Just like mainstream music for adults, children's music has a history all its own. Here are a few folks that helped make children’s music what it is today.
As the 1950s rolled around, the general perception of children's music was about to be changed forever. Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, and Woody Guthrie all released albums during this decade that forever changed the way parents and educators thought of music for children. Seeger's American Folk Songs for Children, Guthrie's Songs to Grow On for Mother and Child, and Jenkins' Call and Response: Rhythmic Group Singing were all released on the Folkways label in 1953, 1956, and 1957, respectively.
Pete Seeger was a collector of folk music, heavily involved with leftist political movements of his time. His work with the Weavers and his own solo performances had made him a household name by the early '50s, and American Folk Songs catapulted him into the position of Grandfather of Children's Music, beginning a career-long dedication to entertaining and educating children with historic songs and nursery rhymes from our nation's past.
Woody Guthrie's entrance into children's music was almost an afterthought at the time. Guthrie had begun showing signs of Huntington's Disease by the late 1940s, an illness that would eventually take his life in 1967. In 1947, the year Guthrie's son Arlo was born, Woody recorded a set of songs for his infant son in a very casual style that sounded exactly like a dad playfully singing to his baby boy. The results weren't released for another nine years, but those tunes have been covered by countless artists for adults and children alike.
Ella Jenkins began her career as a program coordinator in Chicago, using her talents as a singer and ukulele player to entertain children at her recreation center. She became most interested in rhythms, rhymes, and call and response songs, and how all those could be used in children's education. She was given the opportunity to record Call and Response, forever casting her in the role of music educator. Her original compositions, collected multicultural songs, and rhythm workouts made each of her albums unique works of art in the world of children's music.
These three legendary musicians' influence on today's children's music is astounding. Thank you Pete, Woody and Ella.
(Excerpts borrowed from about.com by Warren Truitt.)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
My Little Book by Amy Marti, guest blogger
The Little House is a timeless favorite book of mine from childhood. While the book itself is celebrating it's 69th year in print, I am celebrating my personal copy from childhood. (circa early 1970s). Yes, I still have it. This copy much like Virginia Lee Burton's story has seen much transition and change. My "little book" sat up on my bookshelf. She was happy. She was loved and read often. Then, as I grew older, the book's integrity became threatened. She was encroached upon by development and neglect. We moved and moved again, and moved again. I gained more "stuff" and she was relocated to the back of the bookshelf. By my own admittance, she may have even landed in a dark and dingy cardboard box, tucked away in an attic. Egad!
Never fear! There is a happy ending to this story. My copy has been saved from a life of destitution. She has been rescued and relocated (just like the house in the story) due in a large part to Caroline Herring's latest release of The Little House Songs. Caroline is a brilliant musical storyteller. The cd is a compilation of songs that take you on a scenic drive through The Little House story. It's truly captivating for the young and old alike.
The most endearing part of this story is that my twin 5 year old daughters are so enthralled with the music from the cd that my "little book" has been revived and given center stage in our home, just like she deserves. The magical combination of Caroline's music, the imagery of the story, and the nostalgia of holding mommy's childhood book in their hands has made an impact on my daughters that I hope will last a lifetime.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Monday, October 12, 2009
Some Review!
By Mac McKinney at OPED News:
Caroline Herring’s newest album (source: http://carolineherring.com/)
It is amazing what one can do with just an acoustic guitar, one accompanist and your voice, especially if your name is Caroline Herring, well-known country and folk singer/songwriting daughter of Mississippi, who published her first album, Twilight, in 2001 and has now just released her fifth, Golden Apples of the Sun, five being, as I will explain later, quite an appropriate number for such a title and album.
Mississippi means many things to many people, Old South, segregation, the BigRiver, MagnoliaState, college football, not to mention Mark Twain, George Ohr and Walter Anderson, three of the state's greatest artists. And that is where the thread picks up with Caroline Herring, who deeply shares the love of Nature that possessed Anderson and inspired his own creativity. What is more, she expresses this love on two fronts, poetically and musically, both of which she is adept at.
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In fact, her first song, Tales of the Islander, is a tribute to Walter Anderson, the famous painter, writer, and naturalist from New Orleans who finally settled in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, just west of Pascagoula, and whose bayous I coincidently was trudging through back in 2007 as I investigated Katrina's damage, damage that extended to many of Anderson's works, although much of it has been restored. Anderson was an eccentric icon in Ocean Springs, not unlike the Mad Potter, George Ohr, in Biloxi. Both left huge legacies for their respective cities.
Anderson, however, was a living embodiment of Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer combined, who used to regularly hop in a rowboat riggable with a sail and navigate to nearby Horn Island, where he absorbed himself in Nature to produce fascinating works of art, such as these:
CLICK HERE (permanent museum collection)
Tales of the Islander, with its steady and intricate, hypnotic guitar rhythm, becomes an invitation to you and I to join Caroline in a mystical raft float, a la Walter, Huck and Tom, down the Mississippi River against the canvas of the majesty of its wildlife and the sun, moon and stars. The lyrics are exceptional and strikingly poetic, to note one stanza:
A full moon rising
On all of nature's powers
Stars just observers
Of zinnias and moonflowers
We could bathe in the nullah of a gulf stream
Prowl like cats in the night
Then transform like moths
In a chrysalis of light
Chrysalis of light
Since the first song of an album often sets the theme, I asked Caroline if Walter Anderson is a major influence to her, above and beyond Tales of the Islander, to which she replied:
“He is an influence, especially in regards to this album. I meant for there to be a constant theme of nature as sacred, nature as illuminating... I based the Walter Anderson song on his cottage murals, which are four: sunrise, day, sunset and night. So those (other album) songs are companions."
Certainly this is evident in other songs, such asAbuelita, a languid song with a hauntingly beautiful melody, which is also a Spanish term of endearment for grandmother:
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Abuelita
underneath the trees
Of Costa Rica
and her dark shored seas
They won't tell me about you
They don't want me to see
Abuelita you're just like me (refrain)
The song invokes, in the first stanza, the virgin of the moon, who could be Diana or Artemis the Huntress from Roman and Greek mythology, or the Virgin Mary of Catholics, before segueing into a reverence for Abuelita, grandmother, which, whether Caroline is doing this consciously or not, can't help but associate the song a bit more with mythology, with, to be exact, the archetype of the Crone. Crone today often means hag in our youth-obsessed culture, but in the distant past it meant Wise Woman, the elder woman of great experience who passed her knowledge down to young girls and women. The Crone is also the third aspect of the ancient European Triple-Goddess, whose triad is Virgin, Matron and Crone, new moon, full moon, old moon.
Her choice of inclusion of W.B. Yeats' famous poem, The Song of Wandering Aengus, in this album continues this connection between her music, Nature and mythology, because Yeats's poem is a great opus invoking the mystical/magical powers of Nature, as you can note below:
The Song of Wandering Aengus
William Butler Yeats (1899)
I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lads and hilly lands.
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
The hazel tree in Celtic tradition is a tree of wisdom, and all knowledge of the arts and sciences resides in what are known as the Nine Hazelnuts of Poetic Art and Inspiration. The silver trout in Celtic lore is a sacred fish, associated, like the salmon, with wisdom and the Otherworld. Apples, of course, are prime symbols of the Divine Feminine, and occur prominently in both Celtic and Greek myth. Note that Caroline's fourth album was entitled The Silver Apples of the Moon, and now this, her fifth, embraces the golden apples from Yeats' poem. This is a perfect numerical synchronicity, since, when you cut an apple in half horizontally, a five-pointed, seed-filled star or Pentagram, ancient Goddess symbol, always appears.
I asked Caroline why she picked that as the title of her album and, since it has a lot of mythological associations, primarily Goddess associations, if she is into mythology, Wicca or any such streams of thought, to which she replied:
“I wasn't thinking of goddess associations so much with this song, with this title. I saw it as the mystical hope of mankind, enduring hope. And of course with silver apples of the moon, golden apples of the sun, nature's cycle.”
Musically and artistically, this album marks a continuing expansion, maturity, and blossoming of Caroline's work. We are well beyond simple “country” or even “Southern” music with this album, with rhythms, themes and chords that merge with the greater Americana sounds and words of singers like Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell. In fact, as if to emphasize this, Caroline tastefully explores one of Joni Mitchell's well-known hits, Cactus Tree, taking up the challenge of singing one of Joni, the great octave leaper's vocally gymnastic pieces, while not trying to match Joni in degrees of difficulty.
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Do not let me mislead you that Caroline is leaving her Mississippi roots behind in this album. On the contrary, The Dozens, a hard-driving, chord-throbbing drama about overcoming segregation in the South, leaps into the heart of the Mississippi experience, past and present, while A Little Bit of Mercy keeps up the torrid musical pace and existential theme of hometown limitation and tradition in tension with the need for universal freedom of heart, mind and spirit. In Mississippi and elsewhere in the Deep South, one can suffocate unless one climbs higher to breathe in the oceanic current:
Underneath this house of stones
A whole wide world beckons us on
To leave behind the walls and doors
Windows, ceilings and floors
Let us breathe in mountains
Breathe out sun
For ourselves
And this race we run
Producer David Goodrich, “Goody”, who also is the accompanist on this album, strengthens this song even further by mixing in Caroline harmonizing with herself throughout the piece, to great effect. He does the same in the refrains of the dark and haunting ballad, Long Black Veil, adding the steady, somber strum of a banjo to the gallows mood of the song.
Caroline's rendition of the Steinberg/Kelly song, True Colors, made popular by Cindi Lauper is more in the vein of a classic country piece, deep-voiced and more up-tempo than Lauper's version, with excellent and upbeat guitar work on her part.
Caroline, never shying from poetic tradition, even throws in Dante's Inferno for good measure in her song The Great Unknown, the Medieval theme of ascension from Hell to Heaven serving as metaphor for her recurring theme of escaping the darkness of the past for the Light, escaping, to borrow from astrological concepts, Capricorn and Saturn, who would eat his own children rather than relinquish power, for Aquarius and the universal and liberating energy of Uranus, planet of transformation.Here is a pretty decent video of her introducing and singing The Great Unknown on YouTube live at Toogenblik, Haren in Brussels in June 2008. (scroll down...)
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Her last piece, The Wild Rose, which she crafted from the works of Wendell Berry and Pablo Neruda and sings to the accompaniment of piano, puts a final, lovely touch on this tour de force album, a piece part Irish dirge in somberness, pace and melody, part church hymn in power and grace, yet again with the theme of the rejuvenating majesty of Nature rising into consciousness:
Light wraps you as you stand
Oh sacred stem in mortal flame
Great roots of night they grow
The things that hide come out again
Come to me my wild, wild rose
Ablaze in all your glory
Choosing what before I chose
The blessings of God's bounty
Go out and buy this album. It's one of the best I've heard in a long time, and better still, it grows on you with each listening. Find it at: http://carolineherring.com/ It is produced by David Goodrich and Signature Sounds.
Monday, October 5, 2009
CAROLINE HERRING LISTSERV
OCTOBER 2009
Dear Friends,
It seems like I have been waiting for this month all year long. I am proud to announce that Golden Apples of the Sun (click on it to hear a few songs), my newest release on Signature Sounds, arrived on my doorstep just the other day, and it will be for sale on my website mid-month and in the stores by the end of the month. This album is a departure for me in some ways, because I’m not leaning nearly as hard this time on the sounds and people of Austin, TX. This album I made in Connecticut, with one other player by the name of David Goodrich. The recordings sound stripped-down and bare, much like the farmhouse where we recorded, and with a blizzard outside to boot.
Golden Apples of the Sun is a combination of covers and originals. However, as I started experimenting with the covers I found it fun and interesting to rewrite melodies and arrangements. That is one of the joys of the creative process, and so many done it. However, one can fool oneself into thinking that the altered takes sound original and interesting because of the tinkering. J We’ll see what you think.
The covers include traditional songs such as See See Rider and Long Black Veil, as well as crazier-for-me tunes such as Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors. Before you protest, take a listen! I love it, and am proud of it. In addition, I did a straight version of Joni Mitchell’s Cactus Tree. Lastly, I put some poems by Wendell Berry, Pablo Neruda and WB Yeats to music – and not in that order.
There are still several originals (six!), as well as an accompanying EP entitled Silver Apples of the Moon, which I’ll also be offering.
As for the originals, I’ll mention one for now – Tales of the Islander. You’ll also be able to hear that one if you click on the link above. This is an ode to Walter Anderson, a beloved Mississippi Gulf coast artist. We’re at work on a short film about this song and the work of Walter Anderson. Keep an eye out for that on the new ‘video’ page of my website. You can learn more about Walter Anderson HERE.
Here are excerpts from a couple of early reviews:
Fish Records UK: “The beautiful songs and guitar work form the framework for her vocals, and on ‘Golden Apples of the Sun’ she’s never sounded better, there’s a delicacy and world-weariness that makes her perfect for emotionally powerful songs; there are moments here that are breathtaking in their power and simplicity. For the last few years Caroline Herring has been one of the best low-key singer/songwriters around, and this album shows a confidence and power that will bring her to a wider audience.”
Cover Lay Down: “Golden Apples of the Sun turns this southern girl’s lyrical eye inward to great effect. The originals are exquisite, featuring deep, deliberate, mature songwriting coupled with that stripped-down sound and breathy, gracefully fragile voice. But to my immense joy, Herring’s growing awareness of her forebears and influences here comes to a head in a wealth of coverage. Her comprehensive transformation of Cyndi Lauper’s oft-covered True Colors into an almost unrecognizable dustbowl folktune is both surprisingly intimate and perfectly, plaintively Caroline; in keeping with its gentle yet confessional bent, the album also includes a truly beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell’s Cactus Tree, plus strong melodic takes on two traditional American folk standards.”
Thank you all for your support and help. I am hard at work with friends and professionals on my social networking presence. Check me out on any of the following to see the evidence: the sixtyone.com, facebook.com, myspace.com, reverbnation.com, twitter, lastfm.com, and last but not least www.carolineherring.com. If you know of others I should join, let me know. I’ll also have a blog starting within a couple of weeks.
I’ll be playing in Jacksonville this Thursday evening ,and I hope folks there who have seen me at surrounding festivals will come out for a listen. After that, let the cd release parties begin!!
Warmly,
Caroline
DATES
10/8 – JACKSONVILLE FL – European Street Listening Room
10/16 – Eddie’s Attic CD RELEASE, with Cary Hudson from Blue Mountain, DECATUR GA
10/22 – OXFORD, MS – Thacker Mountain Radio and Music in the Hall
10/23 – JACKSON, MS – Hal and Mal’s
10/28 – MILWAUKEE WI – Shank Hall (supporting Chris Smither through 11/7)
10/29 – ANN ARBOR MI – The Ark
10/30 – CHICAGO IL – Old Town School of Folk Music
11/6 – BOSTON MA (really Arlington) – The Regent Theatre
11/7 – NORTHAMPTON MA – Iron Horse
11/19 – AUSTIN TX – Cactus Café
11/20 – SAN ANTONIO TX – Casbeers at the Church
11/21 – HOUSTON TX – Anderson Fair
Monday, September 28, 2009
testing, testing...
It's a strange world, and I'm trying to exist in it, so here goes my first blog. This is mainly a test. Hello if anyone reads it.
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