We are happy to announce that Ellen is releasing recordings from her large archive of music in 2025, many of which have never been officially made public before.
Ellen’s first album since 1958, Go Around Songs, Vol. 1, is out now! It is available on streaming platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and iHeart Radio by following this link to Ellen’s DistroKid page. To purchase a download of Go Around Songs or any of the other singles we’ve released over the last couple of months, visit Ellen’s BandCamp page at ellenstekert.bandcamp.com.
Go Around Songs joins Ellen’s previous 2025 releases, including the two-song Live at Walker Art Center (1975) EP, and the singles “Tomorrow Is A Long Time“, “Went To the Sea” and “Free Goodwill.” There will be more! There are many tapes in Ellen’s archives, and Ellen and her team have been busy getting them ready to have new life in the digital world.
For updates about further new releases, please follow Ellen’s Spotify or Apple Music profiles, or check back on the Music & Performing page here at her website. Have a listen at the BandCamp link below. , and read more about the songs on our blog posts about each release, linked above.
Watch this space for more information on future releases. or follow her on Instagram at @EllenStekert. For inquiries on Ellen’s upcoming musical recordings, contact her producer Ross Wylde at rosswyldemusic@gmail.com.
A short history of Ellen’s musical career
Ellen first made a name for herself as a guitarist and vocalist folk-music scene of 1950s Greenwich Village. where she recorded her first album, 1955’s Ozark Mountain Folk Songs, for Stinson Records. As a Cornell undergraduate in 1956, she made Ballads Of Careless Love in 1956, followed by her collaboration with Milton Okun, Traditional American Love Songs, in 1957. In 1958, the Smithsonian Institution’s Folkways Records released her fourth album, Songs Of A New York Lumberjack, which consisted of songs she learned during her experience as a researcher and folk-song collector in upstate New York. She continued to perform concerts occasionally during her subsequent career as a college professor. Read more on her About page.
Selected discography
• Ellen Stekert, Ozark Mountain Folk Songs Volume One (Stinson Records, c. 1955)
• Ellen Stekert, Ballads Of Careless Love (Cornell Recording Society, 1956)
• Milton Okun And Ellen Stekert, Traditional American Love Songs (Riverside Records, 1957)
• Ellen Stekert, Songs Of A New York Lumberjack (Folkways Records, 1958)
Listen to Ellen’s music
Here are a few songs by Professor Stekert recorded over the years.
“The Jealous Lover”
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack (Folkways Records, 1958). To read more about it, see our recent blog post on the song.
“Dink’s Song”
From Ballads of Careless Love (Cornell Recording Society, 1957). Ellen recorded this as an undergraduate at Cornell University.
“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 (Folkways Records, 1958).
“The Fox”
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack (Folkways Records, 1958).
“The Two Sisters“
From Songs Of A New York Lumberjack (Folkways Records, 1958).
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.”