Ellen’s recording career goes back more than 70 years, to the height of the first great folk-music revolution of the 1950s. In the past few years, she and her team have been remastering works from her large archive of music, many of which have never been officially made public before. Below, you can explore her latest releases, as well as the original classic albums. (Most of the new stuff is available for sale on Bandcamp, so please check that out if you’re so inclined.) Enjoy!
Recent releases by Ellen Stekert
Ballads of Careless Love
Practically unheard since its original release 70 years ago, Ellen’s 1956 folk album is now available once again!
Go Around Songs, Vol. 1
Ellen’s first album since 1958 collects material from concerts and other performances from the 1960s and ’70s.
Go Around Songs, Vol. 2
This treasure trove of previously unreleased live and home recordings spanning four decades includes the lost Woody Guthrie song “High Floods & Low Waters” and much more.
Ballads Are News: Live On Camera Three
Originally taped for the CBS news program Camera Three, this recording features several of Ellen’s good friends and fellow folk legends: Jean Ritchie, Oscar Brand, Dave Sear, and The New Lost City Ramblers. Includes Ellen’s duet with Jean Ritchie on “Santa Barbara Earthquake.”
Reverend Gary Davis: The Ellen Stekert Tapes
A historic discovery: a lost 1951 tape of legendary blues and gospel guitarist Reverend Gary Davis, believed to be his earliest known home recording, found in Ellen Stekert’s personal archive.
Other music by Ellen Stekert
Milton Okun & Ellen Stekert, Traditional American Love Songs
Ellen collaborated with Milt Okun on this album of folk songs released by Riverside Records in 1957. While Ellen went into academia, Milt became a well-known producer and arranger, particularly for Peter, Paul & Mary. You can hear some of the songs below.
Songs Of A New York Lumberjack
This 1958 album released by Smithsonian Folkways Records features Ellen’s interpretations of the songs she learned from Ezra “Fuzzy” Barhight, a guitarist and singer who was also, in fact, a New York lumberjack. You can hear some of the songs below. This album is available via Smithsonian Folkways’ website, where you can also read Ellen’s liner notes on the album that discuss her experiences with Fuzzy and the history of the songs.
More music by Ellen
Various singles, one-off recordings, and other material that Professor Stekert recorded over the years.
“The Jealous Lover”
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack. To read more about it, see our recent blog post on the song.
Pete Seeger at Cornell University, May 16, 1957
Ellen joins Mr. Seeger for part of this concert that took place in Cornell’s Willard Straight Hall in Ithaca, New York. She can be head with Pete on “It Takes a Worried Man” and “Banks of the Ohio.”
“The Associate Professor’s Lament”
Ellen singing at a concert at Madonna College in Livonia, Michigan on April 2, 1967. Thanks to the Michigan Traditional Arts Program.
“The Cumberland and the Merrimac”
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack.
“The Fox”
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack.
“The Two Sisters”
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack.
“Pat Murphy of the Irish Brigade“
From the compilation Songs of the Civil War (Folkways Records, 1960), available via Smithsonian Folkways’ website.
Milt Okun & Ellen Stekert, “The Cambric Shirt (Child 2)”
From Milt and Ellen’s 1957 duet album Traditional American Love Songs. Their version of this traditional song found in Francis James Child’s 19th-century collection English and Scottish Popular Ballads may have been a direct inspiration on the well-known take by Simon & Garfunkel.
Jan Brunvand and Ellen Stekert, “A Sun Valley Song”
From the compilation The Unfortunate Rake (Folkways Records, 1960), available via Smithsonian Folkways’ website.
Other works of interest
Sarah Ogan Gunning, Girl of Constant Sorrow
Ellen was a close friend of this Kentucky folk singer and labor activist, and took the photograph that adorns her 1965 album for Folk-Legacy Records. It’s currently available for purchase via Smithsonian Folkways’ website; the liner notes talk about some of Ellen and Sarah’s work together.