Folksongs and Ballads of Virginia Sung by Paul Clayton

Folkways Records – FA 2110

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: United States
Released: 1956
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Railroad Bill (01:15)
A2 In the Pines (03:23)
A3 Gambling Man (00:49)
A4 Wild Rover (02:40)
A5 Bill Dooley (02:02)
A6 Talt Hall (01:11)
A7 The Farmer's Curst Wife (02:39)
B1 Harvey Logan (01:50)
B2 Lady Margaret (01:21)
B3 Frankie (02:39)
B4 If I Had a Bottle of Rum (00:58)
B5 Lord Darnell (04:10)
B6 Poor Old Maids (01:54)
B7 Little Pig (01:40)
[Credits]
Paul Clayto (guitar/vocals)
Producer: Kenneth S. Goldstein
[Notes] Massachusetts native Paul Clayton spent his college years at the University of Virginia collecting songs and writing a thesis about Child ballads found in the state. Clayton selected these songs from his own fieldwork recordings, and Kenny Goldstein supplies the album's extensive liner notes.

Classic American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways – SFW40215

Series: Smithsonian Folkways Classic Series
Format: CD, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 2015
Genre: Blues, Folk, World, & Country Style: Folk, Country [Tracklist}
01 Banks of the Ohio: Doc Watson and Bill Monroe (3:32)
02 Blue Mountain Lake: Pete Seeger (2:47)
03 Claude Allen: Hobart Smith (3:50)
04 Cole Younger: Dock Boggs (1:50)
05 Cowboy’s Lament (Streets of Laredo): Buck Ramsey (3:21)
06 Boll Weevil: Sam Hinton (2:12)
07 Duncan and Brady: Lead Belly (1:08)
08 Floyd Collins: Paul Clayton (3:27)
09 Frankie and Johnny: Rolf Cahn and Eric Von Schmidt (6:39)
10 John Henry: John Jackson (3:22)
11 Jesse James: Sis Cunningham, Mike Millius, and Wes Houston (3:51)
12 Billy the Kid: Woody Guthrie (2:04)
13 The Death of the Lawson Family: Glen Neaves (1:54)
14 Naomi Wise: Doug Wallin (3:06)
15 Pearl Bryan: Bruce Buckley (2:54)
16 Sam Bass: Hermes Nye (1:59)
17 Springfield Mountain: Bascom Lamar Lunsford (2:31)
18 Tom Dooley: Glen Neaves, Roscoe Russell, Ivor Melton, Warren Brown, Ted Lundy (2:11)
19 Tying a Knot in the Devil's Tail: Cisco Houston (2:14)
20 Young Charlotte: Pete Seeger (4:05)
21 Wasn't That a Mighty Storm?: The Tex-i-an Boys (2:41)
22 Zebra Dun: Joan O'Bryant (2:32)
23 The Titanic: Pink Anderson (2:52)
24 The Louisville Burglar: The Iron Mountain String Band (3:09)
25 The F.F.V. (Engine 143): Annie Watson (3:56)
[Credits]
Compilers: Jeff Place, Katie Ortiz and Max Smith, Editor: Carla Borden, Designer: Joe Parisi
[Notes]
Born of the British ballad, its American offspring was the blank canvas for all type of tale, the more calami­tous or scandalous, the better. Jesse James and Billy the Kid, train wrecks and hurricanes, the Titanic and Tom Dooley, fatal lovers' quarrels and foiling the devil, all and more were normal fare, served up in a song. Classic American Balla

Cumberland Mountain Folksongs Sung by Paul Clayton

Folkways Records FP 2007

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1957
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 The Hustling Gamblers (2:53)
A2 Lord Bateman (2:57)
A3 Floyd Collins (3:28)
A4 Mush Toodin (0:48)
A5 The House Carpenter (2:18)
A6 Sugar Baby (1:44)
B1 Spotty and Dudie (1:19)
B2 Pretty Polly and False William (3:46)
B3 Once I Courted a Pretty Little Girl (1:16)
B4 Kathy Fiscus (1:55)
B5 Walk, Tom Wilson, Walk (0:43)
B6 Cold Winters Night (2:43)
B7 Texas Rangers (2:32)
[Credits]
Paul Clayton (guitar/dulcimer/vocals)
Illustration: Rosenhouse, Producer: Kenneth S. Goldstein
[Notes]
Collector Paul Clayton performs the songs and ballads he collected in the Cumberland Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky in the 1950s—a repertoire that includes both old English and Scottish ballads and recently-composed songs about events such as the cave-in that trapped and killed Floyd Collins in Kentucky’s Sand Cave in 1925.

Paul Clayton: British Broadside Ballads in Popular Tradition

Folkways Records FW-8708

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1957
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A01 When Cockle Shells Make Silver Bells (3:12)
A02 Pleasant And Delightful (3:03)
A03 Three Maidens To Milking Did Go (1:44)
A04 The Bonny Bunch Of Roses (3:23)
A05 The Bold Thrasher (1:44)
A06 My Grandmother (1:41)
A07 The Lost Lady Found (3:05)
A08 When Pat Came Over The Hill (2:55)
A09 The Dark-Eyed Sailor (3:15)
B01 Jim, The Carter's Lad (3:15)
B02 Geordie (1:24)
B03 The Oyster Girl (2:37)
B04 The Bold Fisherman (2:02)
B05 Brian O'Lynn (2:46)
B06 The Sweet Primroses (2:41)
B07 Green Broom (3:07)
B08 Herchard Of Taunton Dene (1:48)
B09 The False-Hearted Knight (3:42)
B10 The Indian Lass (1:53)
[Credits]
Paul Clayton (guitar/vocals)
Designner: Ronald Clyne, Recorder: Kenneth S. Goldstein
[Notes]
American singer and folklorist Paul Clayton (1931–1967) became interested in ballads by hearing his grandparents and other relatives sing them. In college he went on folk song collecting expeditions, traveling throughout the United States as well as Great Britain and Western Europe, where he learned songs from field recordings and directly from singers. His additional research into BBC recordings and the collection of British broadsides at the Newberry Library in Chicago resulted in this album. Sung with guitar accompaniment, the recording contains 19 ballads which Clayton believed were representative of the vast amount of broadside material still found in oral tradition in 1957. Liner notes include broadside lyrics alongside the traditional texts, to show the changes that have occured.

Classic English and Scottish Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFWCD-40218

Format: CD, Compilation
Country: US
Released: April 28, 2017
Genre: Folk, World, & Celtic
Style: Traditional Folk
[Tracklist]
01 Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender (Child No. 73) Mike Seeger (3:50)
02 Golden Vanity (Child No. 286) Doug Wallin (3:23)
03 The Mermaid (Child No. 289) The Golden Eagle String Band (4:14)
04 Mathie Groves (Child No. 81) Dillard Chandler (6:14)
05 The Hanging of Georgie (Child No. 209) Iron Mountain String Band (1:56)
06 Gypsy Davy (Child No. 200) Margaret MacArthur (1:57)
07 Thomas the Rhymer (Child No. 37) Ewan MacColl (6:52)
08 Lady Margaret (Child No. 74) Pete Seeger (2:51)
09 Lord Randall (Child No. 12) Jean Ritchie (2:54)
10 Pretty Polly and False William (Child No. 4) Paul Clayton (3:46)
11 Andrew Batan (Child No. 250) Warde Ford (3:36)
12 Three Nights Drunk (Child No. 274) The Blue Ridge Buddies with E.C. and Orna Ball (2:36)
13 Lord Bateman (Child No. 53) The New Lost City Ramblers (5:34)
14 The Two Sisters (Child No. 10) Ellen Stekert (1:37)
15 Gallis Pole (Child No. 95) Lead Belly (2:47)
16 Lord Barnett (Child No. 68) Ella Parker (2:35)
17 The False Knight Upon the Road (Child No. 3) Artus Moser (2:23)
18 Barbara Allen (Child No. 84) Dan Tate (2:52)
19 The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry (Child No. 113) Paul Clayton (5:03)
20 The House Carpenter (Child No. 243) Dorothy Rorick (2:38)
21 The Farmer's Curst Wife (Child No. 278) Horton Barker (3:07)
[Credits]
Mastering Engineer: Pete Reiniger, Liner Notes: Jeff Place, Production manager: Mary Monseur
[Notes]
The 19th-century scholar Francis James Child meticulously and authoritatively compiled 305 Scottish and English ballads into the highly influential collection known as "Child Ballads." Although Child feared these ballads would vanish from human memory, they continue to be adored, studied, and actively performed across disciplines and genres. Classic English and Scottish Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways (from The Francis James Child Collection) introduces listeners to 21 of these traditional songs from the label’s rich collections at the Smithsonian Institution, and demonstrates the timelessness of their themes—from murder and ghosts to jealousy and unrequited love. 72 minutes, 40-page booklet with extensive notes.

  Download Liner Notes（PDF file 2.29MB）