Barking Dog: March 7, 2024
Geomungo Factory - Jirirariru
They’re a Korean group that centres around the geomungo zither, a rare instrument that’s over 1000 years old
The group focuses on respecting the instrument’s traditional origins while innovating on it
They’ve invented their own forms of geomungo, and often adapt different genres of music into a style that suits the sound of the instrument
This song is from their 2012 album Metamorphosis
John Carlin - Eilean Mo Chrìdh (Isle of My Heart)
This Gaelic song was recorded by the folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax on a field trip to Scotland in June of 1951
It was written by John MacLean in 1914 in the trenches during WWI, while nostalgic for his home on the Isle of Skye
The Corries - Westering Home
They were a Scottish folk group that began during the British folk revival of the 1960s
They recorded this song in 1972
Hugh S Roberton wrote it in the 1920s, and based the melody on “Eilean Mo Chrìdh”
Richard Buckner - Up North
He’s an American songwriter and musician who’s been playing professionally since the 1990s
This is from his 1994 album Bloomed
John Lennon - Working Class Hero
This was recorded during the sessions for Lennon’s debut solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band from 1970
Leon Redbone - I Hate a Man Like You
Redbone moved to Canada from Cyprus with his family when he was a teenager in the 1960s, and first appeared onstage in Toronto in the 1970s
It’s been suggested that he was an alternative identity for someone like Frank Zappa or Andy Kaufman due to his reluctance to discuss his past, and he was often described as both a musician and a performance artist
This song is by Jelly Roll Morton
Redbone’s version is from his 1978 album Champagne Charlie
Roscoe Holcomb - Little Birdie
Was a construction worker, coal miner, and farmer much of his life
He was an older artist who became popular during the folk revival of the 1960s, and didn’t have a music career at all before then—though he was born in 1912, he was first discovered by John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers playing on his front porch in Daisy, Kentucky in 1958
The song is widespread in the south, and many different lyrical verses have been collected
This version was recorded live at the San Diego Folk Festival in 1972
The Tallest Man On Earth - Little Birdie
The stage name of Swedish musician Kristian Matsson, who’s been playing professionally since the early 2000s
This version is from his 2022 album Too Late for Edelweiss
Angel Olsen - All Right Now
She’s a contemporary American musician
This is a bonus track from her 2014 album Burn Your Fire For No Witness
Jaaji - Nunaga
Jaaji is an Inuk and Mohawk musician who plays in the duo Twin Flames
This is from his 2015 solo album of the same name
Grupo de Experimentación Sonora - No Me Pidas (Don’t Ask Me)
From a 1971 album of songs written, arranged, performed, and produced in Cuba by the Experimental Sound Collective of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Industries
Eli Conley - Give It Up
He’s a folk musician from Virginia who states that his songs, “tell stories that aren’t often reflected in roots music,” and that he writes music for “queer and trans folks, justice seekers, and anyone who doesn’t easily fit in a box.”
This one is off his 2017 album Strong and Tender
Joan Baez, Donovan - Colours
Baez is one of the best known musicians to come out of the 1960s folk revival
She performed for over 60 years and released over 30 albums before retiring in 2019
Donovan is a Scottish musician who’s released music in many different genres since he began performing in the 1960s, though he began as a folksinger
He wrote this song and released it in 1965
This is a live recording from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival
Old Man Luedecke - I Quit My Job
From Chester, NS
Off his album Hinterland from 2006
Jimmy Lee Williams - What Makes Grandpa Love Grandma So
He was a blues musician from Georgia who started playing guitar at the age of 16, and spent his life working as a farmer, playing music on the weekends in local juke joints
This is from a series of recordings the musicologist George Mitchell made in 1977
Bob Dylan - Masters of War
This one was recorded in January of 1963, likely at Folkways Studios in New York City
David Rovics - The Death of Rachel Corrie
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
The song originally appeared on his 2003 album The Return
Rachel Corrie was an American activist who travelled to Rafah in Palestine in 2003 and was killed by an Israeli soldier driving an armoured Caterpillar bulldozer while she was protesting demolitions the Israeli military was carrying out on Palestinian houses
Les Filles de Illighadad - Inigradan
They’re a Tuareg band from a village in the Sahara Desert in Niger
They were formed by Fatou Seidi Ghali, who is believed to be the first professional female Tuareg guitarist
Since releasing their first album in 2016, they’ve toured internationally and released 2 more albums
This one is from their debut self-titled album, and it’s a traditional Tuareg love song that they adapted to the guitar
Gordon Lightfoot - Long River
From his 1966 album Lightfoot!
Edmund Henneberry - Captain Conrod
Off a 1956 album of folk music from Nova Scotia, collected by the folklorist Helen Creighton
A field recording from Devil’s Island
The song also comes from Nova Scotia
Woody Guthrie - Howdi Do
Guthrie an important figure in folk history who’s known for his songs about the Okie migrants who travelled west during the Great Depression in search of work
This is from the 2012 Smithsonian Folkways album Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection
The liner notes for the album say “Woody often tried to take the kinds of things young children might say and spin them into songs. ‘Howdi do’ is one of these whimsical children’s songs.”
It was recorded in 1946
Robin Holcomb, Todd Rundgren - The House Carpenter
Holcomb is an American musician who primarily works in the avant-garde jazz, classical, and folk genres
Rundgren is a musician from Pennsylvania who’s been playing since the mid 1960s
The recording is from the album The Harry Smith Project: The Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited, which is comprised of a series of live recordings of concerts staged in 1999 and 2001 that pay tribute to Harry Smith and his influential 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music that kick-started the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s
“The House Carpenter” is a Scottish ballad also known as “The Daemon Lover”
Clarence Ashley’s version of the song was included in the Anthology of American Folk Music
Ty Segall - Saturday Pt. 1
He’s a musician from California who’s been playing since the 2000s, and has covered a wide range of genres across his fifteen studio albums
This is off his 2022 album “Hello, Hi”
AA Bondy - How Will You Meet Your End?
Musician from Birmingham, Alabama who’s been playing since 1990
From his 2007 album American Hearts
Kacy & Clayton - Pretty Saro
Duo from Wood Mountain, SK
English folk ballad from the early 1700s
One of several folk songs that died out in England but was rediscovered in the Appalachian region in the early 20th century, preserved through the strong oral tradition of that area
Jimbo Mathus, Andrew Bird - Jack O’ Diamonds
Mathus is a musician from Mississippi who grew up in a musical family and later joined several bands, even co-founding Johnny Vomit & The Dry Heaves, one of the first punk bands in Mississippi
In the mid 90s, he wrote and recorded a benefit album for his childhood nanny, Rosetta Patton, daughter of famed blues musician Charley Patton, which led Mathus to rediscover the traditional music of Mississippi
Bird is a musician from Illinois known especially for his use of violin and whistling in his music
The two musicians collaborated on an album called These 13, released in 2021, which is where this song comes from
It’s their version of the traditional Texas gambling song made popular by Blind Lemon Jefferson
Snooks Eaglin - Fly Right Baby
Eaglin was an American musician who played a wide range of styles and claimed to know about 2500 songs
This was recorded in New Orleans in 1959
It’s based on “Worried Life Blues”
The McIntosh County Shouters - Move, Daniel
This is from a 2017 album of spirituals and slave shout songs, a tradition that’s localised largely to the coast of Georgia
Many elements of the slave shout tradition come from West Africa, though the tradition is also related to other African diasporic traditions from Brazil and Cuba
The word “shout” in this case comes from an Afro-Islamic term for a sacred dance, and doesn’t refer to the vocalisation present in the songs
The McIntosh County Shouters have been performing since 1980, though the slave shout tradition has been passed down since the time of slavery
Uncle Sinner - Move Daniel
From Winnipeg
Off his 2015 album Let the Devil In
King Solomon - Mornin’ Time
He was a little-known Trinidadian calypso musician active in the 50s and 60s
From the 1975 album Calypso Kings and Pink Gin
Pharis & Jason Romero - New Caledonia
Married duo from Horsefly, BC
A nice little instrumental from their 2020 album Bet On Love
Béla Fleck, Nakisenyi Women’s Group - Tulinesangala
Bela Fleck is probably the most widely known contemporary banjo player
He’s won 14 Grammy Awards and been nominated for 33
This is from Fleck’s 2009 album Throw Down Your Heart: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3, and it was recorded in Uganda
Paul Ely Smith - Cluck Old Hen
He’s a California musician and composer who plays both fiddle and banjo
In the 1980s he quit playing the modern banjo to focus on building and playing the traditional gourd banjo
This is from his 2016 album American Akonting, which represents the culmination of his work on the gourd banjo
This is an Appalachian fiddle and banjo tune
A Critical Mass Choir - Will You Step On My Head?
