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"Darlin' Cory" (Roud 5723) is a well-known folk song about a banjo-picking, moonshine-making mountain woman. The first known recording of it was by Clarence Gill as "Little Corey" on 6 January 1927, but it was rejected by the record company and never released. A few months later, folk singer Buell Kazee recorded it as "Darling Cora" on 20 April 1927 (Brunswick 154). Later the same year, it was recorded by B. F. Shelton as "Darlin' Cora" on 29 July 1927 (Victor 35838) . Other early recordings are "Little Lulie" by Dick Justice (1929) and "Darling Corey" (released as a single) by the Monroe Brothers in 1936. Burl Ives recorded it on 28 May 1941 for his debut album Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger. Since then, many artists have recorded it: Roscoe Holcomb, Doc Watson, Bruce Hornsby, The Weavers, Crooked Still, Bill Monroe, Harry Belafonte (as "Darlin' Cora," attributed to Fred Brooks), Lonnie Donegan, Buddy Greene,Eileen Ivers,Pete Seeger, Kingston Trio (on their album At Large, 1959) and a high-energy electric version by Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (grandson of Pete Seeger).

"East Virginia" Roud Index # 3396.

This is definitely a traditional song, according to Roud Broadside/Folksong Index and "Our Singing Country - A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs" by John A. Lomax. However, I couldn't flesh it out with Wikipedia so the only covers I have are those submitted by Moonrider. Joan Baez, The Monkees and Crooked Still.

I also found this:

The Folk Song Index: An Oberlin College Libraries & Sing Out! Collaboration
Record Details

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Title: East Virginia
First line of verse: I Was Borned And Raised In East Virginia
Composer: Traditional Courting Song
Book ID: 2197
Page Number: 145

Found in
Title: Our Singing Country : Folk Songs And Ballads
Author(s): Lomax, John And Alan Lomax
Place: Mineola, N.Y.
Publisher: Dover Publications
Year: 2000
Remarks: Music Editor, Ruth Crawford Seeger ; Introduction To The Dover Edition By Judith Tick; Originally Published: New York : Macmillan, 1941' Includes Bibliography By Harold W. Thompson (p. 405-410)
Includes Music: Yes
Bibliographic Source: 44073253
ISBN: 0486410897

"John Barleycorn is an English folksong. The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley, and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death, and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.
Some have interpreted the story of John Barleycorn as representing a pagan practice. It has also been suggested that "John Barleycorn", or rather an early form of the song, may have been used by the early church in Saxon England to ease the conversion of pagans to Christianity from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism.

Kathleen Herbert draws a link between Beowa (a figure appearing in early Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies whose name means "barley") and the figure of John Barleycorn of traditional English folksong. Herbert says that both Beowa and Barleycorn are one and the same, noting that the folksong details the suffering, death, and resurrection of Barleycorn, yet also celebrates the "reviving effects of drinking his blood."[1]

Barleycorn, the personification of the barley, encounters great suffering before succumbing to an unpleasant death. However, as a result of this death bread can be produced; therefore, Barleycorn dies so that others may live. Finally his body will be eaten as the bread. A popular hymn, "We Plough the Fields and Scatter", is often sung at Harvest Festival to the same tune.

As shown above, the point of the tale told by the original versions is twofold: it focuses not only on the death and resurrection of John Barleycorn, but also on Barleycorn's revenge upon the tradesmen who misused him.

Countless versions of this song exist. A version of the song is included in the Bannatyne Manuscript of 1568, and English broadside versions from the 17th century are common. Robert Burns published his own version in 1782, and modern versions abound. Burns's version makes the tale somewhat mysterious and, although not the original, it became the model for most subsequent versions of the ballad.

Burns's version begins:

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
John Barleycorn
"There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die."

An early English version runs thus:

"There was three men come out o' the west their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow, John Barleycorn must die,
They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in, throwed clods upon his head,
And these three men made a solemn vow, John Barleycorn was dead."

Earlier versions resemble Burns's only in personifying the barley, and sometimes in having the barley be foully treated or murdered by various artisans. Burns' version, however, omits their motives. In an early seventeenth century version, the mysterious kings of Burns's version were in fact ordinary men laid low by drink, who sought their revenge on John Barleycorn for that offence:

"Sir John Barley-Corn fought in a Bowl,
who won the Victory,
Which made them all to chafe and swear,
that Barley-Corn must dye."

Another early version features John Barleycorn's revenge on the miller:

"Mault gave the Miller such a blow,
That from [h]is horse he fell full low,
He taught him his master Mault for to know
you neuer saw the like sir."

Covers:
Traffic, whose album John Barleycorn Must Die is named after the song. The song has also been recorded by Fire + Ice, Gae Bolg, Bert Jansch, The John Renbourn Group, Pentangle, Martin Carthy, Martyn Bates in collaboration with Max Eastley, the Watersons, Steeleye Span, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, The Minstrels of Mayhem, Oysterband, Frank Black, Chris Wood, Woody Lissauer, Quadriga Consort, Maddy Prior, Heather Alexander, Tim van Eyken and many other performers, most recently by The Sandcarvers (2009).

"St. Louis Blues" is an American popular song composed by William Christopher Handy in the blues style. It remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire. It was also one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song; it has been performed by numerous musicians of all styles from Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith to Glenn Miller and the Boston Pops Orchestra. It has been called "the jazzman's Hamlet". Published in September 1914 by Handy's own company, it later gained such popularity that it inspired the dance step the "Foxtrot".

Since the 1910s, the number has enjoyed great popularity not only as a song but also as an instrumental.

Many of jazz's most well known artists in history have given renowned performances of the tune. The following is an incomplete list of the hundreds of musicians of renown who recorded "St. Louis Blues", chosen as examples that are early in their careers and in the era of its greatest popularity.

1920 Marion Harris
1921 Original Dixieland Jass Band
1922 W. C. Handy
1925 Bessie Smith, backed by Louis Armstrong on cornet and Fred Longshaw on harmonium. One of the most famous versions.
1927 Sylvester Weaver
1928 Al Bernard as "John Bennett" (Madison 1642)[7]
1929 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra with Henry "Red" Allen
1930 Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, the Boswell Sisters
1935 Bob Wills
1939 Benny Goodman
1940 Earl Hines rendition "Boogie Woogie On The St. Louis Blues". Hines can be heard on the recording saying, "Aw, play it till 1954", the year the original copyright was to expire.
1943 Glenn Miller "St. Louis Blues -- March" as played by the U.S. Army Air Force Band, of which Miller was the commander.
1949 Art Tatum
1952 Chet Atkins first of several recordings, on "Chet Atkins and His Galloping Guitar"
1954 Louis Armstrong recorded the song numerous times, including a hard-rocking version on his album Louis Armstrong plays W.C. Handy.
1950s Moon Mullican sang and played the song on the Grand Ol' Opry.
1957 Louis Prima recorded the song on the album The Wildest Comes Home!
1967 Mina sang an orchestra version at italian TV program Sabato Sera (saturday night).
1970 Jula de Palma sang a beat version of this song in a successful concert recorded in the Lp "Jula al Sistina"
1976 The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (album)
1985 Doc Watson recorded the song on the album "Pickin' the Blues" and has played his version for many years.
1998 Stevie Wonder recorded the song on Herbie Hancock's Jazz album Gershwin's World and won the two Grammys for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocals in 1999.
2001 Dexter Romweber
2009 Adam Gussow recorded the song in a youtube performance video. He also has broken the song down and offers it on his website for performing on the harmonica
Other recordings include Louis Prima, Artie Shaw, The Esquire Boys, and "The Merri Men" (a spin-off group from Bill Haley & His Comets). It was also recorded on piano rolls.

"The Wayfaring Stranger" (aka Poor Wayfaring Stranger or I Am A Poor Wayfaring Stranger) is a well-known spiritual/folk song about a plaintive soul on the journey through life. The journey the singer speaks of is the trials and tribulations of life. Home is the final reward of reuniting with loved ones in Heaven in the afterlife

"Poor Wayfaring Stranger" is a traditional folk song of unknown origin. There are many and varied opinions as to its origin. Some of the proposed origins are Appalachian folk, old Irish folk, and Catskills folk. One theory is that it originates from the Negro Spirituals and there was a deliberate concealment of the song's origins. Clearly the song is of a spiritual nature as the Wayfaring Stranger sings of the hardships of his temporal life passing by and refers to his journeying on to a better place. Regardless of its origins, it is a hauntingly beautiful piece of music. This song has been recorded countless times.

Covers:
16 Horsepower
Alison Krauss
Annah Graefe (Click here.)
Bill Monroe
Bob Gibson and Bob Camp
Burl Ives
David Eugene Edwards
Dolly Parton
Duane Eddy
Dusty Springfield on the 2007 DVD 'Live At The BBC'.
Emmylou Harris
Esther Ofarim
Eva Cassidy
Frankie Laine
Gary Morris
H.P. Lovecraft (band)
Jamie Woon
Jack White (from the soundtrack to the movie Cold Mountain)
Jerry Garcia & David Grisman
Jerry Reed
Jo Stafford
Joan Baez
Johnny Cash
Kristin Asbjørnsen
Kristin Hersh (on the In Shock (EP))
Kristin Chenoweth
Leland Martin
Michael Franti
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Natalie Merchant
Neko Case
Papa M
Pete Seeger
Peter, Paul and Mary
Roger McGuinn
Ronnie Hawkins
Strawfoot
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tim Buckley
Tony Rice
Trace Adkins

"The Black Velvet Band" (Roud number 2146) is a traditional English and Irish folk song describing transportation to Australia, a common punishment in 19th century Britain and Ireland. The song tells the story of a tradesman who meets a young woman who has stolen an item and passed it on to him (the lyrics of the song vary from place to place). The man then appears in court the next day, charged with stealing the item and is sent to Van Diemen's Land for doing so. This song was adapted in the United States to "The Girl In The Blue Velvet Band."

While working for the BBC, Peter Kennedy recorded a version in Belfast in 1952. In 1959, a version was found in Australia. The collector G.B. Gardiner noted a version in Hampshire in 1907. An earlier version by the publisher Swindells in Manchester is very wordy, and has no chorus. It places the events in Barking, Essex.

One day, being out on a ramble, alone by myself I did stray,
I met with a young gay deceiver, while cruising in Ratcliffe Highway;
Her eyes were as black as a raven, I thought her the pride of the land,
Her hair, that did hang o'er her shoulders, was tied with a black velvet band.
The publication date of that version is probably between 1837 and 1853.

Covers:
The Irish Rovers on their album The Unicorn.
The Dubliners version reached number 16 on the UK Singles chart in 1967.
Ewan MacColl
Dropkick Murphys on their album Blackout, this version differs slightly from the traditional.
Four to the Bar on their live album Craic on the Road, in a medley with "The Galway Shawl" and "The Wild Rover".
Bill Monroe (as "Girl In The Blue Velvet Band")
Brobdingnagian Bards on their album The Holy Grail of Irish Drinking Songs.
Bakerloo on the compilation Here's To The Irish, Vol. 2.
The High Kings on their album The High Kings.
Seamus Kennedy on his album By Popular Demand.
The Blackwater Boys on the album Irish Drinking Songs Vol. 2.
Harry Cox on compilation album The Bonny Labouring Boy.
Gareth Davies-Jones on his album "Water & Light".
Swagger on their album "Trouble On the Green".

"The John B. Sails" is a folk song that first appeared in a 1917 American novel, Pieces of Eight, written by Richard Le Gallienne. The "secret" narrator of the story describes it as "one of the quaint Nassau ditties,"[1] the first verse and chorus of which are:

Come on the sloop John B.
My grandfather and me,
Round Nassau town we did roam;
Drinking all night, ve got in a fight,
Ve feel so break-up, ve vant to go home.
(Chorus)
So h'ist up the John B. sails,
See how the mainsail set,
Send for the captain—shore, let us go home,
Let me go home, let me go home,
I feel so break-up, I vant to go home.
Whether it was an authentic folk song or one created for the novel is not stated.

Covers:
The Weavers - "Wreck Of The John B" (1950)
The Kingston Trio - "Sloop John B" (1958)
Johnny Cash - "I Want To Go Home" (1959)
Jimmie Rodgers - "Wreck Of The John B" (1960)
The Beach Boys - "Sloop John B" (1966)
Relient K - "Sloop John B" (2007)
Ulfuls - "Sleep John B"
Catch 22 - "Wreck of the Sloop John B" (2000)
Okkervil River- "John Allyn Smith Sails" (2007)

"All My Trials" was a folk song during the social protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on a Bahamian lullaby that tells the story of a mother on her death bed, comforting her children, "Hush little baby, don't you cry./You know your mama's bound to die," because, as she explains, "All my trials, Lord,/Soon be over." The message — that no matter how bleak the situation seemed, the struggle would "soon be over" — propelled the song to the status of an anthem, recorded by many of the leading artists of the era.

The song is usually classified as a Spiritual because of its biblical and religious imagery. There are references to the "Lord", "a little book" with a message of "liberty", "brothers", "religion", "paradise", "pilgrims" and the "tree of life" awaiting her after her hardships, referred to as "trials". There is an allegory of the river Jordan, the crossing thereof representing the Christian experience of death as something which "...chills the body but not the soul." The river/death allegory was popularised by John Bunyan in his classic, The Pilgrim's Progress and the wording echoes the teaching of Jesus, to "...fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." (Matthew 10:28)

One version of lines six and seven, "I had a little book, was given to me,/And every page spelled liberty", could be seen as ambiguous about the identity of the "little book", particularly if read apart from the rest of the song, and it may be taken to mean that "liberty" is both a political and a religious liberty. Irrespective of this, the ultimate hope of liberty, whether heavenly or earthly, is seen by the writer as something that cannot be taken from people, no matter how poor or oppressed they are. There is a specific reference to class divisions and that death is an equalizer: "If religion was a thing that money could buy,/The rich would live and the poor would die".

The song was recorded numerous times by folk artists, including Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, The Seekers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Ray Stevens. Nick Drake and Gabrielle Drake sang it as a duet. Another version of the song, "All My Sorrows," was made popular by the Kingston Trio. A version was also recorded by The Shadows in 1961. A fragment of the song is used in the Elvis Presley anthem An American Trilogy. More recently it was sung by Cerys Matthews on her album Cockahoop. A version of the song was released as a single by Paul McCartney in 1990 and made into top 40 in UK, reaching as high as #35.

"When the Saints Go Marching In" often referred to as "The Saints," is a United States gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The song is a slight modification (in 1927) of the similarly titled song "When the Saints are Marching In" from 1896 by Katharine Purvis (lyrics) and James Milton Black (music). Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band.

A traditional use of the song is as a funeral march. In the funeral music tradition of New Orleans, Louisiana, often called the "jazz funeral", while accompanying the coffin to the cemetery, a band would play the tune as a dirge. On the way back from the interment, it would switch to the familiar upbeat "hot" or "Dixieland" style. While the tune is still heard as a slow spiritual number on rare occasions, from the mid-20th century it has been more commonly performed as a "hot" number. The number remains particularly associated with the city of New Orleans, to the extent that New Orleans' professional football team was named the New Orleans Saints, after the song.

Both vocal and instrumental renditions of the song abound. Louis Armstrong was one of the first to make the tune into a nationally known pop-tune in the 1930s. Armstrong wrote that his sister told him she thought the secular performance style of the traditional church tune was inappropriate and irreligious. However, Armstrong was in a New Orleans tradition of turning church numbers into brass band and dance numbers that went back at least to Buddy Bolden's band at the very start of the 20th century.

The tune was brought into the early rock and roll repertory by Fats Domino and (as "The Saint's Rock and Roll") by Bill Haley & His Comets.

A true jazz standard, it has been recorded by a great many other jazz and pop artists.

It is nicknamed "The Monster" by some jazz musicians, as it seems to be the only tune some people know to request when seeing a Dixieland band, and some musicians dread being asked to play it several times a night. The musicians at Preservation Hall in New Orleans got so tired of playing it that the sign announcing the fee schedule ran $1 for standard requests, $2 for unusual requests, and $5 for "The Saints". (This was in early 1960s dollars. By 2004 the price had gone up to $10.)

This tune and often the words are often used as a popular theme or rallying song for a number of sports teams (see When The Saints Go Marching In in sport).

The Rhodesian Light Infantry, also known as "The Saints", used it as their regimental march.

"Red River Valley" is a folk song and cowboy music standard of controversial origins that has gone by different names—e.g., "Cowboy Love Song", "Bright Sherman Valley", "Bright Laurel Valley", "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", and "Bright Little Valley"—depending on where it has been sung. It is listed as Roud Folk Song Index 756, and by Edith Fowke as FO 13. It is recognizable by its chorus (with several variations):

From this valley they say you are going.
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile,
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That has brightened our pathway a while.
So come sit by my side if you love me.
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
Just remember the Red River Valley,
And the one that has loved you so true.

Edith Fowke offers anecdotal evidence that the song was known in at least five Canadian provinces before 1896. This finding led to speculation that the song was composed at the time of the Wolseley Expedition to the northern Red River Valley of 1870 in Manitoba. It expresses the sorrow of a local girl or woman (possibly a Métis, meaning of French and aboriginal origin) as her soldier/lover prepares to return to Ontario.

The earliest written manuscript of the lyrics, titled "Red River Valley", bears the notations 1879 and 1885 in locations Nemha and Harlan in western Iowa, so it probably dates to at least that era.

The song appears in sheet music, titled "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", printed in New York in 1896 with James J. Kerrigan as the writer.

Covers:
It was recorded by Kelly Harrell under the title "Bright Sherman Valley" (Victor 20527 June 9, 1926).

Woody Guthrie Recorded it for the Asch Recordings April 19, 1944.

The King of Country Music, Roy Acuff recorded the song as well

A version of the song was recorded by Bill Haley and the Four Aces of Western Swing in the late 1940s.

The song was on a 45 RPM record on the Peter Pan label (1950s?).

A version of "Red River Valley" by Jo Stafford and the Starlighters was released in October in 1949. Stafford re-recorded the song for her 1953 Starring Jo Stafford album.

Johnny and the Hurricanes recorded a rock and roll adaptation of the song, Red River Rock, in 1959. It became a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic (#5 in the U.S., #3 in the UK). A remake of this song by British group Silicon Teens is prominently featured in the score for the 1987 film Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

The 1963 Connie Francis hit "Drownin' My Sorrows" (#34) credited to Hank Hunter and Stan Vincent utilizes the tune of "Red River Valley" for its verses. Francis had recorded an outright version of "Red River Valley" for her 1961 album Connie Francis Sings Folk Song Favorites.

"Red River Valley" has also been recorded by Lynn Anderson, the Andrews Sisters, Eddy Arnold, Gene Autry, Moe Bandy, Boxcar Willie, the McGuire Sisters, the Mills Brothers, Michael Martin Murphey, Johnny Ray, Riders in the Sky, Riders of the Purple Sage, Marty Robbins, Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Rogers, Pete Seeger, the Sons of the Pioneers, the Ventures, Slim Whitman, Roger Whittaker, Cassandra Wilson and Glenn Yarbrough.

Johnny Cash wrote and performed a humorous song entitled "Please Don't Play Red River Valley" for his 1966 album Everybody Loves a Nut.

Garrison Keillor often performs the song on his popular radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. It is often sung by the Sons of the Pioneers.

In 2000 Art Paul Schlosser released a version in which he incorporated the last part of the poem "Casey at the Bat" into one of the verses.

The tune was also used to commemorate the Lincoln Battalion, who fought at the Battle of Jarama for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. See "There's a Valley in Spain called Jarama (Song)."

Liverpool Football Club fans also sing a song based on the same tune, called "Poor Scouser Tommy".

The song is known as "hóng hé gǔ" (literally Red River Valley) in China and is much-loved there.

"I've Been Working On The Railroad" is an American folk song. The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894. The earliest known recording is by the Sandhills Sixteen, released by Victor Records in 1927.

The "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" section is actually an older song that has been absorbed by "I've Been Working on the Railroad". It was published as "Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah" in London in the 1830s or '40s, with music credited to J.H. Cave. "Dinah" was a generic name for an enslaved African woman. The melody for this section of the song may have been adapted from "Good Night Ladies", written (as "Farewell Ladies") in 1847 by E. P. Christy.

This song is a very familiar nursery rhyme in Japan, with the same melody but different title and different lyrics. It is known as "Senro wa tsuzuku yo doko made mo" in Japan and it means "The railroad continues forever". The Japanese lyrics describe the happiness of the journey. NHK introduced this version of the song in 1967 in a TV program called "Minna no Uta" (Minna no Uta; Everyone's Songs). This tune is used at the stations on the Hanshin Electric Railway Lines (except Umeda Station) to announce arriving trains and is similarly used at Okayama Station on the Sanyo Line (for Kamigori and Himeji) and the Ako Line (for Banshu-Ako) of West Japan Railway Company.

"(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey", originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" is a popular song published in 1902.

1902 sheet music coverIt is commonly referred to as simply Bill Bailey. Its words and music were written by Hughie Cannon (1877 - 1912), an American songwriter and pianist. It is still a standard with Dixieland and traditional jazz bands.

Among the artists who have covered the song are Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Patsy Cline, Bobby Darin, Brenda Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Phish, Danny Barker, Harry Connick Jr, Renee Olstead and others.

Most commonly it is performed in a truncated version based on the chorus. While the chorus is much more familiar than the verse, some artists continue to perform the verse as well, sometimes as an introduction. Without the lyrics of the seldom heard verse, one doesn't know who Bill Bailey is nor why he isn't home. (An unusual approach is Bobby Darin's version, as he added his own spoken word introduction, as an aside to the mythical Bailey). A traditional arrangement of the song, based on Louis Armstrong's 1965 Paris recording, also follows.

Original
Verse 1
On one summer's day, the sun was shining fine.
The lady love of old Bill Bailey was hanging clothes on the line
In her back yard, and weeping hard.
She married a B & O brakeman that took and throw'd her down.
Bellering like a prune-fed calf with a big gang hanging 'round;
And to that crowd she yelled out loud.

Chorus
Won't you come home Bill Bailey, won't you come home?
She moans the whole day long.
I'll do the cooking darling, I'll pay the rent;
I knows I've done you wrong;
Member that rainy eve that I drove you out,
With nothing but a fine tooth comb?
I know I'se to blame; well ain't that a shame?
Bill Bailey won't you please come home?

Verse 2
Bill drove by that door in an automobile,
A great big diamond coach and footman, hear that big wench squeal;
"He's all alone," I heard her groan.
She hollered through that door, "Bill Bailey is you sore?
Stop a minute; won't you listen to me? Won't I see you no more?"
Bill winked his eye, as he heard her cry:

Chorus
Won't you come home Bill Bailey, won't you come home?
She moans the whole day long.
I'll do the cooking darling, I'll pay the rent;
I knows I've done you wrong;
Member that rainy eve that I drove you out,
With nothing but a fine tooth comb?
I know I'se to blame; well ain't that a shame?
Bill Bailey won't you please come home?

Traditional
Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home
I've moaned the whole night long
I'll do the cookin', honey, I'll pay the rent
I know I done you wrong
You remember that rainy evenin'
I threw you out....with nothin' but a fine tooth comb
Ya, I know I'm to blame, now... ain't it a shame
Bill Bailey, won't you please come home
Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come on home
I've moaned that whole day long
I'll do all the cookin' honey, I'll even pay the rent
I know, that I have done you, oh so, wrong
You remember that rainy evenin'
I throwed you out, with nothin but a fine tooth comb
I know I'm to blame, now... ain't it a shame
So baby, won't you please come
I said now, won't you please come
Bill Bailey, won't you please.... come on home

Roud ID # S169118 and #S169119

"The Memphis Blues" is a song described by its composer, W.C. Handy, as a "Southern Rag." It was self-published by Handy in September, 1912 and has been recorded by many artists over the years.

Handy first published the song as an instrumental. Handy immediately sold it to music publisher Theron Bennett who took it to New York to attempt to promote it. Handy later claimed he had been robbed. In any case, Bennett convinced George "Honey Boy" Evans to use it for his "Honey Boy" Minstrels. Bennett hired professional songwriter, George A. Norton, to write words for it and Evans had his director, Edward V. Cupero, arrange it for his band. Bennett published it a year later but still the sheet music did poorly. Bennett's 1913 publication advertises it as "Founded on W.C. Handy's World Wide "Blue" Note Melody."

It wasn't until Victor Recording Company's (Victor Military Band, Victor 17619, July 15, 1914) and Columbia's (Prince's Band, Columbia A-5591, July 24) house bands recorded the song in 1914 that "The Memphis Blues" began to do well.

"The House of the Rising Sun" is a folk song from the United States. Also called "House of the Rising Sun" or occasionally "Rising Sun Blues", it tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans. Depending on the version, the song may be sung from the perspective of a woman or a man. The most successful version was recorded by the English rock group The Animals in 1964, which was a number one hit in the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden and Canada.

Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun" is uncertain. Some musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads such as the Unfortunate Rake of the 18th century which were taken to America by early settlers. Many of these had the theme of "if only" and after a period of evolution, they emerge as American songs like "Streets of Laredo". The tradition of the blues combined with these in which the telling of a sad story has a therapeutic effect.

The oldest known existing recording is by versatile Appalachian artists Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster and was made in 1933. Ashley said he had learned it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley. Alger "Texas" Alexander's The Risin' Sun, which was recorded in 1928, is sometimes mentioned as the first recording, but this is a completely different song.

The song might have been lost to obscurity had it not been collected by folklorist Alan Lomax. Lomax and his father were curators of the Archive of American Folk Song for the Library of Congress from 1932. They searched the country for songs. On an expedition with his wife to eastern Kentucky Lomax set up his recording equipment in Middlesborough, Kentucky in the house of a singer and activist called Tilman Cadle. On 15 Sept 1937 he recorded a performance by Georgia Turner, the 16 year-old daughter of a local miner. He called it The Risin' Sun Blues. Lomax later recorded a different version sung by Bert Martin and a third sung by Daw Henson, both eastern Kentucky singers. Lomax, in his seminal 1941 songbook Our Singing Country, credited the lyrics to Turner, with reference to Martin's version. According to his later writing, the melody bears similarities to a traditional English ballad, Matty Groves.

Roy Acuff, who recorded the song commercially on November 3, 1938, may have learned the song from Clarence Ashley with whom he sometimes performed. In 1941, Woody Guthrie recorded a version. A recording made by Josh White in 1947 was released on Mercury Records in 1950. In late 1948 Lead Belly recorded a version called "In New Orleans" in the sessions that later became the album Lead Belly's Last Sessions (1994, Smithsonian Folkways). In 1957 Glenn Yarbrough recorded the song for Elektra Records. The song is also credited to Ronnie Gilbert on one of the old Weavers albums with Pete Seeger that was released in the late '40s or early '50s. Frankie Laine recorded the song then titled "New Orleans" on his 1959 "Balladeer" album. Joan Baez recorded it in 1960 on her eponymous debut album. In 1960 Miriam Makeba recorded the song on her eponumous RCA album LSP2267.

In late 1961, Bob Dylan recorded the song for his self-titled, first album, Bob Dylan, released in March 1962. Dylan claims a writer's credit for the song. In an interview on the documentary No Direction Home, Dave Van Ronk said that he was intending to record it at that time, and that Bob Dylan copied his version of the song. He recorded it himself soon thereafter on Just Dave Van Ronk.

I had learned it sometime in the 1950s, from a recording by Hally Wood, the Texas singer and collector, who had got it from an Alan Lomax field recording by a Kentucky woman named Georgia Turner. I put a different spin on it by altering the chords and using a bass line that descended in half steps—a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers. By the early 1960s, the song had become one of my signature pieces, and I could hardly get off the stage without doing it. — Dave Van Ronk

In 1965 in Latin America the Colombian group Los Speakers recorded a version in Spanish called "La casa del sol naciente", which was also the title of their second album. They earned a silver record (for sales of over 15,000 copies), an astronomical number for that time period.

An interview with Eric Burdon of The Animals revealed that he first heard the song in a club in Newcastle, where it was sung by a Northumbrian folk singer called Johnny Handle. The Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry and chose it because they wanted something distinctive to sing. This interview refutes assertions that the inspiration for The Animals' arrangement came directly from Dylan's recording. Regardless, the Animals enjoyed a huge hit with the song, much to Dylan's chagrin when his version was referred to as a cover of The Animals' version—the irony of which was not lost on Van Ronk. Dave Van Ronk went on record as saying that the whole issue was a "tempest in a teapot", and that Dylan stopped playing the song after The Animals' hit because fans accused Dylan of plagiarizing the Animals' version. Dylan has said he first heard The Animals' version on his car radio and "jumped out of his car seat" because he liked it so much. The Chambers Brothers recorded a version on "Feelin' The Blues", released on VAULT records.

Roud Index ID # S178441

"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" is a blues standard, written by Jimmy Cox in 1923. Its lyric, told from the point of view of a one-time millionaire during the Prohibition era, reflects on the fleeting nature of material wealth and the friendships that come and go with it.

Roud Index ID # S301869

The song was first recorded and popularized by Bessie Smith, the preeminent female blues singer of the 1920s and '30s. Since then, numerous cover versions have been recorded. The following is a list of some of the more notable renditions:

Year- Performer- Style
1923 Bessie Smith blues
1927 Julia Lee blues
1927 or 1928 Bobby Leecan & Robert Cooksey blues
1928 Pinetop Smith talking blues
1936 Count Basie Orchestra jazz
1938 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five jazz
1939 Sidney Bechet jazz
1942 Eddie Condon jazz
1945 Josh White blues
1946 Mutt Carey & Hociel Thomas jazz
1946 Lee Collins & Chippie Hill jazz
1948 Leadbelly blues
1958 Juanita Hall blues
1958 LaVern Baker jazz
1959 Nina Simone jazz
1959 Bill Smith jazz clarinet
1959 Scrapper Blackwell blues
1962 Dave Guard And The Whiskeyhill Singers folk
1962 Odetta jazz
1962 Jimmy Witherspoon jazz
1964 Alice Stuart folk
1964 Janis Joplin & Jorma Kaukonen blues
1964 Sam Cooke soul
1965 Liza Minelli pop
1966 Otis Redding soul
1966 The Spencer Davis Group rock
1969 José Feliciano Latin
1969 The Blues Magoos rock
1970 Derek and the Dominos rock
1970 Trader Horne folk
1972 The Allman Brothers Band rock
1973 Tim Hardin folk
1973 George Melly jazz
1975 Rory Block blues
1976 Carrie Smith blues
1976 Vic Dickenson jazz trombone
1978 Alberta Hunter blues
1970s Martin, Bogan & The Armstrongs folk
1980 Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan jazz instrumental
1985 Dick Hyman jazz piano
1985 Chris Barber jazz
1985 Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars jazz
1988 Rod Stewart pop
1988 Danny Barker jazz
1989 Ruth Brown blues
1992 Eric Clapton blues
1993 Billy Joel rock
1997 Don McLean rock
1997 Popa Chubby blues
1997 Andrés Calamaro latin
1999 B.B. King blues
2001 Dave Van Ronk folk
unknown
(released 1993) Big Joe Williams blues