Category: Erin McKeown
Covered in Kidfolk, Vol. 6: Movement Songs for Runners, Dancers, and Wiggleworms
October 12th, 2008 — 09:28 pm
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.
1,244 comments » | Colin Meloy, Dan Zanes, Dave Alvin, Elizabeth Mitchell, Erin McKeown, John McCutcheon, Kidfolk, Michelle Shocked, Plain White T's, Sonny Terry
Spring Has Sprung: Soft Coversongs of Hope and Renewal
March 19th, 2008 — 07:31 am
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.
698 comments » | Ann Percival, Cassandra Wilson, Damien Rice, Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Erin McKeown, Gillian Welch, Greg Brown, Mary Chapin Carpenter
Thankful Folk: A Thanksgiving Holiday Special
November 23rd, 2007 — 10:32 am
The web is full of Thanksgiving originals this week: Alice's Restaurant, Loudon Wainwright III's Thanksgiving, songs about helping others, the odd song about pie or turkey. Here at the Boyhowdy House, we're feeling grateful for a few choice folk-tinged coversongs of thanks and blessing-counting that stand out in a small pond of hymns and secular songs just right for the season. Without further ado, here's some particularily Thankful Folk.
Chris Smither, Thanks To You (orig. Jesse Winchester)
The opening cut from previously featured Chris Smither's powerful, well-produced Small Revelations, this cover just plain rocks, from the first bass growl (I know I'm a sinner/I ain't no beginner) to the last sustained blues lick.
Erin McKeown, Thanks For The Boogie Ride (orig. Buck/Mitchell)
This short, crisp boogie-woogie tune from diminuative-yet-powerful folkartist Erin McKeown comes from Sing You Sinners, her full album of old Tin Pan Alley tunes. You can hear her infectious grin throughout.
Dave Van Ronk, God Bless The Child (orig. Billie Holiday)
Eva Cassidy, God Bless The Child (orig. Billie Holiday)
Two blues versions of this Holiday tune from two very different folk artists stolen from this world far too soon. Dave Van Ronk's slow, bluesy solo acoustic fingerpick and Eva Cassidy's electrified loungeclub blues swoon make the perfect counterpart. Off Your Basic Dave Van Ronk and American Tune, respectively.
Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, The Farmer Is The Man(orig. J. Carson)
A mournful paean for the oft-invisibles who bring our table's bounty and a gruff, loose-fiddled reminder to those who would forget. From Gambling Eden, which, like most of Arbo's work, is chock full of wonderful interpretations of old folk and gospel tunes. (Buy before 2008, get free shipping! And 10% of all profits go to Rock and Roll camp for girls!)
Sufjan Stevens, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (trad.)
My absolute favorite hymn, ever since I heard Sufjan's five-EP set Songs For Christmas last year. Our hymnal lists this song as a hymn of Thanksgiving, so there's no need to wait a month to hear the beautifully torn banjo-jangle plainsong approach Sufjan brings to it.
As always here on Cover Lay Down, wherever possible, all artist/album links above go to that artist's preferred purchase source. Help make some artist thankful — buy their music today!
Psst! Looking ahead towards our next holiday? I usually try to hold off on celebrating too early, but yesterday, on our way home from an authentic 1830s Thanksgiving feast, we passed a family cutting down trees and putting up reindeer, and it reminded me of a song lyric. So stay tight until Sunday for our first post of the 2007 holiday season: a Single Song Sunday feature on Joni Mitchell's River.
958 comments » | Chris Smither, Dave Van Ronk, Erin McKeown, Eva Cassidy, Holiday Coverfolk, Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem, Sufjan Stevens