Which are your favorites?

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34 comments

  7. Here’s a random selection of some of my favorites:

    [Carry me back to Virginia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZz9bAp44fA)

    [Big Bad John](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCOaVYwwao)

    [North to Alaska](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLONWy46gIE)

    [Convoy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87r0CPQbFds)

    [El Paso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q9bAWGEkcE)

    [You Don’t Mess Around with Jim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hickVDiW8k0)

    [Ghost Riders in the Sky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LtmZM0OWO8)

    [Riding With Private Malone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjMrOM-_uhQ)

    Edit: I almost forgot but [Alice’s Restaurant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM) is a big deal in my family. My dad used to play it every Thanksgiving.

  10. [Jack Haggerty and His Flat River Girl](https://youtu.be/CcfZcy93CFU?si=0a597n3IN3Y1EPSD)

    It’s a song by Irish immigrants from Michigan and you can really hear it in the sound.

    > The participants in this story of true love gone awry are known, even though the names were changed by the man who wrote the song. Ann Tucker (Anna) lived with her blacksmith father across the street from his shop in Greenville. She was courted by an Irishman named Dan McGinnis. He and his friend Jack Haggerty were forbidden to associate with Ann, as she already was engaged to George Mercer. When Mercer was promoted to woods’ boss, McGinnis was irate and composed the song, using Haggerty’s name to conceal his identity. The Tucker family was properly enraged and would not permit the song to be sung in camp. McGinnis, alias Jack Haggerty, shouldered his peavey, an iron-tipped pole with a hinged hook used to roll logs, and went to the wicked city of Muskegon “Some pleasures to find.”

    [Source](https://www.secondcello.com/michiganfolksongs/notes.html)

  14. Luang Prabang by Dave Van Ronk

    Head inspector

    Losers

    Statistician’s Blue by Todd Snider

    The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern

    WW III by Blaze Foley

    Palisade by Parker Millsap

    Lazy Moonshiners by Lost Dog Street Band

    Gabrielle

    The Hustle by A Night In The Box

    Molly Rose by Willy Tea Taylor

    Saint Elizabeth by Kaia Kater

    Omie Wise by Okkervil River

    Why We Build The Wall by Anaïs Mitchell

    And so much more god damn.
    I’ll get you links for it tomorrow when I got my computer

    E.

    Also, this ain’t no bullshit; this is God damned music!

    Also idk if all my folk are even American lol

  21. This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

    He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands

    Home On The Range

  26. [Doc Watson- Am I Born to Die](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNgbzu2QJyk)

    [Woody Guthrie- I Ain’t Got No Home in This World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTnVMulDTYA)

    [Elizabeth Cotton- Shake Sugaree](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ViAIdO3i4)

    [Gillian Welch- Annabelle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOk1UDGSIcc)

    [Michael Hurley- Hog of the Forsaken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2hVXLoFjF8)

    [Mississippi John Hurt- Candy Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-6jA1hXHg)

    [Leadbelly- Where Did You Sleep Last Night](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdYVANxDNkg)

    [Josh White- Careless Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toR3sYWwkfc)

    [Pete Seeger- Which Side Are You On](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g)

    [Jason C. Frank- Blues Run the Game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyI7ph709x4) (I like the Simon and Garfunkle version better but wanted to link the original)

    ​

    I’m gonna stop here, but I could basically fill a book. I think American folk music produces some the most beautiful and emotionally moving pieces. As well as providing insight to attitudes and feelings of the times they were written.

  27. Take This Hammer/ Nine Pound Hammer is a cool one, especially as a bluegrass standard. The songs are mostly similar and have identical verses that musicians can pick and choose from. The songs are somewhat about John Henry, somewhat about Appalachian coal miners; it kind of depends on the verses used and who’s singing. Take This Hammer has been a blues standard as well, and has frequently been covered by folk rock and outlaw country artists. Just a neat musical chameleon that’s morphed into a few different things over the years.

    Here’s a [Wikipedia article on Take This Hammer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_This_Hammer) that mentions the similarities in the verses.

    Here’s [Lead Belly’s recording](https://youtu.be/D7TRXF7HCZA?si=gtCMNlBmO2PJTEHC), probably the best known version of Take This Hammer

    Here’s a [great bluegrass version](https://youtu.be/d8b_JHuKpgw?si=6hh_4H847YjfR6Rn) of Nine Pound Hammer with a top-notch vocalist, Buddy Robertson.

    Here’s [another great bluegrass version](https://youtu.be/0FrIvzglr1M?si=cKyCX38OiZoaSXC9) of Nine Pound Hammer, but with some differences from the other. You can see how similar artists can change the song, even if they are stylistically *very* close to each other.

  29. [Which Side Are You On](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g)

    [The Buffalo Skinners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZdGnAJGvrY)

    Casey Jones – [both the scab version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8oCmfd85IQ) as well as the [hero version.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6crzpVmzy4) And for the record, Pete Seeger acknowledged that the song apparently slandered Mrs Jones, as there’s no evidence of “another poppa on the Salt Lake Line.”

    [Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maTopz1rx68) because it’s more or less local to me.

    [Corrina, Corrina](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dwsseTniNA)

    [Frankie and Albert (or Johnny)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIG_-tOV8jE)

    [House of the Rising Sun.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWlmLfeXXFw)

    [Midnight Special.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIC2hVvKzVQ)

    [Kisses Sweeter Than Wine.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LJs2GiMmyY)

    Plus a lot of songs already listed. And I need to stop now, or I never will.

  31. [Irene](https://youtu.be/ahr7zvW26mY?si=4Id04CKTWeg1G4sJ)

    [Rosie](https://youtu.be/es-5VEFM49Q?si=03BqWZMRBIgp6zAI)

    [Berta, Berta](https://youtu.be/32WzZqlN1h4?si=miPsoe0E-XJHv6Y2)

    [La Danae De Mardi Gras](https://youtu.be/pr_HcNzNBXg?si=NmVPIdhOjugbzl5u)

    [Pa Janvier](https://youtu.be/P2lyoExundI?si=wsVEjL3B-wCXuUN-)

    [Darlin Cora](https://youtu.be/bwiiD5K7y00?si=HPv1ffdXJ1FKfO2j)

    [Little Sadie](https://youtu.be/9K149sKeuTA?si=uQX6avYaKOIFg4cY)

    [Smokestack Lightning](https://youtu.be/9Ri7TcukAJ8?si=9whkHz2KDv6VB2B8)

    [Hard Time Killing Floor Blues](https://youtu.be/mk_g3_o_ELs?si=06fTyx4BM6nP8oax) (I love this version but Skip James is the original I know also amazing)

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