Covered in Kidfolk, Vol. 6: Movement Songs for Runners, Dancers, and Wiggleworms

After two years of dance class, my elder daughter decided this year to switch over to Yoga. Meanwhile, her sister is a budding musical theater fan, one who takes to preschool sing-and-dancealongs as easily as she does craft projects. Neither comes from particularly athletic genepools - my wife and I were chorus and theater geeks, not track and field stars -- and given their natural tendencies, they're not about to turn into the kind of kid who rules the schoolyard. But the common thread is clear, I think: both have a strong affinity for being in motion.

The practice of movement is healthy for kids. Studies show that kids who experience rhythm often enough are better able to recognize and work with patterns later in life; there is, it turns out, a direct correlation between Math SAT scores and the study of dance and musicmaking at a young age. I also think that kids who learn to move in time with music learn to know their bodies better, in ways which can make it easier to think of exercise as natural, and to have respect for other connections of mind and body.

I'm proud of my kids for their love of movement, and nurture it as I can. They love bluegrass music, and can be caught kicking up their heels in their carseats when it plays, so I always make sure to keep some ready wherever we go. I chase them, as good Daddies do, and try to teach them to dance as long as I've got the energy to do so. We walk to the dam spillway, and fish; I show them how casting, too, has its body rhythms, and how those rhythms might match the drift of the bobber as the water pulls our hooks downstream, and how the slow jerk and rest of the spinner can make the hook dance under the water.

Mommy's approach to bedtime is to help the kids settle into slow mode, using warm bath and storytime and lullabies as a mechanism for sleepiness, but I'm a big fan of exhaustion: when it's Daddy's turn to put them to bed, we crank up the danceable tunes, and have a good and gleeful bodyrhythm session around and around the coffeetable.

Previously, of course, we've covered both high-octane and sleepytime sorts of music in our Covered in Kidfolk series, but our focus back then was on tempo and emotional tone; since then, my kids have grown just enough to be able to better attend to the explicit messages of lyric and rhythm together. Today, then, a few tunes, the vast majority of them from the public domain, which explicitly encourage movement of various sorts, from running and walking to swinging, riding, and jumping that our kids might better consider moving their bodies as a vital part of their abilities, and know the various ways that such movement can be accomplished.

• Run Molly Run: Sweet Honey in the Rock (trad.)
  This great a capella gospel folk take on an old folksong comes from Grammy-winning African American female roots cooperative Sweet Honey in the Rock; though it's been on plenty of compilations, the song was first released way back in 1994 on I Got Shoes. A slow start to a set of movement songs, but call it a warm up.
  
  
• Dave Alvin: Walk Right In (orig. Gus Cannon; pop. The Rooftop Singers)
  Not technically a kidsong, but something I learned as a kid, and subsequently one of those movement songs I will forever associate with childhood. This relatively stately cover by Dave Alvin comes from his 2000 Grammy-winning folk recording Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land.
  
  
• Colin Meloy: Dance to Your Daddy (trad.)
  A dark waltz from Colin Meloy's 2006 tour-only EP of Shirley Collins "covers", most of which were originally traditional britfolk. The tinkly xylophone here seems to encourage slow, stately twirling in my own children, as if they were ballerinas atop a music box.
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell: Skip to My Lou (trad.)
  
• John McCutcheon: Skip to My Lou (ibid.)
  Two very differently-paced takes on what might just be the most famous skipping song in the kiddie canon. Cover Lay Down favorite Elizabeth Mitchell's typically delicate, lighthearted take comes from her breakthrough kids album You Are My Sunshine. Meanwhile, the John McCutcheon is the version that I used to swing my elderchild around to, back when it was just the two of us. McCutcheon is so old-school, his website address is actually folkmusic.com.
  
  
• Sonny Terry : Pick a Bale O' Cotton (trad.)
  Folk-style harmonica wizard Sonny Terry gave this old "jump down turn-around" fieldfolk worksong an authentically old-school makeover with jangly guitar, harmonica, a percussive shaker, and a couple of harmony vocalists straight out of the thirties. Found on Music for Little People collection Big Blues: Blues Music For Kids, which runs a great gamut, and is a steal at $7.99.
  
  
• Erin McKeown: Thanks for the Boogie Ride (Buck/Mitchell)
  Given the tight-buttoned era from which retro swingfolk artist Erin McKeown pulled the source material for her pre-1950s covers album Sing You Sinners, there's surely some sort of innuendo buried in this track, if you look deep enough. But on the surface, it's about boogying, and riding, a high-energy celebration of travel and ride-sharing perfect for kids on the go.
  
  
• Michelle Shocked w/ Taj Mahal: Jump Jim Crow (trad.)
  Though it has roots in the early blackface minstrel shows of the early eighteen hundreds, like the other older songs on Michelle Shocked's 1992 release Arkansas Traveler, this jangly song manages to recapture the song as true-blue folk while stripping out much of the racism, and recontextualizing the rest as historically truthful.
  
  
• Plain White T's: When I See An Elephant Fly (orig. Disney)
  Speaking of crows, this song is famous from Dumbo, where it was performed by a set of racist stereotypes that just wouldn't fly in today's world. Disneyfied acoustic popgroup the Plain White T's would be perfectly legitimate folk, if the suits behind them didn't insist on presenting them as a kind of pre-plugged radiopop act.
  
  
• New Lost City Ramblers: Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss (trad.)
  Another song about flying, since my kids asked for that form of movement song first and repeatedly when I mentioned I was posting this entry. Old-timey folkband the New Lost City Ramblers creates a great bluegrassy energy here; in our house, this means full-speed sprint-dancing and plenty of glee, so watch out for the furniture.
  
  
• Dan Zanes feat. Loudon Wainwright III: All Around the Kitchen (trad.)
  A movement song that coaxes kids to dance along, first collected by John and Alan Lomax in the thirties, and now one of my favorite tracks on the aptly-titled 2003 release Family Dance from ex-Del Fuegos founder and Covered in Kidfolk series favorite Dan Zanes, who has remade himself as the forefather of cool for kids and families over the last decade.

Cover Lay Down publishes new folkfeatures and coversets Sundays, Wednesdays, and the occasional otherday.

Covered in Folk: Bob Marley (Xavier Rudd, Magnet, Luka Bloom, Kings of Convenience, 8 more!)

A few weeks ago over at collaborative music blog Star Maker Machine I had the opportunity to share Bob Marley's Stir It Up -- a song which I maintain is one of the great summersongs of all time, in spite of its subversive political undertones. In my accompanying post, I noted that:

Bob Marley's greatest hits release Legend may have been just a posthumous compilation, but it was a perfect, complete set; it caught fire upon its release, bringing the sound of reggae full-bore into mass culture for the first time. Some of this was surely timing -- the album was released in May, and the songs rode up and down the charts like an elevator all summer long, moving virally and fluidly among those of us at summer camp, and catching fire in the schoolyard upon our return. 



But the album was also a timely signifier of authenticity for a growing dissatisfied American underclass left out of the Yuppie movement. College students bought the album in droves. The album went platinum ten times, and set what would appear to be an unbreakable benchmark as the highest selling reggae record ever. By the time I hit high school a few years years later the dreadlocked poster was perfectly familiar; so were the chunky beats, the fat bass, and the loose, rough-hewn vocal harmonies of the Wailers coming from a summer boombox.

I stand by that assessment: even today, the image of Bob Marley retains a particular young person's mark of countercultural, slyly adversarial legitimacy in the US -- whether or not those who choose to post Marley's head upon their dormroom wall realize that there is fire there, not just smoke and rolling papers.

But though the Star Maker Machine model favors the shortform, since that post, I've been looking for an opportunity to explore Marley's legacy on a larger scale. Because sifting through my folk archives in preparation for that elseblog post, I was struck by how many great Marley covers have come to us from musicians outside The States.

My own experience aside, if the unusually broad geographical diversity of today's coverfolk is any indication, Bob Marley's music and the message of peace and social justice it carries has spread to every corner of the globe. And why not? Americans may like to think that Jamaica (like everywhere else) is some sort of colony, but Marley is no more ours than anyone's. And, perhaps more significantly, Marley's truths are universal messages of hope and solidarity, relevant everywhere that people gather together as folk.

Here, then, a set which explores that broader significance. Our "genre" tags are all over the map, from the Irish singer-songwriter vibe of Luka Bloom to the upbeat indiepop sound of Norwegian folktronic solo artist Magnet. Marley classic Three Little Birds gets the lion's share of offerings, with four vastly diverse takes: the hushed, fragile lo-fi indiefolk of Birmingham, Alabama experimentalists 13ghosts, the joyous acoustic kidfolk of New Yorker and Cover Lay Down favorite Elizabeth Mitchell, the Zydeco stylings of Keith Frank and the live bossa-reggae beat of Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil.

The mellow Australian jamfolk of Bonnaroo favorite Xavier Rudd stands in stark contrast to the traditional Okinawan folk sound that Nenes uses to flavor their stunning all-female interpretation of No Woman No Cry. Omar Sosa and Richard Bona's Afro-Cuban Jazz cover of Redemption Song is full and hopeful; late countryman Johnny Cash and UK post-punk Joe Strummer bring the weary weight of age to their own spare take on the same song.

Regular readers know I don't usually go for live covers, especially those clearly recorded from the audience, but for this amazingly mellow, sparse take on Waiting in Vain from Norwegian indiefolk darlings Kings of Convenience, recorded just two months ago in Seoul, I'll gladly make an exception. And though I was tempted to skip Scottish vocalist Annie Lennox's languid vocal pop as "not folk", I couldn't help but include it alongside, for contrast's sake.

There's other covers out there, of course. But taken as a set, today's gems fit our own "greatest hits" modality of quality over quantity, while serving as a survey of worldbeat folk from far-flung places. And I can think of no better way to show the true influence of Bob Marley, as a challenge to those who might mistake their collegiate associations for the broader impact of this musical genius. Enjoy.

• Luka Bloom, Natural Mystic
  (from coveralbum Keeper of the Flame)
  
  
• Magnet, She's Gone
  (from The Simple Life)
  
  
• Xavier Rudd, No Woman, No Cry
  (from Solace)
  
  
• Nenes, No Woman, No Cry
  (from Putumayo's Cover the World cover collection)
  
  
• Gilberto Gil, Three Little Birds
  (live 2004; from Electracustico)
  
  
• 13ghosts, Three Little Birds
  (from Cicada)
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Three Little Birds
  (from You Are My Little Bird)
  
  
• Keith Frank & The Soileau Zydeco Band, Three Little Birds
  (from Putumayo's Caribbean Playground collection)
  
  
• Omar Sosa and Richard Bona, Redemption Song
  (unknown source; via I Am Fuel, You Are Friends)
  
  
• Johnny Cash w/ Joe Strummer, Redemption Song
  (from Unearthed III: Redemption Songs)
  
  
• Annie Lennox, Waiting In Vain
  (from Medusa)
  
  
• Kings of Convenience, Waiting in Vain
  (live from Seoul 4/08; youtube source here)

Like what you hear? As always, links above lead to artist-preferred sources wherever possible; please, support these artists and others by following links and buying their music. And, as always, if you know of other folk covers you think belong in this rarified crowd, send 'em along, either through comments or via email.


Still haven't had your fill? Today's bonus songs are halfcovers -- one a two-song medley, the other an original a Damien Rice cover intertwined with a Bob Marley cover (thanks, Kathy!) -- from two very different ends of the American folkworld: Jack Johnson's barefoot surf folk and the delicate, experimental pianofolk of Benjamin Costello. Together, they help us see how, even within a single culture's use of Marley's songbook, there is more than meets the blurry eye.

• Jack Johnson, The News/Natural Mystic (Johnson/Marley)
  
• Benjamin Costello and Keiran King, Older Chests/Redemption Song (Rice/Marley)

Cover Lay Down posts regularly on Wednesdays, Sundays, and the occasional Friday and holiday; upcoming posts include folk festival previews, new album reviews, and other great songs from the coverfolk purview. I also recommend Star Maker Machine, where the gathering crowd shares over thirty songs a week on a given theme; my own recent posts include the originals and multiple coverversions of both Daniel Johnston's Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievance and Monty Python's Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.

PS: looking for some Father's Day Coverfolk? Try Covered in Kidfolk: Daddy's Little Girl for some still-live coversongs for fathers and daughters!

Covered in Kidfolk, Vol. 5: Barnyard Tunes and Critter Songs for Cool Moms and Dads

I grew up in the suburbs, where wildlife was scarce, though we had our share of squirrels and birds, and the occasional rabbit sighting in the backyard. When we wanted to see larger animals, we generally headed out to Drumlin Farm, a working farm run by the Audubon Society, where caged birds of prey lined the path to the chick hatchery, the pigs and sheep gave birth every spring, and you could always spot the queen in the glass-lined, thin-sliced beehive, if you looked long enough. There was a pond, too, for crawdad spotting. Well worth the membership, and the half hour drive.

These days, we live in the country, where turkeys congregate around corners year round, and the neighborhood dogs roam aimlessly throughout our lives. Round these rural parts, Spring brings a whole mess of animals into the yard, from the new baby robins that nest in our holly bush to the frogs, toads, and salamanders that scatter when the kids run through the tall grass and hollows. On weekends, it's a five minute jaunt through the woods to the dam and its shady, overgrown waterways, where turtles, ducks, and beavers play in the water, and the fish practically jump on the hooks the moment we throw our lines in.

On hot days, we head up the hill to Westview Farm, where the new baby goats skitter up and down the concrete barriers, butting heads and bleating; in the evenings, the mother cow in the grazing field across from our driveway lows to her new calf. This year, the neighborhood has even been graced by a family of foxes; we haven't seen the mother and her kits yet, but the father runs past our windows and down into the growing darkness just about every day towards suppertime.


The world of kidsong is chock full of songs about animals, and for obvious reasons. A healthy child's life is full of nature, and nature is full of life. Too, the developing awareness of what it means to be alive, and be part of a world full of other things that are alive, is an important part of child development; songs which portray the various relationships we have with animals -- both wild and domesticated -- help prepare us to think deliberately about our world, and our place in it, as we grow up to become parents of our own.

Today, in service to this aspect of development, we present a sprawling collection of animal coversongs from my growing kidfolk cache. Most predate the phenomenon of song authorship. And with artists such as Tim O'Brien, Nickel Creek, Garcia/Grisman, and Seldom Scene lead singer Phil Rosenthal on the list, the set skews towards the bluegrass, but I make no apologies for this; it is only very recently, with the advent of the NYC indie bluegrass scene, that bluegrass has begun to leave behind it's associations with rural community and farmlife, and this makes it good solid folk music in my book.

But regardless of origin, as with all previous entries in our Covered in Kidfolk series, the point here is to provide a respite from the cheesy, cloying pap that passes for mainstream children's music, that we might -- as cool moms and dads -- stay true to ourselves while providing our children with music that befits their age, and their emotional and developmental needs. I think this particular set hits the mark admirably. Whether these songs speak of the swamp or the barnyard, the woods or the stream, each is wonderful, in both the usual sense and in the older sense of the word: full of the wonder which we should nurture in every child, and in ourselves.

• Tim O'Brien, Man Gave Names To All The Animals (orig. Bob Dylan)
  
• Townes Van Zandt, Man Gave Names To All The Animals (ibid.)
  Dylan's origin story of domestication is usually read as a subtle dig at the human tendency to name (and subsequently claim) what should be wild. Here, bluegrass master Tim O'Brien brings the song a rocksteady mandolin and accordian, while Townes Van Zandt breaks it down into a walking guitar blues; both retain the slightly sinister reggae-beat undertone, as befits the original subtext. From O'Brien's Red on Blonde and Van Zandt's Roadsongs, respectively.
  
  
  
• Nickel Creek, The Fox (trad.)
  
• Nickel Creek, The Fox (live; ibid)
  A rollicking jam from these young members of the newgrass renaissance. The original, from Nickel Creek's self-titled debut, is light and airy; the faster-paced live take from Austin City Limits includes a bit of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, just for fun.
  
  
  
• Taj Mahal, Little Brown Dog (trad.)
  Acoustic bluesman Taj Mahal brings the perfect dreamlike quality to this short, sultry, jangly flight of fancy, in which dogs dwell in music boxes, and horses sneak into his room in the middle of the night and carry him away to Mexico. From his 1988 kid's album Shake Sugaree.
  
  
  
• Roger McGuinn, Old Blue (trad.)
  In 1995, one-time folkrock god and The Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn began recording one traditional folk song each month, posting them free on his website along with liner notes; ten years later, he compiled 100 of his favorite tracks onto a wonderful CD set called the Folk Den Project. His version of this traditional tribute to a long-gone hound dog post-dates the CD, but its repetitive trope, played out with banjo and rhythmic handclaps, gives it an appropriately timeless folk feel.
  
  
  
• Pete Seeger, Fly Through My Window (trad.)
  Simple banjo plucking and Pete Seeger's prematurely ancient vocals were a major part of my earliest folk experiences. From Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes (Little and Big), a combined set of two old, old recordings of animal folk songs that was part of the inspiration for today's collection.
  
  
  
• Sweet Honey in The Rock, Did You Feed My Cow (trad; arr. Ella Jenkins)
  Long-standing, Grammy award-winning a capella gospel folk group Sweet Honey in The Rock takes on highly prolific early kidfolk artist Ella Jenkins' comprehensive re-arrangement of this old chanted chestnut on Smithsonian Folkways' awkwardly named but generally excellent tribute recording cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins.
  
  
  
• Buckwheat Zydeco, The Crawfish Song (trad.)
  We featured Buckwheat Zydeco's take on kidsong (and animalsong) Skip To My Lou way back in December, when our Subgenre Coverfolk series took on Zydeco music. Here, on the eminently diverse collection A Child's Celebration of Folk Music, he brings his high-energy swamp-pop accordion sound to another kid classic, with similar success.
  
  
  
• Laurie Berkner, Froggy Went a Courtin' (trad.)
  Laurie Berkner has made her name as a performer of kidfolk, but don't hold that against her: it may be cheerfully delivered, but like the bulk of her work, this take on traditional kidsong has all the upbeat coffehouse singer-songwriter charm that one could ask for. Collected via Putamayo's Folk Playground collection.
  
  
  
• David Grisman and Jerry Garcia, There Ain't No Bugs on Me (trad.)
  A playful, silly song from these two grizzled and greyhaired masters of a particular backporch sound. From 1993 release Not For Kids Only, which isn't.
  
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Ladybug Picnic (orig. Sesame Street)
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Shoo-Fly (trad.)
  It just wouldn't be a Covered in Kidfolk without our favorite kidfolk interpreter Elizabeth Mitchell, a darling of the Smithsonian Folkways catalog who, along with her husband Daniel Littleton, also doubles as an indierocker under the band name Ida. Here, in her tenth appearance on Cover Lay Down, she remakes a pair of beloved bugsongs for kids.
  
  
  
• Phil Rosenthal, Turkey in the Straw (trad.)
  
• John McCutcheon, Turkey in the Straw (ibid.)
  What would a kidfolk post about animal songs be without that song we all had to square dance to in Kindergarten class? Ex-Seldom Scene lead vocalist and official Connecticut State Troubadour Phil Rosenthal comes across with a guitarist's old-timey take on this old square dance tune from his own label; the seldom-heard lyrics turn out to be about all sorts of animals. Meanwhile, prolific singer-songwriter and family music pioneer John McCutcheon's use of hammered dulcimer, banjo, and fiddle here makes for a more appalachian sound, though his explanation of how bands work makes this eminently kidfolk.

As always, folks, links above go to label- and artist-preferred sources for purchase, not some faceless and inorganic megastore. If you like what you hear, buy, and buy local, to help preserve the little spaces, for the little people you love.

Covered In Folk: (Not) The Grateful Dead (on Borrowed Tradsongs and the Dead as a Vehicle of Renewal)

Naturalismo, which I discovered when researching last week's post on Freak Folk, seems to be one of very few music bloggers to note the passing of Alton Kelley -- the sixties poster artist whose most popular work was probably the above skeleton-with-rose-garland poster, originally created for a 1966 Grateful Dead show at the Avalon Ballroom. You may not have seen the poster before, but you've seen the graphic it inspired on a hundred Volkswagen bumpers; the image, which Kelley and his long-time partner Stanley Mouse adapted from a nineteenth century illustration for The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was the source from which the Grateful Dead took their early, longstanding, most recognizable iconography.

The relative dearth of recognition in the blogworld at Kelley's passing, coupled with the evolutionary story of the iconography of the skeleton in that poster, got me thinking about the similarly under-covered relationship between the Dead themselves and the folk tradition. I'm particularly interested in the way the Dead, like Kelley and Mouse's skeleton itself, served as a bridge between the images and objects of the past and the ongoing recognition of those objects in the present. If the skeleton reframed the imagery, the Dead reframed the tradition. And that's pretty folk, right there, folks.

I'm not claiming that the Grateful Dead are folk music, necessarily, though their credibility in the folkworld is pretty strong. The combination of their use of traditional appalachian folksong as source material and their pre-history as jug band artists align them closely with the bluegrass that preceded them, and the newgrass movements which would follow. And their tendency towards acoustic sideprojects, their use of acoustic instrumentation and folk instruments, their connection with the same hippie movement which brought forth and nurtured the second wave of the new folk revival post-Guthrie and Dylan, and their not-so-occasional stripped down performance makes a strong case for their inclusion in the folk canon.

Jerry Garcia's solo work and influence, especially, are a major component of this; by most accounts, though others in the band co-wrote their share of originals, it was Garcia who learned the majority of these traditional ballads and jams, on train rides and on back porch sessions, and brought them in for the band to arrange. And while his bandmates went on to play music across the genre map, both on hiatus and in the more recent aftermath of his death -- it's hard to argue that the solo output of, say, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, or Bruce Hornsby count as folk in any shape or form -- it was Garcia who would become almost as well know for his more delicate acoustic mandolin and guitar work with compatriots such as David Grisman.

One day, it is my intention to give that Garcia and Grisman folkwork the full attention it deserves. And previously, I've posted several sets of songs more properly characterized as bluegrass which follow the Grateful Dead take on tradition: two wonderful newgrass takes on Deep Elem Blues; a Single Song Sunday collection of covers of Rain and Snow; a great high-energy version of Grateful Dead "standard" Don't Ease Me In. But it's never to late to do more, especially in tribute. Today, a few traditional songs played by others from the less countrified side of the folkworld, post-popularization by the Grateful Dead, and in most cases, surely influenced by same.

• Bill Morrissey w/ Greg Brown, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me
  (from Inside; done by the Grateful Dead as "I've Been All Around This World")
  
  
• Greg Brown, Samson
  (from Honey in the Lion's Head, which is out of print but can be purchased digitally here; done by the Grateful Dead as "Samson and Delilah")
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Goin' Down The Road
  (from You Are My Sunshine; done by the Grateful Dead as "Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad")
  
  
• Abigail Washburn, Nobody's Fault But Mine
  (from Song of the Traveling Daughter; done intermittently by both the Dead and Garcia solo)
  
  
• Bill Staines, I Bid You Goodnight
  
• Zak Smith, We Bid You Goodnight
  (from Bill Staines' Bridges and the website of newcomer Zak Smith, respectively; done a capella by the Grateful Dead as an encore/show closer for many years)

I considered adding a few more traditional songs of and from the Grateful Dead playbook here as a bonus, but it's Friday, and we only do short posts here at Cover Lay Down on "off" days. Luckily, several recent and especially relevant posts on other (better) blogs are still live and worth the visit. So quick, before they're gone:

• Anyone's Guess has versions of Rosa Lee McFall from Garcia/Grisman and the Dead
  
  
• The Leather Canary has the abovementioned I've Been All Around the World as done by both The Grateful Dead and by new countryrockers The Deep Dark Woods
  
  
• For The Sake of the Song says Bob Dylan probably learned Viola Lee Blues from the Dead, and he's probably right.

PS: Much credit goes to the Grateful Dead Lyric and Song Finder as a general resource for today's post. As the plethora of links here and elsewhere remind us, the folkworld would be a much poorer place were it not for the obsessive pursuits of others.

Carolina Coverfolk, Vol. 2: The Songs of Elizabeth Cotten

North Carolina is rich in history and broad in geography, stretching from warm beachfront majesty to the base of Appalachia. That it holds a dominant place in the history of folk music is due in part to its cultural diversity, and in part to its situation midway up the coast, along the route that folk strands might have once traveled from North to South and back again. This combination of factors has made it an influential locus and crossroads for several southern folk movements of the last century, including branches of the blues, appalachian music, and strains of bluegrass, and other early rural folk forms.

Rather than give the musicians and musical forms of this diverse region shorter shrift than they deserve, instead of our typical biweekly megaposts, this week we offer several shorter features on the coversongs of and from a few North Carolinan songwriters who made their mark on folk music long before the sixties transformed American folk from cultural phenomenon to a true genre. It is a tribute to their indelible influence and stellar songwriting that that these songs are still treasured in performance today.

Today, we begin our journey with the songs of Elizabeth Cotten (1896? - 1987; born Carrboro, North Carolina).

---

Like many early folk musicians born at the turn of the century, Elizabeth Cotten had two careers: one in her early years, as a self-taught blues folk prodigy, and one later in life, when the folk revival of the fifties and sixties drove a desperate effort to recover and record the authentic sounds of early American folk forms before they could be lost to the ages. Cotten's story of rediscovery is especially notable for its serendipity: though a few of her songs had taken on a life of their own in the hands of other blues and folk musicians during the forties, Cotten herself had quit making music for twenty five years, only to be rediscovered in the sixties while working as a housekeeper for the Seeger family.

Cotten's strong songwriting and original upside-down "Cotten picking" guitar style, with its signature banjo-like low-string drone and alternating fingerpicking bass, would eventually result in a star turn on seminal disks and collections from the Smithsonian Folkways label, many culled from home recordings made under the reel-to-reel direction of Mike Seeger in the nineteen fifties. The support of the Seegers and others, and the subsequent success of her first album, the 1957 release Folksongs and Instrumentals, brought her onto the folk circuit, where her unique sound influenced the burgeoning folk movement, and where her songs would be heard, recorded, and passed along by the likes of Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

In the end, though only four albums of her original material were ever released, Cotten remained a celebrated member of the folk touring scene into her late eighties, winning a Grammy in 1985 for Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording for Elizabeth Cotten Live! a year after being named a "living treasure" by the Smithsonian. Her music continues to be celebrated today for its timeless and distinctive qualities, and for the way it speaks to a childhood among the simple folkways of the rural North Carolina south. And her influence as a songwriter, a guitarist, and an artist echoes in the work of generations.

Today, a few covers each of two of Cotten's most familiar songs: two fragile kidfolk versions of Freight Train, which was written when Cotten was eleven, and a full set of folkvariants on the timeless Shake Sugaree, from the hearty tones of folk blues legends Chris Smither and Taj Mahal to the delicate second-wave folk field recordings of indie newcomer Laura Gibson and the previously-featured grunge-folk goddess Mary Lou Lord.

• Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Freight Train
  (from Not For Kids Only)
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Freight Train
  (from You Are My Flower)
  
  
• Mary Lou Lord, Shake Sugaree
  (from Got No Shadow)
  
  
• Taj Mahal, Shake Sugaree
  (from Shake Sugaree)
  
  
• Laura Gibson, Shake Sugaree
  (from a priceless live hinah session; more Gibson here)
  
  
• Chris Smither, Shake Sugaree
  (from Another Way to Find You)

As always, artist and album links above lead to the most authentic, the most honest, and the most local places to buy music: from the artists and labels themselves. The Elizabeth Cotten originals, especially, are core must-haves for any true tradfolk collector; pick up her three solo albums at Smithsonian Folkways.

Assuming the weather doesn't keep knocking out the network, stay tuned throughout the week for a short half-feature on Bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs, and a piece on the work of Doc Watson, yet another North Carolina fingerpicker. Meanwhile, I'l be sitting on the back porch, local brew in hand, watching the sun set over the sound and the North Carolina mainland, while the wild deer and the goslings root for grub in the low grass below. Y'all come back now, y'hear?


[UPDATE 4/27: Great minds think alike: head on over to For The Sake of the Song for an almost-simultaneous post on Shake Sugaree that includes the seminal Fred Neil cover and the Elizabeth Cotten original!]

Spring Has Sprung: Soft Coversongs of Hope and Renewal

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, and someone forgot to tell the sky.

In the morning, says the weatherman, the world will turn to slush. And if we are truly blessed, all our sins will be washed away.

Outside the snow sulks in great mounds where the plows have pushed it aside. Hard ice falls on three-inch shoots and tufts of new grass. We stay up late, and sit by the window together, and wait for the rains that do not come.

Send rain, O Lord. For it has been a hard Winter, and we are ready for Spring.

• Mary Chapin Carpenter, Spring & All (orig. Greg Brown)
  A beautiful, pensive portrait of rural loss and reclaimation from Going Driftless: an Artist's Tribute to Greg Brown; go get more Mary Chapin Carpenter here.
  
  
• Erin McKeown, They Say It's Spring (Clarke/Haymes)
  Sultry acoustic swing from Queen of Quiet Erin McKeown. From her album of classic american jazz and vaudville standards Sing You Sinners.
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Winter's Come and Gone (orig. Gillian Welch)
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Pom Na Tu Ri (Springtime Outing) (Korean folksong)
  Tiny, delicate Springsongs from You Are My Little Bird, one of our three most favorite albums from kidfolkie Elizabeth Mitchell.
  
  
• Cassandra Wilson, Waters of March (orig. Antonio Carlos Jobim)
  
• Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan, Waters of March (ibid.)
  Two vastly different interpretations of Jobim's now-standard Brazilian folktune: a sparse, acoustic take by Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan off the Goldfish Memory soundtrack, and the spicy smooth jazzpop of Cassandra Wilson's Belly of the Sun.
  
  
• Ann Percival, Tide and the River Rising (orig. Cindy Kallet)
  
• Ann Percival, Green Grow the Rushes Oh (trad.)
  A pair of my favorite spring tunes from clear-voiced Contrafolk vocalist Ann Percival's sole solo album The Sweetest Hours.
  
  
• Greg Brown, Green Grows The Laurel (trad.)
  A bittersweet stand-out track from bullfrog-voiced Greg Brown's underrated collection of traditional folksongs Honey in the Lion's Head.
  
  
• Emmylou Harris w/ Ricky Skaggs and Dolly Parton, Green Pastures (trad.)
  Spring pastures as metaphor for Heaven. Great authentic countryfolk gospel from prolific coverartist Emmylou Harris' 1980 album Roses in the Snow, now available in remastered form.

Happy Spring, everyone. May the darkness turn, and the world turn green and alive for each of us.

Covered in Folk: Neil Young (Of Tribute Albums and Female Indiefolk)

I have a love/hate relationship with Neil Young. While I’ve always loved his early work, both solo and with CSNY, as my ears and his voice age, I find it harder to listen to that infamous whine for more than a few minutes at a time. But ever since I wore a used copy of his incredible, confessional album Harvest down to the groove one mopey adolescent summer, I have had nothing but admiration for Neil Young’s ability to pen poetic yet straightforward songs which give voice to the plight of the powerless and the disaffected in modern American culture.

Young gets his share of covers, though next to Dylan, Paul Simon, and Bruce Springfield, the prolific folk-rocker’s songbook is hardly what we could call well-represented. And given his lyrical bent, it’s unsurprising to find that most of the best covers have emerged from the indie and folk worlds, where musicians and audiences generally share both Young’s socio-political dissatisfaction and his fluid fondness for making music in both acoustic and electric forms. It’s not like my life has been a series of Neil Young-related disappointments.

However, where it’s easy to find strong tribute albums of Springfield or Dylan, as albums, the few Neil Young tributes I’ve encountered have been less than memorable. Last year's Uncut (UK) magazine freebie Like A Hurricane had some excellent folk artists on the roster, but all but three of those songs had been previously released, and back issues are hard to come by. Other, older tributes, like late eighties alt-rock release The Bridge, had a few good cuts, but with a few exceptions (Sonic Youth, The Pixies), The Bridge is generally considered a set of tepid work from some otherwise incredible artists.

Which makes Cinnamon Girl: Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity a long-overdue splash of vibrant life in an ocean of mediocrity. This new two-disc set features well-crafted Neil Young covers lovingly recorded by women who, like the previously featured Mary Lou Lord, live and play at the intersection of folk and alternative rock. The songs run the gamut from acoustic folkpop to indiefolk to electrified alternative, and unlike most multi-artist tribute albums, they fit together smoothly, making for a great and well-balanced listen from cover to cover. This is the tribute album Neil Young has deserved for most of his long and prolific career.

The proof is in the posting: I had originally planned to post this entry earlier, but the nice folks at American Laundromat let me take my pick of the collection, and I spent the first week trying to winnow down a two-CD set of great tracks to something manageable. Even after skimming off amazing songs like Luff's great grungy Tell Me Why, Eurotrash's alt-pop title cut, and Veruca Salt's post-punk Burned -- all of which, while amazing examples of indiegirl altrock in their own right, fall outside even a liberal interpretation of folk -- I had to make some hard choices in selecting which songs to share.

You’ll have to buy the album for Lori McKenna's countryfolk version of The Needle and the Damage Done, a dreamy rock anthem from Kristen Hirsh, a balanced, edgy cover of Heart of Gold from Tanya Donelly, the sweet indiefolk harmonies of the Watson Twins and Elk City, and more. But ultimately, I think I've selected a short set of streams which represent the breadth and excellence that is Cinnamon Girl.

No downloads here, folks, though I’ve dropped a few in the bonus section below. But don’t skip ahead. Press play below to hear Jill Sobule’s banjo-tinged folkrock, Kate York's breathy alt-country jam on Comes A Time, the fragile Aimee Mann-like voice-and-piano folkpop of Amilia K Spicer, and my favorite track of many, Dala’s subtle, sultry cover of A Man Need a Maid.

Kate York, Comes A Time


Jill Sobule w/ John Doe, Down By The River


Dala, A Man Needs A Maid

Note: song has a long fade-in...

Amilia K Spicer, Only Love Can Break Your Heart


Told you so. Now head over to American Laundromat to pick up your copy of Cinnamon Girl today. All proceeds go to Casting for Recovery, which provides fly fishing retreats for breast cancer survivors.

While you're there, take a look around. American Laundromat is an excellent label which specializes in pretty much all the things I like: tribute albums, the music and culture of the late eighties, and some of the best indie voices in the business. If nothing else, take a few minutes to listen to "American Laundromat radio", where you can hear Lori McKenna's cover of Peter Gabriel's classic In Your Eyes, among other tracks from their great and growing stable of tribute albums.


Today’s bonus coversongs offer up some more Neil Young tributes from the acoustic singer-songwriter branch of the femfolk world:

• Carrie Rodriguez's slow southernfolk Cortez The Killer
  
• A more etherial Cortez The Killer from Marissa Nadler
  
• Kidfolk fave Elizabeth Mitchell does a sweet Little Wing
  
• Breathy Emily Haines does a great pianofolk Expecting To Fly
  
• The Indigo Girls rock out live to Down By The River
  
• Ubiquitous, clear-voiced Emmylou Harris covers Wrecking Ball
  
• Folktrio The Wailin' Jennys bring their sweet harmonies to Old Man...
  
• ...and to slow mandolin-and-bass lullaby Barefoot Floors

Still need more Neil Young coversongs? Cover Me's cover-by-cover reconstruction of Neil Young's On The Beach includes some great cuts from across the musical spectrum, including Jeff Tweedy and The Be Good Tanyas. Act quick, because the links are due to go down in the next week or two.

I Have A Dream: Coversongs of the Civil Rights Movement

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

It saddens me how much Dr. King's I Have A Dream speech continues to resonate today. Sad, too, that so much of the rising generation thinks of today as just another day off.

May these few still, small, unsatisfied voices in the wilderness remind us of how far we have come -- and how far we have yet to go.

• Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome (trad./Seeger)
  (from Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger)
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, This Little Light of Mine (trad.)
  (from You Are My Flower)
  
  
• Gordon Downie, If I Had A Hammer (orig. The Weavers)
  (from Peace Songs II)
  
  
• Andrew Bird, I Shall Not Be Moved (trad.)
  (from Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook, Vol. 4)
  
  
• James Taylor, A Change Is Gonna Come (orig. Sam Cooke)
  (from an episode of West Wing; more James Taylor here)

Covered In Folk: Gillian Welch (Glen Phillips, Ryan Adams, Alison Krauss, Crooked Still)

Hope no one minds an early "Sunday" post this week; my brother and his wife are on their way in from Brooklyn for the long weekend, and I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. I'll have a short post up for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, if I can; in the meantime, enjoy today's feature on "American Primitive" folkartist Gillian Welch and her partner David Rawlings, the tenth post in our popular Covered in Folk series, where we pay tribute to the songwriting talents of a single artist.

I saw Gillian Welch at the Green River Festival a while back, and it was a revelation. From ten rows back, her summer dress blowing in the hot breeze, her twanged voice, the doubled guitars, her narratives of Southern poverty and pain, all conspired to bring the hot scent of jasmine and Southern dust on the breeze even as we lounged on the New England grass. The crowd swelled. The rest of the afternoon passed in a haze.

Though it was her vocal talents in O Brother, Where Art Thou which put her on a mass-marketable par with Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris, it was clear to anyone watching that, as a musical phenomenon, Gillian Welch was a force to be reckoned with in the growing americana folk movement.

More often than not, Gillian Welch is the performing name for two musicians, Welch herself and her ubiquitous partner David Rawlings; when they work with others each gets billing, but in performance as a duo, the pronoun "she" is the standard convention. Welch appears as frontwoman, and can certainly stand her own as a powerful force in a particular subgenre of american folk music, but they share writing credit on many songs, and their harmonies -- vocal and guitar -- are notable and recognizable.

And what is the Gillian Welch sound? Welch's voice is well-suited for the raw, backporch paces she puts it through; together, as songwriters and performers, these two musicians build on this vocal base to create an americana sound Welch calls "American Primitive", something simultanously sparer and more richly nuanced than anything a solo artist could do with guitar or voice. Call it old-timey folk -- unproduced and jangly, sparse and stripped down from the more traditional old-timey sound of groups like Old Crow Medicine Show, Welch and Rawlings' musical compatriots and touring partners.

There are times when Gillian Welch sounds like an old Alan Lomax field recording, something timeless, raw and elegant in its simplicity and honest rough presentation. The lyrics, too, tend towards the trope and narrative themes -- rural life, loss and hardship -- of early American southern field folk. Given all that, it's no wonder that over the last decade or so, since even before the release of debut album Revival in 1996, the folk end of the americana movement has begun to pick up her songs and give them the traditional treatment.

Today, some select covers from the increasingly vast spectrum of sound that pays tribute to this weathered, shy, still-young matriarch of the new americana folk set. Interesting, how many retain the original Welch/Rawlings close harmonies, as if the tenor echo were as much a part of the original text to be covered as the powerful words, melody, and chord. Perhaps it is.

• Crooked Still, Orphan Girl
  
• Emmylou Harris, Orphan Girl
  
• Dakota Blonde, Orphan Girl
  Crooked Still hops with cello, banjo and bass; Emmylou Harris fills out the sound in her inimitable style; newcomers Dakota Blonde mourn a life alone with accordian and guitar and drumthunder. The infinite possibility of nuance and power keeps this oft-covered, well-worn tune fresh, despite its weary lyric.
  
  
• Ryan Adams, Revelator
  
• Glen Phillips, Revelator
  Two electrified covers which take this heavy tune to its natural folk rock conclusion. Alt-country rocker Ryan Adams' shortened version, off the Destroyer Sessions, is full-on Neil Young, guitars and vocals tangled up in angst. Singer-songwriter and ex-Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman Glen Phillips' version is darker, more pensive, more beautiful.
  
  
• Peter Mulvey, Caleb Meyer
  
• Red Molly, Caleb Meyer
  At first listen, Peter Mulvey's classically-fingerpicked version teeters on the overly maudlin, and previously-posted girlgroup Red Molly's three-voiced approach seems to cost them emotive potential. But listen again -- these grow on you.
  
  
• Alison Krauss & Union Station, New Favorite
  Fellow Gillian Welch O Brother, Where Are Thou muse Alison Krauss and her star-studded band Union Station make a sweet live bluegrass ballad of an old-timey wallflower's love song.
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Winter's Come and Gone
  Kidfolk queen Elizabeth Mitchell brings us a light-hearted tale well-suited for the bedtime ears of the next generation of traditional folk fans.
  
  
• Elan Mehler Quartet, Elvis Presley Blues
  This sultry gospel-jazz take from the Elan Mehler Quartet is sweet with breathy sax and slow-rolling piano. It isn't folk, but it makes the perfect capstone to any set of Gillian Welch covers.

Don't forget to click on artist names above to purchase the best of the modern folk world from bluegrass to bluesfolk direct from the source. And, if you don't already have them, buy Gillian Welch's four incredible albums direct from her website.


Today's bonus coversongs hold back a bit, that we might eventually bring you a full post of Gillian Welch covering other artists. But here's two collaborative efforts that give Rawlings and Welch their own billing, to tide you over until then:

• Gillian Welch and David Rawlings join The Chieftains for traditional song Katie Dear
  
• Robyn Hitchcock, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings cover Dylan's Tryin' To Get To Heaven Before They Close The Door

Folkcovers For A Winter's Night: Snowsongs, sleigh rides, and other nondenominational carols

Raising Jewnitarian children means working hard to balance the outer culture's overabundance of Christmas music with alternative seasonal sounds. This is sometimes harder than it sounds, especially when it comes to covers. Though there have been a few originals over the years that would fit the category, most notably a recent spate of Hannukah music from the fringes of the indierock world, it's harder for these songs to enter the canon, driven as it is by the tick and tinsel of gift-giving and public holiday display in a predominantly Christian culture.

In some ways, it's surprising, given the national push towards multiculturalism over the past decades, that there aren't more songs of not-just-Christmas. There are plenty of modern, entirely secular songs about Christmastime, it's true -- common themes here might include "I miss you more this time of year", "I want stuff", and, more recently, "crass commercialism is getting kind of evil, isn't it?" But ultimately, these songs are still about Christmas. After all, it's not like I miss people more this time of year just because it's cold.

Still, there's a small, stellar selection of nonedenominational songs that have crept into the songbook over the years, many lying unnoticed among paeans to Christmas trees, Jesus, and holiday celebration. And a few great, well-covered songs out there which are appropriate for a snowy December day, even if they'd never make it on a holiday sampler.

Today, as an antidote to the already-overfamiliar Christmasmusic that fills ears and airwaves this time of year, a few select songs of solstice, snow, winter, and other alt-seasonal delights from the world of folk covermusic. Plus the usual bonus covers, just for kicks.

Erica Wheeler, Song For A Winter's Night (orig. Gordon Lightfoot)

Quartette, Song For A Winter's Night (ibid.)

Gordon Lightfoot's mellow Song For A Winter's Night fits the folk mindset perfectly: the hearth, the snow, the story of us in a house. A spare cover from Erica Wheeler and the rich harmonies of Canadian folk supergroup Quartette do it justice, twice over.

Robert Earl Keen, Snowin' On Raton (orig. Townes Van Zandt)

Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem, Snowbird (orig. Gene McLellan)

The cover of snow becomes a metaphor of darkness and loss in Robert Earl Keen's latenight honkytonk cover of Snowin' on Raton, and a mantle in Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem's light, swinging version of Elvis/Anne Murray classic Snowbird.

Elizabeth Mitchell, Jingle Bells

Sufjan Stevens, Jingle Bells

The Roches, Jingle Bells

Three vastly different versions of a jinglebell sleighride carol you forgot wasn't about Christmas. Widely divergent possibilities of glee from the mistress of authentic kidfolk, the king of weird holiday indiefolk, and the unique harmonies of The Roches.

As always, all artist links above go to artist/label storefronts -- the best way to give artists the most bang for their buck. And remember, kids: music is a present that fits any occasion, any season, any connection between you and your family and friends, no matter what you celebrate.


Today's bonus coversongs:

Jill Sobule, Merry Christmas From The Family (orig. Robert Earl Keen)

Okay, so it's not nondenominational. Folkpopstar (and Jew) Jill Sobule covers this drunken anti-spiritual paean to dysfunction with such aplomb, it transcends the holiday setting.

Nanci Griffith, Ten Degrees and Getting Colder (orig. Gordon Lightfoot)

This one's not technically about winter, just cold. Lightfoot was Canadian. I guess it gets chilly up there. From coveralbum Other Voices, Other Rooms.

The Roches, Winter Wonderland

The Roches, Frosty The Snowman

Two more familiar, playful, tongue-in-cheek "traditional" songs of snow from The Roches' mostly-Christmas album We Three Kings.

Haven't had enough of Christmas coverfolk? Never fear! Stay tuned over the next few weeks for a plethora of acoustic holiday cheer still to come!

(Re)Covered: More of and from...Cat Stevens, Neil Finn, The Wainwright Family, and Bill Morrissey

I certainly wasn't planning to post four times this week. But I've unearthed some great-but-late cuts that just begged to be passed along. And this past holiday weekend left me feeling thankful for all those who write and say such nice things about Cover Lay Down. Guess the urge to keep giving was just too much to bear.

Today, the second installment in our (Re)Covered series, wherein we recover songs that dropped through the cracks too late to make it into the posts where they belonged. Enjoy!

I've had several requests for the popcovers I mentioned in last week's Cat Stevens post -- they're not folk, but Stevens is, and both Natalie Merchant and Sheryl Crow have folk cred (the former from her recent solo work, the latter from her early pre-stardom days). So here are Peace Train and The First Cut Is The Deepest. Along with a sweet, ragged, just-unearthed version of Wild World by antipopsters The Format. Plus Australian indiefolkers New Buffalo's slow, grungy acoustic take on that Nina Simone song that Yusuf covers, just for comparison's sake. Oh, and a wonderful, sparse, sleepytime Here Comes My Baby cover from previously featured kidfolk songstress Elizabeth Mitchell. Ask, and ye shall receive, and then some.

• 10,000 Maniacs, Peace Train
  
• Sheryl Crow, The First Cut Is The Deepest
  
• The Format, Wild World
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell, Here Comes My Baby
  
• New Buffalo, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (orig. Nina Simone)

I also picked up a few wonderful solo acoustic covers from Neil Finn last week that I couldn't resist passing along; they would have been great bonus songs from our October feature on the songs of Neil and Tim Finn, if I'd had 'em, but that's what our (Re)Covered feature is for. He's not folk, and neither are the original artists of these two pop songs, but the brightly optimistic singer-songwriter treatment Finn gives these two pop songs would be perfectly appropriate on any folk festival stage in the country.

• Neil Finn, Billie Jean (orig. Michael Jackson)
  
• Neil Finn, Sexual Healing (orig. Marvin Gaye)

Lest we lose sight of our core mission, here's some folk covering folk: a wonderful Bill Morrissey and Greg Brown cover of Hang Me, Oh Hang Me I rediscovered just after posting Bill Morrissey's tribute to Mississippi John Hurt. It's a traditional folksong you might recognize as covered by the Grateful Dead under the alternate title Been All Around This World; I'm saving that for a long-overdue Garcia and Grisman feature, but in the meantime, here's another sweet version of the same song by new neotraditionalist Canadian alt-folkies The Deep Dark Woods.

• Bill Morrissey w/ Greg Brown, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me
  
• The Deep Dark Woods, Hang Me, Oh Hang Me

And finally, not one but two beautiful songs which really speak to the whole twisted family dynamic of the Wainwrights, who we featured in our first Folk Family Friday. First, in a burst of typical irony, Rufus and Martha cover father Loudon Wainwright III's One Man Guy, then -- just to show there's no hard feelings -- Kate and Anna McGarrigle once again bring together family friend Emmylou Harris and ex-spouse Loudon for a jangly take on the traditional Green, Green Rocky Road.

• Rufus Wainwright w/ Martha Wainwright, One Man Guy
  
• The McGarrigles, Green, Green Rocky Road

As always, all artist links here on Cover Lay Down go directly to the artists' preferred source for purchasing music. Please, folks: if you like what you hear, both here and out there in the wild world, buy the music, and support the continued production of incredible sound from those who eschew the easy top 40 route to fame and fortune.

Covered in Kidfolk: Lullabies and Softsongs For Cool Moms and Dads

I've been a teacher for almost fifteen years, and a Daddy for five; I'm lucky to be able to live in a world where I can be with kids, and play. But other than a short period of time where my daughter's favorite song was Andrew W.K.'s thrashpunk anthem She Is Beautiful, this means there's a constant struggle in my house between what I like to call "that same damn circus record" and what the kids dismissively refer to as "Daddy's music".

But listen up, Dads (and Moms): when the kids demand more appropriate age-specific earcandy, we don't really have to lose. In a world where an entire generation is trying to keep their cool in the face of diapers and snailspace trick or treating, you don't have to listen to that pap that passed for kids music in the disco era. Or Barney songs. Or that awful, too-chipper CD of baby-fied classics your mother picked up at her local all-natural toy store (sorry, mom). There's a brand new crop of kidsingers out there -- a holy host, from Dan Zanes to a thousand younger artists -- and they're not afraid to get 'em while they're young.

For the indie and rock crowds, I suppose, this demand for "real" kidmusic does seem to have opened up a new niche market. But folk music has long carried the torch for the authentic in kidsong. My 1970s childhood was filled with acoustic guitar and rough-tinged voices on already-old records from Guthrie and Leadbelly, and newer acts from Peter, Paul, and Mary to Bill Staines. When folk music came back for the Fast Folk second wave, it brought along its sense of childlike wonder; the demand bought Grisman and Garcia and Taj Mahal a second round of folkfame, and made way for new acts, like the jamgrass-for-kids Trout Fishing in America.

Since then, as the new generation grows through its indie stages, our favorite streetwise musicians grow up and have kids of their own -- and out come the guitars and the quiet, simple voices, calling up half-remembered favorites from a time when everything was simple and pure. Suddenly, everyone's a folk singer.

Like ice cream comes in vanilla and chocolate, kids songs come in two primary flavors, the quiet and the silly -- but there are infinite variations from creamy to nutty. Next week, maybe, we'll get a case of the sillies, and need to shake it all out. Today, three generations of folksingers -- oldtimers Bill Staines and Garcia/Grisman, fastfolker Shawn Colvin and bluegrass staple Alison Krauss, and a host of newer artists from the wide margins of modern folk -- bring us a set of lullabies and resting songs for a quiet Sunday afternoon.

• The Be Good Tanyas, Oh Susanna (orig. Foster)
  Get Blue Horse. Because if americana rocks, and all the great indiefolk bands come from Canada, then Canadian americana has a coolness quotient of eleven point five.
  
  
• Jack Johnson, We Are Going To Be Friends (orig. White)
  It takes a special kind of genius to make the White Stripes accessible to kids. Johnson's stellar acoustic interpretation of this tune is one of many golden moments on Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George.
  
  
• Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton, You Are My Sunshine (orig. Davis)
  My favorite rendition of a favorite kidsong. Get Sing Along With Putamayo (or any of Mitchell and Littleton's You Are My... series) for this and many other wonderful not-just-for-kids interpretations of classic kidsongs. Put in CD player. Sing along. Repeat at bedtime.
  
  
• Robert Skoro, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore (trad.)
  Skoro is an up-and-coming indieboy who has been compared favorably to the Shins; this mellow cut is from Down By The Riverside: An Album Benefiting Reuben Lindh Family Services. How come Minneapolis gets all the cool acts?
  
  
• Alison Krauss, Baby Mine (orig. Mrs. Jumbo)
  A little looser, a little deeper south: if the original was middle America, this one's a train through a sleepy Georgia town, two in the morning and too hot to sleep. Off of A Hundred Years or More: A Collection.
  
  
• Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, A Shenandoah Lullaby (trad./Brahams)
  Mandolins and bedtime stars and a rough-voiced Garcia at the waning peak of his power segue into a slow, sleepy instrumental Brahams Lullaby with strings. Goodnight, sweetheart. Get Not For Kids Only.
  
  
• Rex Hobart, It's Not Easy Being Green (orig. Kermit)
  All the cool dads are listening to recent Bloodshot Records indie-fave The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides.
  
  
• Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (trad./Taylor)
  A wash of sound and a ticking backbeat from alt-star Maida and folkrocker Kreviazuk make this almost-pop cover sing. From the exquisite and highly recommended benefit series For The Kids; the just-released Vol. 3 includes kidsongs by Rosie Thomas/Damien Jurado, Mates of State, Of Montreal, Great Lake Swimmers, and other indie darlings.
  
  
• Shawn Colvin, Seal Lullaby (orig. Wilder/Kipling)
  Kipling's gentle nightpoem plays exceptionally well as a piano ballad. Colvin's Holiday Songs and Lullabies is sweet and subtle in December...and all year 'round.
  
  
• Bill Staines, Home on the Range (orig. Higley/Kelly)
  Oft-covered New England folk icon and 1975 National Yodeling Champion Bill Staines plays us a fireside classic. From American Lullaby: Folk, Country, Gospel and Old-Timey Bedtime Songs, which includes great covers and great originals from a cast of legends and Grammy winners.
  

Click on artist/album names to buy some incredible music for the young and the young at heart. And remember, kids: buying music from the artist's preferred source gives you peace of mind so you can sleep like a baby.