Folk History - Tumblr Posts
hi! i hope you don't mind the reblog but i have lots of recommendations that i couldn't fit in the comments :]
so i made this playlist for you. It has a lot of character ballads and music from artists you already mentioned. it has tons of artists as well as a mix between old traditional folk and folk from the 60s and 70s.
since you talked about liking tales of bandits and elves, the closest thing i could think of were cowboy ballads that usually featured tales of outlaws and workers and the strife that comes with that (a lot of marty robbins songs are covers of older cowboy work songs). i also think that some of the smithsonian protest folk albums fit this description.
so i recommend these albums!
if you want a more comprehensive playlist of american folk music between 1940 and 1979, check out mine! (its very long though)
i hope this was a little helpful, and feel free to reach out if you want more suggestions
As much as I consider myself a folk music enthusiast most of my playlist is British and the only American folk songs I have are
Hurricane by Bob Dylan
Big Iron by Marty Robbins
John Henry by Pete Seeger
Where Have All The Flowers Gone by The Kingston Trio
The Highwayman by Phill Ochs
Which are sorta the most basic of basic American folk songs. I know I prefer the tales of elves and bandits in. British folk music but I am an American after all I should try to get into more American singers right? Any recommendations?
a classic recording. Worth listening to for a number of reasons: musically, historically and of course as something small on the course that will win.
Listen on YouTube here
The liner notes here
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution 1960
Woody Guthrie and Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Smithsonian, National Postal Museum United States Postal Service june 1998
folk musician stamps
Song of the day
"Freight train" Elizabeth Cotten, written 1906-1912, recorded 1958 by mike seeger
Elizabeth cotton composed freight train while she was just a teenager, inspired by the trains that ran past her home in north Carolina
hey! do you have a folk song that you want to know the history of? just ask me about it, and I'll make a whole post dedicated to its history, earlier versions, why it was made, why it got popular, etc.
Frederick William McDarrah, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1964
Phil Ochs
"Born to Win By Woody Guthrie" by Ricardo Levins Morales / Northland Poster Collective 1979
Suggested song
"The Frozen Logger" The Weavers, 1951
"The Frozen Logger" was originally written and performed in 1929 by Jim Stevens (the man who popularized the folk legend Paul bunyan in his 1925 book "Paul Bunyan"
for his program on the ABC seattle network "The Histories of Paul Bunyan"
here's a segment of Jim Stevens talking about that himself:
Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1949) pp.235-242
it's possible that the song was performed by Ivar Haglund (notable for his prolific seafood themed songs and clam restaurant) in the early to mid 1940s on his radio show "Around the Sound" where he would sing folk music for 15 minutes, and I found a couple sources listing him as either the copyright owner of the song, or the writer (he did not write the song). He was friends with Jim Stevens, and it's likely that Stevens taught him the song.
Radio Daily, July 1944 and KJR flyer, 1942
Many secondhand sources mentioned that "The Frozen Logger" was based on an old tune or an old ballad, with words that were originally written by Jim Stevens, including Jim Stevens himself though he's not specific. I think i might be the first person ever to point out that the ballad it was based on belongs to the folk song family of "The Unfortunate Rake"/ "The Unfortunate Lad" (recorded here in the 1960s and performed by A.L. Lloyd) it has a similar story structure, similar characters, similar rhymes, and similar composition.
in " 'The Unfortunate Rake' and His Descendants" by Kenneth Lodewick, the original song is dated as being from ireland in 1790, and one of its earliest printings was in England in 1850 as a folk ballad
as you might be able to guess if you're familiar with cowboy ballads, this song is also the origin of "Streets of Laredo" or "The cowboys lament" which emerged in the late 1800s from cowhand workers. A cowhand in the late 1870s named Frank H. Maynard has claimed to write the song in 1876 and published his version in "Cowboy's Lament: A Life on the Open Range" in 1911 after it was published in Alan Lomax's "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads" in 1910. in my opinion, i think this song could have multiple origins.
the oldest recording i could find was by Harry McClintock in 1928
as an aside, there was also ANOTHER lumberjack version of the song collected by John C. French called "The Wild Lumberjack" from Pennsylvania logging camps dated between 1870-1904/1905. performed here by Kenneth S Goldstein (1960s). This song isn't the origin of "The Frozen Logger" but it's interesting that there are two songs like this.
I believe that "The Frozen Logger" is an adaptation from the cowboy version. Jim Stevens grew up in Idaho and worked in Montana (where he mentions learning many songs) and in 1959, he gave an interview with Ivar Harglund about how he used traditional folk and country music and created new and topical lyrics for the Keep Washington Green Campaign in the 1940s
The first ever publishment and recording (That I could find) of "The Frozen Logger" was in 1947 by Earl Robinson in his Keynote Album, commented upon by the Chicago star by Raeburn Flerlage that same year.
The Chicago Star (Chicago, III.) April 5, 1947 (p.13). Library of Congress
Pete seeger, one of the Weavers, was (for some reason that escapes me) friends with Ivar Haglund (who was friends with Jim Stevens) and, like with the song "the Old Settler" , it is likely that Haglund taught the song to Pete Seeger who then, with the rest of the Weavers, performed it in 1951, popularizing the song.
for @slowtraincumming
Song of the day
"Free and Equal Blues" Josh White, 1940s
this song was also covered by Earl Robinson here in 1957
I’ve been listening to Willie Taylor by Martin Simpson but can’t find much information about the ballad’s origin, do you know anything?
Suggested Song (do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"Willie Taylor" Martin Simpson, 2016 Upon hearing this song, it stuck out to me for a few reasons. the active character of the song is a crossdresser, this song and its relatives are about a woman crossdressing as a man to find her husband, and in some versions, she doesn't even care that her husband remarries and attends their wedding positively. and often she marries the ship Captain and they live happily together. In my opinion, this puts it in or adjacent to the category of transgender history. Very fascinating for a folk song .
"Willie Taylor" is a rendition of the traditional English Folk song "William Taylor", (which is the oldest song I have covered on this blog) was first published in a chapbook in London in 1712 (I couldn't find a digitized copy) and would continue to be published up through the 1800s. The first publication I could find and show you is from 1792 in the chapbook "Four New Songs". in this, it is titled "Billy Taylor"
The Earliest sheet music I could find is from 1895, Collected by Frank Kidson
and here's its melody
This song also seems to be related to another song about a crossdressing sailor woman called "The Rambling Female Sailor" collected here in the 1860s by Frank Kidson, but they are classified as different songs.
The oldest recording is from 1908, which can be found here the earliest recording I could find that is available is from 1938, performed by George Vinton Graham
here's another version from 1967 by Hedy West
While in most modern (1860s onward) versions, the song is comedic, originally it was completely serious and genuine. this folk song from the early 1700s if not older, presented a crossdresser as a sort of folk hero, a figure that people would sing about with veneration. That's amazing to me. I think it would be fun to reimagine the song as either: the woman cross-dresses as a man and runs away with her husband's woman after killing him as a butchfemme relationship, or the woman could be reinterpreted as a transgender man who runs away and falls in love with the ship captain. idk I just think these would be cute fun new renditions.
Song of the day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"Joshua" Odetta, 1956
"Joshua fit De Battle Of Jericho" is an encredibly old song created by african enslaved people in America sometime prior to the Civil War. Like many Old Testament songs in black gospel music, it alludes to a longing for freedom and victory against persecution. The song was first recorded in 1922 by Harrod's Jubilee singers,
and in 1925 by Paul Robeson.
the combination of this historic freedom song, the emerging civil rights movement, and the "Queen of Folk" (dubbed by Martin Luther King Jr.) lead to the best possible cover of this song by Odetta.
Song of the day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"My Dirty Stream (Hudson River Song)" Pete Seeger, 1966
like all of the songs on the "God Bless the Grass" album, this song is meant to send an environmental message and raise awareness of pollution of the Hudson River. this was also the same year that Pete Seeger told of his plans to build sloop, the Clearwater, to advocate for the cleaning of the Hudson River.
clearwater.org 2011
Peggy Seeger 2023 interview talking about Elizabeth Cotten and "Freight Train"
Song of the Day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)
"Satisfied Mind" Joan Baez, 1965
originally cowritten by Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes in 1926, recorded 1954
Another interesting cover is by Ella Fitzgerald in 1955, who turned it into a jazz classic.
To hear your banjo play, 1947
one of the only films to feature Woody Guthrie
Song of the day
do you want to know the history of a folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll cover it
"Little Boxes" Malvina Reynolds, 1967-70s
originally written by her in 1962 and first recorded by her friend Pete Seeger in 1963. where it was his only charting single in 1964
the song is a fun satire, poking fun at the crushing normativity that was present in the 50s and 60s.
Song of the day
do you want to know the history of a folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll cover it
"I Ride an Old Paint/Leavin' Cheyenne" Carl Sandburg, 1937
"I Ride an Old Paint/Leavin' Cheyenne" is a traditional cowboy ballad, first published in 1916 by John Lomax in "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads"
and later, in 1921, by Nathan Howard "Jack" Thorp in "Songs of The Cowboys"
and even later in 1927, by Carl Sandburg in " The American Songbag"
all 3 of them propose different origins to the song, which demonstrate a larger story-
Carl Sandburg says in The American Songbag that he heard it from a singer who heard it from a cowhand traveling to the border with some friends:
Jack Thorp says that he heard it from a cowboy in Pecos City, Texas, but doesn't say who.
Luckily, with John Lomax, there actually is a thread to pull with the origins of this song.
John Lomax had learned the song from Cowpoke Jess Morris who at multiple times had said that he learned the song as a child working on his father's ranch from Freed-man Cowboy Charley Willis, a famous Black cowboy and employed by Morris' Father, E.J Morris.
in 1928, he says that he learned it working at his father's ranch at a young age but doesn't specify Charley Willis.
Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 133, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 18, 1928 (p. 2)
and in 1952, where he specifies that it was Charley Willis who taught him.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Tex.) Sun, Jun 01, 1952. (p. 18)
In J. Morris' unpublished manuscript and other correspondence that's been archived at the American FolkLife Center at the Library of Congress, he talks about the life of Charley Willis. He was an amazing cowhand because of his soothing voice, how he was leaving from Texas to Wyoming, how he might have actually had a horse called "Old-Paint." If you're interested in learning more about that, i recommend:
this short article
this npr article
and chapter 12 of this book
While neither Charley Willis nor his son were ever recorded singing this song, in 1942, Jess Morris was finally recorded by John Lomax, and this version is probably as close to the version by Charley Willis as we're going to get
it seems that in 1913, Jess Morris recorded the song, but this recording no longer exists, but here's a tag for it.
Steven Wade, The Beautiful Music All Around Us (2012) p.345, The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
as with many things, however, one of the first recorded renditions of this song belongs to Harry McClintock in 1928
based on the similar lyrics in all of the older versions, I believe this song is actually a Descendant of "The Wagoner's Lad" (also called "Lovely Nancy" or "My Horses Ain't Hungry" sometimes) and belongs to the "On Top of Old Smokey" family of traditional folk music.
take a look at the lyrics from the 3 books it was first recorded in
While Sandburg's is pretty different, Lomax and Thorp's versions both contain lyrics that are also in "The Wagoner's Lad" as well as other similarities, as do Jess Morris' version and Harry Mcclintock's.
here are "The Wagoner's Lad" lyrics to compare with
"The Wagoner's Lad" was first compiled in 1906 by Cecil Sharp and published in 1917
where Sharp explains that it was much much older and that the Appalachian culture was particularly skillful at persevering traditional folk songs. this song also probably comes from even older, more traditional folk tunes from English folk music.
it was first recorded in 1926 and performed by Kelly Harrel as "My Horses ain't Hungry"
my favorite rendition is "Pretty Nancy" by Jean Ritchie in 1971
Getting back on the topic of "Old Paint," my favorite version of all time is by contemporary artist Colter Wall in 2023, who combines the best aspects of the traditional song's various melodies and lyrics and really makes the story of the song stick out as a bittersweet masterpiece.
Anyway, I don't know who wrote "Old Paint". like with all folk music, it's very likely that it has multiple origins or that Charley Willis learned it from someone else. Regardless, I'm happy that he's credited with writing the song. black history in the American West is so often erased that whatever shred of recognition that is given to black cowboys is something to hold onto.
Song of the Day
(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll do a full rundown)
"Dirty old Town" Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, 1956 this song was originally written by Ewan MacColl in 1949, for his play "Landscape with Chimneys". The song is based off of his childhood city, Salford, Lancashire, England, where he grew up.
In an interview with the BBC, Peggy Seeger said
"it remains a perfect song" "It's a beautiful melody, just four economical verses, and it has been covered by hundreds of singers each in their own way"
she continues with regards to the covers,
"I don’t like what The Dubliners did to it, I don’t like what The Pogues did to it – I think they have lost the loneliness," "I think they have lost the confusion of a young person walking through it." "To me, Ewan was reliving his 20s and his late teens so I think it is harder to change."
she adds,
"It speaks to everybody from a dirty old broken down industrial city," "But Salford was in Ewan MacColl’s bones." "He took me to his dirty old town within a week of our three-decade partnership."
This relates to one of my favorite things about the song, it's equally relatable for everyone in a burnt-out industrial city. hell, I really relate to the song and my hometown is a railroad town in Wyoming. I grew up listening to this song because my mom loved it and her hometown is a rustbelt city that was crumbling factorial ruins when she was growing up.
Even though Peggy Seeger doesn't like the covers, I still want to mention the version by The Pogues as it's one of my favorites. I do agree with her that both of the translations lost some of the charm that the original had.
The original captured the spirit of traditional Irish and English folk music, so much so that I assumed it was a traditional ballad. little new compositions of folk music succeed in doing this, which makes the song impressive.
Song of the Day
do you want to know the history of a folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll cover it
"Great Historical Bum" Odetta, 1960
Originally written in 1941 by Woody Guthrie for his Columbia River Song collection. That time when Woody Guthrie (a socialist) was commissioned by the US federal government (at the recommendation of Alan Lomax. to write folk songs in support of the Coulee Dam in 1941. Woody Guthrie was in poverty at the time and was happy to finally have a job. During the month he traveled through Oregon and wrote a song every day, including "Pastures of Plenty" and "Roll on Columbia".
the lyrics in these songs, including this one, include radical themes like working-class rights, unions, anti-fascism, and anti-capitalism. because of this and because Woody Guthrie was an anti-capitalist, the songs and the documentary they were made for were ordered destroyed by the Eisenhower administration. luckily the recordings were saved by a proletarian comrade: a former employee of the Bonneville Power Administration, who decided to keep a copy of the film and recordings.
this song may also be inspired by another traditional song recorded in 1928 by Harry McClintock , but I'm not sure.
I like this cover by Odetta quite a bit. I think she does the original one justice.