer, musician, folklorist, and artist Violeta Parra
The title translates to “Santiago, You Are Suffering”
Bryan Bowers - When I Go
He’s an American musician often credited with introducing the autoharp to younger generations of musicians
This is from the 2007 album What’s Not to Love About Tom Dundee, recorded live at a tribute concert for Dundee, a Chicago musician who passed away in 2006
The song is by folk musician Dave Carter
Sons of the Pioneers - We’ll Rest at the End of the Trail
One of the earliest western bands in the US
Formed in 1933 by Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan, and Tim Spencer
The band still exists but there have been countless changes in membership since the beginning
They recorded this one for Decca Records in 1936
Chants Revolutionnaires d'Oman - En Palestine Et En Terre D'Oman (In Palestine and the Land of Oman)
This is from a 1977 album of Omani revolutionary chants from the Marxist-Leninist Dhofar Liberation Front, a guerrilla group that aimed to end the rule of the sultan of Oman and stop British control over the region
The title of this one translates to “In Palestine and the Land of Oman,” and it’s about how land remains free despite the presence of oppressors
Jim Page - Something About Us
He’s a folksinger and activist based in Seattle, and this is off his 2006 album Head Full of Pictures
Poor Old Horse - Nothing so Grand as a War
They were a transatlantic folk trio formed by David Jones, Tom Ginny, and Heather Wood, and this is from their 2004 album The Curate’s Egg
The song was written by Wood
Trevor Bača, JACK Quartet, Paul Griffiths - Stirrings Still: I
This is from the recent album Stirrings Still, the name of Samuel Beckett’s final prose piece, completed in 1987
The narrative is performed by Paul Griffiths, with musical accompaniment written by American composer Trevor Bača and performed by the JACK Quartet
Damien Dempsey - The Coolin
Dempsey is an Irish musician who’s been playing since the mid 1990s
This is from his latest album Holywell, which came out in June
It’s a traditional Irish song, the title of which translates to “The Fair-Haired Girl” or “The Fair Lady”
It likely dates to the 17th century, though some believe it’s much older than that
Malvina Reynolds - On the Rim of the World
She was a folksinger from California known particularly for writing the song “Little Boxes,” though she wrote and recorded a large catalogue of music during her career
This song was recorded live at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in 1976
Reynolds wrote it after the death of her husband, Bud, in 1972
Miriam Makeba - Baxabene Oxamu (The monitor lizards in an argument)
She was a musician, actor, and activist from South Africa
She met the American singer Harry Belafonte in London in the late 1950s, and he became her mentor as she recorded her first album after moving to New York City in 1960
Makeba gained popularity in the United States during this time, and she and Belafonte recorded an album together in 1965 called An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba
Makeba was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement and anti-apartheid activism, and married Black Panther Party leader Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s, which lost her the support of many white Americans
After this, the US government revoked her visa while she was out of the country, and she and her husband relocated to Guinea, where she continued to perform and take part in political activism until her death in 2008
This song is in the Xhosa language, and it’s about two monitor lizards arguing
Clyde “Kindy” Sproat - Owl’s Lullaby
Sproat was a renowned musician, storyteller, and song keeper from North Kohala, Hawaii
This is off his 2004 album Nā Mele Kupuna, recorded live at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1993
He’s joined on the song by his sister Bea
They got the song from their mother, who learned it in the late 1930s
10 String Symphony - I’ll Be Here in the Morning
They’re a duo formed by American musicians Christian Sedelmeyer and Rachel Baiman in 2012
This is off their debut album, and it’s a song by Townes Van Zandt from his 1968 album For the Sake of the Song
Star Thistle - If I Needed You
Based in Winnipeg
The song is by Townes Van Zandt, who released it in 1972
Star Thistle recorded it in 2013
Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue
This is off the 1984 album Real Live, and it was recorded in July of that year at Wembley Stadium in London, England
Dylan originally released it on his 1975 album Blood on the Tracks
Erik Darling - Jay Gould’s Daughter
He was an American folk musician who was an important figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s
This is from his album Child, Child from 2000
It’s a classic railroad song about railroad baron Jay Gould’s younger daughter Anna, who was an extravagant dresser and a social climber
David Campbell - North Country
He’s a Guyanese-Canadian musician based in Vancouver who began playing professionally in the 1960s
This is from his 1978 album Song
Ola Belle Reed - The Soldier and The Lady
She was an American musician from Ashe County, North Carolina
She was born to a musical family, and her uncle Dockery Campbell taught her to play the banjo as a child, while her mother and grandmother taught her songs and ballads
Reed formed the band The New River Boys and Girls with her brother Alex, and they went on to open the New River Ranch music park in Maryland, which hosted a number of well-known artists
This is from her 1973 self-titled album
It’s a traditional English ballad commonly known as “The Nightingale” or “One Morning in May”
Big Dave McLean - Sometimes
A blues musician from Winnipeg who’s been playing for over 50 years
This is off his 2024 album This Old Life
The McMillan’s Camp Boys - Jaybird in the Ashbrook
They’re a band originally from British Columbia, now based in Nova Scotia
This is from their new album Runty in the Tallgrass, which came out on September 4th
It’s a traditional old-time fiddle reel from the United States
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Little Junction Stray
Howard Zinn - Powerlessness in the American Political Structure
