Barking Dog: January 23, 2025
Jamie DeFrates - World War Two Boy
He’s a musician from San Francisco now based in Florida
This is from the soundtrack to the cult classic sci-fi horror film ZaAt, from 1971
One String Sam - I Need A Hundred Dollars
He was a street musician from Detroit, Michigan, who played what’s known as a diddley bow, which was essentially a plank of wood with a single string hammered on
In 1973, he was invited to perform at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival
From there, he played a handful of other shows, even appearing on the same bill as BB King
He recorded this one in 1956 after entering Joe’s Record Shop in Detroit, which was owned by Joe Von Battle, who had recorded artists like John Lee Hooker and Aretha Franklin, and helped One String Sam record a couple of his own tracks
Amadu - Darombi Solo
This is off a 1971 album of music from southern Papua New Guinea
Amadu was a singer, musician, and composer of badra songs from the coastal village of Buzi
The badra is the traditional dance of the people who live west of the Pahoturi River
This recording is described as an “unusually skilled performance”
Bob Neary - God Bless the Grass
This song is by Malvina Reynolds
I couldn’t find any biographical information about Neary, but this is from his 1990 album Trees, Trees, Trees
Chao Tian - Kitchen Girl
She’s a Chinese hammered dulcimer player, sound designer, and visual artist who has performed in over 30 countries and has been fostering cultural exchange between the United States and China since 2015
This is from her 2019 live album The Girl from the East, recorded at the Strathmore Mansion in Maryland during her Artist in Residence concerts in 2018
She got the song from the fiddle player Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia, whose version was recorded by Alan Jabour
Benj Rowland - Marmora Pig
He’s a musician from Peterborough, Ontario, who’s part of the folk duo Mayhemingways
This was recorded at the Electrical Room in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 2023
It’s a song by Washboard Hank, another Peterborough musician who’s known for his homemade instruments
Blind Boy Fuller - Little Woman You’re So Sweet
He was a popular Piedmont blues musician from North Carolina who performed between 1928 and 1940
He recorded this one in 1940 in New York City
It’s almost exactly the same as Josh White’s song “So Sweet, So Sweet” from 1932
Nick Drake - My Baby’s So Sweet
He was an English musician who had a short career and died at the age of 26, though he’s remained highly influential for many artists, including Kate Bush, Beck, and Robert Smith
This is off the 2007 compilation album Family Tree, which presents home recordings and demos made by Drake before the release of his first album
Judith Reyes - Marcha de los Caidos (March of the Fallen Dead)
Reyes was a composer, musician, and writer who’s known as a pioneering protest singer in Mexico
This is from the 1973 album Mexico: Days of Struggle, which covers topical issues including land reform, state violence, exploitation, and income inequality
The song begins with the lyrics “I will honour the fallen by fighting,” and the first verse translates to “We want to abolish forever the system / where man’s exploitation by man is the rule / and in which the human condition / is no longer taken into account”
Reet - Iirekene
She was an Estonian musician who was brought up in Sweden after her family fled during the Second World War
Because of the quality of Estonian schools in Sweden, she was able to maintain her native language
She went to the US to study in 1967, then moved to Canada where she recorded the self-titled album this song comes from in 1969
She later returned to Sweden, where she joined a society of young scholarly Estonian women
The title of this song translates to “The Little Mouse”
It’s about a mouse who goes to chop wood in the forest and meets a character who pesters him with questions
Letys Murrin - Mary of the Wild Moor
From an album of Ontario folk songs from 1958
Murrin learned it from her grandfather, who was from Frontenac County, Ontario
It’s a ballad that was collected in both Britain and North America
It first appeared in print in the early 19th century, and became a widely popular song
The tune she uses is from the Irish song “Old Rosin the Beau”
Bob Dylan - Mary from the Wild Moor
This is a live recording made at a concert in San Francisco in 1980
Willie Sordill - Talking UFW
He’s a musician from Massachusetts who’s mainly known as a jazz musician, and has been playing professionally for over 40 years
He’s still an active member of the New England music scene, collaborating with countless other artists and performing in many different genres
Sordill wrote this song over a period of three days in April 1976, to be sung at a Food Day dinner and workshop in Fort Wayne, Indiana
He wanted to write something that offered a solution to the vulgar way farm workers were–and still are–treated
This is a talking blues song, a style invented by Chris Bouchillon and since adopted for many songs, often with guitar very similar to the original—typically repetitive three chord progression
Art Samuels and the Montréal Youth Singers - It’s the Same All Over
From a 1956 album by Montreal musician Art Samuels and the Montreal Youth Singers that includes both "songs of peace and protest" and "songs of fun and impudence”
He says of this song: “Here’s a song I can honestly say just about wrote itself. I wanted to say something very specific… I was thinking about the many common qualities and ties, the many common feelings that, willy-nilly, bind all people all over the world. And because the idea was simple and truthful, the first and final draft of the song didn’t take long to follow.”
Ruby Hughes, Oliver Hughes - Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley
This is a field recording made by Sidney Robertson Cowell in November of 1936 by brother and sister Ruby and Oliver Hughes in Crossville, Tennessee
This song has become a country classic through versions recorded by Marty Robbins and Tex Ritter, though it was first recorded in the 1920s
John Hammond - Purty Polly
“Pretty Polly” is a mid-eighteenth-century American murder ballad that’s also popular as a banjo tune
It comes from several older British ballads including “The Gosport Tragedy” and “The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter”
This is from the 2005 compilation album American Primitive Vol. II: Pre-War Revenants (1897-1939), which was the final record curated by John Fahey
John Hammond was a banjo player from Kentucky, and he was the first to record the song in 1925
This is a re-recording he made for Gennett Records in 1927
We’ll hear two other songs with the same tune after this
Karen Dalton - Pastures of Plenty
American singer, guitarist, and banjo player known for her association with the 60s Greenwich Village folk music scene—including with artists Fred Neil and Bob Dylan
She was largely unrecognised for her contributions to the folk genre during her life, but has become an important influence for artists like Nick Cave, Devendra Banhart, and Joanna Newsom
This is a Woody Guthrie song from the Great Depression, written specifically in response to the trend of those affected by the Dust Bowl travelling west to find jobs as fruit pickers
David Lynch - The Ballad of Hollis Brown
He died on Wednesday at the age of 78
Aside from his prolific career as a filmmaker, he was also a visual artist, actor, and musician
This comes from his 2013 album The Big Dream
He said of this cover, it’s “not really a cover of Bob Dylan as much as it is a cover of a Nina Simone cover of Bob Dylan”
Sam Montgomery - Where the Sweet Old Oranges Grow
A lesser-known country blues artist who recorded for ARC in 1936
I can only find about 10 of his recordings, and that truly may be all he made, but his sound has been likened to Kokomo Arnold and Peetie Wheatstraw
Robert Johnson’s recording of the song, known as “Sweet Home Chicago” from 1937 is the best-known version, though he adapted it from the earlier song “Kokomo Blues”
Antonia Lamb - 2-4-D
She was a musician, dancer, actor, writer, and astrologer who was active in the Greenwich Village and LA folk scenes of the 1960s
This is from her 1978 debut album Easy to Love Her
It’s about the herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, a herbicide that’s been used since 1945
Wataru Takada - 冷やそうよ (Let’s Cool It Down)
He was a Japanese folk musician who came from a family of artists and activists, and was active in the Kansai folk movement which began in the late 1960s
In 1966, music critic Kazuo Mitsuhashi introduced him to American folk music, and he learned banjo and worked towards becoming a folksinger while still attending high school
This is from his 1969 split LP with Five Red Balloons
Chad VanGaalen (and daughters) - Static Shape
Contemporary artist from Calgary, Alberta
This is a performance from the 2017 Bedstock, an online music festival where musicians play music from their beds for sick kids who are stuck in their own beds
It raises money and awareness for MyMusicRx, which brings music to hospitalised kids around the US
The song is from his album Light Information, also from 2017
Burton Young - Harbour Grace (Diddling)
Young was a member of a musical family from the Petpeswick area east of Halifax, Nova Scotia
He had sailed for 25 years as mate on schooners, where he often exchanged songs with his cremates
He also learned this custom onboard, which was performed for dances when no instrument was available
It’s called chin music in some Maritime provinces, and cheek music in Newfoundland
Judy Dyble - Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies
She was an English musician best known as a founding member of the band Fairport Convention
This is off the 2015 album Anthology: Pt. One
It’s a traditional Appalachian ballad
John C Reilly - In the Bleak Midwinter
You may know John C Reilly better as an actor and comedian who’s starred in movies like Boogie Nights and Step Brothers, or from his character Dr. Steve Brule on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job, but he’s also a really skilled musician with an interest in traditional music
This is from the soundtrack to the 2024 short film An Almost Christmas Story
It’s a poem written by the English poet Christina Rossetti in 1872 and put to music by Gustav Holst in 1906
Seamus Ennis - Banish Misfortune
He was an Irish musician and song collector known especially for his uilleann pipe playing
This is from his 1977 album Féidhlim Tonn Rí's Castle (Or The King Of Ireland's Son)
It’s a traditional Irish tune also known as “The Stoat That Ate Me Sandals,” among other names
Richard Thompson - Banish Misfortune
He’s an English musician and songwriter who began his career in the 1960s as a member of Fairport Convention, and has since become known as a solo artist performing primarily in the folk and folk rock genres
This is from his 2004 live album The Chrono Show, which he recorded on a tour of the United States
Bull City Red - Mississippi River
American Piedmont blues artist, closely associated with Blind Boy Fuller and Reverend Gary Davis
He recorded this one in 1935
Pharis & Jason Romero - Black Guard Mary
From Horsefly, BC
Off their 2022 album Tell 'Em You Were Gold, which was recorded live over six days in a 60-year-old barn beside the Little Horsefly River
It’s a banjo-centric album, created to highlight the sound of the banjos that Jason makes
The banjo he plays on that song is named Big Blue, and it was built in 2020 and was influenced by details from 19th-century banjos
Pharis wrote the words of this song after reading about the entourage that followed royalty in old Britain
Margaret Christl, Ian Robb, Grit Laskin - The Crockery Ware
Laskin is an Ontario luthier and musician whose guitars have been exhibited in several art museums
Robb and Christl British-born artists who immigrated to Canada as young adults and recorded a collection of folk songs found in the eastern provinces of Canada in 1976 called The Barley Grain for Me
Their version comes from Mr. Everett Bennett of St. Paul’s, Newfoundland, who was recorded by Kenneth Peacock in 1958
Soledad Bravo - Qué dirá el santo padre
She’s a Venezuelan singer who began performing in the 1960s
This is from her 1972 album Volume 4
The title translates to “What Will the Holy Father Say?”
It’s by the influential Chilean musician, folklorist, and artist Violeta Parra
Stan Rogers - Make and Break Harbour
Born and raised in Ontario, but his music was influenced by his maritime heritage
This song comes from his 1977 album Fogarty’s Cove
Angelo Dornan - When I Wake in the Morning
Folksinger from New Brunswick who lived most of his life in Alberta
Retired to his birthplace in his 60s, where researcher Helen Creighton collected about 135 traditional songs from him in the 1950s for use in her book of New Brunswick music
He could only remember two verses of this song when Creighton collected it
Kaia Kater - Harvest and the Plough
Grenadian-Canadian folksinger based in Toronto
From her 2016 album Nine Pin
Jerron Paxton - Little Zydeco
Contemporary Los Angeles musician whose style draws from recordings made before World War II
This song is from his album Things Done Changed, which came out in October
John Humphrys - The Stealth Comma
This is from Missing Persians File, the second album in the Guide Cats for the Blind series, which was produced to raise funds for the Technology Association of Visually Impaired People
It’s a collection of artists performing the poems of the English poet Les Barker, who was known primarily for his comic poetry
Humphrys is a Welsh broadcaster who’s known for his work with the BBC
The McMillan’s Camp Boys - Lost Gander
