Cover Lay Down

Favorite Folk Songs and Sleepytime Songs, the first two installments in the Peter Yarrow Songbook series, recently arrived in my house, and my children enjoyed them so much we’ve switched over to an all-folk format — at bedtime, at playtime, all day everyday by listener demand.

It’s validating to be asked to sing Golden Vanity to my child as she falls asleep, and a relief to put aside the Disney tunes and the circus polkas which generally fill the house. But Yarrow and his collaborators get all the credit here: their new book-and-CD sets are marvelous treasuries of well-selected folk for parents and kids to share, full of Terry Widener’s bright and detailed folk-art illustrations, rich and gentle with acoustic tracks that invite us to sing along with Yarrow’s warm voice, and daughter Bethany’s harmonies.

The timing is good, too, developmentally-speaking. The idea of songs as narratives, and the collapse of the distinction between story and song which it assumes, seems to follow the establishment of each as a separate text in my children’s world.

When they were smaller, things happened in stories, but songs were repetitive and ecological, naming body parts or counting down lost ducks and bed-jumping, head-thumping monkeys. But at almost-seven, my elder child is reading Harry Potter, excited about plot as much as characterization; her younger sister, just turned four, is starting to transcend songs of mere movement or counting, seeking out songs with sing-along choruses which are actually about something.

The wee one, especially, likes Yarrow’s songbooks, using the images as locators and reference for each song; they help her understand the story while her sister and I read the lyrics and sing along. And the tablature and commentary on each song’s history at the end of the book are perfect resources for those with inquisitive children, helping us flesh out the folkways, bringing the songs into our lives in active ways as children’s minds, sense of ownership, and sense of narrative evolve.

The subject material in older storysongs from the folk tradition can be surprisingly violent, and many of the songs which Yarrow has chosen are no exception. The classic songs which have made their way into the kidfolk canon may be, fundamentally, stories of animal tricksters and sailing ships, but they contain barely submerged themes of theft (The Fox), folly (Stewball), hubris (The Cat Came Back), death and betrayal (The Golden Vanity).

But our kids live in reality. They’re at an age where it’s okay to be honest about the way the world really works, and they come from an age which no longer cries at Bambi’s mother’s death. Nurturing their sense of narrative, creating a sense of causality; the success of such vital lifelessons depends on an understanding of risk, and high stakes frame that risk in broad strokes which a child can see. My children have experienced death and loss, and we owe it to them as deliberate parents not to sugarcoat the universe any longer.

Today, then, we return to our covered in kidfolk series with a curated set of folk and roots versions of some classic storysongs which — though they may not have been originally designed for kids — continue to find their way onto children’s collections, as parents and wise elders pass along the folkways. Plus covers of a few more modern folksongs of the narrative type, which come off as surprisingly tame by comparison.

• Peter Yarrow: The Golden Vanity (trad.)
• Peter Siegel: The Golden Vanity

Two versions of the song that started it all for our household: the first a relatively mellow take from Peter Yarrow’s collection which emphasizes the story, the second, from mandolinist and family friend Peter Siegel’s 2004 release The Show, is a joyously raucous hootenanny that evokes the pirate betrayal at the song’s heart.

• Nickel Creek: The Fox (trad.)
• Waco Brothers: The Fox

We’ve heard this one around the house for years, but it took Terry Widener’s vividly detailed illustrations to help my younger daughter realize that there was a plot involved. Here, now-defunct newgrass trio Nickel Creek takes it fast, emphasizing crisp wizardry and technical trickery; the Waco Brothers come out fighting dirty, slamming through the high-paced events of the evening in all their grungy, punkabilly glory.

• Bob Dylan: Froggie Went A-Courtin’ (trad.)
• Elizabeth Mitchell: Froggie Went A Courtin

Sometimes Dylan-the-storyteller gets it right without hardly trying, as in this track from 1992 release Good As I’ve Been To You. Meanwhile, frequent kidfolk celebrant Elizabeth Mitchell’s lazy, languid take reveals a swampside ambivalence about the whole courtship process, from engagement to wedding party.

• Doc Watson: Grandfather’s Clock (by Henry Clay Work, 1876)

Doc Watson’s take on this adopted bluegrass standard is warm and practically jolly, but the song has a hidden weight, and not all of it comes from the weary age we hear in Watson’s voice. It took me thirty five years to realize that this song isn’t about a clock at all.

• Grisman and Garcia: When First Unto This Country (trad.)

There’s no particular reason to count this as a kids folksong, but played as a quiet ballad, it fits perfectly among the sunny acoustic sessionwork of Dave Grisman and Jerry Garcia’s Not For Kids Only, a longtime bedtime favorite.

• The Brobdingnagian Bards: The Unicorn Song (orig. The Irish Rovers)

It’s easy to forget that Noah’s Ark is as much an extinction story as it is a story of selection and survival. In their take on this tune originally written by poet Shel Silverstein, popular filk-song parodists the Brobdingnagian Bards pour on the melodrama, but it’s done with a wink and a nod.

• Mates of State: Jellyman Kelly (orig. James Taylor)

Perhaps the most recent in origin of all of today’s songs, this early James Taylor tune takes on a reeling party flavor in the hands of indie duo Mates of State and what appears to be a small crowd of yelling preschoolers. The cover comes from the most recent of those great For the Kids indie compilations, which support and provide music education in US and Canadian schools.

• Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem: Stewball (trad.)

The familiar tale of horserace gambling takes on an unusually slow, sultry, slinky tone with the addition of percussive mandolin, floating fiddle, funky beat and fat bass. From Gambling Eden.

• Dr. Watson Reid: Bill Grogan’s Goat (trad.)

A playfully silly old-timey country take from another local recording artist, music-in-the-schools proponent and worldchanger Dr. Watson Reid. My kids love the way the song gains speed and momentum, accelerating into itself, like the train bearing down on Bill Grogan’s willful goat.

• Peter Yarrow: Puff, the Magic Dragon (orig. Peter Paul and Mary)
• Peter Yarrow: Cockles and Mussels (trad.)

A traditional favorite and a newer classic from the Yarrow Songbooks to cap the entry off; Yarrow wrote Puff before he joined Paul and Mary, but the PP&M version is definitive, so we’ll let it sneak through the filters.

Thanks to Sterling Children’s Books for the opportunity to celebrate these marvelous treasuries, and permission to share multiple tracks from the Peter Yarrow Songbook series with you.

Get the books at amazon, or handle ‘em actual size at a local children’s store worth supporting — they make great baby gifts. Keep an eye open for volume three, Let’s Sing Together, which is due out in August.

And if you’re a parent or educator interested in using folksong to help kids create a more compassionate, respectful world, don’t forget to visit Operation Respect, which Yarrow founded in 2000 to do just that. The site features curricula, audio downloads, interviews and more, including tracks from both songbooks.


As always, all of today’s songs, and the albums they appear on, come fully endorsed and recommended by cool folkdads and indiemoms and their free range children. Whether you’re a parent, or just in touch with your inner child, follow links above to learn more about the artists we’ve celebrated today, and purchase their albums — the better to fuel the fire of folk, for your children’s sake.