Old Songs Newly Found

Subject: RE: Titular Women
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 13 Mar 26 - 11:14 AM

That great old song from the 1849 Gold Rush era, Sweet Betsy From Pike, was mentioned the other day and it got me to thinking about how some of my favorite songs have a woman's name in the title-

Connie Dover and her producer Phil Cunningham did a fine version of "Sweet Betsy" with a Scots/Irish tinge.Sweet Betsy From Pike

Rosa Lee McFall was written by Charlie Monroe, brother of Bill, his former duet partner. This has become a Bluegrass standard and was oft-recorded by Jerry Garcia throughout his career. Here it's done by Appalachian Road Show. Rosa Lee McFall

Nellie Kane by Hot Rise- This was written by Tim O'Brien who sings and plays mandolin on this recording by one of the best Bluegrass groups to come down the pike.Nellie Kane

Angeline the Baker by Crooked Still- One of Stephen Foster's gems which has become a staple of Old Timey and Bluegrass repertoires, with Aoife O'Donavan on lead vocal.Angeline the Baker

Little Annie by Laurie Lewis- It's hard for me to think of a more charming vocal than Laurie Lewis favors us with on this A.P. Carter-written (or perhaps collected and adapted) song. Kathy Kallick adds a sweet harmony vocal. From from their excellent duo album, Together. Little Annie

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: GerryM
Date: 13 Mar 26 - 05:17 PM

Great songs with a woman's name in the title? Here are a few I like:

Barelegged Kate, written by John Dengate about his mother, recorded by Penny Davies and Roger Ilott.

Isabella Gunn
(sorry, couldn't find a free site), written and recorded by Eileen McGann.

Peggy Gordon
trad, recorded by many, here by Eileen McGann.

Alma
written and recorded by Tom Lehrer.

Kiri's Piano
written and recorded by James Keelaghan.

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 20 Mar 26 - 12:46 PM

No grand themes this week I just want to share with you a song written by May Erlewine, The River Jordan, that's captured my imagination-

The author performs it here on her Golden CD. I love the way the band bursts into the instrumental breaks.-Th River Jordan

And a very charming live rendition-Live by Seth and May

Lindsay Lou, fast becoming a favorite singer and songwriter of mine, gives it a go with some vocal gymnastics, accompanied by her former band The Flatbellys.- Lindsay Lou and The Flatbellys

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: pattyClink
Date: 01 Apr 26 - 11:06 PM

Here's one I stumbled on now that Mudcat Search is working well. PoppaGator recommended to us one Snooks Eaglin.

Snooks Eaglin "Lipstick Traces"

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 02 Apr 26 - 12:47 PM

Wow

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: Beer
Date: 02 Apr 26 - 05:36 PM

Wow ! Patty. This is a gem. Love his style of playing.

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: pattyClink
Date: 03 Apr 26 - 12:50 AM

Catching up on later parts of this thread, those Lara Louise cuts are really choice, glad to find her!

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Apr 26 - 10:24 AM

I likes me some cowboy songs, always have and a more recent one that caught my ear is The Cypress Hills. It was written by the great mandolinist John Reichsman with Susan Crowe adding the lyrics. It's performed here by JR's band (and what a band!) John Reichsman and the Jay Birds with a lovely vocal from Trisha Gagnon. The Cypress Hills

That old New Hampshire cowpoke, Tom Rush sang my favorite version of one of my favorite songs, Diamond Joe. Last I heard TR was still performing well into his '80s. Diamond Joe

I went looking for a version of an old one that I had learned from a singing cowboy in San Antonio quite awhile ago and stumbled on to this gem by good old Art Thieme. Art had an affinty for cowboy songs and did a bang up job on this one, with an intro that, well... I'm Gonna Leave Old Texas Now

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 08 Apr 26 - 12:46 PM

I meant to link this excellent version of Diamond Joe by the Onlies, as well.

Subject: RE: Old Railroad Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 26 - 09:32 AM

My father's father was a railroad man, he started out as a teenager working on a section gang for the Western Pacific and retired a half century later as a station manager on the Union Pacific, consesquently I have an affection for railroad songs and collect them, not all of them just the ones that appeal to me.

The Norman Blake classic Greenlight on the Southern is probably my favorite. When Beth and I sang this at family gatherings your grandpa Leroy would get a little teary-eyed, no doubt thinking back to his "boyhood days" growing up along the railroad tracks in a converted boxcar. Here it's done by my main man Tony Rice and the Unit.Greenlight on the Southern

Skip Gorman was known mainly as a great singer of cowboy songs (should have included him in the Cowboy Songs post) and a fine multi-instrumentalist but he covered the Carter Family's Railroading on the Great Divide in grand fashion. Railroading on the Great Divide

Speaking of Norman Blake, his version of Bringing in the Georgia Mail sounds like a big old locomotive coming down the track with his chugging guitar lines and with Tut Taylor providing the train sounds on his dobro. This Bluegrass standard was written by Fred Rose and first recorded by Charlie Monroe and His Kentucky Pardners in '47. Bringing in the Georgia Mail

Glendale Train is such a fun song to sing, with a line like "They found Amos White in 15 pieces 15 miles apart" why wouldn't it be. It was written by John "Marmaduke" Dawson who sings it here with his band The New Riders of the Purple Sage. Jerry Garcia adds pedal steel and banjo.Glendale Train

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Apr 26 - 12:54 PM

Should have read "Skip Gorman is...."

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 25 May 26 - 03:45 AM

I've been thinking about some of my favorite Jimmy Rodgers songs (The Singing Brakeman, not the Jimmy Rodgers of "Honeycomb" fame or the Chicago bluesman). Here are some covers, most of which are more than a half-century old:

Maria Muldaur's version of "Any Old Time" comes off like a grand celebration in song. Along with Maria's fine vocal there are some great musical performances, including Ry Cooder's Blind Blake inspired guitar with a piano-like intro and "stumbling bass". There have been many excellent recordings of AOT by, among others, Doc Watson and by Tony Rice.-Any Old Time

The Earl Scruggs Revue put out a romping version of Blue Yodel (T For Texas) on their Live at Kansas State LP.
It was a real showcase for the players with crazy hot solos from the great Vassar Clements on fiddle and Randy Scruggs on electric guitar and of course some world class banjo by Earl. That was one hot band, Gary and Randy Scruggs were way more than just nepo babies.- T for Texas

Muleskinner Blues (Blue Yodel 8) has become a Bluegrass standard since Bill Monroe recorded it in 1950 with his Bluegrass Boys and has been covered by a lot of folks including Dolly Parton and Rhonda Vincent. Tony Rice did my favorite version, well maybe it's tied with Monroe's, on his Cold on the Shoulder LP with some of the hottest players around at the time-Muleskinner Blues

Rodgers himself was such a great performer and singer that I would be remiss not to include a recording of his so here's one that was a favorite of my Dad"s who grew up in a railroading family, Waiting for a Train. He's backed up by a jazz band that he met in a bar shortly before the recording session.-Waiting for a Train

Here he performs it solo in a charming little film short. You see where that "train whistle" came from.-Waiting for a Train

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Jun 26 - 11:38 AM

In the process of thinning my CD herd I was sifting through the boxes that have been sitting under the coffee table for some time now and came across the Suzy and Eric Thompson disc "Adam and Eve Had the Blues". There's plenty of good stuff on it including the old gospel song, When I Get Home. Suzy's singing on this number, and the whole CD, just knocks me out. She plays the Travis-style guitar on this cut though she's probably better known as a fiddler who can expertly handle a number of genres including Cajun, Old Timey and Blues. Husband Eric provides the flatpick guitar solo and possibly the mandolin as well, according to the liner notes.
When I Get Home

Bob Dylan's If You've Gotta Go has always been treated like a throwaway it seems, Dylan didn't it release on a commercial recording as far as I know, Fairport Convention sang it in French, (perhaps to get around the censors, given the racy lyrics for the time) in a weird cafe style and The Flying Burritos turned it into an uptempo rocker that lasted a mere 1:49 but recently I heard a cover by J. Tilman off a Dylan tribute album that was sung with such conviction that it sounded like a completely different song to me.-If You Gotta Go

One of my current favorites, Lindsay Lou, covered that great old R&B song by Billy Swan, I Can Help on her "Queen of Time" album-
I Can Help
Mr. Swan scored big on the Pop and Country charts with it but it did sound like R&B to me.

I recently came across a Roger McGuinn recording of If I Needed Someone. This George Harrison-penned gem was on one my favorite Beatles LP, "Rubber Soul" (up there with "Revolver"). I can't say McGuinn surpassed the original but he gave it an interesting updated "Byrdsy" treatment while still retaining a measure of "Beatleyness".-If I Needed Someone

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: pattyClink
Date: 27 Jun 26 - 09:24 PM

You've been pulling some great things out of the archives, gillymor! I loved that newer bluesier spin on "I Can Help", and enjoyed seeing the Brakeman on video, that was new to me.

I was looking up Spoon River, it's just that time of year for some reason. I had heard of Claudia Schmidt, but what few items I listened to didn't click with me. But I was soon to learn. Boy, does she do the definitive version of "Spoon River".

Spoon River, Claudia Schmidt

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Jun 26 - 11:19 AM

That is so good, patty. I remember Claudia Schmidt from her songs and poems on Prairie Home Companion way back when, long before Garrison got cashiered. She has such a big, beautiful voice and plays a mean 12 string.

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 10:17 AM

Re Fairport singing Dylan in French: The rumour at the time was that they'd had to sing the original version Rather Too Many Times at a particular gig, and improvised the "schoolgirl French" version for their last encore. It's entirely possible that they did it as a way of escaping off-stage while everybody was busy laughing.

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 01 Jul 26 - 10:59 AM

Thanks, Filk.

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: gillymor
Date: 31 Jul 26 - 11:13 AM

Someone mentioned clawhammer banjo in a recent forum thread (actually it was me) and it got me to thinking about some of my favorite songs that feature claw banjo.

Multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz played some outstanding banjo on John Hiatt's sad ballad, Crossing Muddy Waters with her group I'm With Her.-
Crossing Muddy Waters

Ruth Moody's style seems fairly simple but it is effective. Here she is plinking and plunking with The Wailin' Jennys (another great name for a band) on her own composition Glory Bound

Murphy Campbell may become a generational talent, if she isn't already. Here she performs Lonesome John with Riley Baugus (world class frailer himself) on guitar. The sound quality is not great but the mountain mojo comes through loud and clear.Lonesome John

Ms. Campbell again with one of my favorite hymns-This World is not My Home or I Can't Feel at Home in this World Anymore.

Willie Watson, formerly of Old Crow Medicine Show, cuts loose on Mexican Cowboy, aka Hills Of Mexico-Mexican Cowboy

I stumbled across this charming cover of The Shin's New Slang by one of my favorite online banjo instructors, Josh Turknett with his young daughter providing the intro and outro vocal. He does a heckuva job recreating both of the lovely guitar solos from the original, clawhammer style- New Slang

My favorite banjo playing goofball, Leroy Troy is seen here indulging in some banjo gymnastics on Charming Betsy. Amazingly he keeps the rhythm going with either hand while the banjo is spinning.Charming Betsy

Subject: RE: Old Songs Newly Found
From: pattyClink
Date: 31 Jul 26 - 12:36 PM

Wow, a great tutorial on clawhammer!