Family Folk Machine

Here’s our last highlight on our songs for our April 12th and 19th concerts! According to Wikipedia, Dan Zanes moved to New York City after he and his wife had their first baby. Read more

Bill Staines is well known as a traditional folk singer and song-writer and has been performing for over 50 years. He has many children’s songs to his name, and if you listen closely to Sweet Potato, you will hear that it is the perfect song to sing to get a baby to fall asleep. One particularly interesting thing about Bill is that he is left-handed, but plays a right-handed guitar – upside down with the bass strings on the bottom – therefore he has developed his own fingerings and picking style. Here’s Bill singing Sweet Potato:

What could be more nutritious than a plate of greens? May Erlewine was asked to write a song about a local food and calls this “a different kind of love song.” When we started practicing this song, Jean wanted a show of hands on who actually did love greens. I can’t say I’m a fan, but this song could probably make almost anyone want to give greens another chance! Check out May as she shares her love for greens!

I had to look up a translation of this song since it is written in a Scottish English dialect by Robert Burns (1759-1796): Ca the Yowes to the Knowes – but whether you understand the words or not, it’s a beautiful love song. What does this have to farming and gardening, you might ask? It’s about a shepherd lad herding his sheep, which is an important component to many types of traditional farming practices. Alastair McDonald brings Scottish flair to his version of the song:

Once you hear this song, you will never think of a potato or a baby in quite the same way. Malcolm Dalglish’s song brings a new view to the table by combining vegetable gardening with becoming a new parent. Read more

Who is going to come to the rescue when kids (and maybe even adults) have chosen unhealthy things to eat? Captain Vegetable, that’s who! This song was written by Jeff Moss for Sesame Street and helps kids learn about choosing healthy vegetables to eat. Read more

Just a month to go until our first spring concert on April 12th! You may wonder how How to be Happy by the Dreyer Family Band fits in with our concerts on Blooming Where You’re Planted. This particular song starts out expressing awe at the ability to produce a tree by planting a seed, and continues with colorful, vibrant images to encourage us to view our surroundings with wonder. Read more

Here’s a fun song written by Guy Clark about a fruit (yep- that’s its classification) that everyone likes to use as a vegetable. If you listen to the song, you can really see how Guy was able to share his love for tomatoes (homegrown that is!). Read more

The kids are already having loads of fun learning When I First Came to This Land by Oscar Brand! It’s going to be great fun seeing how they incorporate all of their ideas into this song for our two concerts in April! Read more