Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
It would have been Phil Och's 85th birthday last Friday. Leslie Fish, who passed just last month, wrote this song for Phil (who she met late in his career).
Leslie was always generous with anyone interested in her work, and responded to the blog post about the song here:
blog.ssokolow.com/archives/2016/07/24/chickasaw-mountain-by-leslie-fish/comment-page-1
This song first appeared on an album of the same name in 1986:
filk.fandom.com/wiki/Chickasaw_Mountain
It was also re-released on the Avalon is Risen album in 2012:
lesliefish.bandcamp.com/track/chickasaw-mountain-a-tribute-to-phil-ochs
#PhilOchs #LeslieFish
Photos of Phil from Tumblr, footage of Leslie from this 1987 concert:
youtube.com/watch?v=haH-qdWyV7U&t=1665s
Purchase my music:
ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com
Website (Lyrics and Chords):
folklounge.org/lyrics-and-chords
It would have been Phil Och's 85th birthday last Friday. Leslie Fish, who passed just last month, wrote this song for Phil (who she met late in his career).
Leslie was always generous with anyone interested in her work, and responded to the blog post about the song here:
blog.ssokolow.com/archives/2016/07/24/chickasaw-mountain-by-leslie-fish/comment-page-1
This song first appeared on an album of the same name in 1986:
filk.fandom.com/wiki/Chickasaw_Mountain
It was also re-released on the Avalon is Risen album in 2012:
lesliefish.bandcamp.com/track/chickasaw-mountain-a-tribute-to-phil-ochs
#PhilOchs #LeslieFish
Photos of Phil from Tumblr, footage of Leslie from this 1987 concert:
youtube.com/watch?v=haH-qdWyV7U&t=1665s
Purchase my music:
ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com
Website (Lyrics and Chords):
folklounge.org/lyrics-and-chords
![The Cruel Mother [ Child Ballad No. 20 ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/W4t2C2Tr84M/mqdefault.jpg "The Cruel Mother [ Child Ballad No. 20 ]
The beautiful painting is by Bertha Wegmann:
https://bruun-rasmussen.dk/m/news/117_berthawegmann
The ballad is on a terrible topic. I have used part of the K and L variants in Child:
https://archive.org/details/englishandscotti01chiluoft/page/n237/mode/2up
This song inspired an album:
https://ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com/album/cruel-mothers
#ChildBallads
Purchase my music:
https://ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com/
Website (Lyrics and Chords):
https://www.folklounge.org/lyrics-and-chords/")
![Earl Brand [ Child Ballad No. 7 ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WTCMQimgR_s/mqdefault.jpg "Earl Brand [ Child Ballad No. 7 ]
I know some purists get upset when I make up new tunes for these ballads, so I have transcribed the tune from John Stokoe and John Collingwood Bruces 1965 Northumbrian Minstrelsy under the title The Brave Earl Brand and the King of Englands Daughter and done my best to at least match some of it.
Northumbrian Mistrelsy:
https://archive.org/details/northumbrianmins0000jcol
This appears in the Francis Child collection with six versions, and what I sing is closest to the A variant:
https://archive.org/details/englishscottishp01chil_0
This appears in William Motherwell, 1827, as The Douglas Tragedy, but starts once the lady is looking over her shoulder:
https://archive.org/details/bib_fict_706109
The thumbnail is from a painting by Agnes Slott-Møller which is titled, Ribold and Guldborg, which is the Danish story/ballad that many scholars suggest as the original source for this collection of ballads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Slott-M%C3%B8ller
Purchase my music:
https://ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com/
Website (Lyrics and Chords):
https://www.folklounge.org/lyrics-and-chords/")
