Songs celebrating the Fourth of July

[For more posts, musical and otherwise, visit The Folktracks Collection.]

To begin, here’s a traditional song, performed by Rosalie Sorrels. Gee I miss her.

A pair of live performances next, from a pair of my favorite songwriters.

David Francy has a unique perspective on the Fourth of July. He was born in Scotland but has lived most of his life in Canada. Luckily, he tours down here regularly. Catch him when you can.

It always amazes, and amuses, me that, when he was in The Blasters, Dave Alvin was considered the guitar player and his brother Phil was the singer. Even in those days, we could tell he was going to develop into one of this country’s finest songwriters. He’s recorded this song several times but, I think, never better than on his “breakthrough” album King of California.