14. Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley – “The Old Man at the Mill” from the album Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley, 1960-1962
North Carolina’s own Doc Watson is considered a living American Folk Music legend. On this track Watson, who is blind since birth, teams up with banjo picker Clarence Ashley who worked with a traveling medicine show in the south from 1911 to 1943.
15. Malvina Reynolds – “Carolina Cotton Mill Song” from the Smithsonian Folkways album “Ear To The Ground”
Born into a socialist family in 1905, Malvina Reynolds was an activist singer-songwriter up until her death at age 75 in 1980. “Carolina Cotton Mill Song” is a scathing rebuke that points the finger at textile companies for the brown lung (Byssinosis), which is a disease caused by inhaling cotton, flax, hemp, or jute fibers.
16. Pete Seeger - “We Shall Not Be Moved” from the album “Carry It On: Songs Of American Working People”
“We Shall Not Be Moved” is most closely associated with the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. What most people don’t know is that the song was originally penned in the 1920s by striking African-American textile workers in North Carolina. The song has since been tweaked to fit a variety of causes.
17. Peter, Paul and Mary – “Weave Me The Sunshine” from the album "Around The Campfire"
I thought this track would be the perfect ending for the playlist since it uses a “weaving” metaphor, fits in with the folk-heavy theme and has an optimistic tone for the future.
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow,
And fill my cup again.
Weave, weave, weave me the sunshine
Out of the falling rain.
Weave me the hope of a new tomorrow,
And fill my cup again.”
Robert Burke spends much of his time lovingly creating thematic music playlists at the Rhapsody Radish.
Article comments
1 - earnest
good read
2 - Sunflower
Very interesting, it is great that you put this list together! Only one thing, i do not think that Natalie Merchant wrote the song Owensboro, on the liner notes she says she learned it "from an anthology of American folk songs collected by Elie Siegmeister and published in 1940." It also says that it is traditional; the tune is that of an old moutain hymn and the author of the lyrics is unknown.
But besides that, this list is wonderful, I am going to look into alot of these songs, Thank you for writing it!
3 - Mary
Thanks! I was researching songs from "American Industrial Ballads, and found your playlist. I will be sure to look into some of these other songs.
4 - sonny
i personaooy diod nlt oike the articoe