This week on the Sing Out! Radio Magazine we’ll hear a bit about the establishment on Black History Month and listen to some archival music. We’ll hear tunes from Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and WC Handy and songs from … Continue reading →
This week we begin a two week visit to Louisiana. Our first program focuses on classic Louisiana music and a trip to The Crescent City of New Orleans. Louisiana is a melting pot of many musical traditions. This week we’ll … Continue reading →
Topical songs have been a major component of American folk music for many years. This week we’ll hear some of the classic songs about warfare, railroads, coal mining and unions. Music from The Almanac Singers, Big Bill Broonzy, Guy Carawan, … Continue reading →
Smithsonian Folkways is releasing a massive 5CD collection of the music of Leadbelly on February 24th. On this week’s edition we will listen to some of the songs on that great collection. We’ll also hear some classic renditions of Leadbelly … Continue reading →
Adrian Roye In our travels through the murder ballad genre, we go into a few kinds of terrain with some regularity. Sometimes, it’s a deep dive into an “old country” of traditional, if not ancient, murder ballads. These … Continue reading →
In the last post on Led Zeppelin’s “Gallows Pole,” we looked at how a centuries-old English tale about a fair maiden who loses a golden ball evolved into two different stories – one with a fairy tale ending in which … Continue reading →
We’ll start today’s posts with some news accounts, to begin thinking about whether and how the facts matter to the song, and how the facts leave their traces, often in indirect ways, in the songs. For the moment at least, … Continue reading →
