I have been collecting folk recordings, mostly by artists from the United States and the British Isles, for about 40 years. This blog is intended to share a few of these recordings (all believed to be Public Domain under EU law where this blog originates) and make them available online for research and scholarship in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107. Also included are links to other interesting blogs, websites, and freely available folk audio and video.
Arlo Guthrie's Official Taping Policy
"Arlo has often allowed recording by amateurs at venues when and where it is not forbidden or regulated or conflicts in any way with the usual way things are done. If you are unsure if a venue allows taping, contact the venue before the show. Sales of these recorded materials is forbidden and it is intended only for fans to trade and share. Fees to cover postage and/or cost of blank media are acceptable....
If you are creating cover art, please respect the rights of the artists/photographer and ask for their permission before using an image. Most will allow use as long as they are credited and/or for a copy of the show it is being used for."
I'm rather proud of this compilation I did back in 2007 (or so), as it continues being shared on several Bittorrent sites each Thanksgiving!
stewART created some tasteful artwork (included).
Four (less common) versions of "Alice's Restaurant" (1966-1984):
01 Gerde's Folk City, New York, NY, 1966 (exact date unknown) -- early pre-draft prototype version (FM?) (13:33)
02 The Bob Fass Show - WBAI-FM, New York, NY, Feb 27, 1966 (or 1967) -- slightly cut at end (FM) (18:04)
03 The Bob Fass Show - WBAI-FM, New York, NY, May 1967: "Alice's Restaurant Multi-Colored Rainbow Roach Affair" (FM) (Piano-backed version) (13:36) (24:05)
04 Longbranch Park, Liverpool, NY, July 15, 1984 -- lots of improvised lyrics (audience) (24:05)
Lineage: flac files from different torrents/trackers->wav (normalised)->Flac Front end (Level 8, align on sector boundaries)
TECHNICAL NOTES: This is uploaded as a multi-part rar-file - to extract and combine parts, you'll need ALL PARTS and a program like WinRar, WinZip or 7Zip.
Once extracted/combined, you can verify file integrity with enclosed md5- or ffp-file and convert the FLAC-files to wav-files (for burning as audio CDs) with software like Trader's Little Helperor other tools for your specific OS.
Over the years, I've been collecting whatever I could find of this guitarist, solo, as guitarist for Uncle Dave Macon, and with his brother Kirk McGee and fiddler Arthur Smith.
Here are Sam McGee's earliest sides, both solo and with Uncle Dave Macon, recorded in New York, NY, April 1926.
New York, NY, April 14, 1926
01 Uncle Dave Macon - Rise When the Rooster Crows
02 Uncle Dave Macon - Way Down the Old Plank Road
03 Uncle Dave Macon - The Bible's True
04 Uncle Dave Macon - He Won the Heart of My Sarah Jane
05 Uncle Dave Macon - Last Last Night When My Willie Came Home
06 Uncle Dave Macon - I've Got the Mourning Blues
07 Uncle Dave Macon - Death of John Henry (Steel Driving Man)
08 Uncle Dave Macon - On the Dixie Bee Line (In That Henry Ford of Mine)
09 Sam McGee - Buck Dancer's Choice
10 Sam McGee - The Franklin Blues
New York, NY, April 16, 1926
01 Uncle Dave Macon - Whoop' Em Up Cindy
02 Uncle Dave Macon - Only as Far as the Gate Dear Ma
03 Uncle Dave Macon - Just Tell Them That You Saw Me
04 Uncle Dave Macon - Poor Sinners, Fare You Well
New York, NY, April 17, 1926
01 Uncle Dave Macon - Old Ties
02 Sam McGee - In A Cool Shady Nook
03 Sam McGee - If I Could Only Blot Out The Past
04 Sam McGee - Knoxville Blues
Found these four sides by
"Benny Borg, The Singing Soldier" (transfers from 78s) over at archive.org -- apparently, nothing is known about Benny Borg except that he was from Georgia.
According to the info at archive.org, these four sides were recorded on April 02, 1927 and issued as Columbia 15148-D and 15183-D:
Columbia 15148-D
I Want a Pardon for Daddy
You're Going to Leave the Old Home Jim, Tonight
Columbia15183-D
A Concert Hall on the Bowery
Pictures from Life's Other Side
"An outdated concept about a fallen woman brought tears to they eyes of America in 1895. William B Gray wrote this song about a girl flirting with men on the Bowery and explains that is was a callous man who caused it. Sheet music sales were strong even before it was introduced in Vaudeville skyrocketing it in popularity. By the 1920s however the song was already a subject to much ridicule for it's outdated standards. In 1951 Beatrice Kay did a campy version sarcastically mocking it in the chorus." (Source: RimChiGuy.com)
Found aninteresting YouTube channel
(by knoxnews.com) with some Appalachian folk music content (under the heading "Songs of Appalachia") -- for your convenience, I have embedded a few of these clips in this post. Enjoy!
These Carter Family Radio Transcriptions, recorded in New York, NY, for The Associated Recorded Program Service on June 10, 1936, have been posted before (as a vinyl rip of the Old Homestead release) at Lonesome Lefty's Scratchy Attic.
My upload is CD-sourced, but virtually identical (track sequence differs, and most tracks are slightly longer -- possibly because of speed adjustments).
About half of the sides were versions of recent Decca recordings (virtually identical to the commercial versions), while the remaining tracks were new recordings of older tracks, sometimes with interesting changes.
New York, NY, June 10, 1936
01 Carter Family, The - No Depression In Heaven
02 Carter Family, The - My Native Home
03 Carter Family, The - Jealous Hearted Me
04 Carter Family, The - A Distant Land To Roam
05 Carter Family, The - I'm Working On A Building
06 Carter Family, The - East Virginia Blues, No. 2
07 Carter Family, The - My Dixie Darling
08 Carter Family, The - Keep On The Sunny Side
09 Carter Family, The - Kissing Is A Crime
10 Carter Family, The - Single Girl, Married Girl
11 Carter Family, The - Little Darling Pal Of Mine
12 Carter Family, The - Lonesome Valley
13 Carter Family, The - Cannon Ball Blues
14 Carter Family, The - Happy Or Lonesome
15 Carter Family, The - Are You Lonesome Tonight3
16 Carter Family, The - Just Another Broken Heart
Carter Family, The - The Cannonball
Carter Family, The - The Lover's Farewell
Carter Family, The - There's Someone Awaiting for Me
Carter Family, The - The Little Log Hut in the Lane
Carter Family, The - When the Springtime Comes Again
Carter Family, The - When the World's on Fire
Carter Family, The - I Have an Aged Mother
Carter Family, The - The Dying Soldier
Carter Family, The - Worried Man Blues
Carter Family, The - Lonesome Pine Special
Carter Family, The - No More the Moon Shines on Lorena
Carter Family, The - On My Way to Canaan's Land
Carter Family, The - Where Shall I Be
Carter Family, The - Sow 'Em on the Mountain
Carter Family, The - Darling Nellie Across the Sea
Carter Family, The - The Birds Were Singing of You
Carter Family, The - Weary Prodigal Son
Carter Family, The - My Old Cottage Home
Carter Family, The - When I'm Gone
Carter Family, The - Sunshine in the Mountain
Carter Family, The - Let the Church Roll On
Carter Family, The - Why There's a Tear in My Eye Carter Family, The - Why There's a Tear in My Eye (alt. take) - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - The Wonderful City
Carter Family, The - Jimmie Rodgers Visits the Carter Family (alt. take) - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - Jimmie Rodgers Visits the Carter Family
Carter Family, The - The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in Texas
Carter Family, The - 'Mid the Green Fields of Virginia
Carter Family, The - Happiest Days of All
Carter Family, The - Picture on the Wall
Carter Family, The - Amber Tresses
Carter Family, The - I Never Loved But One
Carter Family, The - Tell Me That You Loved Me
Carter Family, The - Where We'll Never Grow Old
Carter Family, The - We Will March Through the Streets of the City
Carter Family, The - Sweet as the Flowers in May Time
Carter Family, The - Will the Roses Bloom in Heaven
Carter Family, The - My Little Home in Tennessee
Carter Family, The - The Sun of the Soul
Carter Family, The - If One Won't Another One Will
Carter Family, The - The Broken Hearted Lover
Carter Family, The - Two Sweethearts
Carter Family, The - The Winding Stream
Carter Family, The - I Wouldn't Mind Dying
Carter Family, The - The Spirit of Love Watches Over Me
Carter Family, The - The Church in the Wildwood
Carter Family, The - Give Me Roses While I Live
Carter Family, The - I Never Will Marry
Carter Family, The - On the Sea of Galilee
Carter Family, The - Home by the Sea
Carter Family, The - When the Roses Come Again
Carter Family, The - I Loved You Better Than You Knew
Carter Family, The - This Is Like Heaven to Me
Carter Family, The - See That My Grave Is Kept Green3
Carter Family, The - Over the Garden Wall
Carter Family, The - Gold Watch and Chain Carter Family, The - School House on the Hill - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - Will My Mother Know Me There Carter Family, The - Faded Flowers - OMITTED Carter Family, The - Poor Little Orphaned Boy - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - On a Hill Lone and Gray
Carter Family, The - Cowboy Jack
Carter Family, The - I'll Be All Smiles Tonight
Carter Family, The - Away Out on Saint Sabbath Carter Family, The - Darling Little Joe - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - Happy or Lonesome
Carter Family, The - One Little Word
Carter Family, The - Darling Daisies
Carter Family, The - The East Virginia Blues
Carter Family, The - Lover's Return
Carter Family, The - It'll Aggravate Your Soul
Carter Family, The - Hello Central, Give Me Heaven
Carter Family, The - I'm Working on a Building
Carter Family, The - You've Been Fooling Me, Baby
Carter Family, The - Longing for Old Virginia
Carter Family, The - March Winds Gonna Blow My Blues All Away
Carter Family, The - There'll Be Joy, Joy, Joy Carter Family, The - Home in Tennessee - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - Are You Tired of Me, My Darling Carter Family, The - I Cannot Be Your Sweetheart - OMITTED
Carter Family, The - My Heart's Tonight in Texas
Carter Family, The - There's No Hiding Place Down Here
Carter Family, The - Cowboy's Wild Song to His Herd.mp3
Carter Family, The - The Evening Bells Are Ringing
Carter Family, The - The Mountains of Tennessee
Carter Family, The - I'll Be Home Someday
Carter Family, The - Faded Coat of Blue
Carter Family, The - Sailor Boy
DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS (158 MB MONO mp3) TRACKS MARKED AS "OMITTED" COULD NOT BE INCLUDED BECAUSE OF THEIR COPYRIGHTED STATUS (first release in 1960s or later).
NOTE: I had to partially switch to MegaUpload as MediaFire became somewhat unreliable. As a result, some download links might not work (temporarily). Apologies for the inconvenience.
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet, Richmond, IN, c. 24 April 1928
01 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Creep Along, Moses
02 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - This Old World Can't Stand Much Longer
03 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Do You Call That Religion
04 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Hard Trials, Great Tribulations
05 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Ezikiel Saw de Wheel
06 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Every Time I Feel the Spirit
07 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - South Bound Passenger Train
08 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Who Stole de Lock off de Henhouse Door
09 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - When the World's on Fire
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet (as The Famous Garland Jubilee Singers), New York, NY, March 19, 1931
10 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - South Bound Passenger Train
11 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Let Jesus Lead You
12 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Were You There
13 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Who Stole the Lock
14 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Every Time I Feel the Spirit
15 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - I'm Going Through
16 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Shine on Me
17 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Some Day
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet (as The Famous Garland Jubilee Singers), New York, NY, March 20, 1931
18 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - When the World's on Fire
19 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - This Train
20 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - King Jesus Is Listening
21 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - I Want to Be Ready
22 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Sinner, You'd Better Get Ready
23 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Oh Lord How Long
24 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Hold the Wind
25 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Oh Rocks Don't Fall on Me
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet, New York, NY, March 21, 1931
26 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Didn't It Rain
27 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - Didn't It Rain
28 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - This Wicked Race
29 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - I'll Be Satisfied
