Folk Songs About Money

[played for the 2008 Wall Street bailouts]
Bruce Springsteen\ Pay Me My Money Down\ We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions\ Sony
Cannon's Jug Stompers\ Money Never Runs Out\ The Best Of Cannon's Jug Stompers\ Yazoo
John Gorka\ Land of the Bottom Line\ Land Of The Bottom Line\ Windham Hill
Sally Rogers\ Gone To The Dogs\ We'll Pass Them On\ Red House
Lyle Lovett\ M-O-N-E-Y\ Live In Texas\ Curb/MCA
Woody Guthrie\ Do-Re-Mi\ This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol. 1\ Smithsonian Folkways
Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco\ Dump The Bosses\ Fellow Workers\ Righteous Babe

Del McCoury's title track from "Moneyland" is on-target.  (McCoury Music, July 8, 2008)
And there's Tom Paxton's "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler" about a famous bailout of the 1980s.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" by Yip Harburg. Performed by Leon Redbone
  also Deborah Holland (The Panic Is On) and Priscilla Herdman (Forgotten Dreams)
  and Peter Yarrow on "Hard Times"
Woody Guthrie "Pretty Boy Floyd"
Robin & Linda Williams' release "Buena Vista" has "When A Thread Gets Caught"
Gordon Bok: Broken Down Squatter

[currency]
John Reischman & the Jaybirds\ A Dime in My Pocket\ Stellar Jays\ Corvus
Etta Baker \ One-Dime Blues \ One-Dime Blues \ Rounder
Jody Stecher And Kate Brislin \ Seventeen Cents \ Stay Awhile \ Rounder
Bob Carlin \ I Had But Fifty Cents \ The Boys of North Carolina \ Car Tunes
Chris Stuart And Backcountry \ Dollar Bill Blues \ Mojave River \ Backcountry
Gillian Welch - One More Dollar - Revival - Almo
Andru Bemis\ Two Dollar Bill\ Rail To Reel\ Wepecket Island

[gold]
The Starlings\ Gold Dust\ Songbook\ Self

From John Kalb:
Peter Mayer - Easy Street
   Elements - Blue Boat
Hugh Blumenfeld - Mozart's Money
   Mozart's Money - Prime CD
reg Brown - Worrisome Years
   Down in There - Red House
Paul Kamm & Eleanore MacDonald - Money Town
   Fields of Elysian - Freewheel
Patty Griffin - Poor Man's House
   Living with Ghosts - A&M
Sandy Denny - One Way Donkey Ride
   Who Knows Where the Time Goes? - Hannibal
Emmylou Harris - Hard Times
   At the Ryman - Reprise
Lucinda Williams - Satisfied Mind
   Ramblin' - Smithsonian Folkways
Peter Mayer - Why Pay Your Money
   Uncrowded Sky - Summit
Tracy Chapman - Mountains O' Things
   Tracy Chapman - Elektra
Peter Himmelman - Impermanent Things
   From Strength to Strength - Epic
Dave Mallett - How Much More
   This Town - Vanguard
Bob Dylan - I Pity the Poor Immigrant
   John Wesley Harding - Columbia
Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum - Millionaire
   The Oak and the Laurel - Rounder
Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers
   Fogarty's Cove - Fogarty's Cove
Nanci Griffith - Do Re Mi
   Other Voices/Other Rooms - Elektra
Michael Smith - Dead Egyptian Blues
   Michael Smith/Love Stories - Flying Fish
Richard Shindell - Money for Floods
   Reunion Hill - Shanachie
Jane Gillman - Three Quarters
   Jane Gillman - Green Linnet
Mollie O'Brien - Love, Life and Money
   Things I Gave Away - Sugar Hill
Tim Hardin - Lady Came from Baltimore
   Reason to Believe (The Best of) - Polydor
The Roches - On the Road to Fairfax County
   Keep on Doing - Warner Bros.
Willis Alan Ramsey - Ballad of Spider John
   Willis Alan Ramsey - DCC/Shelter
Michael Smith - Ballad of Dan Moody
   Michael Smith/Love Stories - Flying Fish
Robert Earl Keen - Jesse with the Long Hair
   A Bigger Piece of Sky - Sugar Hill
David Bromberg - The Holdup
   The Best of David Bromberg - Columbia
Joni Mitchell - Raised on Robbery
   Court and Spark - Asylum
Rickie Lee Jones - Easy Money
   Rickie Lee Jones - Warner Bros.
Joan Armatrading - Opportunity
   Show Some Emotion - A&M
John Hiatt - Trudy and Dave
   Slow Turning - A&M

Additional song suggestions? Email Richard Gillmann


Folk Music Song Themes Last modified