In 2020, I did a series of livestreams on YouTube where I read books aloud every weekday evening. After a few books in the public domain, I got permission from author Steven Brust to read his 1990 sci-fi novel, Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar & Grille. The book is about a folk band and thus references quite a number of songs, and halfway through the reading I decided to make an accompanying playlist so the folks listening could hear the songs being mentioned (and because no one had yet made a complete playlist of songs from the book). Because YouTube has a restrictive character limit, I’ve posted a few thoughts on my choices here. Every song mentioned by title in the book is present, mostly in order of their appearance in the book and noted when not — the few songs I could not find on YouTube are mentioned in italics and unnumbered. If you somehow stumbled on this and didn’t come from the playlist, go listen to it! If you have access to one of the songs listed here that wasn’t available on YouTube, let me know!
UPDATE 05/26/24: Videos have a tendency to disappear from YouTube, so I try to go through this playlist every so often and update them. If there’s a song from the book that isn’t in the playlist (and isn’t mentioned below as being unavailable online), it disappeared since the last update.
- “The Wild Rover,” traditional. I listened to probably a dozen videos of this, and honestly couldn’t find one that seemed like the platonic ideal of the song. This one is lovely, but nobody stamps their feet, so. Three stars.
- “The Little Beggarman,” traditional. There’s a great video of Tommy Makem and the Clancys doing this song on some old TV show, but it starts with a solid minute of the host talking, so I skipped it for the playlist. You should still give it a listen.
- “Arkansas Traveler,” traditional. There are SO many recordings of this song, many of them amazing, most of them instrumental. You might recognize it as the melody of the children’s song “I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee.” I’d never heard this band before, but I picked this one because they reminded me of my favorite group of Seattle buskers from around the same time.
- “The Work of the Weavers,” trad. Look, there are plenty of “good” recordings of this song out there. “Accurate” ones, if you like. But what kind of folk punk musician would I be if I didn’t appreciate those who came before me? I’d never heard of this late-80s English band, but I was charmed by their version, and when I noticed that this video had been played exactly ZERO times in the seven years it has been on YouTube, I had to include it.
— “Jenny, Say You’re Mine” does not seem to actually exist, as far as I can tell. It’s credited to Billy, and if Steven Brust ever wrote the rest of the song, he doesn’t seem to have ever recorded it.
- “Peggy-O,” trad. It’s surprisingly hard to find a version of this song on YouTube that isn’t the Grateful Dead. If you like the Grateful Dead version, well, we’ll say no more about it. I picked this video entirely on the strength of the banjo player’s hat.
- “The Star of the County Down,” trad. Finally, a chance to include a band I know! Well, I know the singer/accordionist. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Renee de la Prade, and she’s an absolute treat.
- “Quare Bungle Rye,” trad. Another Dubliners. I didn’t want to repeat a performer this soon, but the version I really wanted wasn’t on YouTube. I learned this one from a Bay Area maritime band called The Barbary Ghosts – you can hear their version here. Fun Fact: I met and performed with their singer/accordionist, Joan Wilson-Reuter, at a show also featuring the aforementioned Renee de la Prade.
- “I Know You Rider (Woman Blues),” trad. I’d actually never heard this song, but when I learned that the first known recording of it was by a woman, I felt I had to use a woman’s recording.
- “Giant,” Stan Rogers. Finally, one where I didn’t have to make a decision! Just a great tune from a giant of Canadian folk music.
- “Jock Stewart (I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day),” trad. Brust (or Billy, anyway) refers to the song as “Jack Stewart” in the book, but I assume he’s referring to this tune. I generally prefer the rowdier versions of this song, but given that the band plays this while in mourning, it seemed fitting to choose a slower one. Never heard of this group, but I absolutely love the vocal performance.
- “Tom O’Bedlam,” traditional. I learned a LOT about this song trying to pick one for this playlist. Basically: There are two poems from the 17th/18th centuries that are often sung as folk songs, and which are called things like “(Mad) Tom O(f) Bedlam”; the original anonymous poem was called “Tom O’Bedlam,” and a response poem was written around 1720 called “Mad Maudlin’s Search for Her Tom O’Bedlam.” When sung they’re sometimes referred to by the same title, or combined, but the most common thing you find is the text of “Mad Maudlin” recorded with the title “Tom O’ Bedlam.” I eventually added one of those, because I genuinely could not find a version with the original poem’s text on YouTube. As I mentioned on the stream, there’s a great version recorded under the name “The Ballad of Mad Tom” by a Seattle-based Irish musician named Connor DunWorley; unfortunately his version isn’t on YouTube or for sale anywhere, but it is available to stream. His version is almost entirely the text of the original poem, with one verse from “Mad Maudlin.” I can’t be sure which one Brust intended, or whether the version he learned was one or the other or a combination. Folk music! Sometimes it be like this!
- “Darlin’ Corey,” trad. I put this one out of order, because I wanted the ‘wake’ section of the playlist to play in order. I almost picked the Pete Seeger version, but I’m a sucker for vocal harmony.
- “The Maid of Ballydoo,” trad. What should appear at this point in the playlist is “Mrs. Rockett’s Pub,” (words by Tommy Makem, music traditional), but I’ve never been able to find a recording. It’s hard to accept that any song by such an illustrious musician as Tommy Makem isn’t available online, but this one doesn’t seem to have ever been recorded by anyone (if you have a recording of it, put it on YouTube!) When I first made the playlist, I couldn’t even figure out the name of the traditional it was set to, but in 2024 I found the website for Tommy Makem’s son, Rory; his band lists it as a song they perform and mentioned that it was to the tune of “The Maid of Ballydoo,” which Makem did record. Makem’s lyrics are below, so you can imagine him singing them:
As I walked out one evening near a place they call Tramore
My legs were very tired and my feet were very sore
I was feeling very thirsty after eating salty grub
When lady luck directed me to Mrs. Rockett’s Pub
Chorus:
Here’s a health to Mrs. Rockett and it’s long she may remain
To quench the thirst of travellers in sun and snow and rain
Her porter is the creamiest, her whiskey pure and sweet
You may search the pubs of Ireland, Mrs. Rockett’s can’t be beat
There were some men drinking whiskey punch and others pints of beer
And some were drinking porter and they all were in good cheer
And ladies sipping sherry wine, the finest ever seen
And an old lad in the corner, he was eating a crubeen
The Pope may praise the Vatican, the Queen praise Buckingham
There’s some may praise the Taj Mahal or a palace in Siam
And all the lords and ladies, they may boast about their club
But they needn’t think they’ve lived at all, ’til they’ve been to Rockett’s Pub
- “Another Time & Place,” Dave Van Ronk. Only the third song on our list that didn’t spring forth from the earth fully formed (as we all know ‘traditional’ songs do).
- “Follow Me Down/Up to Carlow,” trad. Apparently how you sing the title line of this song depends on where you are in relation to Carlow when you sing it — or where the person who taught you the song was from.
- “Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road,” Woody Guthrie. Billy refers to this song as “Goin’ Down That Old Dusty Road,” but I’m going to assume this is what he meant. It certainly seems like the kind of song Souci would hate.
- “The Moving On Song,” Ewan McColl. I’ve heard a few Ewan McColl tunes (notably “The Shoals of Herring,” which I’ve seen elsewhere credited as traditional), but this was a new one for me!
— Another song not available for streaming on the internet: “Been There Before,” Adam Stemple. I’m not sure if this was a solo song, or from one of the bands he’s been in, but in four years of occasionally searching, I’ve yet to find any mention of it online that I didn’t make myself. - “Sailor’s Hornpipe,” trad. I was very tempted to include the clip from Alice in Wonderland of the Dodo singing this one, because I’m a scamp. But Bill Monroe’s version is probably a lot closer to how it would sound when Billy played it.
- “Tennessee Rag,” George McDade and Henry Watterson. I nearly drove myself crazy looking for a specific version of this song that I could have sworn I had in my collection. Couldn’t figure it out, but Chet Atkins and Doc Watson are a worthy consolation prize.
— “Chesterfields” is mentioned at this point, as a song the band works on just before Christian comes over to jam with Billy for the first time, but I couldn’t figure out what song Brust meant. If anyone thinks they know the song, please let me know! - “Cumberland Blues,” Doc Roberts. Near as I can tell, Doc Roberts did in fact write this one. I could have used his version, but I figured why not get someone who’s still alive some streaming money?
- “Stealin,” traditional or Gus Cannon, depending on who you believe. This song sure has been recorded by a lot of white people, huh? I figured whether Cannon wrote it or not, the Memphis Jug Band version was a solid choice.
- “Mama Tried,” Merle Haggard. Love me some Merle. There’s also a cover of this by Boston folk punk band Bread & Roses that I love — for very different reasons than the original.
- “Isn’t It Grand, Boys,” trad. I tried not to have two Clancy songs in a row, but honestly…how could I pick any recording but this one?
- “When I Was Young,” trad. This one is a children’s song, so there aren’t many recordings of it to choose from that aren’t tediously saccharine. Apologies that it’s a 13-minute medley!
- “The Newry Highwayman,” trad. I’m stoked to have a chance to include Karan Casey on this playlist. Her solo album Chasing the Sun was a huge influence on me.
- “Nancy Whiskey,” trad. I knew I had to fit Shane MacGowan in here somewhere!
- “Johnston’s Motor Car,” Willie Gillespie. This song is listed as traditional in the book, but I thought that seemed unlikely, given that it’s about a car. But when the book was published in 1990, Steven didn’t have the benefit of Wikipedia! Now I can say with relative confidence that it was written by Irish poet Willie Gillespie, about the real-life commandeering of a doctor’s car by the Irish Republican Army in 1921. The original title is “Johnston’s,” though most recordings of it say “Johnson’s.”
- “I’ll Tell Me Ma,” trad. This is basically the platonic ideal of an Irish folk song, in my book. My brother and I once played as the house band in an immersive theater show set in a brothel in 1893, and this was in our repertoire. I’d never heard of Josh O’Keefe, but this playlist didn’t have many solo performances yet and I liked the informal feel of the recording.
- “Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go” or “Wild Mountain Thyme,” lyrics Robert Tannahill, music traditional or Francis McPeake. Researching this song led me to learn that it was not, in fact, written by Robert Burns. Please respect my family’s privacy during this difficult time.
- “O’Donnell Abu,” music traditional, lyrics by Michael Joseph McCann (1843).
- “More Thumbscrews,” Steven Brust. The second song credited to Billy but actually written by Brust, but this time I could actually find it! The song was recorded by Brust’s band Cats Laughing (with fellow authors Adam Stemple and Queen of ’90s Fantasy Emma Bull). Bless the one person who made a fanvid for it on YouTube!
- “The Agricultural Irish Girl,” J.F. Mitchell (I didn’t do deep research, but the Library of Congress seems convinced based on a broadside published in 1885). I love “a big, fine, strong, lump of a girl” as a compliment. A fun faux traditional written for the late 19th century music hall performer Walter Munroe, as far as I can tell.
- “The Outlaw Rapparee,” Seamus McGrath, Tom Brett, Michael O’Brian, and James English. This song was made famous by the Clancys, and I think one of the writers was a Clancy nephew, but it’s credited as traditional in many places.
- “Sir James the Rose,” traditional or Michael Bruce, depending on who you ask. I’m not going to lie: I’m not a big fan of Steeleye Span, plus I wanted a solo vocal version to match Jamie singing it in the book. But there aren’t many other recordings on YouTube, and it seems likely this was the version Brust learned the song from, so there you go.
- “The Earl O’ Moray,” traditional. Originally I had a modern recording of this by a group called Said the Maiden on the playlist, but in 2023 I learned this song for a Valentine’s Day show of all murder ballads, and I fell deeply in love with this recording by The Corries. Vocal harmony does not get better than this.
- “Brennon on the Moor,” traditional. What a breathtaking rendition of this song. I am a sucker for a raw solo performance like this, of the sort you might hear someone sing informally in a pub. I once sang “The Brown and Yellow Ale” this way at a show, and an Irish woman in the audience told me I’d made her homesick. What better compliment is there? I’d never heard of Jeannie Robertson, but near as I can tell this was a field recording by Alan Lomax from the 1950s.
— The next lyrical epigraph in the book is “Up the long ladder and down the short rope, to hell with King Billy and God bless the pope,” credited as a traditional called “Up the Long Ladder.” And though there are many, many references to this chant [including in the medley of children’s songs earlier in this playlist], I couldn’t find an actual song. - “Cripple Creek,” traditional. I’ve tried to avoid any videos with talking in them for this playlist, but I was entirely too charmed by this performance and Newman’s explanation of the banjo as “a big frying pan on a stick.”
- “The Black Velvet Band,” traditional. Since this song is the epigraph for Carrie’s intermezzo, where we learn she wanted to be a singer, I thought a performance with an emphasis on vocals was due. Plus, the acoustics captured in this performance are amazing.
- “The Wild Colonial Boy,” traditional. I’ve always heard this song performed in a mournful way, but I thought this lively performance was better suited to its place in the story, leading up to the big fight.
- “The Mermaid,” traditional. Great Big Sea is one of those bands I’d heard of for years and years, before finally hearing their music and going, “Wait, I love this?? Why didn’t I listen to them sooner?!” Glad to get a chance to squeeze them in.
- “Peter’s Song,” Tommy Sands. Weirdly, I misremembered this one as traditional, but still ended up choosing Tommy Sands’ original recording. When I got to the end of the book and read the note on ‘traditional’ songs, I realized I’d made the right choice by accident!
- “Botany Bay,” Wilhelm Meyer Lutz (possibly based on an older folk song). This one is credited as ‘traditional’ in the book, and it’s thought of that way now, but apparently the song (at least as we know it) was written for a musical originally staged in 1885. I thought this old fella’s version was really sweet.
- “The Ballad of Casey Deiss,” Shawn Phillips. The book says “Sean” and “Dies,” but this upload says “Casy,” so we’ll let it slide.
- “Old Joe Clark,” traditional. There were a lot of great versions of this as an instrumental, but I wanted to find one that had some of the lyrics too. Plus these folks look like the kind of people I might end up jamming with in someone’s backyard.
- “Blackjack David,” traditional-ish. This is a variant of a folk song (Roud 1, Child 200) more commonly known as “The Raggle Taggle Gypsy,” but the version that’s more common in the states is pretty far removed in the ‘original’ lyrics.
- “Red-Haired Mary,” Sean McCarthy. Credited as traditional in the book, but I found a few sources attributing it to Sean McCarthy, an Irish songwriter active in the ’40s and ’50s. His home village of Finuge in County Kerry holds a festival in his honor every year, so they’re convinced at least!
- “Reilly’s Daughter,” traditional. Not choosing the Makem/Clancy version of these songs is getting exhausting!
- “Sister Golden Hair,” America. Even though this song isn’t played or quoted in an epigraph, it felt significant. Weirdly, I had never heard this song before, and discovered that the verse melody is almost identical to the Ted Leo song “Counting Down the Hours.”
- “Johnny Is a Roving Blade,” Tommy Makem, probably. The book credits this to Makem, but I couldn’t find a recording by him or the Clancys. It was published in a songbook called “The Songs of Tommy Makem” in 1988, which doesn’t include any songs I know for a fact are traditional, and does include “Mrs. Rockett’s Pub,” so it’s possible that it’s another original he never got around to recording. This Celtic rock band based in Japan genuinely seems to be one of only two bands to have ever recorded it.
- “The Parting Glass,” traditional. A fitting end to the list. The first couple of videos I looked at for this credited their arrangement to the Wailin’ Jennys, and their performance is lovely and beautifully sad, so I looked no further.
And that’s all there is. You can still listen to the live readings in this playlist if you wish — it’s not an audiobook per se (I add a lot of commentary, interact with the chat, and talk to my roommate and my cat), but I do read the full text of the book. Until there’s a proper audiobook released (fingers crossed!), I’ll keep these videos available.