"Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show. The song is meant to be performed in a slow tempo; it is sung complete once in the musical's lengthy first scene by the stevedore "Joe" who travels with the boat, and, in the stage version, is heard four more times in brief reprises. Joe serves as a sort of musical one-man Greek chorus, and the song, when reprised, comments on the action, as if saying, "This has happened, but the river keeps rolling on anyway."
"Ar Hyd y Nos" is a Welsh song sung to a tune that was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784). The most commonly sung Welsh lyrics were written by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832-1887), and have been translated into several languages, including English and Breton. One of the earliest English versions, to different Welsh lyrics by one John Jones, was by Thomas Oliphant in 1862.
"Cotton-Eyed Joe" is a traditional American country folk song popular at various times throughout the United States and Canada, although today it is most commonly associated with the American South. The song is mostly identified with the 1994 Rednex version, which became popular worldwide. The song is also an instrumental banjo and bluegrass fiddle standard.
"I'll Fly Away" is a hymn written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley and published in 1932 by the Hartford Music company in a collection titled Wonderful Message. Brumley's writing was influenced by the 1924 secular ballad, "The Prisoner's Song".
"Man of Constant Sorrow" is a traditional American folk song first published by Dick Burnett, a partially blind fiddler from Kentucky. The song was originally titled "Farewell Song" in a songbook by Burnett dated to around 1913. A version recorded by Emry Arthur in 1928 gave the song its current titles.
The Wayfaring Stranger may refer to:
The Wayfaring Stranger is an album consisting of three 10-inch, 78 rpm records by Burl Ives released on Asch in 1944. It should not be confused with Ives' 1944 album for Columbia Records (C-103) – also called The Wayfaring Stranger and itself a re-release of a 1941 album on Okeh Records – which contains different songs. The Asch album includes the first releases of two signature songs by Ives: "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" and "The Blue Tail Fly."
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", also "Motherless Child", is a traditional spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States.
Aoife O'Donovan is an American singer and Grammy award-winning songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still and she also co-founded the Grammy Award-winning female folk trio I'm with Her. She has released three critically acclaimed studio albums: Fossils (2013), In the Magic Hour (2016), and Age of Apathy, as well as multiple noteworthy live recordings and EPs, including Blue Light (2010), Peachstone (2012), Man in a Neon Coat: Live From Cambridge (2016), In the Magic Hour: Solo Sessions (2019), and Bull Frog's Croon (2020). She also spent a decade contributing to the radio variety shows Live from Here and A Prairie Home Companion. Her first professional engagement was singing lead for the folk group The Wayfaring Strangers.
We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder is an African American slave spiritual based in part on the Biblical story of Jacob's Ladder. It was developed some time before 1825, and became one of the first slave spirituals to be widely sung by white Christians. A number of artists have recorded notable versions of it, and it was used as one of the main themes in the critically praised documentary The Civil War.
"Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Pete Seeger, Fred Neil, Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Cisco Houston as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley. The song tells the story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him the most.
Craig Leon is an American-born record producer, composer and arranger currently living in England. Leon was instrumental in launching the careers of many recording artists including the Ramones, Suicide, Talking Heads and Blondie.
Charles Davis Tillman —also known as Charlie D. Tillman, Charles Tillman, Charlie Tillman, and C. D. Tillman—was a popularizer of the gospel song. He had a knack for adopting material from eclectic sources and flowing it into the mix now known as southern gospel, becoming one of the formative influences on that genre.
"What Wondrous Love Is This" is a Christian folk hymn from the American South. Its text was first published in 1811, during the Second Great Awakening, and its melody derived from a popular English ballad. Today it is a widely known hymn included in hymnals of many Christian denominations.
The Broken Circle Breakdown is a 2012 Belgian drama film directed by Felix van Groeningen with a screenplay by Carl Joos and van Groeningen. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels.
"Down in the River to Pray" is a traditional American song variously described as a Christian folk hymn, an African-American spiritual, an Appalachian song, and a Southern gospel song. The exact origin of the song is unknown. The most famous version, featured in O Brother Where Art Thou?, uses a pentatonic scale, common in many African American spirituals.
"Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)" is an African-American spiritual that was first printed in 1899. It was likely composed by enslaved African Americans in the 19th century.
"I Am a Pilgrim" is a traditional Christian hymn from the United States, first documented in the mid-19th century. It forms part of the repertoire of gospel, folk, and bluegrass artists.
Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra is an internationally-touring English-language bluegrass ensemble from Oslo, Norway, who have been nominated for a Norwegian grammy, and featured as international showcase artists.
