Goodnight Irene (with Ansel Barnum)

The music starts at 1:01 – before that is a whimsical rambling by Binomial Bill who introduces himself along with Ansel Barnum‘s twin brother “Julius” on harmonica. This duo was famously known as “Barnum & Billy”… but they weren’t famous, and Ansel doesn’t actually have a twin brother.

It’s a live performance, and the MP3 file is dated 2008. The audio on this recording is very low quality, but it’s still charming – don’t ya think? Higher quality audio recordings of Barnum & Billy can be heard on Ansel Barnum‘s mini album titled: Barnum & Billy Circus

“Goodnight Irene” was first recorded by Lead Belly in 1933 while he was a prisoner at Louisiana State Penitentiary. That recording was made possible by American music archivist John Lomax (father of Alan Lomax). The full original recording of the song seems impossible to find on the internet… but part of it can be heard starting at 1:53 of this NPR segment.