The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #13924   Message #117050
Posted By: Pat
23-Sep-99 - 06:53 PM
Thread Name: Help: Upbeat, cheery family folksong
Subject: RE: Help: Upbeat, cheery family folksong
Why does it have to be 19th century? The Carter family's "Keep on the Sunny Side" is good. Very little kids like songs which mention THEM - "Sally wore a red dress" from the Ruth Crawford Seeger book is a good one. There's a song most 7- to 10-year-olds like, "Throw it out the window" in which you take nursery songs - well, for example, "Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to fetch her poor dog a bone. When she got there the cupboard was bare so she threw it out the window, the window, the second-story window. When she got there, the cupboard was bare so she threw it out the window." It works for nearly every nursery rhyme. It might be in Rise Up Singing. You have to remember the very old ballads served much the same function as soap operas! Few were happy! "Henry Martin" is a pretty one though.