Michelle,

Barry's right, Margaret MacArthur's recordings are a great resource for songs traditional in New England, and since she worked doing school programs for many years, much of it is particularly appropriate (there are also recordings of new songs written by her and kids from old stories).

I'm kind of surprised that her website, which I've linked doesn't refer to her death this year. I'm sure her recordings are still available through the site though, or Camsco.

Margaret got much of her material from the collections made by Helen Hartness Flanders, of Vermont, housed at Marlboro College. Look for any of her books, too.

Debra Cowan recently did a recording, Dad's Dinner Pail of Irish material from the Flanders collection.

There's a another classic book of New England stuff that I've seen a number of times -- I don't have it and am struggling to remember its name. It was from the 30s or 40s and some of the scholarship was slightly iffy, but there was a good variety of stuff in it.

The New England maritime tradition - sea chanteys and other sea songs - is of course another very rich and very accessible set of stuff, and much of it is great for kids. There have been some recent threads on sea songs that are clean enough for school use.

Brave Boys, New England Traditions in Folk Music is a fine collection on cd that's available from Folk Legacy or Camsco.

From the music collected by Frank and Anne Warner, look for material from Lena Bourne Fish, of New Hampshire. Arising from that, check in with Jeff Warner, their son, who's based in Portsmouth. His recordings have both northern and southern material.

Have fun!

~ Becky in Tucson
(whose heart is in the northeast)