Many American Songs, of course, originated in the old world, and some have even been better preserved than in their countries of origin, particularly in isolated areas like the Appalachians.

Many great songs came out of the dark period of the slavery days, and some of the best American folk music comes from black singers, including the tradition of the blues. There is an excellent movie you can see about prison work songs (by Pete Seeger).

In this section I list some of my favourite American Songs in alphabetical order, with links to lyrics and performances.

This is a trilogy of songs from the American slavery days. It begins with Oh Freedom, followed by Motherless Child and ending with No More Auction Block.

Acres of Clams (Francis D. Henry)

Also known as Old Settler's Song or Lay of the Old Settler, this song was written around 1874 to the tune of the Irish song Rosin the Beau.

Apparently it was considered to be Washington's state song until it was decided the lyrics were too undignified.

Here is a video of my rendition.

Across the Western Ocean

This traditional song of the sea is also known as Amelia and is closely related to the shanty, Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her. It also seems to be related to All For Me Grog.

I first heard this song sung by Ed McCurdy and it is his version I have in mind when I sing my rendition.

Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'

This African-American song is believed to go back to the days of slavery, though it could well be a celebration of emancipation. This version was collected by Alan Lomax and Leadbelly in 1939. The song has been given new lyrics many times, the best known being Wendell Hall's 1923 version, which has become a popular campfire song for Scouts and Guides.

A very different version recorded by The Two Gilberts on an old 78 disc can be heard here.

You can hear my rendition and read the lyrics. You can also see a live performance together with Skip to my Lou at a session of The Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in Wanchai.

All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir (Bill Staines)

This song was written by Boston folksinger, Bill Staines, who also published it as a children's book with the title All God's Critters. The first recording was by Bill Staines on his album, "The Whistle of the Jay" (1979).

The best known rendition is a recording by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, who sing "Creatures" rather than "Critters."

Here is Bill Staines himself singing it. Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

And here is an interesting parody written by Donald A. Duncan and Sara Freed called Place in the Fire. This song is not suitable for vegetarians.

All the Pretty Little Horses

This lullaby is also a gentle protest song. It originated in the days of slavery and deals with a typical situation where a female slave would have to nurse her master's children, while being forced to neglect her own baby, the "poor little lambie" at the mercy of the bees and the butterflies. One of the best recordings, again, is that of Odetta.

You can hear my performance and read the lyrics.

Here is Bill Richards singing the song to his new-born son.

Almost Done

Also known as On a Monday and Take These Stripes (From Around my Shoulder), this song was first recorded by Lead Belly. You can hear a video of him singing the song here and as the third part of an a capella trilogy of chain gang songs, along with Looky Looky Yonder and Black Betty.

A "yellow" girl was a common term for a prostitute, generally of mixed race.

Notable recordings of the song are by The Weavers, Ry Cooder, Johnny Cash and Lew Dite.

My cover of this trilogy is here, and here are the lyrics.

American Land (Bruce Springsteen)

This song about immigration was inspired by the song He Lies in the American Land, which began as a poem by Andrew Kovaly, a Slovakian immigrant steelworker. It was sung by Pete Seeger, who translated it and set it to music. Springsteen wrote new lyrics, keeping only the first verse of the original, and added it as a bonus track to the special edition release of his album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, which consists mainly of his interpretations of Pete Seeger songs.

Here is the original poem:

He Lies in the American Land (Andrew Kovaly)

Ah, my God! What is this land of America?
So many people traveling there
I will go too, for I am still young
God, the Lord will grant me good luck there

You, my wife, stay here 'til you hear from me
When you get my letter, put everything in order
Mount a raven-black steed, a horse like the wind
Fly across the ocean to join me here

Ah, but when she arrived in this strange land
Here in McKeesport, this valley of fire
Only his grave, his blood, his blood did she find
Over it bitterly she cried

Ah, ah, ah, my husband, what have you done to this family of yours?
What can you say to these children, these children you've orphaned?
Tell them, my wife, not to wait, not to wait, not to wait for me
Tell them I lie here, in the American land.

Here is Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band performing in Dublin.

Here is my attempt at the song and here are the lyrics.

Anathea

This song, made popular by Judy Collins, is obviously closely related to Child 95 (The Maid Freed From the Gallows).According to her, the words are by Neil Roth and music by Lydia Wood, but the consensus appears to be that it was originally a Hungarian folk song, collected by Bela Bartok, and translated into English by A. L. Lloyd.

Dylan retold this story in Seven Curses.

Here is my video of Anathea. Here are the lyrics.

The Apple-Knocker's Lament (Harry McClintock)

See The Big Rock Candy Mountain, below.

Aura Lea (Lyrics - W. W. Fosdick, Music George R. Poulton)

This minsrel song from the American Civil War was published in 1861. It was rewritten as a parody ("Army Blue") for the West Point class of 1865.

The tune was used a couple of centuries later by Ken Darby, who wrote Love Me Tender, which was popularised by Elvis Presley.

The lyrics of both these songs are not really worthy of the lovely tune - but if you combine them you get "Love me tender, love me sweet, love me Aura Lee!"

Here is my performance.

Bald-Headed Woman

A traditional African-American chain gang song. I first heard this sung by Odetta on her 1963 album, "My Eyes Have Seen".

The Who also recorded the song as the B-side of their single, I Can't Explain, in 1965.

This song was a big hit for a Swedish group - Hep Stars. You can see a short clip of this here on YouTube. And here is a video of The Who performing the song in 1966.

Here is my performance. The lyrics are here.

Banana Boat Song

This calypso song is originally from Trinidad. It was a banana-wharf song sung by carriers who would work through the night loading the ships with bananas. It was first recorded in England in1952 by Trinidadian singer Edric Connor under the name Day Dah Light (Banana Loaders Song), and then by Luise Bennett in 1954. In 1956 it was recorded by Caribbean-American singer Harry Belafonte, under the name Day-O, with lyrics by Irving Burgie and William Attaway, and, independently, by American folk-group, The Tarriers, based on a version by Bob Gibson, who had traveled to Jamaica. Their version, called The Banana Boat Song, is actually a medley with another Jamaican folksong: Hill and Gully Rider. Both versions were big hits. Shirley Bassey recorded it in 1957, based on the Tarriers version, but most recordings since are pretty much covers of the Belafonte rendition.

Here is a popular parody sung by George Bush and Colin Powell.

Here it is played and sung by members of the Hong Kong Folk Society. This was our final song of the night, about the time the neighbours started complaining. Possibly not a good choice for 2:30 in the morning.


Here are the lyrics.

Banks of Marble (Les Rice)

I first heard this song sung by The Weavers. Pete Seeger, who also recorded it as a solo, wrote in one of his songbooks that Rice "farms across the Hudson from me, near Newburgh [Orange County, New York]. Like most small farmers, he was getting intolerably squeezed by the big companies which sold him all his fertiliser, insecticide and equipment, and the big companies that dictated to him the prices he would get for his produce. Out of that squeeze came this song." A song that is still as relevant as ever.

Here is my rendition of the song.

Banks of the Ohio

This murder ballad goes back to the 19th Century, and is possibly a variant of Pretty Polly in which the murderer is also called Willie. It has been recorded many times, some notable recordings being by The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, the Irish group, The Wolfe Tones, bluegrass legends, Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, Joan Baez (the version I first heard) and Olivia Newton John, who had a big hit with it in1971.

There are some good renditions on YouTube, such as this by Lew Dite on autoharp and this one by Rington1 (Alex).

Here is my video of the song. The lyrics are here.

Battle Hymn of the Republic (Julia Ward Howe)

This popular tune was written around 1855 by William Steffe. The song itself began as a gospel song called Canaan's Happy Shore or Brothers, Will You Meet Me? but as the tune became known around the US it was set to many different lyrics. The most popular of these was a song called John Brown's Body, written by Thomas Bishop, a soldier from Vermont in the Massachusetts Infantry, in about 1860. The original words were apparently not about John Brown, the abolitionist, but referred to a soldier of the same name in the regiment.

Julia Ward Howe and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, were active leaders in anti-slavery politics and strong supporters of the Union. By the time she heard the song during a public review of the troops in Washington, the words had changed to refer to John Brown, the famed abolitionist. The Reverend James Clarke, who was with her at the review, suggested to Howe that she write new words for the song. At her hotel in Washington on the night of November 18, 1861, Howe awoke before sunrise with the words of the song in her mind wrote out the verses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the darkness before she had a chance to forget them. She retained the original chorus of John Brown's Body.

The song was first published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862, except for the sixth verse, which is often left out. It was also published as a broadside in 1863 by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia.

Though the song is often considered a hymn and has found its way into many church hymnals, there are some who find the song blasphemous. There is an interesting article here arguing that it "should not be on the lips of any Christian – Yankee or Southerner. It is partisan political paean to bogus history and faulty theology."

Beware, O Take Care

I first heard this old time song from Mike Seeger's New Lost City Ramblers.

Here is my performance. Warning - my fiddle playing is even worse than my guitar playing!

Here are the lyrics.

The Big Rock Candy Mountain (Harry McClintock)

This song is a turn of the century hobo ballad possibly inspired by a broadside ballad called An Invitation to Lubberland, first printed in 1685. It is generally attributed to Harry McClintock (8 October 1882 - 24 April 1957), though he failed in a lawsuit when he attempted to enforce copyright.

The song was first recorded by Harry McClintock (also known as Haywire Mac) in 1928, but reached a larger audience when released by Burl Ives in 1949. A version by Dorsey Burnette (1960) became a big hit, and there has been a recent revival when the McClintock version was used in the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)

McClintock first sang the song as a street busker in 1897. The song originally described a child being recruited into hobo life by tales of a "big rock candy mountain". Such recruitment actually occurred, with hobos enchanting children with tales of adventure to lead them astray.

In proof of his authorship of the song, McClintock published the original words, the last stanza of which was:
The punk rolled up his big blue eyes
And said to the jocker, "Sandy,
I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,
But I ain't seen any candy.
I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I'll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo's *****
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

The song was cleaned up considerably before McClintock recorded it, and it has since been sanitised further to make it a children's song, with all references to cigarette trees, streams of alcohol and lakes of gin and whiskey eliminated.

A variation of the song, under the title, The Appleknocker's Lament, was collected in 1927 by the Library of Congress. The lyrics are here and here is my video of this version.

And here my "Burl Ives style" rendition of The Big Rock Candy Mountain. The lyrics are here.

Billy Boy

I first heard this sung by Burl Ives. It is the American version of the English song My Boy Willie.

Apparently Francis James Child considered it was related to Lord Randall. (Child 12) If so, it must also be a distant relative of Dylan's Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall!

Here is my video of the song.

Black Betty

The origins of this song are lost in the mists of time, and "black betty" has been variously interpreted as an 18th Century flint-lock rifle, a bottle of whiskey (originating in the border area of England and Scotland), a prostitute, a whip and a prison wagon. It was also the name with which members of the Ringwood Folk Club christened my old black guitar.

This song was first recorded for the Library of Congress by John and Alan Lomax in 1933, sung by prisoners, including one known as James Baker, or Iron Head. The song also came up in later field recordings and it was recorded commercially by Lead Belly in 1939 as the second part of an a capella trilogy of chain gang songs, along with Looky Looky Yonder and Almost Done (Yellow Woman's Doorbells).

The song was recorded in 1964 by Odetta, with Looky Looky Yonder, and by Harry Belafonte and Koerner, Ray and Glover in the same year. Since then the song has been given new life as a rock song. In 1976 it was recorded by Starstruck, a rock band, but did not take off until the following year, when it was recorded by Ram Jam, which included Bill Bartlett, one of the original Starstruck members. It became a big hit, but several Civil Rights groups organised boycotts of the song because they felt it was insulting to African American women.

Since then it has been recorded by Nick Cave (1986), Sheryl Crow, Tom Jones (2002) and Meat Loaf (2006). In 2004, the Australian band, Spiderbait, had a big hit with their cover of the song.

Here is my rendition of Leadbelly's trilogy, and here are the lyrics.

The Blue-Tail Fly

The Blue Tail Fly or Jimmy Crack Corn, has been around since the 1840s. It was popular as a blackface minstrel song, though it may have originated from the African-American tradition. Though the slave-narrator seems to mourn the death of his master, it has been suggested that he was deliberately negligent in his duty of keeping the dangerous blue-tail fly away from the horse. This is apparently more obvious in other versions of the song.

There are many theories about the meaning of the phrase "Jimmy crack corn", the most likely being that it refers to drinking corn whiskey.

I first heard this sung by Burl Ives. It has also been recorded by Pete Seeger and Big Bill Broonzy. And, not forgetting YouTube's songster, Lew Dite.

Here is my performance. The lyrics are here.

Boll Weevil

A song about a little insect that destroyed the cotton bolls in the Southern states of the US and caused a lot of misery for cotton farmers.

This song reached #2 on the pop charts in 1962, sung by Brook Benton. Here is an acapella version by Sid Selvidge.

Here is my performance of the song. And here are the lyrics.

Brown Skin Girl (King Radio)

This song was written by Trinidadian calypso singer, King Radio in 1946, and is a comment on the tendency of American servicemen in Trinidad during World War II to father babies and then abandon the children and their mothers when they returned to the United States.

It was popularised by Caribbean-American singer Harry Belafonte in his album, Calypso (1956). Jazz versions have been recorded by Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes.

My rendition of the song can be seen here.

Buffalo Gals

This song was published as Lubly Fan in 1844 by the blackface minstrel John Hodges, who performed as "Cool White". However it it was probably a traditional song, well-known before it was written down and published. It was popular in minstrel shows throughout the United States, and the lyrics were changed depending on where it was sung to suit the local audience, so it might be performed as New York Gals or Charleston Gals. The best-known version refers to Buffalo, New York.

In his Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Frank Brown suggests it was inspired by an English singing game, Pray, Pretty Miss and that the tune is based on an old German music hall song, Im Grunewald, Im Grunewald ist Holzauktion.

A version of the song called Dance With Dolly was a hit in the USA in 1944.

Here is my performance of the song, and here are the lyrics.

Brady and Duncan

A song from the African-American tradition. The best known version, which this is based on, was recorded twice by Leadbelly in 1947, once with guitar and once a capella. There was an earlier recording in 1929 (Wilmer Watts) and one by Blind Jesse Harris in 1937. Many have recorded it since then, including Koerner, Ray and Glover, who did a number of Leadbelly covers, Judy Henske, Dave van Ronk, Tom Rush and Bob Dylan.

It is believed to be based on an actual incident in St Louis in 1893. A "grocery" was not just a shop, but something like a saloon, where women could also get a drink as they could claim they were just there for the groceries.

Some versions begin with "Twinkle, twinkle little star", which might seem a bit strange, until you realise it is the star worn by Brady, the Sheriff. One example of this is Jim Page's version, which you can hear on YouTube.

My rendition is here, and the lyrics are here.

Bury Me Beneath the Willow

This bluegrass standard has been recorded many times. Some examples are The Carter Family, The Weavers, Woody Guthrie, Almeda Riddle, Jean Ritchie, The Brothers Four, The Kingston Trio, Alison Krauss, The Monroe Brothers, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harries, & Linda Ronstadt.

Here is my video of the song, and here are the lyrics.

Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie

Also known as "The Cowboy's Lament", "The Dying Cowboy" and "Bury Me Out on the Lone Prairie", this ballad must be the best known of all cowboy songs. It began as a sailor's song called "The Sailor's Grave" or "The Ocean-Burial" with the opening line, "O bury me not in the deep, deep sea." The cowboy lyrics go back to the 1800s, but were set to a different tune from the one commonly used now, which first appeared in print in 1932, though the lyrics that came with it had the opposite request - "Bury me out on the lone prairie."

The song has been recorded by many artists, including Johnny Cash, Burl Ives, Jimmie Rodgers,Tex Ritter, Sarah Harmer and Sons of the Pioneers.

Here is my rendition.

Camptown Races (Stephen Foster)

Stephen Collins Foster was born in 1826 in Lawrenceville, east of Pittsburgh, the ninth child of the family. He was a great pioneer of American music. HIs aim was to write music that would be widely understood by the common people. He wanted to transform the black-face minstrel songs, extremely popular at that time, by making them more tasteful and compassionate rather than mocking the slaves as these songs tended to do.

His first big hit was Oh, Susanna, but he made little money out of it as it was widely pirated by music publishers. Some of his other popular songs, all written in the 1850s, were Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home, Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair and Hard Times Come Again No More. He died in 1864, one of his most popular songs, Beautiful Dreamer, being published posthumously.

This song, written in 1850, is typical of the humorous black-face minstrel songs popular at that time. The original title of the song was Gwine to Run All Night, and it is also sometimes referred to as Camptown Ladies.

Here is my rendition.

The Chivalrous Man-eating Shark (Wallace Irwin)

This song was written by Wallace Irwin and originally printed in a collection of nautical tunes Nautical Lays of a Landsman in 1904. It was sung by Burl Ives on his 10-inch LP, Folk Songs About the Fair Sex (1956), which is also where I first heard Barbara Allen.The actual title was The Woman and the Chivalrous Shark.

You can watch my performance and the lyrics are here.

Chased Old Satan (through the Door)

An Old Time string band classic from The Woodie Brothers. The original recording was in 1931, with Ephraim Woodie on guitar and Lawton Woodie on harmonica.

Ash cakes were baked by wrapping dough in cloth, placing them in a corner of the fireplace, and covering them with ashes and coals. They were supposed to have a delicious flavor when baked that way, but it was difficult to control the heat, or keep the bread clean.

You can hear the song played here by the Downtrodden String Band.

Here is my rendition and the lyrics are here.

Cindy

Here are Pete Seeger and Buffy Sainte-Marie performing this classic American folk song. The lyrics are posted with the song.

Clementine

A well-known American song about the drowning of a miner's daughter. the earliest known version is Down By the River Lived a Maiden (1863), by H. S. Thompson, though there is no mention of the miner, and it has a different tune. The first version with the popularly known tune is Oh My Darling Clementine, attributed to Percy Montrose in 1884. The verse about kissing her little sister, often supposed to be a relatively recent addition, did actually appear in print as early as 1897. Presumably it was left out of many collections because Clementine was popular as a children's or scout campfire song. There have been many parodies of the song, one of the best being Tom Lehrer's version.

It has been recorded by Pete Seeger, among others.

Here is my rendition of the song. The lyrics are here.

Cod Liver Oil (Johnny Burke)

Johnny Burke (1851-1930) was a balladeer of Irish origin from St John's in Newfoundland, Canada. Apparently cod liver oil was a traditional medicine in Newfoundland. A rich source of vitamins A and D, it was made by a sun-curing method and served in bottles without further processing. Unfortunately it tasted revolting.

I first heard the song sung by Burl Ives, on his wonderful Coronation Concert album (1954). It has also been recorded by Oscar Brand, Val Doonican, Alan Mills and The Dubliners.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

The first upload of this video has been removed from YouTube due to the file becoming corrupted, with 2514 views, and the following video response from TravisTricky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBeYG3tx39k

For more details see the Archives page.



This song, by Canadian singer-songwriter, James Keelaghan, is about a disastrous fire that occured in Mann Gulch, Montana in 1949.

Fourteen firefighters and a forest ranger jumped into what was thought to be an easy fire to put out. Unexpectedly, the fire surrounded them. When the crew chief, Robert Wagner Dodge, realized the danger they were in, he started an escape fire and ordered the men to lie down in the burnt area. According to Dodge, he had not heard of this technique before, and had just got a sudden inspiration that this would work, though it was well-known to the plains Indians, and had been included in nineteenth century fictional stories.

Unfortunately the message did not get to the crew. Whether they didn't hear him, didn't understand his instructions or didn't believe it would work, they chose to climb the ridge of Mann Gulf, knowing that fires spread more slowly on the ridges. Dodge later claimed that he heard someone say, "The hell with that; I'm getting out of here". All but two were killed - Dodge himself and a new recruit. He died five years later of Hodgkins disease.

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

This is one of those songs that are made up mostly of "floating" verses that attach themselves several different songs. Also known as "Little Sparrow", it is probably related to Waley Waley / The Water is Wide (Child 204), which goes back at least to the eighteenth century. Several versions have been found in America, including 18 versions collected by Sharp between 1916 and 1918, and published in his English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Some versions seem to be variations of songs that tell a "Romeo and Juliet" story, such as Silver Dagger and The Silk Merchant's Daughter. Another related song is Roscoe Holcomb's Willow Tree.

It has been recorded by many folk singers, including Jean and Edna Ritchie (1950), The Carter Family, Joan Baez, Terrea Lee, The Kingston Trio, Liam Clancy, Jackson Browne (1975) and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Come Away Melinda (Fred Hellerman)

This antiwar ballad was written and sung by Fred Hellerman of The Weavers. Here is an anti-war video which uses Hellerman's original performance as the sound track.

Among those who have covered it are Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins, The Mamas and the Papas, Kenny Rankin, Tim Rose, Bobbie Gentry, Uriah Heep and UFO.

I sang this song in my only Television appearance, when I was 19.

Here is my performance of the song, and the lyrics are here.

Come Back Liza (Burgess, Attaway)

The song is on Belafonte's classic 1956 Calypso album and also on the first Carnegie Hall concert. It is credited to Lord Burgess and Bill Attaway, who were also credited with several songs on Calypso including Day-O (Banana Boat Song) and Jamaica Farewell. I remember learning this at school when I was a child.

Here is my video of this song.

Cool Water (Bob Nolan)

Written in 1936, this song is about a man crossing a desert with his mule, Dan.

The best-known recording was by Vaughn Monroe and The Sons of the Pioneers in 1948. It was on the Billboard magazine chart for 13 weeks that year. Other recordings are by Hank Williams (1948/9?), Hank Snow, Frankie Laine (1955), Fleetwood Mac (1982), Marty Robbins (1959), Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Slim Whitman, Burl Ives, Eddy Arnold, Leo Kottke and Joni Mitchell, with different lyrics (1988). Bob Dylan and The Band also recorded it for the Basement Tapes sessions, but it is only available on bootleg. And here it is, done by The Muppets.

Here is my rendition.

Cotton Fields

This song was written by Leadbelly in 1940 and recorded in Angola, Louisiana, where he served time (and where there are many cotton fields). It has been covered by many singers, including Bill Monroe, The Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group (1957), Harry Belafonte (1958), The Lighttown Skiffle Group (1960), The Highwaymen (1961), (Here is a later version by The Highwaymen), Johnny Cash, Buck Owens (1963), Odetta (1963), The Robert DeCormier Singers, The Beach Boys (1969), Teresa Brewer, (Muppet Show version), Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969) and Buckwheat Zydeco.

Here is my performance of the song and here are the lyrics.

Crawdad

This song from the Southern States of the U.S. grew out of African-American blues combined with white American children's play songs. There are a number of variations, such as This Morning, This Evening, So Soon, Sweet Thing, How Many Biscuits Can You Eat? and What Ya Gonna Do?, as sung by Josh White, for example.

Apparently, among the earliest singers of this song were the workers building levees along the Mississippi to prevent flooding.

The first known publication was in 1874 under the name Baby Mine. Here is my performance of the song.

Here are the lyrics.

Here is a performance by Porter Wagoner in the 1960s, and one by Jerry Lee Lewis. And here's fellow YouTuber, Dan Samples.

Dark as a Dungeon (Merle Travis)

This song about the deadly lure of the coal mines was written by Merle Travis, whose father and brothers were all coal miners in Kentucky where he grew up.

Merle Travis himself remembers his oldest brother, Taylor washing up in a galvanized tub in the middle of the floor after coming home from the mines: "When I'd watch him wash the black coal dust from a little rose tattoo on his arm I longed for the day when I could work in the mine and have a tattoo... He practically broke every rib in his body in a mine accident and it changed his whole life..."

Travis first recorded the song in 1946.It was later popularised by Johnny Cash when he first sang it in his Folsom Prison concert. It has been covered by many other singers, including Dolly Parton, Harry Belafonte, Bob DeCormier, Pete Seeger, John Greenway, Cisco Houston, Jim Kweskin (1971), Rose Maddox (1976), The Weavers, The Wolfe Tones (1965), Glenn Yarbrough, Joan Baez (in 1964 and with Bob Dylan in their 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue concerts) and Patrick Sky (1985). The band, Wall of Voodoo, did a punk version in 1985.

Here's a performance by Ryan's Fancy and a nice one from a YouTuber who calls himself Fret Killer.

Here is my performance of this song and the lyrics are here.

Darling Corey

Also known as Darling Cora, Little Lulie and The Gambling Man, this well-known folk song about a banjo-picking, moonshine-making mountain woman was first recorded in 1927 by Clarence Gill (under the name Little Corey). A version was collected by Cecil Sharp as early as 1917, but it probably dates from the late nineteenth century.

Buell Kazee and B. F. Shelton both recorded it later the same year. Other early recordings were by Jack Wallin, Roscoe Holcomb, The Monroe Brothers (1936), and Pete Seeger. Burl Ives included it on his debut album in 1941, at a much slower pace than it is usually done .

It probably dates from the late 19th century and is clearly related to the songs Country Blues (Hustling Gamblers), East Virginia Blues and Little Maggie (see below), which were generally sung either as white blues ballads or bluegrass tunes.

I first heard it sung by The Weavers. Here is a performance by Mike Seeger, another by Lou Reid, and an unusual a cappella version by Debra Cowan. And here is my performance of the song.

Here are the lyrics.

Deep Blue Sea

This could be of English origin, possibly a fragment of an older ballad. Pete Seeger suggested it has also been influenced by West Indian musical traditions.

It is a good song for group singing. Here is a video of Grizzly Bear singing it on the beach.

Here is my rendition. Here are the lyrics.

Devilish Mary

I know little about this song. I learnt it as a child from Burl Ives10" LP, Folk Songs About the Fair Sex (1953). It may well be of English origin, given the reference to London Town, but I have not come across any English recordings of it.

Here is my video of the song, and here are the lyrics.

The first upload of this video has been removed from YouTube due to corrupted file. For details of views and comments, see the Archives page.

Dink's Blues

This song was collected by John A. Lomax. In his book, Adventures Of A Ballad Hunter (1947), he tells of how he got the song from the woman called Dink at a negro levee-builders' camp on the Brazos River in 1908. The men were skilled workers from the Missisippi River Delta. Dink was one of several women shipped in from Memphis along with the mules in order to keep them happy. Lomax was able to collect muleskinners' shouts and hollers, but he wanted more.

"But Dink, reputedly the best singer in the camp, would give me no songs. 'Today ain't my singin' day,' she would reply to my urging. Finally, a bottle of gin, bought at a nearby plantation commissary, loosed her muse. The bottle of liquor soon disappeared. She sang, as she scrubbed her man's dirty clothes, the pathetic story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him most - a very old story. Dink ended the refrain with a subdued cry of despair and longing - the sobbing of a woman deserted by her man."

Also known as Dink's Song it has been sung by many artists including Pete Seeger, Dave van Ronk, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jeff Buckley, and The Big Three (with Mama Cass). Carolyn Hester, Leon Bibb, The Limeliters and Odetta. I first heard it sung by white blues singer, Barbara Dane, and it is her version I have in mind when I perform it. Some male singers change the words in order to sing it from a man's point of view, but to me this is a distortion of the song. If you are not comfortable hearing a man sing this very female song, just imagine this missing first verse: "As I went out one morning to buy a bottle of booze / I overheard a lady singing this mournful blues." It's a common enough technique, as I've discussed in the introduction to Lolly Too Dum.

Here's a version performed by the Furnace Mountain Band and here it is sung by YouTube's Dan Samples, better known as coolanddark.

Here are the lyrics.

Discrimination Blues (Big Bill Broonzy)

Big Bill Broonzy wrote this song during the second world war, at a time when many African-American soldiers were fighting against fascism and racism alongside their white brothers. Meanwhile back home black Americans were still being treated as second-class citizens.

The song is also known as Black, Brown and White or Git Back Blues.

Here is my performance of this song. Here are the lyrics.

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Over Night (Marty Bloom / Ernest Breuer / Billy Rose)

This song was originally called Does The Spearmint Lose its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight? It was first released by The Happiness Boys, Ernie Hare & Billy Jones in 1924.

Lonnie Donegan had a big hit when he covered it in 1961, both in the UK and the USA. The title had to be changed in the UK, because "Spearmint" is a registered trade mark, which meant the song could not be played on the BBC, which was strictly non-commercial. Donegan's cover was recorded live at the New Theatre Oxford in December 1958 and then released as a single. The grammatical error in Donegan's title - an apostrophe in "it's" -appeared In both the UK and US releases.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Donna Donna (Aaron Zeitlin - lyrics, Sholom Secunda - music)

Originally Dana Dana this song was written in Yiddish for the musical play Esterke (1940-1941) during the Nazi era. It was banned in South Korea as a communist song.

The song is subject to various interpretations but the calf is generally believed to represent a Jew being taken to one of the German concentration camps by the farmer, representing the Nazis. The swallow at first may represent those who are not being subjected to persecution, but by the end of the song it represents the free spirit of the Jew which remains free whatever is suffered by the physical body.

Secunda translated the song into English, but it did not become popular until it was translated as Donna Donna in 1956 by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz. It really took off when Joan Baez sang it in 1960.

Other recordings include Donovan (1965), The Chad Mitchell Trio and Theodore Bikel.

My rendition is coming soon. Here are the lyrics.

Don't Jump Off the Roof, Dad (Cy Coben)

This song, composed by American songwriter, Cy Coben, in 1960, was first recorded by Homer and Jethro. It was also a big hit for Tommy Cooper in England (1961). His performance was actually the B-side of a song called "How Come There's No Dog Day?", one of only two recordings he made.

Garrison Keillor wrote new lyrics for the song in 2000.

Here is my rendition.

Down in the Valley

There are a number of versions of this traditional folk song, two good well-known variations being Birmingham Jail, and Connemara Cradle Song. There is a shorter version that is widely sung, but this is the one used by the Scouts and Guides for campfire singalongs.

Here is my video of the song, and here are the lyrics.

Down in the Valley to Pray

This song was popularised by the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou.

The lyrics are here.

Down on Penny's Farm

This song about the problems of sharecroppers was the inspiration for two of Dylan's songs - Hard Times in New York Town and Maggie's Farm.

One of the earliest recordings of this song was by the Bently Boys in 1929, which was included on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (Folkways Records, 1952). It is believed to have originated from an earlier song called Hard Times. It has also been recorded by Pete Seeger and Natalie Merchant.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Drill Ye Tarriers

This song about railway workers was sung by a Thomas Casey, according to sheet music published in 1888, though it probably goes back to earlier days of railroad construction. The word "tarriers" may mean "terriers" - people who dig in the earth. There is also a Newfoundland version called Drill ye Heroes, Drill.

Here is Lew Dite singing it.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

East Virginia

This beautiful love song has been recorded many times. One of the earliest versions I have heard is by Buell Kazee in 1927, though the Carter Family's version would have been around the same time. Others are by Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Sandy Denny, The Weavers, The Brothers Four, Bob Fuller, The Stanley Brothers, The Grateful Dead, LewDite and The Monkees.

Here is a bluegrass version by a group called 2nd Generation.

I have put up two versions of this song on YouTube. The first performance is based on the singing of Joan Baez. This one is a more traditional version. Here are the lyrics.

Every Night When the Sun Goes In

This song was collected by Cecil Sharp from a Mrs. Effie Mitchell of Burnsville, North Carolina, in 1918 and included in his English Folk Songs in the Appalachian Mountains. I first heard it sung by The Weavers - actually as a solo by Ronnie Gilbert. The theme of the young man losing interest when his girl becomes pregnant is a bit of a folk song cliche, and this song shares verses with a number of other similar songs.

Here is my rendition. If anyone is uncomfortable with a male singing from a female point of view, just imagine you missed the first verse where the guy says he was out walking one fine morning and overheard a poor girl making this complaint.

Evil-hearted Man Blues (Josh White)

This very macho song was written by one of the great African-American folk and blues singers, Josh White.

Here is my video and here are the lyrics.

Follow the Drinking Gourd

This song actually has its own website:Follow the Drinking Gourd: A Cultural History. This fascinating and scholarly site gives detailed information about the background to the song and raises questions about the authenticity of the story it tells. Here is the Introduction:

The American folksong Follow the Drinking Gourd was first published in 1928. The Drinking Gourd song was supposedly used by an Underground Railroad operative to encode escape instructions and a map. These directions then enabled fleeing slaves to make their way north from Mobile, Alabama to the Ohio River and freedom. Taken at face value, the "drinking gourd" refers to the hollowed out gourd used by slaves (and other rural Americans) as a water dipper. But here it is used as a code name for the Big Dipper star formation, which points to Polaris, the Pole Star, and North.

In the ensuing 80 years, the Drinking Gourd played an important role in the Civil Rights and folk revival movements of the 1950s and 1960s, and in contemporary elementary school education. Much of the Drinking Gourd's enduring appeal derives from its perceived status as a unique, historical remnant harkening back to the pre-Civil War South – no other such map songs survive. But re-examining the Drinking Gourd song as history rather than folklore raises many questions. And the Drinking Gourd as it appears in roughly 200 recordings, dozens of songbooks, several award-winning children's books and many other places is surely not "traditional." The signature line in the chorus, "for the old man is awaitin' for to carry you to freedom," could not possibly have been sung by escaping slaves, because it was written by Lee Hays eighty years after the end of the Civil War.

My video is here and here are the lyrics.

Four Nights Drunk (Child 274)

This is an American version of the old Child ballad,Our Goodman. I first heard it sung by The Weavers. The song is also popular in Ireland, where it is known as Seven Drunken Nights, the best known recording being that of the Dubliners. Another version was performed by Steeleye Span.

Here is my performance of this song. Here are the lyrics.

Frankie and Johnny

The origins of this song, also known as Frankie and Albert, are unclear. It has been suggested that it was inspired by an incident in 1899 in St Louis. Missouri, when a 22-year-old mulatto dancer, Frankie, murdered her 17-year-old black lover, Al Britt, who was two-timing her with a woman named Alice Pryor.

The melody normally used today is thought to have been written by Nat D. Ayer and first published in 1912 as the chorus to a song called You're My Baby.

The first published version of lyrics similar to those known today was in 1925 in "On the Trail of Negro Folksongs" by Dorothy Scarborough, under the title Frankie and Albert, followed two years later by a similar version using the name Frankie and Johnny in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag. Sandburg himself said the song was common along the Mississippi River and among railroad men as early as 1888, while John Jacob Niles dated it as early as the late 1820s. Others suggest it is much more recent, saying that it is unlikely that there would be no published versions until the 1920s if the song were really as old as claimed.

Among the hundreds who have recorded this song are Lead Belly, Frank Crumit (1927), Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Josh White, Lonnie Donegan, Mississippi John Hurt, Elvis Presley (from his 1966 film of that name), Mae West, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Taj Mahal, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chet Atkins, Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Vincent, Fats Waller, Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan.

And, of course, YouTube Songster, Lew Dite.

I first heard the song performed by Burl Ives on one of my parents' 10 inch 78 rpm recordings, when I was a young child, so his is probably the version that has stuck with most strongly.

You can see my video of the song, and here are the lyrics.

The Frozen Logger (James Stewart)

This tall story was written in 1951 by American writer and composer, James Stewart (1892-1971).

It has been recorded many times. One of the earliest was by Odetta (1954). Others include Cisco Houston, Jimmie Rodgers, The Weavers, Jim Kweskin, Oscar Brand and Margaret Roadknight. It was also sung (but not recorded) by Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Gently Johnny, my Jingalo

I know little about this pleasant song, but I believe it is of English origin. The only recording I have heard was on an album by Terrea Lea. There are various bawdy versions, but this one is spotlessly clean. I don't know what a jingalo is, though I'm pretty sure it's not the same as a gigolo!

One of the bawdy versions was originally used in the film The Wicker Man.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Git Along, Little Dogies

A popular cowboy song. Apparently orphan calves were known as dough-guts, which was eventually shortened to dogie, which is used in cattle country to refer to a pot-bellied orphan calf. It should be pronounced with a long "o" sound - not like "doggies".

The song was collected in Texas in about 1893 by Owen Wister, author of The Virginian, though the "whoopie ti-yi-yo" was a later addition as it was originally "Sing hooplio, get along little dogies."

You can watch my video of this song. Here Are the lyrics.

The Goat Song

Though I first heard this as an American song, it is more likely to have originated in England. It is also known, in shorter versions, as Bill Grogan's Goat or Old Hogan's Goat. It was also turned into a parody of The Lonely Goatherd, called The Highland Goat Song. Another version, from Kentucky, called Grandpa's Billygoat, tells a different story, but includes the goat coughing up the shrts and flagging down the train.

In 1904, a variation written and sung by Billy Brackett was published as sheet music (Music by Lottie L. Meda). It seems to include some lines inspired by The Cat Came Back.

I used to sing this song with my sister, Annette, when she was about five or six years old and I was about eighteen. We haven't sung together since that time, so it was fun to get together with her recently and try it again. The main difference was that this time she understood what she was singing about.

Here is our performance and here are the lyrics.

Going Down the Road Feeling Bad

This song, also known as Chilly Winds and Ain't Gonna Be Treated This Way was recorded many times in the 1920s and 1930s by hillbilly artists such as Henry Whitter, Ernest Stoneman, Riley Puckett and Fiddlin’ John Carson, though the song was probably known much earlier, and possibly has African-American roots. Since 1933 it has been known as the song of the migrant families who were escaping the dustbowl of Oklahoma and the floods of Arkansas.

It has also been recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, Cousin Emmy, Elizabeth Cotton, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Gerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead.

I first heard it sung by Burl Ives on one of my parents 78s as the B-side of Big Rock Candy Mountain. That was an appropriate pairing, though, at that age, I didn't see the connection between these songs.

You can hear me sing it on this video, and the lyrics are here.

Goodnight Irene

This song was made famous by Lead Belly, whose1936 Library of Congress recording received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. He claimed he learned it from his uncle. It may have been based on an 1886 pop song by Gussie L. Davis.

The Weavers recorded it in New York City on May 26, 1950. Itlasted 25 weeks on the charts, reaching No 1.

It has since been recorded by a number of artists, includingFrank Sinatra (1950), Gene Autry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Ry Cooder, Michelle Shocked, Bryan Ferry, Little Richard, Pete Seeger, The Irish Rovers, Peter, Paul & Mary, Mississippi John Hurt, Bob Hope, Nat King Cole, Odetta, Carl Perkins, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Donegan, Robert Johnson, Chet Atkins, Leon Russell, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Jimmy Buffett, Grateful Dead, The Pogues, Mitch Miller, John Sebastian and just about everybody else, including forty thousand Bristol Rovers fans.

Here is a nice version by YouTube singer, DrBlueMoon.

Here are members of the Hong Kong Folk Society singing it after several hours of singing, playing and drinking, and here are the lyrics.

Go 'Way From My Window (John Jacob Niles)

Folksinger and musicologist, John Jacob Niles claimed to have composed this song when he was 16 years old, but did not perform it until 1930.

It has been recorded by many singers, including Harry Belafonte, Marlene Dietrich and Linda Ronstadt.

Niles was one of the many influences on Bob Dylan, as can be seen in this extract from Chronicles: "I listened a lot to a John Jacob Niles record, too. Niles was nontraditional, but he sang traditional songs. A Mephistophelean character out of Carolina, he hammered away at some harplike instrument and sang in a bone chilling soprano voice. Niles was eerie and illogical, terrifically intense and gave you goosebumps. Definitely a switched-on character, almost like a sorcerer. Niles was otherworldly and his voice raged with strange incantations. I listened to 'Maid Freed from the Gallows' and 'Go Away From My Window' plenty of times."

Dylan refers to this song in the first line of his song, It Ain't Me, Babe.

Here is my rendition of the song. I try to sing it something like the way Niles does it.

Green Corn

This African-American play-party song was popularised by Lead Belly. It has also been recorded by The Weavers and Richard Dyer-Bennet.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Green Green Grass of Home (Claude "Curly" Putman Jr.)

This country song was first popularised by Porter Wagoner in 1964 and then by Bobby Bare in 1965. When Tom Jones

Since then it has been covered by many singers including Elvis Presley (1975), Johnny Cash (1968) on his Folsom Prison album, Kenny Rogers (1977) and Joan Baez (1969) on David's Album.

recorded it in 1966 it reached number one in the UK Singles Charts where it remained for seven weeks. It was also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1966, but was not particularly successful.
It has also been recorded (in the late 1960s) by Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Harry Belafonte (in the 1970s), Odetta, Little Richard (1988), Bobby Darin, John Lennon, Arlo Guthrie and Johnny Cash.

Here is my rendition of the song.

Running Bear (J.P. Richardson)

A popular song by J.P. Richardson, who was also known as "The Big Bopper". It was popularised by Johnny Preston in 1959 who sang the song with background vocals by Richardson and George Jones. It reached Number 1 on the charts in January, 1960, and was also a Number 1 hit in England. Richardson never lived to see its popularity as he died in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly.

The story is basically the old Romeo and Juliet tale, with the river between them serving as a metaphor for their separation due to the animosity between their tribes.

I remember when this song first came out I was with my schoolmates and we overheard a group of girls talking about the song, and saying things like "I love Running Bear." You can imagine what kind of images that conjured up in our adolescent minds.


Here is my performance of the song, and here are the lyrics.

Saint James Infirmary Blues

The earliest known version of this song goes back to 1899, when it was known asThe Gambler's Blues. It may have been based on an Irish ballad calledThe Unfortunate Rake, which mentions a "St. James Hospital", another descendant of which is the cowboy song Streets of Laredo.

The song has been performed by many well-known singers, including Cab Calloway (Betty Boop version here), Louis Armstrong, Blind Willie McTell (Dying Crapshooter's Blues), "Spider" John Koerner, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Cisco Houston, Lou Rawls, Arlo Guthrie, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, The Doors, The Animals, Doc Watson, Simon Prager, Tom Jones, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison.

Bob Dylan adapted the tune for his song Blind Willie McTell (1981), which was only released in 1991 on the Bootleg Series.

My performance is here, and here are the lyrics.

An excellent website devoted to this song can be found here.

Salty Dog (Zeke Morris)

This song was written by Zeke in 1935, and arranged by him and his brother, Wiley. "Salty Dog" seems to have a number of meanings. Wiley's interpretation seems to make the most sense - "I have a different definition of a salty dog than Zeke has. Back when we were kids down in Old Fort we would see a girl we liked and say 'I'd like to be her salty dog.' There also used to be a drink you could get up in Michigan. All you had to do was say 'Let me have a Salty Dog,' and they'd pour you one."

Zeke said of the origins of the song, "I got the idea when we went to a little old honky tonk just outside of Canton which is in North Carolina. We went to play at a school out beyond Waynesville somewhere and we stopped at this place. They sold beer and had slot machines. At that time they were legal in North Carolina. We got in there after the show and got to drinking that beer and playing the slot machines with nickels, dimes and quarters. I think we hit three or four jackpots. Boy, here it would come! You know you had a pile of money when you had two handfuls of change. The name of that place was the 'Salty Dog,' and that's where I got the idea for the song. There's actually more verses to it than me and Wiley sing, a lot more verses."

Salty Dog was the most popular number the Morris Brothers ever recorded. According to Wiley, "It's considered a standard. Everybody uses it in the bluegrass field, just about. We're making more money off it now on copyright royalties than we ever did on our record, with other people using it. I reckon that song is known all over the world. When I get my statement every six months, it's being played in every nation under the sun. That song is even popular in Japan! 'Salty Dog' aint one that's gone up to high heaven and then fell completely down. It's just one that's considered a standard. It's our biggest song 'cause it's a good five string banjo number played bluegrass style."

It has also been recorded by Roger McGuinn, Flatt and Scruggs, Jelly Roll Morton, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie McTell, Reverend Gary Davis, and Johnny Cash.

Here is my video of the song.

Scarlet Ribbons (Jack Segal & Evelyn Danzig)

This rather sentimental song about an unlikely small miracle was written in 1949 and has been recorded by many singers, including Juanita Hall, Harry Belafonte, Perry Como, Val Doonican, Jim Reeves, Bobbie Bare, Cliff Richard, Roy Orbison, Gracie Fields, Doris Day, Vera Lynn, Dinah Shore, Renée Geyer, The Kingston Trio, Willie Nelson and Sinéad O'Connor.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain

This song, also known simply as "Coming 'Round the Mountain", is often considered to be a children's song.
The first printed version of the song appeared in Carl Sandburg's "The American Songbag" (1927), but it probably goes back to the late 1800s. The song was based on the old Negro spiritual, "When the Chariot Comes" and spread through Appalachia with the now familiar lyrics, but retaining the call-response structure, and later sung by railroad work gangs in the Midwest.

My video here is in four parts, beginning with the original spiritual, "When the Chariot Comes", continuing with a variation of "Coming Round the Mountain" which includes a rhyming line rather than just repetition of the main line, then another spiritual based on the song, or perhaps based on the original spiritual, called "Going Back With Jesus", which was recorded by the Heavenly Gospel Singers in Charlotte in 1937. Finally there is a children's song popular in Scotland sung to this tune.

Shenandoah

The origins of this song are obscure, though it probably goes back tothe early nineteenth century.

It has been collected many times by the likes of Lomax and Sandburg and is generally believed to have its origins as a sea-shanty (specifically a short-haul chanty) though this would be before the word "Shenandoah," whether it refers to an Indian chief (with a young daughter) or just a place, became part of the song. It has also been claimed by riverboatmen, cavalry and wagon soldiers, mountain men, traders and trappers.

It has been called by various names, including The Wide Missouri, The World Of Misery-Solid Fas (a West Indian rowing shanty, used while chasing the whale, which may well have been corrupted into "Missouri"), The Oceanida, Rolling River, The Gals Of Dublin Town, The Harp Without The Crown and The Saucy Arabella.

A writer on Mudcat cites the following version collected in 1909:

O Shenadar I'll have your daughter;
Way - o, you rolling ruin;
I love her as I love the water,
Ha!---
I'm bound away across the wild Missouri.

O Shenadar what is the matter?
Way - o, you rolling ruin;
Your daughter's here and I am at her,
Ha! ha!
I'm bound away across the wild Missouri.

The earliest known print version seems to be one named Shanandore quoted in an article, "Sailor Songs", by W.L. Alden in Harpers New Monthly Magazine, Volume 65, Issue 386, July 1882.

Here are the lyrics of the typically watered-down version that I sing.

Shortnin' Bread

Shortening bread is a kind of corn bread with strips of bacon, "shortening" referring to any fat used in baking, such as butter, lard, oil and margarine. In fact it was used to describe just about any bread or biscuit containing fat and flour.

Mammy's L'il Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread was a Negro plantation song that became popular with general audiences when it was recorded by Lawrence Tibbett (1896 -1960), one of the pioneers of American radio. It was later revived by Nelson Eddy, who sang it in the MGM movie Maytime (1937), directed by Robert Z. Leonard.

I first heard the song sung by Burl Ives. Other artists who recorded it are Gil Tanner, The Beach Boys (1979), The Tractors (1998), and Neal Pattman.

Wikipedia also mentions performances by Donald Duck (in Three For Breakfast, 1948), Captain Harris in Police Academy 4 and Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy (Season 4).

My performance is here and the lyrics are here.

Silver Dagger

This ballad, from the singing of Joan Baez, is a short version of a much longer song that has been around since the nineteenth century, the first published version being dated 1907, though there is a very similar song called Drowsy Sleeper, collected in Dorset in the 1830s. In the longer versions it is the male whose parents do not allow him to marry the girl because she is too poor. She kills herself with a silver dagger and when he finds her, he picks up the dagger and he, too, kills himself.

The 1960 version by Joan Baez, apparently the first to do away with the Romeo and Juliet story, has become the standard way of performing this song. It has also been recorded by Dolly Parton, Solas and Roger McGuinn, who changed the words to sing it from the boy's point of view, something Joan herself would never have done!


Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis)

There is some controversy about whether Merle Travis actually wrote this song, which he recorded in 1953. George Davis (1906-1992), known as the "singing miner of Hazard, Kentucky," claimed to have written the song as Nine to Ten Tons some time earlier.

Tennessee Ernie Ford had a big hit with the song when it was released as the B-side of a song called You Don't Have to be a Baby to Cry in 1955.

The many others who have recorded the song include Johnny Desmond (1955), Frankie Laine (1955), The Weavers (1956), Eddy Arnold (1956), Kate Smith (1958), Homer & Jethro (1960), Jimmy Dean (1961), Bo Diddley - 1961, Lorne Greene - 1965, Stevie Wonder (1966), Tom Jones (1967), Eric Burdon (1990), Johnny Cash, Leon Russell, The Platters, and Big Bill Broonzy.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Skip to my Lou

Generally considered a children's song these days, Skip to My Lou was originally a popular frontier dance song for a "partner stealing" dance. As fiddles and other instruments were considered indecent, the dancers created their own music by clapping and singing.

"Lou" is apparently derived from "love", via the Scottish word "loo."

Just about everybody does this song including Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie and some of my favourite YouTube stars, Lew Dite, Dan Samples and David Holness's brother, Dimple Diamond. Even the boys from Bonanza have a go at it.

So of course I had to do it. Here is a video of me singing the song and here are the lyrics.

You can also see a live performance of the song together with Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' at a session of The Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in Wanchai.

The Sloop John B (Traditional Bahamas)

Also known as I Wanna Go Home and John B Sails.

Carl Sandburg collected an early version of this song from John & Evelyn McCutcheon of Treasure Island, West Indies where, according to Sandburg, "time & usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. The weathered ribs of the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Harbor, whence an expedition, especially sent up for the purpose in 1926, extracted a knee of horseflesh & a ring-bolt. These relies are now preserved & built into the Watch Tower."

An interesting theory is that the sloop's bad luck was due to its name. "John B" in Afro-Carribean culture, sounds like "jumby" -- a West African term referring to the undead creature that has been anglicized to "zombie."

Alan Lomax collected a version from Cleveland Simmons group at Old Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas in 1935. Blind Blake Higgs, a popular Nassau entertainer, recorded a string band version with the Royal Victor Calypsos in 1952. The first version I heard was by The Weaver's, recorded in 1951. It was also recorded by The Travellers in 1952.

Lonnie Donegan recorded the song in 1960, as did Bud and Travis, and The Kingston Trio had a big hit with it in 1962. probably the best known version these days is the one recorded by The Beach Boys (1966)

It has been recorded by many other artists, including Johnny Cash, Jimmie Rodgers and Roger Whittaker.

Friends from Melbourne, Nick and Jill, were staying with us in Hong Kong for a few days and they just happened to be here at the right time for the monthly session of the Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man. They thought they would just come along and listen in, but we managed to persuade Nick Demytko (after a few drinks) to lead us all in Sloop John B - with a little help from John Walsh.

And here is an a capella rendition sung by members of the Hong Kong St David's Society at the Rainbow Restaurant on Lamma Island.

Smoke on the Water (Zeke Clements and Earl Nunn)

This song may come across as racist and politically incorrect these days, but it was written during World War II and the desire to bomb Japan into oblivion was perfectly understandable at the time. It was co-written in 1944 by country singer, Zeke Clements, and recorded shortly thereafter by Red Foley. It was also sung by Roy Acuff, Bob Wills (1945), Boyd Heath (1945) and Merle Travis (1945)

Probably the first actual recording was from an Armed Forces radio broadcast in 1944 over WXLD on the island of Saipan where they were building the airstrip to be used to bomb Japan. It was played by a band called The Rainbow Boys and reportedly included Pete Seeger on banjo.

Here is a modern version of the song, by wddurey.

You can hear my rendition here and here are the lyrics.

Son, Don't go Near the Indians (Rex Allen)

One of the songs from my childhood.

Rex Allen (1920 – 1999) was an American actor, singer and songwriter. Rex Elvie Allen was born on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, forty miles from Willcox, Arizona. He grew up to become a popular entertainer known as "The Arizona Cowboy." This song, which was on his 1962 album, Rex Allen Sings and Tells Tales was probably his biggest hit.

Here is Rex Allen's original recording. And here is Sheb Wooley's parody - Son, Don't Go Near the Eskimos.

Here is my cover and here are the lyrics.

Starving to Death on My Government Claim

This nineteenth century song of the pioneers is also known as Lane County Bachelor, Greer County Bachelor and The Alberta Homesteader. It tells of the harsh conditions that greeted early settlers in Kansas, though it has, of course, been adapted to various other parts of the American West.

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres of land previously owned by the railroads to homesteaders who agreed to live on the land for five years. Drawn west by the promise of free, fertile land, Pioneer settlers started arriving in Kansas in 1869, but they found life more difficult than expected as the land was dry and not as fertile as they had been promised. This song, possibly written by a pioneer called Frank Baker to the tune of The Irish Washerwoman, became popular throughout the west.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Stealin'

The best known version of this song was first recorded by the Memphis Jug Band as Stealin' Stealin'. in 1928 in Memphis, with Will Shade (harmonica), Vol Stevens (acoustic guitar), Ben Ramey (kazoo), and Jab Jones (vocals, jug). It was re-released in 1959. and has been the model for most renditions of the song since that time.

The label credited Will Shade as the composer, and his publisher still holds the copyright, but the song is actually a compilation of much earlier lyrics.

Here is Dylan's bootleg recording of the song, and a good rendition by YouTube performers coldIronsbound82 and Lew Dite and another by Devil in a Woodpile. If you like Japanese blues here is a rendition by Yukadan.

And here is my rendition.

Stewball

The song, Stewball, originated in either England or Ireland, where it began as Skewball, meaning a horse with white patches on a coat that is not black. The horse in question won a race in Kildare in the eighteenth century.

An American version of the song was sung by slaves in the Southern states, and the location varies between California, Texas and Kentucky. It uses an African-American-style call and response technique, as opposed to the ballad style of the English version. This version was popularised by Lead Belly.

A recording by Joan Baez, which was my introduction to the song, is closer to the English version. This better-known version has been recorded by Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Dan Fogelberg, Peter, Paul and Mary, Slainte and The Hollies among many others.

Here is some excellent versions by YouTube stars, Lew Dite, the BCB Band, and David Holness, and marcoacca

Here is my rendition of the English version of the song and here is the American version performed with my wife and two friends from Brunei who visited us in Hong Kong. Here are the lyrics.

Streets of Laredo

Also known as The Cowboy's Lament this is a well-known cowboy ballad where a dying cowboy tells his story to a live cowboy. Its origins are not clear, but it goes back to at least the 18th century as an Irish or British folk song called The Unfortunate Rake, which tells a similar story, except that the hero's death is caused not by a bullet wound but by a sexually transmitted disease. Another Irish song, "The Bard of Armagh" uses the same tune.

The song has been recorded by Joan Baez, Jim Reeves, Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, Rex Allen, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Arlo Guthrie, Lew Dite and many country and western singers. There are a number of songs that use the same tune, such as Only the Hangman (or Only the Heartaches.) It also seems to be part of the inspiration for Eric Bogle's song No Man's Land (also known as The Green Fields of France.)

Here is my rendition.

Sweet Betsy from Pike (John A. Stone)

This American gold-rush ballad about the trials of a pioneer named Betsy and her lover Ike, who migrate from Pike County to California in the "days of forty-nine," was first printed in 1858, but probably written several years earlier. According to Alan Lomax, "Such songs were performed by the professional entertainers who toured the gold camps, and were circulated in the little pocket song books of that day." Though earlier versions may have existed, it is believed that John A. Stone wrote much of the song that is normally sung these days. Stone, who died in 1864, had crossed the plains from Pike County in 1849-1850, with a small singing group, the Sierra Nevada Rangers, which toured the mining camps. His published version appears to have omitted some of the bawdier verses which were probably sung in the camps.

Carl Sandburg wrote of the song that "it has the stuff of a realistic novel. It is droll and don't-care, bleary and leering, as slippery and lackadaisical as some of the comic characters of Shakespeare."

It was recorded by Burl Ives in 1941 for his first album The Wayfaring Stranger. Since then it has been recorded by various artists including Bob Gibson, Cisco Houston, Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Warner and Tom Paxton.

The tune used is generally known as Villikins and his Dinah. Many songs have been set to this tune. There is even one by Stephen Foster, called The Great Baby Show (or The Abolition Show). The story of Betsy and Ike is probably the best known of all the Villikins songs.

Here is my video of the song.

Take this Hammer

This prison work song was collected by John and Alan Lomax, though it is believed to have been collected earlier in 1915, sung by Newman Ivey White. It is likely that it was sung by black prisoners working on the railroads. It was made famous by Lead Belly, who recorded it as a single in 1942, though many other artists have recorded it, including The Monroe Brothers (1936), The Osborne Brothers, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Jesse Fuller, Mississippi John Hurt, Long John Baldry, Jimmy Witherspoon,Odetta (1957), Lonnie Donegan (1959), The Brothers Four, New Christy Minstrels, Flatt and Scruggs (1962), The Beatles, Johnny Cash (1963) and Lew Dite.

You can hear the song, along with Pick a Bale of cotton and Grey Goose sung by Lead Belly in this medley.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

The Thing (Charles Randolph Green)

This was written in about 1948 or possibly 1950, and recorded by Phil Harris.
Since then there have been recordings by such artist as Teresa Brewer, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, Arthur Godfrey and Danny Kaye.

There are a number of songs in this genre, including a bawdy song called The Chandler's Wife. It is also a bit like Tom Paxton's The Marvelous Toy.

Here I am singing the song and here are the lyrics.

Things About Coming My Way

This blues standard has the same tune as the better-known Sitting On Top of the World. Other songs using the same tune are You've Got to Move and Robert Johnston's Come On in My Kitchen.

I can't remember whether I first heard this sung by Josh White or The Weavers. It has also been recorded by Guy Davis, Frank Hamilton, Jerry Silverman and Judy Broderick.

Here is my rendition.

Those Were the Days (Gene Raskin)

New York's White Horse Tavern was famous in the 1960s as a meeting place for folk singers like Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Gene Raskin, who also frequented the tavern, wrote this song lamenting the passing of those golden days. Apparently he used a traditional Russian tune for the melody.

The song was popularized in the early 1960s by The Limeliters, but the best known recording was by Mary Hopkin (1968), produced by Paul McCartney. It was also the final song recorded by the Clancys.

Here it is, in singalong style, led by Steve Walker at the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir end of season party at Helena May.

The Titanic

This song appeared in various forms a few years after the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912.

Here is my performance of the song.

I also play this on the fiddle here, together with Reuben James, which is also the tune of Wildwood Flower.

The lyrics are here.

Tom Dooley

This ballad was based on the true story of an impoverished Confederate veteran, Tom Dula (pronounced Dooley), who was hanged for the brutal stabbing to death of his fiance, Laura Foster, in 1868. Many believed that the actual murderer was Anne Melton, Dula's second lover, whose comments led to the discovery of Laura's body, and that Dula admitted guilt to protect her.

Colonel James Grayson was a Tennessee politician who had hired Dula on his farm when the young man fled North Carolina under suspicion, using a false name. Grayson did help in Dula's capture and returning him to North Carolina, but this was the extent of his involvement. Some versions of the song portray him as a romantic rival of Dula's or a vengeful sheriff involved in his capture and execution.

The song was probably first sung shortly after the execution. The earliest known recording was by Grayson and Whitter in 1929.
Frank Warner, a folklorist, made a recording in 1952, having collected the song from Frank Proffitt in 1940, and passed it to Alan Lomax, who published it inFolk Song: USA. Neither seemed to be aware of the earlier (1929) recording.

The Kingston Trio recorded the song in 1958, basing their version on Frank Proffitt's, but only singing three verses, and the chorus four times. It sold over six million copies and is often said to have begun the folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s.

Other notable recordings are by Lonnie Donegan (1958) who did a faster skiffle arrangement, Johnny Rivers, pretty much a copy of The Kingston Trio's version, and Doc Watson (1964), with a longer version. Here's a nice traditional arrangement of the song, based on Doc Watdon's version.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

To Morrow (Bob Gibson)

Bob Gibson (1931 –1996) was one of the leading singers of the 1960s folk revival. He played banjo and the 12-string guitar. In 1959 he introduced Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival, singing two gospel songs with her; We Are Crossing Jordan River, which I've sung on YouTube, and Virgin Mary Had One Son.

Whether or not he actually wrote this song about somebody trying to get a train to the town of Morrow, he made it his own song. It has also been recorded by The Kingston Trio.

You can watch us sing this song or, better still, see the Muppets doing it.

The lyrics are here.

The Twelfth of Never (Jerry Livingston and Paul Francis Webster)

The title of this popular song comes from the expression "the 12th of Never," which is used as the date of a future occurrence that will never happen. Like many traditional songs it indicates a date when the man will stop loving the woman, such as when all the seas go dry or when the black crow turns white - i.e. He will never stop loving her.

The tune comes from The Riddle Song, a traditional English ballad. Ironically, this song is about impossible things that do actually happen!

It has been recorded by Johnny Mathis (1957), Dame Gracie Fields (1960), Jeff Buckley, Roger Miller (1968), Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard (1972), Donny Osmond (1973), Olivia Newton-John (1989), and Dolly Parton with Keith Urban.

Here is my attempt at the song.

Two Brothers (Irving Gordon)

This song about the American Civil War was written in 1951 by Irving Gordon, who wrote the famous Who's On First routine for Abbot and Costello. It has been recorded by Kay Starr, Harry Belafonte, Bud & Travis, The Wayfarers,The Weavers, Dusty Springfield,Tom Jones and Rod McKuen among others.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Two Recruiting Sergeants (Traditional /Bob Hallett)

This is the Newfoundland version of a song that goes back at least to the Napoleanic wars of the early 1800s, as indicated by the original chorus:

And it's over the mountains and over the main,
Through Gibralta, tae France and tae Spain,
Get a feather for your bonnet, and a kilt abeen your knee,
Enlist bonnie laddie, an' come awa' wae me.

This was probably adapted from an earlier version which appeared in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1706).

The recruiting sergeants were the army version of the navy's "press gang". They went around the villages enticing young men to "take the king's shilling," usually with the assistance of copious amounts of alcohol, especially between 1770 and 1815 when cannon fodder was needed for the wars in America, then against Napoleon in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and, later, Belgium and France. There are many songs dealing with this theme, such as The Collier Recruit, Over the Hills and Far Away and, one of my favourites, Arthur MacBride.

The song was later revived as "Two Recruiting Sergeants from the Black Watch", and, more recently, was rewritten by Bob Hallett of Canada's Newfoundland folk-rock group, "Great Big Sea."

Here is my rendition of the song, requested by "wanderer98123".

Ugly Woman (Roaring Lion)

See If You Want to Be Happy.

The Wabash Cannonball

This song, about a fictional train, probably originated in the late nineteenth century. Its first documented appearance was on sheet music published in 1882, with the title "The Great Rock Island Route" and credited to J. A. Roff. It was rewritten by William Kindt in 1904 under the title `Wabash Cannon Ball."

One of the earliest recordings was by The Carter Family in 1929, and there was a popular version recorded by Roy Acuff in 1936. Other great artists who have recorded this song include Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Donegan, Lew Dite, Jerry Reed, Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins and Hank Snow. And, of course, Woody Guthrie used the tune for "Grand Coulee Dam".

Here is my rendition.

Wagoner's Lad

Probably of English origin, this song was recorded by Buell Kazee in 1928. It became popular in the folk revival of the 1960s, especially through an a capella recording by Joan Baez. It has also been recorded by The Kingston Trio, Bud and Travis, Erik Darling, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, John Denver and Dock Boggs.

You can see me singing the song, and here are the lyrics.

Water Boy

This was originally a black prison work song. It was popularised in the 1920s by a jazz arrangement from Avery Robinson, recorded by Roland Hayes (1922) and Fats Waller (1922). Since then has been performed by many folk performers, including Paul Robeson, John Lee Hooker, Odetta, who combined it with another song, I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain, Harry Belafonte (1960), and The Kingston Trio.

Here is an extract from Odetta's performance, and here is my rendition of the two songs. Here are the lyrics of these songs.

When the Saints Go Marching In

The song began as a gospel hymn called "When the Saints are Marching In", written by Katherine Purvis in 1896, with music by James Milton Black. It was changed to its present form in 1927, and soon became a jazz staple. It was traditionally used as a funeral march in New Orleans, where it woud be played as a slow dirge as the coffin was carried to the cemetery, and then as an upbeat "Dixieland"-style tune on the way back. The New Orleans football team named themselves the Saints, after the song.

Early versions of the song ar eapocalyptic, using imagery from "Revelations", though it is often watered down in modern versions. For example, in the version I sing, "when the sun refuse to shine" is sung as "when the sun begins to shine" which tends to render the apocalyptic message meaningless.

Louis Armstrong was the first to popularise the song nationally in the 1930s, to the dismay of his sister who thought it was blasphemous to treat a church hymn as a jazz band tune. It was also brought into the rock and roll repertoire by Fats Domino and also by Bill Haley and His Comets. Others who have recorded it include The Weavers, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles, B.B. King, Dolly Parton and Bruce Springsteen.

Here is my rendition of the song.

When You Say Nothing at All (Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz)

This country song was a big hit for three different performers: Keith Whitley, who took it to the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart on December 24, 1988; Alison Krauss, whose version became her first solo top-10 country hit in 1995; and Irish pop singer, Ronan Keating, whose version was his first solo single and a chart-topper in the UK in 1999. It has also been recorded by Frances Black (1996), Hank Marvin (2000), and Cliff Richard (2007) (Information from Wikipedia)

Here is is sung by Pat Thomson at a session of The Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in Wanchai.

Wildwood Flower

This is one of the songs made popular by the Carter family. You can hear their song here.

I first heard this song sung by Joan Baez.

Woody Guthrie used the tune for his song The Sinking of the Reuben James, which is discussed on the Woody Guthrie page. You can hear my attempt to play it on the fiddle, together with The Titanic.

Here are the lyrics.

Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

Winnsboro is a town in Fairfield County, South Carolina. From late 19th century, textile production became the major, and often the only, industry in Southern states of the US like North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. By the 1920s, unpaid overtime (known as “stretch-outs”) combined with the paternalism of mill owners to make mill workers angry enough to go on strike. This song is a good example of a song about the transition from an agrarian society to an industrialized civilization as it shows the feelings of the overworked laborers, many of whom had come from the slower labour of the farms.

In the General Strike of 1934 textile workers sang this song as they marched to neighboring mills to shut them down and in the camps they formed outside the suddenly silent mills. The song has been recorded by Pete Seeger and Lead Belly, among others. It was also reworked by modern pianist and composer Frederic Rzewski.

Here is a video about the origins of the song made for the Fairfield County Museum.

Wolverton Mountain (Claude King & Merle Kilgore)

This ballad launched Claude King's career in the US in 1962. Apparently it was based on a real character who lived on Woolverton Mountain in Arkansas. Johnny Horton and George Jones supposedly declined the chance to record the song. If so it was a bad decision. Claude King decided to record it himself and the song was at the top of the US charts for nine weeks.

You can hear the original recording here, and also here on YouTube and another one with amusing illustrations, so why bother listening to my cover?

The lyrics are here.

The Worm Song

Here is my performance of this sad little love song. The lyrics are here.

Wreck on the Highway (Dorsey Dixon)

Dorsey Dixon wrote this classic song in 1937 after a serious road accident near Rockingham North Carolina, and recorded it in 1938 with the title Didn't Hear Nobody Pray. In 1940 it was recorded by Chicago radio duo Karl and Harty and then by Roy Acuff in 1942 under the title Wreck On The Highway. It is his version that is generally known today.

Here is the song performed by Dorsey Dixon himself, with a detailed description of how he was cheated by the music industry, with credit for the song going to Roy Acuff.

Here is my rendition of the song, and here are the lyrics.

Yellow Bird

This calypso song began as Choucoune, a Haitian song composed by Michel Mauleart Monton in 1883 to lyrics from a famous poem by Oswald Durand.

When calypso music became popular in the United States in the mid-1950s, the melody of Choucoune was adapted by Norman Luboff and new English lyrics were written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The only connection with the original lyrics is that the words "ti zwazo" (little birds) were part of the chorus.

The song first appeared on the Norman Luboff Choir's Calypso Holiday album in 1957 and was later the title track on albums by the Mills Brothers, Roger Williams and Lawrence Welk. It was also sung by Harry Belafonte, whichg is the first rendition I heard.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

You are My Sunshine

This song is said to be the third best-known song in the world, after “Happy Birthday” and “White Christmas”. It was first recorded by The Pine Ridge Boys in August, 1939. The Rice Brothers Gang recorded it the following month and Paul Rice claimed to have written it in 1937, inspired by a long letter from a girl in South Carolina, in which she called him her sunshine.

Late the same year, country singer, Jimmie Davis, purchased the song from Rice for $35 and published it in 1940 using his own name and that of his partner, Charles Mitchell, which was common practice at that time. Davis recorded the song in February of that year, and it was one of the top five country music recordings in 1940. When he ran for governor of Louisiana, he used it as a campaign song, singing it at all his political rallies.

However the song was actually known in Georgia before 1937, sung by country singer, George Riley Puckett, in the early 1930s. He and Paul Rice had played with Oliver Hood, a music teacher who wrote many songs, but did not think they had commercial potential. His descendants claim to have the brown paper bag on which Hood wrote the lyrics and say he first performed the song in 1933. The success of “You are My Sunshine” prompted Hood to start copyrighting his songs, but it was too late to protect the song that he considered was stolen from him.

Bing Crosby and Gene Autry both recorded the song in 1941, and it has been recorded extensively since then. Among the many who have covered it are The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Bob Dylan, Duane Eddy, Aretha Franklin, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mitch Miller, The Mills Brothers, Rick Nelson, Willie Nelson, Oscar Peterson; The Righteous Brothers, Tex Ritter, Ike & Tina Turner and The Ventures.

Here is my rendition of the song.