The story of the song is told from the point of view of Dodge, on his death bed. As crew chief, he was considered responsible for the men's death, but here he gives his own version of what happened.

This video tribute to the men who died at Mann Gulch uses the song, but doesn't say who is singing it!

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

Here is my rendition. And here it is sung by the Hong Kong Welsh Male Choir's very own Tom Jones, Terry Brewster, at Tony and Gidget Wong's 20th Wedding Anniversary party.

Here are the lyrics.

The Grey Goose

This traditional American folk song was made famous by Lead Belly in the 1930s. It is about a preacher who hunts and captures a grey goose for dinner on a Sunday but is unable to kill it no matter how hard he tries. The implication could be that he had not properly observed the Sabbath. Some commentators see the goose as a metaphor for the tough spirit of the African Americans who began as slaves but refused to be defeated.

You can hear this song, along with Pick a Bale of Cotton and Take This Hammer sung by Lead Belly himself in this medley.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (Harry McClintock)

Harry McClintock, who recorded this song in 1926, claimed that he wrote it when he was a hobo in 1897 or 98, basing it on a Salvation Army song called Revive Us Again. He sang the song in an army camp during the Spanish American War, where the soldiers added new verses. Other verses have been added by Carl Sandburg.

McClintock is probably best known for his other hobo song, The Big Rock Candy Mountain. Here is his original recording of Hallelujah, I'm a Bum.

My video of the song is here. And here I am singing it with Lew Dite on his famous porch. You can also see us working on it in this video about our first meeting.

The lyrics are here.

Ham and Eggs

This chain gang song is generally attributed to Lead Belly, but whether he actually composed it or adapted a traditional song is uncertain. The "Hah" sound represents the striking of the prisoners' hammers breaking rocks.

The song was recorded in 1957 by Lonnie Donegan, who did a great job of taking Lead Belly's songs to a wider audience. Lew Dite also does an excellent rendition of this song.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Hard Times Come Again No More (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, and Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.

Hard Times Come Again No More was published in 1855. It was a comment on recent events in his own life, including his (temporary) separation from his wife, Jane, and the death of his closest friend as well as both his parents. He was also getting heavily into debt, taking advances from publishers and then finding he was unable to supply the songs he had promised them.

He died in 1864, one of his most popular songs, Beautiful Dreamer, being published posthumously.

Hard Times was given a new lease of life recently when recorded by Bob Dylan. It has also been recorded by Mary Black, Nanci Griffith and, of course, Dan Samples.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Haul Away Joe

This song is a short-drag shantey, also known as a foresheet or mainsheet shantey. Shanteys of this type were sung for short hauling jobs which required a few bursts of great force, such as changing the direction of sails via lines called braces, or tightening the corners of sails with sheets or tacks. There is one strong pull per chorus, normally on the last word, in this case "Joe".

This is one of ten songs I recorded with Matthew Vaughan in Bangkok on March 11th, 2013.

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

Hobo's Lullaby (Goebel Reeves)

Goebel Reeves, himself a hobo by choice, wrote this song to the tune of the Carter Family song, Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes .

It has been recorded by Woody Guthrie, his son, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Home On the Range (Brewster Higley)

Dr. Brewster M. Higley (1823–1911) of Kansas, wrote a poem called My Western Home, which was first published in a December 1873 issue of the Smith County Pioneer under the title Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam. Higley's friend, Daniel E. Kelley, set it to music. It soon spread across the USA in various forms. In the early 20th century, it was arranged by Texas composer, David Guion, (1892–1981) who is often credited as the composer. It was officially adopted as the state song of Kansas on June 30, 1947, and is generally considered to be the unofficial anthem of the American West.

Here is my rendition, which uses the original lyrics, but with the modern chorus.

And here is my four-year-old grandson, Axel, singing the first verse, with keyboard accompaniment.

Hopalong Peter

This is probably not a very old song as there are not many variations to be found. It was recorded on 78s by J. E. Mainer and by Fisher Hendley and the Aristocratic Pigs. The Hendley version was recorded by the New Lost City Ramblers, who included it in their songbook (the only version in print). Later recordings are probably all derived from the New Lost City Ramblers version, which is the only one I am familiar with.

Here is Lew Dite's video of the song and here is mine. The lyrics are here.

The House of the Rising Sun

A well-known ballad about a girl who ends up in a New Orleans brothel. The oldest known recording was by Clarence Ashley (1934), who learnt it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley. It was recorded by Woody Guthrie in 1941, by Lead Belly in 1948 and Glenn Yarbrough in 1957. Other recordings were made by Josh White, Dave van Ronk, Nina Simone, Odetta, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan (1962), Charlie Byrd, Roy Acuff, The Almanac Singers (1941), The Weavers, Peter, Paul & Mary, Henry Mancini, Dolly Parton, David Allan Coe, Gary Glitter, John Fahey, Waylon Jennings, Tim Hardin, Tommy Emmanuel, Buster Poindexter, Marianne Faithful and Tracy Chapman.

And I haven't even mentioned The Animals yet! Theirs is the best known version of the song, which Eric Burdon first heard sung by Josh White. In their version the narrator is a boy, which rather obscures the fact that it is a song about prostitution. It was a huge hit for them. Now, of course, everybody expects people singing this song to cover the Animal version. Another group to have a hit with the song was Frijid Pink, though it was basically an Animals cover of.

Here is my performance, and here are the lyrics.

Hullabaloo Belay

This was used as the theme song for Hullabaloo, a popular television program of folk music.

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

I Come and Stand at Every Door (Nazim Hikmet)

I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night (Alfred Hayes, Earl Robinson)

Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, known as Joseph Hillström, or Joe Hill for short (1879 - 1915) was a Swedish-American union leader and songwriter. He was executed for a murder he probably had nothing to do with.

After his death, he was memorialized by several folk songs, this one being the best known. It was written as a poem by Alfred Hayes in about 1930 and set to music by Earl Robinson in 1936.

This song has been recorded by several artists, notably Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, The Dubliners and Joan Baez (1969).

Bob Dylan's I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine is obviously based on this song.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

If the River Was Whiskey (Charlie Poole)

Charlie Poole (1892 - 1931) was an American old time banjo player and country musician. His old-time string band, North Carolina Ramblers, recorded many popular songs between 1925 to 1930.

This song is his version of the traditional Hesitation Blues, which has been performed in countless versions by countless musicians.

Here is the original recording of the song.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

If Ya Wanna Be Happy (Roaring Lion / Jimmy Soul)

This politically incorrect song is also known as Ugly Woman and Get an Ugly Girl to Marry You.

Roaring Lion was born as Hubert Raphael Charles around 1910, but later changed his name to Raphael de Leon. His career as a singer was launched in 1927, when, to his surprise, he won a calypso competition.

In the 1930s, Roaring Lion was instrumental in spreading the international popularity of Trinidadian calypso. Between 1934 and 1941 he was the most prolific calypso recording artist, cutting nearly 100 singles, including popular standards, such as Mary Ann, Netty Netty, and Six Feet High. Ugly Woman (recorded in 1933) was one of his most famous compositions, and was a big hit for Jimmy Soul, who rewrote and recorded it in 1963 with the title If You Wanna Be Happy. Most renditions since then have been based on Jimmy Soul's adaptation.

Roaring Lion spent much of 1945 singing in New York clubs, including the Village Vanguard, where he was replaced by Harry Belafonte, who, he claimed, performed and recorded some of his songs without credit or compensation.

The song has been recorded by Belafonte and The Coasters among others and Chubby Checker used the tune for his hit song Limbo Rock.

Here is my performance, and here are the lyrics.

If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus (Charles Neblett)

This song chronicles the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. It was written by Charles Neblett of the Freedom Singers, a group which included Bernice Reagon, Cordell Reagon and Rutha Harris. He used the tune of the traditional gospel song O Mary Don’t You Weep. Not sure why, but it is sometimes attributed to either "Carver Neblett" or "Chico Neblett". Maybe they were nicknames?

The song refers especially to the protest sparked by the refusal by Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger in December 1955. The bus driver had her arrested and she was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance.

Often referred to as the "mother of the civil rights movement," her act of defiance led to a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted for over a year, and resulted in the US Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses.

The song has been recorded many times, by artists such as Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte, and is sometimes even considered a children's song.

Here is my rendition and the lyrics are here.

I'll Go Chasin' Women (Stuart Hamblen)

Stuart Hamblen was a popular singer, songwriter, actor, poet, and radio personality from the 1930s through the 1950s. He was first a hit on radio but appeared in films with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John Wayne and wrote several chart-topping country songs. Some have called him radio's first singing cowboy. He is perhaps best known for his gospel song, It Is No Secret What God Can Do.

I'll Go Chasin' Women (1949) was his first major country and western hit.

This is one of ten songs I recorded with Matthew Vaughan in Bangkok on March 11th, 2013.

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

I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets (Maud Irving and Joseph Philbrick Webster)

See Wildwood Flower below.

I'm a Rake and a Rambling Boy

This song is a shortened version of a song called The Rambling Boy collected in 1930, from Emma L. Dusenbury, Mena, Arkansas, by Vance Randolph.

The song originated in England or Ireland and has a number of variations, including Newry Highwayman, Jolly Blade, Irish Robber and Wild and Wicked Youth. It probably appeared in America thanks to mid-19th century broadsides rather than being brought by immigrants.

My performance is here and the lyrics are here.

I'm Just an Old Black Choo-Choo (Terry Fell)

Terry Fell was born in 1921 in Dora, Alabama. He got his first guitar at nine years old, when he swapped his groundhog for it, but it was three years before someone showed him how to play it. He is best known for his song, Truck Driving Man which he recorded in 1954 as the B-side of his only country hit, Don't Drop It. He was more successful as a songwriter than a performer, and wrote several songs for Rose Maddox, including this novelty song about the passing of the steam train era.

This was put up as my thousandth video on YouTube, and it was made as a collaboration with YouTube star, Alonzo Garbanzo. I think it is a good example of what YouTube has to offer - the chance to communicate and create something with people we may never meet in real life. Alonzo, being more tech savvy than I am, did all the work of putting this together.

You may notice some strange reversals in the video. That probably has something to do with the filming on location on Mars.

I don't normally report on the honours achieved by my videos, which don't stay up for long anyway, but because it was a collaboration I'll put them up as at December 13, 2009. Alonzo deserves most of the credit for its success.

#10 - Most Discussed (Today) - Australia
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Here is our performance. You can also see it on Alonzo's channel.

Here are the lyrics.

I Never Will Marry

There are several versions of this song, but most seem to end with the woman drowning herself. One of the earliest versions seems to be The Lover's Lament for Her Sailor, which was known in England throughout the nineteenth century. Another version is The Sorrowful Lady's Complaint, a broadside from the Roxburghe Collection. Most modern versions of the song seem to have appeared in America, where the song has been recorded by many artists, including The Weavers, The Carter Family, Peggy Seeger and Linda Ronstadt (with Dolly Parton.)

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

In the Pines

This song, also known as Black Girl, My Girl or Where Did You Sleep Last Night? was popularised by Lead Belly, who recorded it in 1944, though it dates back to at least the 1870s. The earliest known print version was Black Girl, collected by Cecil Sharp in 1917.

It has been recorded by many singers, including Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bill Monroe, Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, Grateful Dead, Sir Douglas Quintet, Long John Baldry, Dave van Ronk, Connie Francis, Dolly Parton and Nirvana (Kurt Cobain).

Here is an excellent article on the history of this song. And here is my YouTube friend, Shawn McNair, performing the song.

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

I Ride an Old Paint

This classic cowboy song has been recorded by many artists including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Cisco Houston, Lew Dite and Johnny Cash.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Island in the Sun

This calypso song was written by Lord Burgess and Harry Belafonte for the 1957 movie Island in the Sun, starring James Mason, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, and, of course, Belafonte.

Here it is sung by Belafonte, and here is my rendition. Here are the lyrics.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon)

The lyrics of this song, by Jimmy Kennedy, refer to the change of name from the Greek "Constantinople" to the Turkish "Istanbul." Blissfully ignoring the politics involved, the song suggests that, as with New Amsterdam changing its name to New York, "people just liked it better that way," and that it's "nobody's business but the Turks".

The words were set to music by Nat Simon.

The song was originally recorded by the Canadian group, The Four Lads in 1953, the first gold record for this group.

It has been covered by several artists, including Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald (1953), Frankie Vaughan (1954), Bette Midler (1977) and They Might Be Giants (1990)

My rendition of the song is here and here are the lyrics.

It Takes a Worried Man

This song, also known as Worried Man Blues, was first recorded by Emory Brooks in 1927 and by John Fox (Sam Collins) the same year, It has also been recorded by Charles McDevitt (1928), The Carter Family (1930), Woody Guthrie (1940), Cisco Houston (1953), Burl Ives (1959), The Kingston Trio (1960), Ramblin' Jack Elliot, the Stanley Brothers (1971), Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys (1961), Osborne Brothers (1963), Van Morrison and many others.

Here it is sung by Lew Dite down by the lake at Dunany. And here I am singing it with Lew Dite and Ukulele Katie on the porch. (coming)

Here are the lyrics.

I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain

Odetta used to perform
this old negro chain gang song combined with Water Boy. It was also recorded by The Kinks.

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

I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago

This song is part of a great tradition of tall stories. The first known reference to it is in 1913, and Carl Sandburg included it in his American Songbag in 1927. There are many versions, with a variety of titles, including I'm The Man That Rode the Mule Around the World, I Was Born Four Thousand Years Ago, When Abraham and Isaac Rushed the Can, I'm an Educated Man and The Historian. Artists who have recorded it include Clarence Ashley, Fiddlin' John Carson (1924), Uncle Dave Macon (1929), Doc Watson, Odetta, Pete Seeger and Elvis Presley.

Cisco Houston combined it with Great Historical Bum under the title Just the Facts, Ma'am.

Here is a video of Lew Dite performing it at The Wheel Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

I Wish I Was a Little Sugar Bun

This funny little song was popular in the Boy Scouts movement. I don't know much about it, but it is usually sung with a lisp as in I With I Wath a Wittle Thugar Bun. I first came across it in Frank Lynn's popular collection, Songs For Singin'.

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

I Used to Work in Chicago

There are many versions of this traditional rugby song / drinking song, some more bawdy than others. Oscar Brand has recorded one of the better renditions. It is basically a play on words, with some of the puns more effective than others.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics I use.

I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again

This song was first collected in America by Belden (1907), who thought it probably came from a printed piece or the music hall.

It may be descended from one or more British songs. Certainly it's a common theme, and some of the details come up in songs like Still I Love Him and When I was Young, a Northern English variation. Another possible relative is the broadside song The Joyful Maid and Sorrowful Wife which goes back at least to 1802. Then there is The Unfortunate Wife, also from the nineteenth century.

The Carter family sang a closely related song Single Girl / Married Girl and of course there is also the male equivalent - I Wish I was Single Again.

The song has been recorded by several artists, including Frank Proffitt, Peggy Seeger, Eva Cassidy and Peter. Paul and Mary,

My rendition is here, and here are the lyrics.

I Wish I Was Single Again

The earliest known date of this song is 1904. It is known in America and Canada but may have originated in England or Scotland. It has been recorded by several folksingers, including Burl Ives and The Weavers. This song is sung from the male point of view and should not be confused with Single Girl or I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again.

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

Jamaica Farewell

Probably the best known of all calypso songs, the lyrics have been attributed to Lord Burgess, who put it together with various bits of traditional Caribbean folk song, using a traditional calypso tune known as Iron Bar. It was made famous by Harry Belafonte, who performed it on his groundbreaking album, Calypso.

The term "ackee rice" refers to the fruit of a tropical tree taken to Jamaica from West Africa in 1793. It's apparently an aquired taste, but Jamaicans love it cooked with saltfish, tomatoes, onions, bacon and spices. It is eaten with hard dumplings, green bananas and maybe breadfruit

The song has been recorded many times. Some of the best include Jimmy Buffett, The Brothers Four, Carly Simon, Marty Robbins, Lew Dite and Sam Cooke. And here is a Bollywood version of the song!

My rendition is here, and here are the lyrics.

Jesse James

Jesse James became an American folk hero in his own lifetime before he was killed in 1882. Many songs were written about his exploits, the most famous being this one, first recorded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1924. Since then it has been recorded by many artists, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Pogues, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen (2006).

It is sung here by Lew Dite at the Wheel Club, where I went with him in 2010 when my wife and I visited him and his wife in Montreal.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

John Brown's Body (William W. Patton)

Rev. William Weston Patton (1821 - 1889), was president of Howard University and a fierce abolitionist. He was chairman of the committee that presented to President Lincoln, on 13th September, 1862, the memorial from Chicago asking him to issue a proclamation of emancipation.

In October 1861 Patton wrote new lyrics to the battle song, John Brown's Body, which were published in the Chicago Tribune on December 16, 1861. Unlike the more repetitious lines of the original version, this song gave some detailed about Brown's actions and their results, glorifying his acts of violence. One verse directly refers to the attack on the armory in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and another compares him to John the Baptist.

Two months later, Julia Ward Howe wrote her famous version, The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Here is my rendition of the song, requested by SephieRothe. Here are the lyrics.

John Henry

Adapted from Wikipedia

Statue of John Henry outside the town of Talcott in Summers County, West Virginia.



John Henry is an American folk hero, who has been the subject of numerous songs, stories, plays, and novels.

Like other "Big Men" such as Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, John Henry also served as a mythical representation of a group within the melting pot of the 19th-century working class. In the most popular version of the story, Henry grows to become the greatest "steel-driver" in the mid-century push to build railroads across the mountains to the West. When the owner of the railroad buys a steam-powered hammer to do the work of his mostly black driving crew, to save his job and the jobs of his men, John Henry challenges the owner to a contest: himself alone versus the steam hammer. John Henry beats the machine, but exhausted, collapses, and dies.

In almost all versions of the story, John Henry is a black man and serves as a folk hero for all American working-class people, representing their marginalization during changes entering the modern age in America. While the character may or may not have been based on a real person, Henry became an important symbol of the working class. His story is usually seen as an archetypal illustration of the futility of fighting the technological progress that was evident in the 19th century upset of traditional physical labor roles. Some labor advocates interpret the legend as illustrating that even the most skilled workers of time-honored practices are marginalized when companies are more interested in efficiency and production than in the health and well-being of their employees. Although John Henry proved himself more efficient than the steam-drill, he worked himself to death and was replaced by the machine anyway. Thus the legend of John Henry has been a staple of American labor and mythology for well over one hundred years.

Some of the many who have recorded this song are Lead Belly, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Jesse Fuller, Paul Robeson, Mississippi John Hurt, Woody Guthrie, Merle Travis, Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Big Bill Broonzy, Josh White, Odetta, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Fred McDowell, Harry Belafonte, Roberta Flack, Bill Monroe, Dave Van Ronk, Lonnie Donegan, John Jacb Niles, Lew Dite and Bruce Springsteen.

Here is my rendition.

This is the Tune:



And here are the Lyrics.

The Johnson Boys

This song seems to have begun as a fiddle tune, probably adapted from the Irish tune "Doran's Ass", which dates back to about 1860. There are two main versions known, this one possibly being a parody of the other, which is about soldiers in the civil war, though some have suggested that the more serious version was based on the above song - a kind of anti-parody.

I believe the first recording was by Al Hopkins & His Buckle Busters (May, 1927). I first heard it sung by The Weavers. Others who recorded it include Frank Proffitt, The New Lost City Ramblers and Bluegrass Messengers.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Just Because (Sydney Robin)

This song was written by Sydney Robin and first recorded by Hubert Nelson and James D. Touchstone who called themselves Nelstone's Hawaiians.

It was then recorded and popularised by the Shelton Brothers, Bob, Joe and Merle, who were pioneers of country music in Texas from the mid 1930s to the 1960s. It was their first release on Decca Records and they went on to record over 150 songs for Decca, as well as recordings for Victor Records and King Records.

Elvis included it on his first album, simply titled Elvis Presley.

Here it is performed by Ukulele Katie at Shaika, when we were in Montreal for Lew Dite's YouTube Strummit.

Kelly's Irish Brigade

During the American Civil War, there were Irish Brigades that fought for both the North and the South. This song celebrates Kelly’s Irish Brigade that fought for the Confederacy in the West. It was actually a regiment led by Patrick Kelly (1822 - 1864), who had emigrated to the United States from County Galway.

After the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, Colonel Kelly was promoted to command the Irish Brigade following the resignation of Brig. Gen.Thomas Francis Meagher. He led the heavily depleted brigade (down to 532 men) in an attack at the Wheatfield at Gettysburg, where the brigade lost another 198 troops engaged. Kelly died, aged 42, during the Siege of Petersburg when he was shot though the head while leading the Irish Brigade forward against Confederate earthworks.

The lyrics of this song, of unknown authorship, are set to the well-known tune, Rosin the Beau, perhaps best known in the States as Acres of Clams.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Kickin' My Dog Around

Also known as The Missouri Dawg Song or They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around, this song has been attributed to Byron G. Harlan, who recorded it with the American Quartet in 1912. You can hear the original recording here. Presidential candidate, Beauchamp Clark, actually used it as his campaign song that same year. An article in the NY Times pointed out that it was originally a 15th century German children's song.

It has been recorded many times, but my first hearing of it was a recording by Buffy Sainte-Marie, so my version is obviously influenced by hers.

Here a nice cover of her version by a YouTube performer, Mishka, who calls herself zebell33.

And here is my rendition. The lyrics are here.

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (Lee Hays)

This love song was written and sung by The Weavers. Lee Hays seems to have done most of the work but all of them contributed in some way. It was apparently based on a song by Leadbelly. The song was also recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, Jimmie Rodgers and Frankie Vaughan.

There are some classic performances of this song on YouTube, for example Peter, Paul and Mary, with Andy Williams and Theodore Bikel with Judy Collins.

You can hear my rendition of the song performed with a friend from Brunei. And here are the lyrics.

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream (Ed McCurdy)

This gentle anti-war song was written by Ed McCurdy in about 1950. It has been covered by Pete Seeger, The Weavers, Donovan, Simon and Garfunkel, Arlo Guthrie, The Corries and John Denver among others.

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

Leaving Home (Charlie Poole)

See Frankie and Johnny above.

Likes Likker Better Than Me

One of many great songs from the prohibition era, this was originally performed by the Woodie Brothers, and later by The New Lost City Ramblers.

I learned this song from Lew Dite, who has several videos of it on YouTube, accompanied by a variety of instruments, including the erhu.

Here is my video of a performance with Lew Dite. I hadn't sung it before, so I had to look at the words in one of Lew's handwritten songbooks, while he sang along and played the spoons.

Here are the lyrics.

Lily of the West

Though this ballad is often seen as traditionally American, it goes back to at least 1839 in Ireland, and has been collected in various parts of England, including Devonshire, Yorkshire and Cornwall. The tune is similar to Lakes of Pontchartrain, but in a major instead of a minor key. In Ireland it is also sung to Gilderoy (the tune of Star of the County Down), and it is sometimes Molly instead of Flora.

I first heard this sung by Joan Baez. It has also been recorded by Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Mark Knopfler and The Chieftains.

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

This video has been put on gdgest's website, Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Little Brown Jug (Joseph Winner)

Joseph Eastburn Winner wrote this drinking song in 1869. It became popular again during the Prohibition era, and was a hit for Glenn Miller and his band in 1939. Though the song is about the hard life of an alcoholic couple it is sung to a cheerful melody.



Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Little Maggie

This popular song is clearly related to Darling Corey, though it is generally considered a separate song rather than a variant. It is usually done either in old-time or bluegrass style, but my rendition is based on the first version I ever heard, sung by white blues singer, Barbara Dane.

Probably the earliest recording is by Grayson and Whitter in about 1928, though it had been around for about a generation before that. It has also been recorded by Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, Bill Monroe, Frank Proffit, The Stanley Brothers (1946) and The Kingston Trio.

Bob Dylan included it on his 1992 album, Good as I Been to You.

Here is a good bluegrass version by Dan Paisley and Southern Grass, and another by Lew Dite.

You can also watch my slow blues version. The lyrics are here.

Little Mohee

This song, also known as The Indian Lass or The Lass of Mohee, often has a lot more verses than the version I sing, and there are also bawdy versions. Although generally considered an American song, it was well-known in England in the 1800s. I learnt it from the singing of Burl Ives, but from his song book. I don't think I ever actually heard him sing it.

It has also been recorded by Buell Kazee, John Jacob Niles and Nic Jones among others.

the tune is obviously related to the better-known On Top of Old Smokey.

My rendition is here, and here are the lyrics.

Little Moses

One of the many great songs made famous by the Carter family. Here is a performance by Sara and Maybelle Carter.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Little Peanut Shell (Nancy Ames)

This song is from the debut album, The Incredible Nancy Ames, released in 1963.

Here is my video and here are the lyrics.

Little Sadie

This folk ballad is also known as Bad Lee Brown, Cocaine Blues, Whiskey Blues, Chain Gang Blues, Bad Man's Blunder and Transfusion Blues among others. It tells the story of a man who is arrested for shooting his wife (or girlfriend in some versions) and sentenced to a long term in prison. The earliest written record of the song dates from 1922. Some versions have him arrested in Jericho (in South Carolina), others in Mexico.

The first known recording is by Clarence "Tom" Ashley (1930), in which Sadie seems to have been a prostitute. Other recordings are by T. J. 'Red' Arnall (1947), Billie Hughes (1947), Riley Puckett, Lightnin' Wells, Woody Guthrie with Cisco Houston, Johnny Cash (1960), The Kingston Trio (1960), Slim Dusty (1960), Doc Watson (1963, with Ashley), George Thorogood (1978), Jerry Garcia, Hank Williams, Crooked Still and Bob Dylan (1970), who included two versions on his Self Portrait album, both basically covers of Ashley's version - as, indeed, is mine.

Here it is played by the Manzanita Band.

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

Liquor in the Well (Mike Cross)

This humorous little song was written by Mike Cross, a folksinger from North Carolina.

It has been covered by The Irish Rovers and threelegsoman.

Here is my cover and here are the lyrics.

Liza Jane

Not to be confused with Vince Gill's song, Little Liza Jane.

There are many versions of this song from the South. Many of them seem to have verses in common with Old Joe Clark. I first heard it sung by Burl Ives on his 10" LP, Folk Songs About the Fair Sex (1953).

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

Lolly Too Dum

There is a common device in folk music to enable the singer to sing from the point of view of the opposite sex. You just have a verse at the start which goes something like "As I walked out over London Bridge / One misty morning early / I overheard a fair pretty maid / Was lamenting for her Geordie." Having got that out of the way, the rest of the song is told by the woman, and the supposed narrator is never heard of again. A similar device is used in the Australian song, Moreton Bay, where the singer presumably doesn't want to be too closely identified with the convict.

In this traditional American song, we not only lose the narrator but we actually end up with the girl's mother telling the story, as if she were the narrator all along. Perhaps it is hoped that the audience would be too wrapped up in the song (or too drunk) to notice.

I first heard the song sung by Burl Ives when I explored my parents' record collection as a young child. I think it was on the Coronation Concert album. Pete Seeger has also recorded it.

Erratum - The "fiddlers" in my rendition should be "peddlers" - as you can see from the lyrics.

Lonesome Valley

A popular spiritual from the African-American tradition. Here is a blues version by Mississippi John Hurt. and an interesting a capella performance by The Fairfield Four, used as the soundtrack to a Japanese animation.

You can also see my performance of the song, and read the lyrics.

The Long Black Veil (Wilkens and Dill)

I first heard this sung by Joan Baez. Here is Bruce Springsteen singing it with the Seeger Sessions Band.There is also a good version by Johnny Cash, which is performed here by Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris. Here is Dylan performing it in 1997. This is a little movie telling the story of the song, with The Chieftains singing on the soundtrack.

My video of the song is here and the lyrics are here.

Long Lonesome Road

Alan Lomax collected two versions of this song, one of them sung by a group of convicts.

I first heard it sung by Joan Baez. It has also been recorded by Ian and Sylvia and Jeremy's Friends.

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

Looky Looky Yonder

This song was first recorded by Lead Belly.You can hear a video of him singing the song as the first part of an a capella trilogy of chain gang songs, along with Black Betty and Almost Done.

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

Lorena (H. D. L. Webster and H. P. Webster)

Rev. Henry De Lafayette Webster wrote these words after a broken engagement to his sweetheart, Ella Blocksom, who lived with her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Blandy after the death of her parents. The family attended the Universalist Church in Zanesville, Ohio, where Webster was the minister. Henry Blandy, being a wealthy member of the community could not allow his sister-in-law to marry a poor preacher and insisted on Ella breaking the engagement. She later found a more suitable match in William Wartenbee Johnson, Ohio Supreme Court justice from 1879-1886.

When Ella broke off with the Reverend, she wrote him a letter containing the line "If we try, we may forget," which he later used in his song. Brokenhearted, he resigned as minister and left Zanesville. In 1856, he met the composer, Joseph P. Webster, who was looking for lyrics to fit a melody he was writing, and wrote this ballad about his lost love, changing her name from Ella to Bertha. The name was later changed to Lorena, as a three-syllable name was needed to fit the tune, possibly inspired by the "Lenore" of Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven.

The song was first published in Chicago in 1857. It became a favorite of soldiers of both sides during the American Civil War. It is said to have been banned as it made the soldiers think of their wives and sweethearts back home. One Confederate officer even blamed the song for the South's defeat as it made the soldiers so homesick that they lost the will to fight.

J. P. Webster also wrote In the Sweet By and By and I’ll Twine Mid the Ringlets, better known these days as Wildwood Flower.

The song has been recorded by several artists, notably John Hartford. Johnny Cash also sang a version with rather different words.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Louis Collins (Mississippi John Hurt)

Though there are many versions of this song, also known as Angels Laid Him Away, the original was almost certainly composed by blues guitarist Mississippi John Hurt. According to Masters Of The Instrumental Blues Guitar, Louis Collins is a murder ballad which Hurt composed after hearing people talk about a shooting. He first recorded it in 1928 for Okeh Records and then again in 1963 for Piedmont.

One popular cover is by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. I like blinddrunkal's version too.

I had a request by MrHardPressed to cover this song, so here is my attempt. Here are the lyrics.

Loving Hannah

Most modern versions of this song, which is closely related to Handsome Molly, come from the singing of Jean Ritchie, who says she learned it from her father and two cousins. In an e-mail to Elisabeth Null (3/13/07) she wrote: "Dad knew a fragment of it; Uncle Jason Ritchie knew three verses; the total song I finally heard from another old member of the family, Isom Ritchie. All three of them had the same general melody, and mine is a melding of the three I guess."

Peggy Seeger did a version in which she shifted the words around a bit and borrowed lines and images from other floating verses associated with this song family.

The song is very popular in Ireland, Scotland, and England where it was recorded by Shirley Collins, Mary Black, Isobel Campbell and Jeannie Robertson. Because of Jeannie Robertson's version many people assume it is a Scottish song, but she actually learned it from a recording given to her by Jean Ritchie when the latter visited Scotland in 1952, and from there it became part of the Scots and Irish oral tradition. The song probably originated in one of these countries in the first place, but was basically forgotten until it came back via America.

It is sung here by Dave Ellis at a session of the Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in Wanchai.

Man of Constant Sorrow (Dick Burnett)

This song is generally attributed to Dick Burnett, a blind fiddler from Kentucky, who was the first to record it in about 1913, using the name Farewell Song. However even he was not sure whether he actually wrote the song, saying in an interview many years later, "I think I got the ballad from somebody — I dunno. It may be my song...". It has been suggested that he adapted it from a Baptist hymn called Wandering Boy.

Cecil Sharp collected the song in 1918 and published it as In Old Virginny.

Emry Arthur recorded it in 1928 and Sarah Ogan Gunning rewrote this version as Girl of Constant Sorrow in 1936.

The song was popularised by the Stanley Brothers, who recorded it in 1951. Ralph Stanley said in an interview in 2009, "Man of Constant Sorrow is probably two or three hundred years old. But the first time I heard it when I was y'know, like a small boy, my daddy - my father - he had some of the words to it, and I heard him sing it, and we - my brother and me - we put a few more words to it, and brought it back in existence. I guess if it hadn't been for that it'd have been gone forever. I'm proud to be the one that brought that song back, because I think it's wonderful."

Other notable recordings are by Joan Baez (1960), Judy Collins (1961), Roscoe Holcomb (1961 – 62), Peter, Paul and Mary (1962), Bob Dylan (1963), Rod Stewart (1969), The Dillards (1972) and Jackson Browne (2000). The song had a new lease of life when performed by the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) in a version based on the Stanley brothers' rendition.

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

The Man Who Comes Around (Bob Miller)

This song first appeared in the late twenties. It was copyrighted by Bob Miller (using the name Trebor Rellim), who was a piano-player with the Kentucky Ramblers, a group that later became known as the Sweet Violet Boys, and later again as The Prairie Ramblers. The Sweet Violet Boys recorded it under the title There's a Man that Comes to Our House in May, 1937, in Chicago.

It was quite a popular song at various times from the 1930s to the 50s. Some who recorded it are Nat Gonella and His New Georgians (1939), Tommy Tucker Time (1940) - Tommy Tucker's band also sang a sequel called The Man Don't Come to Our House Anymore - Will Osborne and His Slide Music (1940), John Dwyer and the Yonder Mountain String Band. It was also the title song of a Johnny Bond country album in the 50s on the Starday label.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

The Man Who Wrote "Home Sweet Home" (Fleta Jan Brown)

Songs about the trials of marriage became popular around the middle of the 19th century, especially in vaudeville shows. Those from the women's point of view tended to be serious complaints about poverty, alcoholic husbands and hungry babies. The male protagonists on the other hand tended to be humorous complaints about their treatment at the hands of their wives.

This song was, surprisingly, written by a woman. It was published in 1908 with the title - The Party That Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man. It was recorded in 1910 by vaudeville entertainer, Eddie Morton, a rather uninspired version with a lot of spoken words. In 1927, it was recorded by two North Carolina musicians, Mack Woolbright and Charlie Parker. Mack Woolbright, a blind 3-finger banjo player, was an early influence on Earl Scruggs, who later recorded this song.

It has also been recorded by The New Lost City Ramblers and The Grateful Dead.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Many Thousand Gone

See the introductory video at the top of this page. According to Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America, this song, also known as No More Auction Block, originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after slavery was abolished in 1833. Dylan adapted the tune for his great song, Blowing in the Wind.

Here is Paul Robeson singing the song.

The lyrics are here.

Mary Ann

I have seen this described as an Anglo-American music hall song of the 1850s, possibly from Nova Scotia, but it has obvious roots in the set of songs which includes Fare Thee Well (Ten Thousand Miles), Turtle Dove, and Robert Burns' My Love is Like a Red Red Rose. Another American variant is The Storms Are On the Ocean, a popular Carter family song.

I think I learnt this from Peggy Seeger, but Ian and Sylvia also did a very good version of it.


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

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.

The Merry Minuet (Sheldon Harnick)

Sheldon Harnick, who wrote this charming little ditty in 1958, is best known for the popular musical, Fiddler on the Roof.

The best-known rendition of the song is the recording by The Kingston Trio on the 1959 album The Kingston Trio at the Hungry i. They changed the original "la la" lines to whistling, and most subsequent renditions, such as those of Bud and Travis, pudgenet and Alonzogarbanzo, are basically covers of the Kingston Trio version, including the whistling.

I decided to go back to the "la la"s - mainly because I can't whistle.

Here is my performance, and here are the lyrics.

Midnight Special

This song appears to have had its origins among black prisoners. It was first published in two different versIons in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag in 1927 though some of the lyrics appeared in print in 1905.

In 1927, Sam Collins recorded the song commercially with the title The Midnight Special Blues and in 1934, John and Alan Lomax recorded Lead Belly singing a version of the song at Angola Prison, wrongly naming him as the writer, though he did apparently add some verses relating to a 1923 Houston jailbreak.The Lomaxes interpreted the light of the train as the light of salvation; if it shone on you it meant you would be released. Carl Sandburg disagreed. He thought it meant the narrator would rather be run over by a train than stay in jail.

The song shares many lines with other prison work songs such as Jumpin Judy and Ain't That Berta.

It has been covered by many artists, including Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Odetta, Big Joe Turner, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Lonnie Donegan, Eric Clapton, Harry Belafonte (with Dylan on harmonica), Little Richard, Paul McCartney, Van Morrison and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

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

Miller's Cave (Jack Clement)

This country-style song was recorded by Hank Snow in 1960, when it reached No. 9 on the Charts. Strangely enough, the writer is cited as Harlan Howard, whereas later recordings identify the writer as Jack Clement.

I learnt the song from the singing of Dicky Lee, who covered it on his 1962 album, The Tale of Patches.

It was also a hit for Bobby Bare, who released it as a single in 1964, reaching No. 33 in the Pop Charts and No. 4 in the Country Charts.

See my performance here and the lyrics here.

Miner's Lifeguard

This coal-mining song is sung to the tune of the 19th century sacred song Life's Railway to Heaven, which was adapted from the Welsh hymn, Calon Lan.

These lyrics were collected and recorded by George Korson from Mrs. Luigi Gugliotta, West Virginia in 1940.

The line "keep your eyes upon the scale (or sometimes "scales") refers to the coal owners' practice of underweighing the miners' coal cars which was common until the unions succeeded in appointing a union man to doublecheck the weight.

It was recorded by The Almanac Singers, Pete Seeger's group that preceded The Weavers.

Here it is sung by Kwan at a session of the Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in The Wharney Hotel, Wanchai.

Here are the lyrics.

Mister and Mississippi (Irving Gordon)

This song, published in 1951, was popularized by Patti Page. It was also recorded by Rex Allen, Dennis Day and Johnny Desmond. My parents had a 78 rpm recording, from which I learnt the song as a child, but I have no idea who the singer was. The success of the song later prompted Gordon to write Delaware, another song which used a pun on the name of a place.

Here is a rendition by Norwegian band, Jonas Fjeld & Chatham County Line. My video is here.

The Moonshiner

There are many versions of this song and there have been many arguments about its origin. Many believe it began as an Irish song, as claimed by the Clancy Brothers. Alan Lomax, in American Ballads and Folk Songs, wrote that it belongs to the “Wagoner’s Lad” family, and is related to songs like On Top of Old Smokey and Rye Whiskey.

It has been sung by Roscoe Holcomb, Bob Dylan, Uncle Uncle Tupelo, Clancy Brothers and many others, with various titles such as Moonshiner's Lament, Moonshiner Blues and The Bottle Song. Here it is sung by YouTube star, Dan Samples, better known as coolanddark.

Here is my rendition and the lyrics are here.

More Pretty Girls than One

This popular song was written by Alton Delmore of the Delmore Brothers and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. It has been covered by several artists, including Lead Belly, Lyle Lovett, Lew Dite, Doc Watson, Jimmy Martin, Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs, but the version I'm most familiar with is that sung by Woody Guthrie, who recorded it on a album of early songs with Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Motherless Child

See Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.

Motherless Children

This song was recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927, and it may well have been written by him. His mother died when he was only a baby, probably just before 1905. His father's second marriage was not a success and Willie's stepmother threw a pan of lye into his face when he was seven years old, blinding him for life.

There are many different versions of the song and it has been recorded by many artists, including Mance Lipscomb, Eric Clapton, Herman E. Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis, Bob Dylan, The Staple Singers, Dave van Ronk, Odetta, The Carter Family and Rosanne Cash.

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

Muleskinner Blues

From the great Bluegrass performer, Bill Monroe.

The Monkey and the Engineer (Jesse Fuller)

Jesse Fuller (1896 - 1976) was a one man band musician, best known for his song San Francisco Bay Blues.

The Grateful Dead covered several of his songs, including this humorous story of a monkey that can drive a train.

Here is my cover, requested by MrHardPressed, and here are the lyrics.

My Country, 'Tis Of Thee (Samuel F. Smith)

This great American song, originally known as America, was written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831, when he was a student at Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He found the tune in Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3 and wrote this patriotic hymn to fit the melody, reportedly in just thirty minutes. It is, of course, the same tune that was used for the English National Anthem - God Save the Queen. The song was first performed in public on July 4, 1831, at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston, and published in 1832.

Here is my rendition and you can find the lyrics here.

The antislavery movement adapted these lyrics in 1843 to help spread its message. Abolitionist writers were noted for taking familiar tunes and rewriting them to attack slavery and those who defended it. The anti-slavery lyrics were written by A. G. Duncan and published in Antislavery Melodies: for The Friends of Freedom edited by Jarius Lincoln. My rendition of the abolitionist version is here.

My Gal Is a High-Born Lady

This song was originally a "c00n song", written by Irish minstrel, Barney Fagan, in 1886. Since then it has entered the folk tradition with totally revised words. It was popularised by Uncle Dave Macon and has become a bluegrass standard.

Here it is performed by Leroy Troy at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk festival, 2010. It was a great privilege to meet Leroy and the other banjo pickers at this Sunday morning workshop.

My Grandfather's Clock (Henry Clay Work)

This song was written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, who also wrote Marching Through Georgia and The Ship That Never Returned. It is popular in many musical genres, including brass bands and bluegrass.

It is thought to have been inspired by the George Hotel, an inn in Piercebridge on the border of Yorkshire and County Durham, which was owned and operated by two brothers called Jenkins. There was an upright longcase clock in the lobby which kept perfect time until one of the brothers died, after which it lost time at an increasing rate, despite several attempts by local clockmakers to repair it. When the other brother died, the clock stopped, never to go again. Henry Clay Work is believed to have visited the hotel in 1875 and based this song on the stories he heard there.

Here is the inimitable Leroy Troy playing the tune on his banjo.

Here is my rendition and the lyrics are here.

My Old Kentucky Home (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.

My Old Kentucky Home was probably composed in 1852, published as My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night in 1853 and performed by Christy's Minstrels. It is thought that Foster was inspired by Harriett Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851). In his sketchbook, the song was titled Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night and this line was used at the end of each verse. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass believed the song aroused "the sympathies for the slave, in which anti-slavery principles take root and flourish."

In 1928 this song became the official state song of Kentucky but, in 1986, it was changed to make it more politically correct, when Carl Hines, the only black member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, initiated a bill to substitute the word "darkies" by "people" on the grounds that the lyrics "convey connotations of racial discrimination that are not acceptable". I prefer to sing the original "politically incorrect" version.

You can see the lyrics here.

Nine Hundred Miles

This hillbilly blues was the forerunner to the better known but less interesting 500 Miles. It was sung by Woody Guthrie, who is said to have learned it from a Negro shoeshine boy in his home town of Okema, Oklahoma. It is also known as Reuben Blues or Reuben's Train and is apparently related to Black Girl / In the Pines.

Here it is played and sung by Rod Foo at a session of the Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man in Wanchai.

Nobody's Child (Mel Foree and Cy Coben)

This tear-jerker was first recorded by Harry Hibbs. It has been widely recorded since then, and artists who have covered it include The Beatles (with Tony Sheridan), Lonnie Donegan, The Traveling Wilburys, Foster and Allen, Hank Snow, Hank Williams Jr., Sheb Wooley, Billy Fury and Karen Young. It was also a hit for Hong Kong singer, Agnes Chan, who recorded it when she was 15.

These days, stopping to watch the children play is probably not a good idea. You might end up in jail!

This song was requested by my YouTube friend, nigelbourke. Here is my rendition.

Here are the lyrics.

No More Auction Block

See Many Thousand Gone.

Oh, Death

This song, also known as Conversations With Death, is most often found in far southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina. Polly Johnson recorded ten verses of the song in 1939 for Emory Hamilton and it has been recorded by John Cohen from a number of western North Carolina singers. Dock Boggs learned the version he sings from Lee Hunsucker in the 1930, but it was not until 1963 that he was recorded singing it, by Mike Seeger. The song has had something of a revival after being featured in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Although considered an American song, it has been traced back to British origins.

Like some of the Child ballads, the story is told purely through the use of dialogue.

Here is Ralph Stanley singing the song and another recording from his younger days.

You can see my attempt at performing it here.

The lyrics are here.

Oh, Freedom

An anthem of the anti-slavery movement and of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. To quote from Rosa Parkes, the black woman who refused to move to the back of the bus: My belief in Freedom goes way back to the days when my mother used to sing “Oh Freedom Over Me”. I will never forget those words ... These words formed my feelings about being free. They gave me strength when things seemed bad, and they guided my thoughts about what I was willing to do to be free. So when I declined to give up my seat, it was not that day or that bus in particular. I just wanted to be free like everybody else. I did not want to be continually humiliated over something I had no control over: the color of my skin.

I sing this as part of a trilogy, as sung by Odetta. Here is a video of Joan Baez singing the song.

You can see my video at the top of the page. The lyrics are here.

Oh! Susanna (Stephen Foster)

This nonsensical love song was first published in 1848. When Stephen Foster was 16 (in 1843), he worked as a bookkeeper for his brother Morrison, who was a friend of Dan Rice, one of the first blackface clowns. This was the year that Dan Emmett established the first blackface minstrel troupe in New York and so-called "Ethiopian" songs were becoming popular. Foster wrote his first minstrel song, Old Uncle Ned and it was performed by the minstrel troupe, The Sable Harmonists. His second song, Away Down Souf, was written for a contest sponsored by The Eagle Saloon in 1847, and his third effort was this now famous song, under the name "Susanna".

He was paid $100 by publishers, Peters and Field, but a New York publisher beat them to it with a pirated edition naming E. P. Christy of the popular Christy's Minstrels as the author. This Manhattan based group became the main performers of Foster's minstrel songs in the 1850s. Oh, Susanna was one of the first minstrel songs to be considered acceptable to the middle classes, possibly because it coincided with the sudden popularity of polka which was arriving from Europe.

Early recordings of the song include Dan Hornsby and the Young Brothers Tennessee Band (1927) and Arthur Fields. Since then it has been recorded by many great artists - such as Roy Rogers, Lew Dite, Johnny Cash and James Taylor.

These days the minstrel/blackface tradition is seen as a form of racism. The blackface minstrels were made up as caricatures of African slaves, and the performances mocked African-Americans, presenting them as uneducated figures of fun. It is ironic that this beloved American song had such racist beginnings. These days it has been watered down, with the most offensive lines left out. However, in the interests of historical accuracy, I am performing this song pretty much as Foster wrote it.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Old Blue

A traditional song about a faithful dog. I first heard it sung by Joan Baez on her second album, Joan Baez, Vol. 2 (1961).

This song goes back to at least 1909, when a version was collected by Perrow. Another version , sung by a Negro construction gang was collected in 1915-1916. Jim Jackson recorded it, with guitar accompaniment, for Vocalion in Chicago on 22 January 1928 (Vo 1146). Other artists who have recorded it include Ian and Sylvia and James Taylor.

Here are Peter, Paul and Mary having a lot of fun with it, and here is my rendition. Here are the lyrics.

Old Dan Tucker

The origins of this popular song are largely unknown, though one version is attributed to songwriter and performer Dan Emmett, who claimed he wrote it in 1830 or 1831 when he was fifteen or sixteen years old. Other songwriters it has been credited to include J. R. Jenkins and Henry Russell. Regardless of who wrote the first version, it has become part of oral tradition, with hundreds of verses added and replaced at different times, of varying quality. The blackface minstrel troupe, The Virginia Minstrels, popularized the song in 1843, and it quickly became part of the minstrel repertoire during the antebellum period. These days it is still a bluegrass and country music standard.

The first sheet music edition (1843) used exaggerated Black Vernacular English to chronicle Dan Tucker's visit to town, where he breaks various social taboos including fighting, getting drunk and overeating.

With its intense occasionally syncopated rhythm and simple melody some scholars see it as a transitional piece between early minstrel music and the later more European-style songs.

With its raw energy, racism and gleeful political incorrectness, the song is typical of the masculine boasting songs common in the early minstrel days. Dan Tucker is portrayed as animalistic and violent, primitive, ugly, and not too bright. His flouting of convention allows some verses to make fun of respectable middle class American society, which appealed to the working class audiences, whereas others are just nonsense that have little to do with the story, but just sound good and keep the song going.

Though I am generally quite happy to sing politically incorrect songs that show the way our thinking has changed, I have compromised a bit in this one, as I use the later variation of Tucker playing cards in the cellar with "the preacher" rather than "a n*gger" as in earlier versions. However, I've retained the verse about different shades of blackness.

As some of these verses indicate, the song was also popular as a dance tune, with some kind of dancing game based around it.

Here is my rendition and the lyrics I chose to include.

The Old Gray Mare Is Back Where She Used to Be (Carson Robison)

One of the top country hits of 1943 was this song, written and recorded by Carson Robison. It is obviously based on the traditional ditty, The Old Gray Mare She Ain't What She Used to Be. I first heard this sung by banjo picker, Leroy Troy, at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, 2010.

I made this video with Canadian, Matthew Vaughan, who works in Bangkok, Thailand, and accordionist, Bob Hornett, of bertosvids, who was driving Matthew to Melbourne Airport.

Here are the lyrics.

Old Joe Clark

This old mountain ballad was popular with soldiers during World War 1, especially from Virginia and Kentucky. An early version was printed in 1918, and there are known to be about 90 verses. Joe Clark, born in 1839, was a mountaineer who was murdered in 1885. There is an excellent website about this song here, including a lively rendition by the Rosinators, and a lot of information about the origins of the song. It has always been a popular tune, whether sung or played on fiddle or banjo. Here is is on mountain dulcimers. And Lew Dite sings it accompanied by his strumstick!

Here is my rendition, accompanied by a rather scratchy fiddle player! And here are the lyrics.

The Old Maid's Song

Although generally considered an American song, this appears to date back to at least 1636, when it appeared in England as a broadside ballad. In some early versions the old maid finally gets married to a chimney sweep (The Chimney Sweeper's Wedding or The Black Chimney Sweeper) There are also Irish variations, such as Old Maid in the Garret.

This version seems to have been popularised mainly by Pete Seeger.

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

Old Rattler

The original title of this song, widely collected from prisons, was Calling the Dog. The earliest recording was by blind singer, George Reneau, in 1924, the first "hillbilly" recording for Vocalion Records. Reneau was a wandering street corner minstrel, one of very few who became recording artists. He died of pneumonia at the age of 32, singing on the streets of Knoxville. The song became popular when recorded by Grandpa Jones. It has also been recorded by Doc Reese, Belafonte, Elizabeth Cotten and Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

Lead Belly sang this song combined with Old Riley, a song about an escaped prisoner.

My rendition is here, and here are the lyrics.

Old Riley

This song about an escaped prisoner was collected by John Lomax in 1939 from Rev. Moses (Clear Rock) Platt, an inmate of the Texas State Prison Farms. It incorporates the song Old Rattler, who is chasing the escapee.

It was popularised by Lead Belly, and later by Lonnie Donegan, in a shortened version. Cisco Houston recorded it, among others.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Omie Wise

This murder ballad is based on actual events which took place in 1808. Naomi Wise was an orphan who was being brought up by Squire William Adams, a gentleman of good standing in the community. Omie, however, got involved with a scoundrel named John Lewis, who having got her pregnant, decided to get rid of her as his ambitious mother had found a better match for him. He persuaded her to elope with him, but Naomi began to complain when she realized they were riding in the wrong direction. Then John Lewis told her his real intentions, tied her dress above her head, rode into the middle of Deep River, and held Naomi under the water with his foot until she drowned. Lewis was arrested for the murder and reportedly fled while out on bail and joined the army. He returned some years later to face trial and was acquitted because the evidence was circumstantial and the passions of the community had cooled by then.

The song was written shortly after the murder. but the first recorded version of the song was performed by G.B. Grayson in 1927. Another version was performed by Doc Watson, who learned the song from his mother. It has been recorded by many singers, including Clarence Ashley, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, Shirley Collins, Judy Henske, Bob Dylan, Greg Graffin and The Pentangle.

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

Only the Hangman is Waiting For Me (Wayne P. Walker)

This is one of many songs descended from the British traditional song, The Unfortunate Rake, the best known one being The Streets of Laredo. It was copyrighted in 1960 under the title Only the Heartaches by Wayne P Walker, with additional words by Jess Edwins and Terry Kennedy. Rex Allen sang it on his 1962 album Rex Allen Sings and Tells Tales, making it a hangman that was waiting rather than just heartaches.

Here is Rex Allen's original recording and here is my rendition. Here are the lyrics.

The One on the Right Was on the Left (Jack Clement)

A song about the dangers of mixing politics with traditional music, which, of course, is quite a tradition in itself. This song was sung by Johnny Cash, on his 1966 Columbia album, Everybody Loves a Nut.

My video of the song is here, and here are the lyrics.

On Top of Old Smokey

The earliest known appearance of this popular song is in 1911.

An early version of the song, though recorded on 15/6/1969, is sung here by Mrs. Alice Isringhouse. Alan Lomax believed it was related to Wagoners Lad, as in this version, but other scholars believe they are two separate songs.

It has been recorded by many great performers, including The Weavers (1951), Hank Williams, Burl Ives, The Morris Brothers and Earl Scruggs, Chris Barber, Lew Dite, nondepouk, ABBA and Bruce Springsteen (1980), all of which can be heard on YouTube along with a few dozen other versions.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

On Top of Spaghetti (Tom Glazer)

This little children's ballad was written and originally performed by folk singer, Tom Glazer, with the Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus in 1963. It is, of course, a parody of well-known American ballad, On Top Of Old Smokey. Also popular with the Scouts, the song tells the story of what happened to a meatball when somebody sneezed.

This is one of ten songs I recorded with Matthew Vaughan in Bangkok on March 11th, 2013. It is dedicated to my grandson, Axel.

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

Orphan Girl (C. G. Keith)

This song was written by Elder C.G. Keith in 1905 for the Cooper Edition of the Sacred Harp songbook. It was very popular among country-music performers in the 1920s, and has been recorded by Buell Kazee, Fiddlin' John Carson, Riley Pucket, Ernest Stoneman, Almeda Riddle (1965) and Doc Watson.

My performance is here, and here are the lyrics.

Over the Garden Wall (Harry Hunter, G. D. Fox)

This song was written by the minstrel showmen, Harry Hunter (lyrics) and George D. Fox (music) in 1879. It was a big hit in the 1890s when sung by the vaudeville singer, Tony Pastor, and eventually moved into the folk tradition.

The Carter Family popularised it again when they recorded it in 1933. They sang only two verses, the first and fourth, with some changes to the melody.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

The Ox Driving Song

This song was collected by John Lomax. The following quote is attributed to Alan Lomax: "Even cowboys and muleskinners acknowledged that the ox driver had a precision, virulence, and ingenuity in his profanity that no one could match. His animals literally wouldn't pull unless he lashed at them with a tremendous string of oaths. This violent song, which John Lomax collected from Herman Weaver in the Texas pine woods, comes out of the tough bandit-ridden Missouri Hills of the 1860s."

I first heard it sung by Odetta on the first album of hers I ever heard - and owned - My Eyes Have Seen.

It has been recorded by several other artists, including The Brothers Four and The Seekers.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Patches (Barry Mann and Larry Kolber)

In the early 1960s songs about dying teenagers emerged as a popular genre in Britain and the US. Some examples were Running Bear, Tell Laura I Love Her, Teen Angel, Ebony Eyes and Leader of the Pack. For an interesting article on this phenomenon see A brief life: broken hearts and sudden deaths.

One of the best (worst?) of these was Patches, a Romeo and Juliet story written in 1962 by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber, who also wrote the surfing death song Johnny Surfboard, which Barry Mann himself recorded in 1963.

Dicky Lee had a hit with his recording of Patches in 1962. Appropriately he went on to write and record a song called Laurie, in 1965, a song in which the singer meets and falls in love with the ghost of a girl who died a year earlier.

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

Pay Me My Money Down

This work song, also known as Pay Me, You Owe Me, was first collected by Lydia Parrish from the Negro stevedores working in the Georgia Sea Islands. Though published in 1942 the melody is much older and has been used in other songs,

It was performed by The Weavers at their influential 1955 Carnegie Hall concerts, and also recorded by The Kingston Trio in 1958. It was the first single released from Bruce Springsteen's 2006 album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions and one of the most popular songs in his concerts, where it was usually the closing number. And, of course, there is the classic rendition by the King of Skiffle, Lew Dite.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Peg and Awl

Though this song is usually sung and titled as Peg and Awl it probably refers to a machine called a Pegging Awl, used for making shoes. It is about the increasing mechanisation taking over from traditional craftsmanship.

The song was popularised by Hobart Smith of Virginia. He learned it from Kelly Harrell, who recorded it in 1925. I first heard it sung by The Carolina Tar Heels (1928) on An Anthology of American Folk Music.

It has also been recorded by Pete Seeger, Lew Dite, Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Pick a Bale Of Cotton

First collected by Alan Lomax from prison farms in Texas, this is a boastful song about picking an impossibly large quantity of cotton (a bale is about a quarter of a ton). One version (1934) sung by Moses Clear Rock Platt, an African-American singer (and prisoner) has led to some controversy as it used the word "n*gger". In fact, many people now consider it politically incorrect to sing this song at all because of its associations with slavery. There is a fascinating thread on the Mudcat site about a school that was pressured into withdrawing the song from a choral concert after complaints fromparents.

Pete Seeger has argued that it would have been sung fairly slowly as a work song if it was actually sung by the slaves on the cotton fields, so it is quite likely that it does not actually go back to those times. The version that we know today comes mainly from the singing of Lead Belly, who called it a "play-party" song, and has been carried on by singers such as Harry Belafonte, Odetta and the great blues duo, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

The song has also been sung by Lonnie Donegan and ABBA.

My performance is here. Here are the lyrics.

Plastic Jesus (Ed Rush, George Cromarty, Ernie Marrs)

The original version of Plastic Jesus was an actual radio advertisement in the1940s and 50s for a company that made plastic dashboard statuettes of Jesus and offered them for sale in various states including Texas and West Virginia. This parody is generally attributed to Atlanta songwriter Ernie Marrs, who wrote a number of topical songs that were recorded by Pete Seeger, one example being The People Are Scratching. Seeger had actually planned to record Plastic Jesus, but changed his mind after it had already been advertised on a Folkways album. He wrote, possibly in The Incompleat Folksinger, that he liked the song a lot because it showed how people accept plastic or illusion over substance but he said he decided not to sing the song any more because he thought the reason he enjoyed it might have something to do with his Protestant upbringing, and did not want to offend any Roman Catholics.

Ernie Marrs did record it in the 1960s for Broadside Magazine , where it was printed. A shorter version was printed in Sing Out (1964).

However this satirical song was around before Marrs adapted (and copyrighted) it. It was actually written by two West Coast musicians, Ed Rush and George Cromarty, who were members of the Goldcoast Singers. Ed Rush traced the song back to an African-American camp-meeting song with lyrics "I don't care if it rains or freezes, leaning on the arms of my Jesus," which was the theme song of a religious radio program broadcast from Baton Rouge in the 1940s. The parody lyrics are based on this line.

Here is how Ed Rush describes it: "As bored teenagers in Fresno, California in the late 50's my friends and I used to sit around on hot summer nights playing with a radio to find distant stations. A favorite was (as I dimly recall) a station with the call letters (maybe) XERB, from Del Rio, Texas. The transmitter was just over the Rio Grande, in Mexico, so that they could engage in some questionable transactions that the FCC might not have approved of. They peddled all sorts of tacky quasi-religious stuff, including plastic statues of Jesus, Mary, etc. These were guaranteed to protect the buyer, especially if he sent cash. One of our favorite programs often featured rousing spiritual anthems, including one song that started, 'I don't care if it rains or freezes, leaning on the arms of Jesus...' Being slightly irreverant teenagers, George and I came up with 'I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I've got my plastic Jesus...', etc, etc. I clearly recall rolling on the floor with laughter for about an hour". He also notes: "In mid-1963 a Chicago disc jockey played Plastic Jesus several times a day and nearly got fired by his very Catholic boss."

Paul Newman sings this song in Cool Hand Luke as a hymn, as if it was the only thing he knew that had some spiritual words.

This song was heavily debated when it was printed in Sing Out and again when it was printed in Broadside, with angry subscribers asking how they could publish something so blasphemous, canceling subscriptions and claiming they would never read the magazine again. Gordon Friesen of Sing Out defended the song against charges of being sacrilegious: "'Where does the sacrilege lie really, with the song, or those greedy for profits, who debase the Savior by producing and peddling these cheap little trinkets in his image?'" (Broadside, issue 39).

I first heard this song from a friend at school who was instrumental in introducing me to the folk scene and also happened to be an atheist). At the time I also found it offensive until I understood that the target is the sellers of religious kitsch, not religion itself.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Polly Wolly Doodle

The first known publication of this song is in a Harvard student songbook of 1880. It is sometimes credited to blackface minstrel, Dan Emmett. It is generally considered to be a children's song. Many of the nonsense verses used in the song can actually be found in a number of songs of African American origin.

Shirley Temple sang a version of the song with quite different words in the movie, The Littlest Rebel (1935). Other movies featuring the song are Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You (1938) and Blake Edwards' S.O.B. (1981).

Here is my rendition and I also do the Shirley Temple version.

Here are the lyrics to both versions.

Preserven el Parque Elysian (Mike Kellin)

This song was written (in Spanish) by actor, Mike Kellin, for a rally to save Elysian Park in Los Angeles, used yearly by a million people, many of them Mexican-Americans. It was first printed in the West Coast Songmakers Almanac. Pete Seeger recorded it on his album God Bless the Grass.

The above information is from Broadside #76, where the song was reprinted.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Pretty Polly

There are a number of versions of this murder ballad, which is also known as The Gosport Tragedy or The Cruel Ship's Carpenter. It has been collected both in the British Isles and in the Appalachian region of North America, and appears to be closely related to the Scottish song, Banks of Red Roses. It is also closely related to Child ballad #4 (The Willow Tree) as can be heard in this version by Pete Seeger, sung in Melbourne in 1963.

Many versions of the story have the villain as a ship's carpenter who promises to marry Polly but murders her when she becomes pregnant. When he goes back to sea, he is haunted by her ghost, confesses to the murder, goes mad and dies.

The many artists who have recorded this song include The Byrds, Judy Collins, Bob Fuller, Queen Adreena, Sandy Denny, Ralph Stanley, Dock Boggs, Bert Jansch, Gillian Welch and, of course, Lew Dite.

Bob Dylan sang this song in his early years and used the tune for his Ballad of Hollis Brown.

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Pretty Saro

Several variations of this song were collected in the Appalachian mountains in the early 1900s. The earliest publication was in Lomax's North Carolina Booklet (1911). In some versions the woman is named Sarah or even Molly. The tune is probably of British origin, as suggested by the term "freeholder."

Here is my rendition, and here are the lyrics.

Ragged But Right

This song is probably of African-American origin though it seems to have crossed over from the blues tradition to country music, since it was popularised by blind country singer, Riley Pucket (1894-1946), who is probably the first singer to be recorded yodelling. It is probably more often played as bluegrass rather than blues.

However I am more familiar with it as a blues-style song, narrated from the woman's point of view.

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

Red Light Saloon

The original Red Light Saloon was a hotel in Caldwell, Kansas, a town at the end of the cattle trails. Outside of Caldwell was a hill where ladies of the evening would keep a lookout for the trail herds coming toward town. They could then be prepared for the expected surge in business. It was a notoriously violent place. In its first three years, Caldwell went through nine town marshals, several having been killed near the saloon. On June 22, 1882, the town's tenth marshal, George S. Brown, was killed inside the Red Light Saloon. The town had had enough. The proprietor and proprietress of the saloon, George and Maggie Wood, quickly left town and the saloon mysteriously caught fire and burned down.

Having said all that, the Red Light Saloon referred to in this song, popular in the cowboy camps, was actually an establishment in Rawlins, another town in Kansas. It took its name from the hotel in Caldwell and was operated by John Curtis and J. A. Gordon. There were eight women available, four of whom were married, according to the 1880 census, one with a two-year old child in residence.

The original song is a bit too bawdy for this channel and it is usually sung in this watered down version. The young lady in the original version of the song must have been especially in demand as she could charge $5.00, very expensive for the time. A similar saloon in Cheyenne charged only $3.00 and included a bath.

A version of the song similar to this one was recorded by Oscar Brand.

Here is my rendition of the song (coming) and here are the lyrics.

Red River Valley

This song is often thought of as as a cowboy song from Texas, but Edith Fowke, a Canadian folklorist, found that it originated among British troops who went to Manitoba in the late 1860s to put down the Metis rebellion in North Dakota. It began as a song of military occupation, which would be seen as politically incorrect these days, as it was originally about "the half-breed who loved you so true." It became popular in New York as In the Bright Mohawk Valley, a version written by James Kerrigan in 1896.

When I first bought a guitar at the age of 16, I got a little book of folk songs with a section at the back about how to accompany yourself on guitar. The shortened version of Red River Valley that I sing was the first song in this section, and therefore the first song I ever sang with guitar.

Many singers have recorded this song, including Jo Stafford, Connie Francis, Slim Whitman, Marty Robbins, Warren Buffet (!), Jimmie Rodgers, Wesley and Marilyn Tuttle, ichingiching and, of course, Lew Dite.

You can hear my rendition of the song, and here are the lyrics.

And here is a virtual duet with HectorAwol on harmonica!

Red Wing (Thurland Chattaway and Kerry Mills)

This popular song was written in 1907. Thurland Chattaway wrote the lyrics and Kerry Mills wrote the music by adapting a tune from Robert Schumann's 1848 piano work Album For the Young (Opus 68). There are a few bawdy versions of this song, which probably sprang up soon after the original was published. One of these was recorded by Oscar Brand on his 1950 album Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads, Volume 3. The tune has also been used for a number of other songs, including Charlie Chaplin, and Woody Guthrie's Union Maid.

The song has been recorded many times, one of the earliest being by Buell Kazee & Sookie Hobbs in 1928. It was also featured in the 1961 movie The Comancheros when the characters played by John Wayne and Lee Marvin sing it while drunk at the top of their voices.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Rock About on My Saro Jane

This song, ironically describing the lack of work to do on a ship, was recorded, and possibly written, by Uncle Dave Macon (1870 - 1952). I first heard it sung by Odetta on her 1959 album, My Eyes Have Seen.

Here is a bluegrass version by Country Gazette.

And here is my rendition. The lyrics are here.

Rock Island Line

In September, 1934, John Lomax and Lead Belly were touring prisons in Arkansas, when they both heard Rock Island Line for the first time - at the state prison in Little Rock. Lomax didn't get the names of the singers, simply referring to them as a "group of convicts." A few weeks later they heard the song again at Cummins Farm near Gould, Arkansas, in a more polished performance which made a bigger impression on Lomax. The lead singer of this group was a prisoner named Kelly Pace, who was doing five years for burglary. Lomax recorded Pace's song, but Lead Belly added it to his repertoire. As he performed it to live audiences he gradually changed it from a call-and-response work song to a solo performance with guitar.

John Lomax was concerned that Lead Belly's songs were too remote from the concerns of middle class audiences, so he asked Lead Belly to introduce his songs with some words of explanation. In 1944 he added a prelude to the Rock Island Line, so that it became a story of a train approaching a depot. The engineer signals the depot agent that he is carrying live animals and so doesn't have to stop and pay a toll. After the train passes, the engineer boasts of fooling agent, because his train was actually carrying pig iron. Here is Lead Belly's rendition.

For lots more information on the background to the song, you can check out this website.

Rock Island Line was also recorded by The Weavers, but the song did not become a hit until it was recorded by Scottish singer, Lonnie Donegan in 1954, as one of the first skiffle songs. Released as a single in 1956, it reached number nine on the British charts, propelling Donegan to stardom. As he said himself, this song changed his life:
"It changed it absolutely from being a little banjo player sitting in the back of a jazz band to being the biggest star in England, really."

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, and here are the lyrics.

Round the Bay of Mexico

This popular shanty is also known as Heave Away Santiana and Aweigh Santy Ano.

According to Hugill, it began as a pumping shanty, but was later more widely used at capstans, and was especially popular with whalers. There are probably more variations on this than almost any other shanty: Hugill gives three completely different sets of words and three tunes and says that any tune could be paired with any lyrics. He gives six separate first refrains and no ten second refrains, adding that the first and second refrains could be sung in reverse order if desired.

Most versions heard today tell the story of Santiana's exploits in Mexico's war against the United States in the 1840s - but they are not always historically accurate, with many versions saying that Santiana defeated General Taylor. The version we sing here is a simple one that leaves out the war altogether!

The song has been recorded by many artists, including Harry Belafonte and The Weavers.

It is one of ten songs I recorded with Matthew Vaughan in Bangkok on March 11th, 2013.

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

Run Come See, Jerusalem (Blake Higgs)

This song is about a devastating Category 3 to 4 hurricane in the Bahamas in 1929 that destroyed many ships. It was written by Blake Alphonso Higgs, who recorded it in 1951. Higgs was a blind Bahamian calypso singer, who fronted the house band at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Nassau for many years.

Several American folk singers have sung this song, which I first heard sung by The Weavers. Others include The Phoenix Singers (1962), The Brothers Four, The Pennywhistlers, Clam Chowder, Joseph Spence and Odetta.

My video of the song is here, and here are the lyrics.

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, and here are the lyrics.

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.

You can also hear me sing this song (second version) with my three-year-old grandson, Axel, along with a couple of other songs.

Then, when Axel was four we sang the song accompanying ourselves on the keyboard.

Here are the lyrics of all four variations.

Shenandoah

The origins of this song are obscure, though it probably goes back to the 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. And here is a lovely version by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Choir, recorded in Paris.

The Ship That Never Returned (Henry Clay Work)

Henry Clay Work, famous for "My Grandfather's Clock" and "Marching Through Georgia", wrote this song in 1865. No reason is given for the ship's failure to return, but this was not an uncommon event in the days of sailing ships.

The melody has been used for a number of other songs, the two best known being Wreck of the Old 97 about a 1903 train wreck and Charlie on the MTA written in 1948 as a campaign song for Walter A. O'Brian about a man who couldn't get off a Boston subway train because the M.T.A had added an exit fare to get off the train. It was a big hit for The Kingston Trio in 1959.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

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 is believed to have been written in 1928 by Jacques Wolfe, a Romanian immigrant to New York who developed an interest in African-American music. This was written for blackface vaudeville and 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. In 1938 it was a big hit for The Andrews Sisters.

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 is a rendition with Marco Acca, which we recorded in Rome in October 2011.

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 relics 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.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

The song goes back to the slavery days in the US when children of slaves were often sold away from their parents. It was performed in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. It has been widely recorded in many different versions.

Though the song can be taken literally, the “motherless child” may also refer to the slave's yearning for his motherland in Africa, though the home in “a long ways from home” could also refer to Heaven.

Among the many who have performed the song are Paul Robeson (1930s), Bobby Breen, in the movie Way Down South (1939), Louis Armstrong (1958), Lou Rawls (1962), Odetta (1960), Ike and Tina Turner (1969), Boney M. (1977), Van Morrison (1987), Hootie and the Blowfish (1994), Tom Jones (1999), Wishbone Ash (2006), Eric Burden, in the movie The Blue Hour (2007) and Sweet Honey in the Rock (1998). Mahalia Jackson sings it as part of her performance of Summertime.

I sing it as part of a trio of songs, the others being Oh Freedom and No More Auction Block. See the video at the top of this page.

The lyrics are here.

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.

Spanish is the Loving Tongue (Charles Badger Clark)

One of the most popular of all the cowboy love songs, this ballad was written in 1915 by the western poet Charles Badger Clark, Jr. under the title A Border Affair. The story of true love that was unacceptable due to racial barriers appealed to many in that sentimental age. One of the first recordings was by Richard Dyer Bennet, who learned it from Sam Erskin.

It has been recorded by many performers including Ronnie Gilbert, Marianne Faithfull (1965) and Bob Dylan(1973).

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

This song was requested by YouTube friend, realoldgeezer.

Springfield Mountain

This song, also known as On Springfield Mountain, The Pesky Sarpent, The Springfield Ballad, The Story of Timothy Mirick, and Elegy on a Young Man Bitten by a Rattlesnake, is one of the earliest known American ballads. It is based on an actual incident in which Timothy Merrick (or Mirick, or Myrick) died after being bitten by a rattlesnake on August 7, 1761 in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. The record states: "Lieut Thomas Mirick's only Son dyed, August 7th, 1761, By the Bite of a Ratle Snake, Being 22 years, two months and three days old, and very nigh marridge."

The song is thought to have been first composed as a dirge or eulogy before gaining status as folklore throughout the colonies. Because of its popularity there are many variations of the ballad and its story. Although the song has now settled down to one specific melody, it was originally sung to other tunes, including Old Hundredth and Merrily Danced the Quaker's Wife.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

Stagolee

This popular song, also spelt in various ways such as Stagger Lee and Stack O Lee, is based on the murder of William "Billy" Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton. However it may go back before that particular murder as Shelton could have taken his nickname from an earlier song.

John Lomax first published the song in 1920, but it was well known by then among African American communities. The oldest known recording is by Herb Wiedoeft and his band in 1924. It has since been recorded by many singers, including Mississippi John Hurt (1928), Lloyd Price (1959), Ma Rainey, Pat Boone, James Brown, Taj Mahal, Memphis Slim, Fats Domino, Neil Diamond, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Ike and Tina Turner, Tommy Roe (1971), The Grateful Dead and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1996).

It has also been sung by many of my YouTube friends including Lew Dite, Blind Drunk Al, Matthew Vaughan and Sir Coughsalot.

Here is my rendition 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 a good rendition by YouTube songster, 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. The lyrics are here.

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 are some excellent versions by YouTube stars, Lew Dite, David Holness, and marcoacca. You will find more on this playlist put together by none other than stewballmax3 himself. There is also a French version, sung by "nondepouk".

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 of both versions.

Stop That Thing

One of my favourite Blues singers was Sleepy John Estes, so called because he often closed his eyes during his songs. He recorded this lively song in 1935 with Hammie Nixon on blues harp. The lyrics are fairly meaningless, and include a number of stock phrases found in several songs.

You can hear his performance here, and here is my attempt at a cover. The lyrics can be seen here.

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, and here are the lyrics.

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, and here are the lyrics.

Sweet Forget-Me-Not (Bobby Newcomb)

Though this song was written in Ohio in 1877, and published in sheet music as a "Song with Waltz Chorus," it has become very much a part of the folk tradition, especially in Newfoundland, where it has been recorded by Eddie Coffey in the 1970s and groups such as Ryan's Fancy and Great Big Sea. Other artists who have recorded it include Dolores Keane and Foster and Allen.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

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.

Texas Rangers

This song was collected by Alan Lomax from Robert Shiflett of Virginia in 1962. It may have begun as a music hall song, and in different versions, the enemies are Indians, Yankees, or Mexicans. It was probably written around the start of the Civil War and was popular with soldiers on both sides.

The Texas Rangers were originally armed with single-shot muskets, and were no match for the Indians who could shoot their arrows several times in the period it took the Rangers to reload their rifles. When the Rangers were armed with the Colt six-shooter in 1840 they had a much better chance.

The song has been recorded by various artists including the Cartwright Brothers, Harry McClintock, The New Lost City Ramblers, Almeda Riddle, Tex Ritter, Ian and Sylvia and Lew Dite.

Sarah Ogan Gunning used this song as the starting point for her 1937 song, Come All You Coal Miners.

You can hear my rendition of the song and read the lyrics.

There Is A Tavern In The Town

This song first appeared in the 1883 edition of William H. Hill’s Student Songs. The lyrics appear to be based on a traditional miners’ song from Cornwall, U.K. However, the melody is known to be a popular tune from late nineteenth-century America. Although the story is told from the abandoned woman's point of view, it has usually been sung by men as a drinking song.

A popular children's song, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes uses this tune.

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

There'll Be No Distinction There (Blind Alfred Reed)

Alfred Reed (1880 - 1956) was an American old-time country musician. He recorded some songs at the 1927 Bristol Sessions, alongside better known artists like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. He played fiddle with his son Arville on guitar. Born completely blind he spent most of his life as a street musician until 1937 when a statute was passed prohibiting blind street musicians. He also served as a lay Methodist minister, and a lot of his songs are religious in nature. But they also contained some social commentary, which was unusual for the time. For that reason he is sometimes considered to be an early "protest" singer. He died in 1956, supposedly of starvation.

Reed's most famous recording was his 1929 release of How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? He never recorded again after 1929.

There are different versions of this song around, and it has been made more politically correct by changing the phrase "We'll all be white" to "We'll all shine bright." While I generally prefer to sing the original lyrics of songs regardless of political correctness, in this case I decided to go with "all shine bright" as I think it sound better.

The song has been recorded by the Carter Family and the New Lost City Ramblers among others. I first heard it sung by YouTube singer, SirCoughsalot.

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, and here are the lyrics.

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.

Times Are Getting Hard, Boys (Traditional / Lee Hays)

Lee Hays found the chorus of this song in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag (1927) and added verses to it.

It has since been recorded by several artists including Pete Seeger (1955), Lonnie Donegan (1958), The Limeliters (1960), Robert De Cormier Folk Singers (1964), Peter Yarrow (1975), Eddy Arnold and Tom Paxton.

Lew Dite sings it here at our first meeting at Dunany near Montreal. The lyrics are here.

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. gdgest has put this video on his website: Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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 in Folk 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 Watson's version.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

To Morrow (Lew Sully)

This song, about somebody trying to get a train to a town called Morrow, is much older than most people realise. It was written by Lew Sully and published as sheet music by the Geo. W. Meyer Music Company in 1898. It was sung by Bob Gibson, one of the leading singers of the 1960s folk revival. When The Kingston Trio performed it they wrongly credited him as the writer.

The earliest recording was by Dan W. Quinn sometime around 1900.

There are actually several towns by the name of Morrow. Some claim the song is about Morrow, Ohio, a small town near Cincinnati. Other Morrows are in Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Another possible candidate is Morrowville in Kansas, which was named after its founder, Senator Cal Morrow. The town was called Morrow until 1896, just two years before Sully wrote the song, but the name was apparently changed after complaints from the railroad company that its ticket agents were confused when travelers asked for "a ticket to Morrow."

There is no town called Morrow in Australia, but this didn't stop Australian poet, Keith McKenry, from rewriting it as a bush ballad. I had the pleasure of hearing him recite his version at a concert he performed at The Victorian Folk Society in Ringwood.

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, and here are the lyrics.

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.

Ugly Woman (Roaring Lion)

See If You Want to Be Happy.

Venezuela (John Jacob Niles)

At one time John Jacob Niles claimed that he heard a group of Barbados sailors singing this song in Marseilles and that he learned it from them. Later he changed his story and said, "I wrote 'Venezuela', words and music, in the harbor of Boulogne, France, in 1918. It was written to amuse a group of English and American aviators who were fog-bound in the harbor. A group of Barbados sailors on a grain ship nearby had been singing something about a girl they had met in Venezuela, and this is all it took to spark my imagination."

Some years later, Burl Ives recorded the song, without citing Niles as the writer. When Niles sued him successfully for breach of copyright, Ives said, "I thought you said you learned it from a bunch of sailors." Niles responded, "I lied! I wrote it!" When Richard Dyer-Bennet did a concert in Seattle several years ago, he mentioned this incident and told the audience that, true or not, he is always very careful to give proper credit to John Jacob Niles before he sings the song.

Many songs thought to be traditional were copyrighted by Niles, despite the fact that there was some evidence that many of these songs were sung in some form long before Niles laid claim to them.

Venezuela is among the earliest folk songs I heard, as my parents had the recording of Burl Ives' Coronation concert, which included this song.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

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, and here are the lyrics.

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 song was written in 1922 by Jacques Wolfe, a Romanian immigrant to New York, and popularised in the 1920s by a jazz arrangement from Avery Robinson, recorded by Roland Hayes (1922) and Fats Waller (1922). Since then it has been recorded 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 First Into This Country

This song is also known as "When First Unto This Country." In the original version it was simply "When First To This Country". It was collected in 1934 by John and Alan Lomax from the Gant Family in Austin, Texas. They recorded it sung by Foy and Mrs. Maggie Gant and an unknown guitarist. It was not a very successful recording as they were used to singing it unaccompanied.

Peggy Seeger and later Mike Seeger heard the recording while growing up, and both have performed it, changing the rhythm to suit guitar accompaniment. It was made popular by Mike Seeger's New Lost City Ramblers.

It has also been recorded by Fairport Convention and the Grateful Dead among others.

Here is my performance of the song.

When I First Came to This Land

This is another one of those cumulative songs like The Bog Down in the Valley and The Twelve Days of Christmas and one which is very easy to adapt according to the singer's own circumstances. It began as a (low) German song Wann Ich Vun Dem Land Rei Kumm which was brought to Pennsylvania by European immigrants. There are records of it being sung in 1939.

Oscar Brand heard it at the home of a family in Allentown and wrote his own version of it in 1948. The original melody was apparently similar to the tune of Oleanna but he set it to a tune similar to Baa Baa Black Sheep or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and sang it on his radio show. Pete Seeger, his guest on the show, picked it up and recorded his own version of it, based on what he remembered from Oscar's singing.

It has since been recorded by several artists, including The Limeliters, Josh White and Martyn Wyndham-Read.

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

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 are apocalyptic, 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, and here are the lyrics.

And here is a version I performed with Lew Dite.

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.

Whoa Mule

There are many versions of this lively old time song usually played with banjo accompaniment. It was featured on this episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

And here it is performed by Lew Dite at Shaika in Montreal., when we were there for the YouTube Strummit in September, 2010.

Wildwood Flower

This song began as I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets, written in 1860 by Maud Irving, with music by Joseph Philbrick Webster (1819-1875), who also wrote In the Sweet By and By and Lorena. Here is a 1939 recording of the song, collected by John Lomax.

It became part of the folk repertoire, with several changes and gained wide popularity when recorded by the Carter Family. I first heard it sung by Joan Baez.

Woody Guthrie used the tune for his song The Sinking of the Reuben James, adding a chorus of his own. For more information see the Woody Guthrie page. You can hear my attempt to play it on the fiddle, together with The Titanic.

Here is my rendiiton of the original parlor song (coming soon) and here are the lyrics of both the original and the Carter Family version.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

See Can the Circle Be Unbroken? above.

Willie Moore

Probably the best known recording of this song is by Burnett & Rutherford (1927), which was included in Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Dick Burnett (1887-1977) was a blind singer and banjo player who lived in Monticello, Kentucky, and is probably the composer of Man of Constant Sorrow, in 1913. In 1914, he joined up with a teenage fiddle player, Leonard Rutherford and together they made several recordings for Columbia in the 1920s.

The lyrics are from a printed broadside and the music is the high part of an old ballad tune also used for the Child ballad Lady Margaret.

The song has also been recorded by Joan Baez, though with rather different lyrics.