Mike Seeger - "Walking Boss" [Live at Folkways Studio 2007]

For over fifty years, Mike Seeger has been a musician, documenter, and tireless advocate of American folk and traditional music. As a musician, he recorded as a solo artist and member of folk revival ensemble the New Lost City Ramblers. As a collector, he has captured and produced sounds by iconic artists such as Elizabeth Cotten and Dock Boggs. And finally, as a historian and preservationist of the music he calls "old-time," Mike Seeger gives us the stories behind the music that is such an essential part of American culture. Here he performs and gives the history of "Walking Boss," a tune Thomas Clarence Ashley learned from African American railroad workers at the turn of the 19th century. Hear more music by Mike Seeger on 'Southern Banjo Sounds,' available on CD and digital. Stream/download/purchase: Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu/mike-seeger/southern-banjo-sounds/american-folk-old-time/music/album/smithsonian Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1eu6pWUjAob9T9VZKg2D3p?si=0WzCwvkGQ8-9DKDNYnkV_A A survey of traditional Southern banjo techniques, styles, instrumentals and songs played solo on a variety of 23 mostly vintage banjos. Styles range from 19th-century African-American Mississippi style to a song played in the style evolved in the 1940s by Northern Carolinian Earl Scruggs. Recorded and annotated by Mike Seeger. For an appreciation of Mike Seeger (1933-2009): https://folkways.si.edu/mike-seeger-american-folk-revivalist-and-historian/music/article/smithsonian Mike Seeger: http://mikeseeger.info Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smithsonianfolkwaysrecordings Twitter: https://twitter.com/Folkways Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smithsonianfolkways The content and comments posted here are subject to the Smithsonian Institution copyright and privacy policy (www.si.edu/copyright). Smithsonian reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove any content at any time.

Added 14 Jun 2026