Barking Dog: October 27, 2022
This Week’s Theme: Spooky, Supernatural, and Autumnal
We don’t have a strict theme to follow for this week’s show, but we did put it together with Halloween and autumn in mind, so you’ll hear more spooky, supernatural songs than usual. We’ll kick it off with 2 recordings that fit that bill, from people who were born on this day, October 27:
Dylan Thomas - Poem in October
Born on this day in 1914, making this the 108th anniversary of his birth
He was a Welsh poet and writer known for the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” and his story A Child’s Christmas in Wales
He wrote this one on the occasion of his 30th birthday
It was first published in Poetry Magazine in 1945
Sylvia Plath - Ouija
She was born in 1932, 90 years ago today
A poet and writer from Massachusetts known for her novel The Bell Jar and her collections of poetry
Recorded at the Poetry Room at Harvard College Library in the late 1950s
John Ciardi - Measurements
Poet and translator from Massachusetts
From the 1956 Folkways Records album As If: Poems, New and Selected, by John Ciardi
Children of NYPS 24 - What Would Halloween Be?
From the 1956 album Songs for All Year Long, performed by sixth grade teacher Gil Slote and his students
Marcia Berman - Halloween
From a 1956 Folkways album of songs for children
Berman became interested in folk music as a student at the University of California, while she was studying to teach Kindergarten
Her interest in music combined with her interest in early childhood education, and she dedicated her life to educating children through music
She notes that “children like songs which tell about themselves, their families, their pets, and their toys… This song can be made more personal by adding the child’s name. Children want to share with you and tell you what they are going to be on Halloween.”
Jackson C Frank - Halloween Is Black as Night
Lived a rough life with many personal issues, some of which came from a fire that broke out at his elementary school as a child and killed his friend
He was also so shy that he had to perform behind screens when recording
Known for his song “Blues Run the Game”, though he made many other recordings, including this one from 1965
John Roberts, Tony Barrand - The Maid on the Shore
They began playing together as students at Cornell University in 1969, and performed as a duo until Barrand’s death in January of this year
This one’s from their 1977 album of supernatural ballads, recorded for Folk Legacy Records
They got their version from Etson Van Wagner of Roscoe, New York, through Norman Cazden’s Abelard Song Book
Likely originated in Scotland, and has been found in Ireland and England as well, but it is much more widespread in the US and particularly in Canada
Stan Rogers - The Maid on the Shore
Born and raised in Ontario, but known for his maritime-influenced music that was informed by his time spent visiting family in Nova Scotia during summers
From his 1977 album Fogarty’s Cove
Connie Converse - The Ash Grove
Began writing songs and performing for friends in NYC in the early 1950s but gave up after a decade of failed attempts at a music career and moved to Michigan to work at a university
In 1974 she wrote many letters to friends and family suggesting that she intended to start a new life somewhere else
Shortly after that she packed her things into her car and drove off, and was never seen again
Music rediscovered in 2004 when her friend Gene Deitch, who had recorded a number of her songs, played some of them on a radio show on the public radio station WNYC
2009 an album of 17 home recordings was released, called How Sad, How Lovely
This is off the 2020 EP Sad Lady, which is the second collection of Converse’s home recordings to be released
This is her version of the traditional Welsh folk song “The Ash Grove”, recorded between 1952 and 1954
Dyad - Blackbird
From Victoria, BC
This is a Judy Collins song, first recorded in 1964
Rosalie Sorrels - I Left My Baby
She started out as a folksinger and collector of folk songs, and left her husband in the 1960s to travel across America with her five children, establishing herself as a performer and making connections with other folk musicians, writers, and artists
She died in June 2017 but is remembered for her storytelling abilities
This song is from her 1961 album Folk Songs of Idaho and Utah
Sorrels learned it from Mary Lou Rhees of Boise, Idaho
It’s a lullaby that’s likely Gaelic in origin, as there are several lullabies from the Orneys and Hebrides that tell of a child who is carried away by fairies, and whose mother searches for him in vain
The song was previously unreported in the United States prior to Sorrels’ recording, though a version with Gaelic words, the title of which translates to “The Sweet Little One”, has an almost identical story and tune
Lorre Wyatt - I Could Not Find My Baby-O
An American folksinger from New Jersey known for his collaborations with his friend Pete Seeger
This is off his 1985 debut album Roots and Branches
Gordon Bok and Ed Trickett provide backing vocals and instrumentation on that one
Sibylle Baier - Colour Green
She’s a German folksinger who came to prominence later in life with her 2006 album, Colour Green, which she released when she was 51 years old but recorded in the 1970s
Old Man Luedecke - Joy of Cooking
From Chester, NS
Off his 2006 album Hinterland
Christine Lavin - Odds Are
She’s a musician who worked at a cafe in Saratoga Springs, New York, until the folksinger Dave Van Ronk convinced her to move to New York City to pursue a career as a musician
She’s recorded over 25 albums since the early 1980s, and this one’s from her 2010 album Cold Pizza for Breakfast
Karen James - The Ghost Lover
A folksinger who grew up in England, Spain, and France, and moved to Canada as a teenager
The song is descended from an English folk ballad, though James got her version from a recording collected by Maud Karpeles in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland in 1929
Bill Shute, Lisa Null - Sweet William’s Ghost
Null is a folk musician who’s been performing around the Washington, DC area for more than 40 years
Shute is a former member of The Fifth Estate, a rock band formed in Connecticut in 1963
He and Null met in the 70s and began touring nationally and internationally together, playing traditional music
Null later returned to university to pursue graduate studies in history, folklore, and anthropology
This is from their 1977 album The Feathered Maiden and Other Ballads
English supernatural ballad that’s been around since at least 1740
Doug Wallin - Two Ghost Stories
Wallin a musician from Madison County, NC, who played the traditional songs of his renowned ballad-singing family
Katie Lee - The Ghosts of Old San Juan
She was a folksinger, writer, actress, and activist from Arizona known for her opposition to river dams, particularly Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona
From her 1964 album of folk songs from the Colorado River
This one is about the San Juan River, however, a tributary of the Colorado River, which runs from Colorado through New Mexico and up to Utah
The origins of this song are unclear, and it seems there are many tales about the victims of the river
Gary Green - Ghost Rider Bill
A Tennessee folksinger
Off his 1977 album Gary Green, Vol. 2: Allegory
Larry Penn - Ghosts of Bay View
Penn was Wisconsin’s Labour Poet Laureate, a songwriter, toymaker, activist, and union man
This is from the 1989 album Stickin’ with the Union: Songs from Wisconsin Labor History
On May 5, 1886, 1500 workers marched to the gates of the North Chicago Rolling Mill in Bay View, Wisconsin in support of the eight-hour day, and clashed with state militia who had been given orders to kill
Seven were killed, with the support of the mayor and the Wisconsin governor
That song is about that event in Wisconsin labour history
Mungo Martin - Ghost Song
From a 1967 album of west coast Indigenous music recorded by Dr. Ida Halpern
Halpern was originally from Austria, but arrived in Canada in 1944 to flee Nazism
She’s known mainly for her work with the First Nations people of British Columbia, which she conducted at a time when the government was actively working against efforts to celebrate and preserve Indigenous cultures in Canada
Her work paved the way for more recent efforts for reciprocal relationships between ethnographers and the people whose work they study
Her contributions and many recordings are extremely valuable for the preservation of these older songs, though her work has been largely overlooked by anthropologists, folklorists, and ethnomusicologists even in recent years
Chief Mungo Martin was a Kwakwaka'wakw carver and singer considered one of the most influential carvers of the region
He was musically trained by his uncle, who was a song maker
In his 20s, he studied carving with his stepfather and with his uncle, though the demand for carvings diminished as the traditional way of life became less common, and Martin became a fisherman for a time
In 1947, the University of British Columbia asked him to restore some totem poles, and after that, he was commissioned to carve new totem poles and construct a Kwakwaka'wakw "big house" in Thunderbird Park in Victoria, BC, which both still stand today
He continued working as a carver until his death in 1962, and became a mentor for younger generations of Indigenous artists
While he was living in Vancouver, Martin met with Halpern weekly and recorded 124 songs to help preserve his traditional culture
He was apparently reproached by other chiefs for giving away his songs, but said, “I was a sick man when starting to sing for her. Now after the year’s singing I sang myself to health and am well again.”
The liner notes state that when someone dies, fear of the ghost is strong, so wakes are held and dirges are sung
This is one of those dirges
Martin said that “at the dancing of a ghost song the dancer does not lift up her eyes. Head Down. She only sees her hands. Blanket has pieces of hemlock bough stuck in, just as if she had been lying in the woods among branches.”
Victor Jara - El Aparecido
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
The title translates to “The Appeared” or “The Ghost”, and Jara included it on his 1967 self-titled album
It was apparently written about Che Guevara
Charles Wallace, H Brown, John Roberts - Dig My Grave Both Long and Narrow
From a 1959 album of Bahamian music
This was recorded at the Fresh Creek Settlement on the island of Andros in August of 1958
It’s a very old Bahamian song, and is almost always sung in three-part harmony
It may come from Anglican polyphonic hymnal traditions of the 18th century
Lula Curry - The Squire’s Daughter
She was a West Virginian traditional singer
This is a traditional Northumbrian murder ballad also known as “Twa Sisters” and “Cruel Sister”, among other names
The first written version appeared in a 1656 broadside, and at least 21 versions of the ballad exist in English
This recording is from 1960, and we’re going to hear two later versions after this, though each subsequent version contains more of the original ballad elements
Only the final version we’ll hear, from 2006, contains the original supernatural element of the story, where body parts are used to make an instrument which then plays itself and sings about the murder
Horton Barker - Bow and Balance
He was an Appalachian traditional singer from Tennessee who learned the majority of his songs from the School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton, Virginia
He made a living singing in his region, and Alan Lomax also learned of him and recorded him in 1937
Sandy Paton, a founder of Folk Legacy Records, recorded him in 1961 for the album Traditional Singer, which is where this song is from
He learned the ballad from his schoolmates in Nashville, Tennessee sixty years before that recording, though he admitted the other versions he heard later in life could have gotten mixed up in it as well
Crooked Still - Wind and Rain
Contemporary band from Boston, MA
Their version from their 2006 album Shaken by a Low Sound, which restores the supernatural element of the musical instrument—in this case, a violin—made of the sister’s bones, which was present in early versions of the ballads and later disappeared from the story
Uncle Sinner - Pretty Polly
From Winnipeg
Off his 2008 album Ballads and Mental Breakdowns
This is an English folk ballad that is found widely throughout North America, often as a banjo tune
The supernatural element is not present in this version, but Polly’s ghost often haunts her murderer, sometimes to the extent that he is ripped to shreds by her ghost
Michael Hurley - The Werewolf Song
Member of the 1960s Greenwich Village scene, also a cartoonist and painter
Got mononucleosis before he was able to record his first record, and had to wait a few years to recover completely
Recorded first album on the same reel-to-reel that recorded Leadbelly’s Last Sessions
This song is from that album, called First Songs, and it’s an early example of his interest in werewolves as a subject for his art
John Jacob Niles - The Maid Freed from the Gallows
American musician, composer, and collector of traditional ballads
Influential figure during the folk revival of the 1960s
Song first collected by Francis James Child in the 19th century
One of many ballads with the theme of a woman pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the hangman
May have originated in continental Europe, as there are many versions from Finland, Sweden, and even Lithuania
Alan Mills - In the Month of October
Mills a Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec who was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian folklore
This was a widely known lumbering song, which Mills got from Helen Creighton’s collection of songs and ballads from Nova Scotia
Jonathan Byrd - Autumn
Byrd is a musician from North Carolina who’s been playing professionally since the early 2000s
This is from a 2016 tribute to Jack Hardy, who founded Fast Folk Musical Magazine, a cooperative that was dedicated to reinvigorating the New York folk scene, and released over 100 albums between 1982 and 1997
Hardy wrote this song in 2002
Pete Seeger - Song of the World’s Last Whale
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and peace through his music
Seeger wrote that song in 1970, after hearing the biologist and environmentalist Roger Payne’s album Songs of the Humpback Whale
He recorded it almost 40 years later, in 2007, on his album At 89, which won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album
The Wailin’ Jennys - Old Churchyard
Folk group formed in Winnipeg in 2002
From their album Fifteen from 2017
This is an old hymn from at least the 1850s
Bridget St. John - Suzanne
She’s an English musician who’s been playing professionally for over 50 years
That’s her 1969 cover of Leonard Cohen’s song from 1967
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Waynesboro / Wolf Creek
Based in Toronto, ON
