Episode #3.6 - There Was Two Brothers

This episode is an exploration of ghost songs or, more accurately, “revenant ballads.” Ghosts are not particularly common in English ballads, so we’ll look at what circumstances are needed to summon a revenant into a song and discover how these supernatural lyrics interact with ancient superstitions from multiple cultures. These ghosts are mainly on the side of justice and love, but watch out: they can tear you to pieces if you wrong them. For a list of all musical excerpts used in this episode, click here: https://folkfilespodcast.com/episodes/season-3/episode-3-10/ Host: Olivia Harding On a Quiet Street Where Old Ghosts Meet by Jay Michaels: https://jaymichaels1.bandcamp.com/album/on-a-quiet-street-where-old-ghosts-meet Learn about the newly unearthed concert from Jean Ritchie: https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/unearthed-jean-ritchie-concert-from-1960-shows-a-fun-side-of-the-mother-of-folk/ Support Folk Files by joining the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/FolkFilesPodcast Assistant Producer: Aaron J. Morton Folk Files is a member of the Bluegrass Situation. Learn more about BGS here: https://thebluegrasssituation.com/ Interested in sponsoring Folk Files? Contact BGS: https://bit.ly/sponsorBGSpods

Non-lexical vocables are syllables without any semantic meaning, sometimes called “nonsense syllables.” In this episode of Folk Files, we’ll explore lilting, yodeling, konnakol, throat singing, and other vocable traditions from around the world. During our global musical journey, we’ll discover that these syllables carry meaning, even though they don’t have definitions.

The Anglo-Irish ballad "The Unfortunate Lad," the cowboy classic "Streets of Laredo," and the blues song "St. James of Infirmary" are often considered different versions of the same song. But it's possible that this categorization was influenced by careless and dubious scholarship. In addition to examining the relationship between these different songs, this episode of Folk Files looks at how these ballads (#2 in the Roud Folk Song Index) functioned as PSAs that educated listeners about public health concerns. (Content note: this episode discusses STIs).

According to many textbooks, the blues is a genre that was born in the rural Mississippi Delta, with roots in the “sorrow songs” of enslaved people. It’s easy, however, to poke holes in this origin story and instead start to see the blues as a joyful, rebellious musical expression that formed in an urban environment. In this episode of Folk Files, we’ll take a look at different theories about the origin of the blues, separate fact from fiction, and uncover the reason why the Mississippi Delta narrative was promoted so strongly.

Stan Rogers was one of Canada's greatest singer-songwriters, despite his music having never had major distribution or significant radio playtime. In this episode, I discuss the (tragically short) life of the impressive baritone and dissect his songs in order to answer this question: What makes his songs such instant folk classics? Host and Producer: Olivia Harding Assistant Producer: Aaron J. Morton Learn more about TransTrad: https://www.transtradfest.org/ Watch the One Warm Line: The Legacy of Stan Rogers: https://youtu.be/-h9A2RAfv9M?si=EJMzxJbvwi_upiEj Support Folk Files by joining the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FolkFilesPodcast For a full list of musical excerpts, head to the Folk Files website: https://folkfilespodcast.com/season-3/episode-3-5/