UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: THE HITS FROM 1964

A lot of these are not underappreciated, at least by my generation, but may surely be underappreciated by the young whippersnappers out there.  In 1964 The Beatles controlled the airwaves and the "British Invasion," Motown, girl groups were all big things, Yet there was room for the likes of Dean Martin, Al Hirt, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Ray Charles Singers.

The Number One hit single of 1964 was "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFn603GiFJA


Number Two:  "She Loves You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOuu88OwdK8


Number Three:  "Hello Dolly"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfeKUNDDYs


Number Four:  "Pretty Woman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KFvoDDs0XM


Number Five:  "I Get Around"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnPL5OXSBNE


Number Six:  "Everybody Loves Somebody"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mUiXUEHDhI


Number Seven:  "My Guy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1M5eEJeT38


Number Eight:  "We'll Sing in the Sunshine'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udvUM7iQz-g


Number Nine:  "Last Kiss"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh4se9YMV3A


Number Ten:  "Where Did Our Love Go"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6WcLN9PYOM


Number Eleven:  "People"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G021T3FKp4


Number Twelve:  "Java"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhkTqtUd7TA


Number Thirteen:  "A Hard Day's Night"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjyj8qnqkYI


Number Fourteen:  "Love Me Do"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Au_QW5MJNI


Number Fifteen:  "Do Wah Diddy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc0x7xOap4I


Number Sixteen:  "Please Please Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3NTVkHwD5I


Number Seventeen:  "Dancing in the Street"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvITn5cAVc


Number Eighteen:  "Little Children"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRE3jeAYzMw


Number Nineteen:  "Love Me With All Your Heart"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3nfqH4YDDM


Number Twenty:  "Under the Boardwalk"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPEqRMVnZNU


Rounding out the Top One Hundred were songs by The Dixie Cups. The Dave Clark Five, The Four Seasons, The Newbeats, Gene Pitney, Jan and Dean, Jay and the Americans, Peter and Gordon, The Honeycombs, Serendipity Singers, Betty Everett (both solo and with Jerry Butler), Dusty Springfield, Leslie Gore, Dionne Warwick, the Animals, Ronny & The Daytonas, Johnny Rivers, Danny Williams, The Rip Cords, Millie Small, Major Lance, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Chad and Jeremy, Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, The Shangri-Las, Bobby Freeman, The Impressions, The Four Tops, Diane Renay, The Bachelors, The Markeets, The Hondells, Roger Miller, The Reflections, Rick Nelson, The New Christy Minstrels, Joe Hinton, The Temptations, Al Martino, The Trashmen, The Trams, The Kinks, Sammy Davis Jr., The Impressions, The Jelly Beans, The Kingsmen, The Searchers, Tommy Tucker, The Ventures, Robert Maxwell, Jimmy Hughes, Andy Williams, Jumpin' Gene Simmons, and more songs from The Supremes, The Drifters, Roy Orbison, and The Beatles.

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: EARLY EFFORTS

Here's some early recording by rock stars, some deservedly underappreciated and some not so.


Neil Young,, "It's My Time."  It was 1966 and Young had just joined the Toronto band Mynah Birds.  Also members of the group were Rick James, Goldie McJohn (Steppenwolf), and Bruce Palmer (Buffalo Springfield).  This tune was recorded by VIP Records (a Motown subsidiary) but was not released until 40 years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EV4_oL-KiY&feature=emb_logo


Sly Stone, "'You've Forgotten Me."  Sly was still a teenager when he fronted the Bay area band The Viscaynes as "Danny [Sly] Stewart and recorded this bit of doo-wop, circa 1961.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWfc6QwL_34


Stephen Sills, "High Flying Bird/"  The Au Go Go Singers were a nine-member folk ensemble in 1964.  Also in the group was Richie furay (Buffalo Springfield).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILqrv3ft4to


Simon and Garfunkel, "Hey, School Girl."  In 1957, the duo were known as Tom & Jerry when they recorded this.  Back in those days, they also did a lot of demos and issued singles under a number of aliases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9e3hU6KIZo


Art Garfunkel, "Beat Love."  This one is from 1959 under the name "Artie Garr,"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QLUM0sDQJg


Paul Simon, The Lone Teen Ranger."  In 1962, Paul Simon used the name Jerry Landis on this song with Tico and the Triumphs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxS1Wo7Ukm0&feature=emb_logo


Lou Reed, "Merry-Go-Round."  He was still Lewis, rather than Lou, in 1962 when he recorded this unreleased song in 1962.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0jIgAqAdHQ


Procol Harum, "Poison Ivy."  The Paramounts released this cover of The Coasters' hit in 1963.  Members of the Paramounts included future Procol Harum members Gary Booker, Robin Trower, Chris Coppin, and B. J. Wilson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-3jIFaa92s


Roger McGuinn, "Beach Ball."  McGuinn co-wrote and played guitar on this single from the City Surfers in 1963.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpEBabK5n4s


Cass Elliot & Denny Doherty, John Sebastian & Zal Yanovsky, "I Don't Wanna Know."  The future members of The Mamas and The Papas and The Lovin' Spoonful, along with Jim Hendricks (who later formed the Lamp of Childhood and wrote "Summer Rain" for Johnny Rivers) were The Mugwumps.  After their later groups made it big, Warner Brothers released their only album, sans John Sebastian in 1967.  Sebastian did sing in this 1964 single, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l45PVfjButg


Jimi Hendrix, "Testify."  This 1964 outing with The Isley Brothers may have been Hendrix's first recording. (the other contender for Hendrix's first recording is "My Dairy," a song recorded with Rosa Lee Brooks.")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=FUdYp-6a4RA&feature=emb_logo

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: HARRY BELAFONTE

For me, Harry Belafonte is an underappreciated artist only in the sense that be cannot be over appreciated.  Belafonte, now 92, has had a significant impact as both a performer and as a civil rights and humanitarian activist.

Belafonte was born in Harlem from Scottish and Jamaican parents.  He was working as a janitor's assistant when he discovered the American Negro Theater.  He and a fellow impoverished friend named Sidney Poitier would "split" a ticket -- one would watch one act and then the other would watch an act, each describing to the other the act they had missed.  Soon he began acted for the American Negro Theater while taking acting classes  with fellow students Poitier, Tony Randall, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur, and Marlon Brando.  To pay for his acting classes, Belafonte began singing at nightclubs, performing pop standards and (eventually) folk songs.  He began recording in 1953 with "Matilda."  Belafonte soon became the "King of Calypso," although his repetoire was far more expansive than that.

"Matilda"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpxoUs_3tfw


"Banana Boat Song" ("Day O")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMigXnXMhQ4


"Jamaica Farewell"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFFlWtlDRqk


"Man Smart (Woman Smarter)," with Julie Andrews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBW-51xzZNE


"There's a Hole in the Bucket," with Odetta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD-ffhvefsw


"Try To Remember"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUaXzMrznwU


"Both Sides Now"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1dO9tuTATk


"Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu Paloma"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGXV6bmm7xI


"John Henry"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZGxZbOB1Eo


"Island in the Sun"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFjGsYvB8oc


"Jump in the Line," with Rita Hayworth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGrSseGp44Q


"Scarlet Ribbons"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGrSseGp44Q


"Oh Freedom"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR08QzzD-VI


"Hava Nageela"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTCmKmofaKA


"Mama Look a Boo-Boo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhsW4h3oNH8


"Erini," with Nana Mouskouri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3-I6sJSguU


"Give Us Our Land," with Miriam Makeba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_rxg7G6w9s


"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free," with The Smothers Borthers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjgvuKobpKk


"I Know where I'm Going"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-CbCZ_6T1A


"Done Laid Around"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9fEGFyqOqU


"Mary's Boy Child"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4FK1uXm_U


"Turn the World Around"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01SnpHo7xfU



...and so many more

FORGOTTEN BOOK: SECRET LIVES OF BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS: TRUE STORIES OF THE MAGIC OF READING

 Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians:  True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, with Chris Mooney  (2024)

Okay.  I lied.  This is not a forgotten book -- it only came out last year.  And the author is one of the most prolific and best-selling authors of our time.  When I say prolific I mean it.  Last year Patterson published 93 books (my estimate; don't hold me to it).  And many of his books -- suspense, mysteries, fantasies -- fly off the shelves, but some belong in little niche marketplaces and don't get the wide exposure his bestsellers do. 

So when I say forgotten, perhaps I mean just lesser known.  But not underappreciated.  Never underappreciated.  Some of you, I know, have heard of the book and have read it and really appreciate it.

What we have here is a series of short pieces from various booksellers and librarians throughout the United States and Canada about their jobs, how they got them, what they do, the various customers the interact with, and the not-so-secret joys of helping a reader connect with a book they love.  Many of the stories about helping to connect young children and teenagers to a lifelong love of reading.  Some are about the customers who have shared their hopes, dreams, tragedies, and triumphs with them.  some of the stories are about the kindness of authors, or the reciprocal brotherhood of fellow booksellers.  And some are about the challenges librarians face from organized groups determined to ban certain types of books, and the political pressure that can be rained down on them.  In ways large and small they are heroes all.

One theme stands out.  Books are for everyone.  Not everyone will like every book, but every person has a right to like the books they like.  No one has the right to tell another person what books they should or should not read.  And that still holds true because, for the time being anyhow, this is America.  If you want to look at a true democracy, look at your public library -- it is open to ALL, and the books are FREE.

I was especially pleased to see pieces from McKenna Jordan, owner of Houston's Murder By the Book, and Judy Blume, who runs Books & Books in Key West.  A not-so-small part of me wonders how many of these marvelous bookstores and libraries will be open five years from now.  a larger not-so-small part of me is not worried because readers as a whole are enthusiastic and vocal and will not go quietly into that night.

One thing that bothered me about the book:  the stories are told in the present tense.  Good for creating intimacy, I suppose, but just a little off-putting because I'm sure most of those whose stories are told do not speak that way.  A minor point, but I had to get it off my chest.

Taken alone, each individual story may not mean much to the world at large.  But each story touches upon a person or a group of persons who have been positively affected by both booksellers and librarians.  Taken as a whole, the book is a powerful statement of hope and courage.  And each of us readers can be the hero the future needs if we spread the word.

Highly recommended.

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: THE KINGSTON TRIO

Bob Shane, the  last surviving member of The Kingston Trio, died this week, age 85, closing another chapter of my youth.  I really should not call the group "underappreciated."  After all, The Kingston Trio has  a zillion-minus-one fans (it used to be a solid zillion, but Bill Crider passed away, dammit).   Still, this is as good a time as any for me to recognize (and thank) Bob Shane, as well as Dave Guard and Nick Reynolds, as well as later members of the group John Stewart, Pat Horine, Jim Connor, Roger Gambill, Bill Zorn, George Grove, Bob Haworth, Rick Dougherty, Josh Reynolds (Nick's son), Mike Marvin (Nick's cousin), Tim Gorelangton, and Don Marovich. 

The entire Kingston Trio catalog would run for 17 hours.  Hear are a few of their songs:


"Tom Dooley"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3zdE8bliGI


"Chilly Winds"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wgc8rX4FbE


"M.T.A."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Jw_v3F_Q0


"The Tijuana Jail"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wZoFB7zbVQ


"Scotch and Soda"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXH10In1AFY


"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecyI0SM85YE


"Try to Remember"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERK66Hl6Zz0


"Desert Pete"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08kEFELCb3I


"A Worried Man"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1q0LNb8irA


"They Called the Wind Maria"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1eQo_ygSCw


"Reverend M. Black"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfEA_4gFDgo


"The Merry Minuet"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z26XJbnpeA


"Oh Shenandoah"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJI7If5ZQ9Q


"Take Her Out of Pity"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4DOT2rc1EI




R.I.P. Bob Shane.

IN MEMORY OF DICK ORKIN: THE BEST OF CHICKENMAN

A long time ago (about three weeks after the wheel had been invented) I went to college.  Several thing saved my sanity then:  a lot of beer, late night horror movies, and...Chickenman.

Chickenman a short (about two-and-a half minute) radio program created by Dick Orkin for Chicago radio station WCFL in 1966.  It soon went syndicated and wormed its fowl way into the hearts of many fans like myself.

Who is Chickenman?  He's Benton Harbor, the world's newest costumed hero, who became chickenman because that was the only costume left at the costume store.  The question remains:  is he more underappreciated than inept, or is he more inept than underappreciated?  In any event, Chickenman is the bane of Midland city's Police Commissioner Benjamin Norton and his beleaguered secretary, Miss Helfinger. This bumbling, albeit feathered hero, patrols Midland City in his yellow crime-fighting car, the Chicken Coupe.  He accesses the Chicken Cave through a trapdoor in his bedroom closet.

IMHO, the Chickenman series is pure genius.  My wife disagrees and can't stand the show, "It's dumb!"

I believe episode of Chickenman are still being rebroadcast somewhere.  I hope so.

Orkin passed away the day before Christmas, aged 84.  In tribute to him, I am posting the complete recording of a 1966 album, The Best of Chickenman.

Enjoy the adventures of a mild-mannered department store shoe salesman cum costumed hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aG1VV5pwHc

MY 4000TH POST! UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: WFMA

It's hard to believe that this marks the 4000th post on this blog.  If memory serves -- and it fails me often -- Jerry's House of Everything began sometime during the Millard Fillmore administration (sadly, it was the last to have a Whig president, but after his term in office, Mr. Fillmore switched to the Know Nothing party -- a party I believe still occupies the White House).

It so happens that this post coincides with my monthly Underappreciated Music as sponsored (that's the word, no matter much I wanted the word to be "underwritten') by the great Todd Mason.  This month, rather than featuring a musical artist, I thought I would write a few words about WFMA -- the World Folk Music Association.

WFMA began in 1982 when Dick Cerri, long-time host of the popular radio program Music Americana, and singer song-writer Tom Paxton agreed there was a need to keep people interested in folk music in touch with the folk music scene.  WFMA is committed to promoting contemporary and traditional folk music.  Today the Washington, DC-based WFMU is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that keeps the light of folk music burning brightly.  Cerri used his radio show to promote the organization and to sponsor concerts throughout the area.  Somewhere along the line, a young woman named Doris Justis came aboard as Cerri's assistant.  Doris also happened to a very talented singer as well as a huge folk music enthusiast.  At Cerri's urging, Doris Justis partnered with Sean McGhee to form the folk duo Side by Side, which became WFMA' s "house band" for over a quarter century.  Doris was also the person responsible for getting the 60s folk group The Chad Mitchell Trio to reunite in 2005.  For 25 years, WFMA's annual benefit concert brought together many of folk music's brightest stars.  Many of their concerts were dedicated to such important artists as Odetta, Tommy Makem, Tom Paxton, Oscar Brand, Tom Rowe, Ronnie cox, The Brothers Four, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, David Mallett, John Steward, Kate Wolf,, Steve Goodman, and others.  Currently WFMA sponsors a series of monthly showcases at thePositano Restaurant in Bethesda, MD, usually featuring three acts, both old and new, from around the country.  They have also sponsored house concerts and benefit concerts for charity.  All this in addition to being a guide to the best folk music venues throughout the United States.

Here's a few samples from their concerts.  The video on some are not the best and many of the concerts were not recorded or were not available, but I hope you can see how wonderful these performances were.  I attended many of them while I was in the D.C. area and have fond memories.  (Who knows?  I may be in some of the audience shots.)

Highlights of the 20th Annual Benefit Concert in 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MbowmgnqJ0

Highlights from the Tom Paxton Tribute, 2008:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msYNlRhAmWs

The Limelighters after the WFMA after party, 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npMMLLKS5O4

Jane Olivor, "The Water Is Wide":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ycfT0j0Z8

Side by Side, "The Flower That Shattered the Stone":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hSrM4UB_S4

Buskin and Batteau, "Boy with a Violin":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na0AHpWElD0

Kensington Station, "Whiskey in the Jar":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gclbD_wToQ

Mack Bailey, "This Old Guitar":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKUfskJ_W3M

Side by Side Aloha Farewll Concert, 2015, with guests Bill Danoff, Tom Paxton, and The Chad Mitchell Trio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9fcIxnm_rE

Tommy Makem's "The Winds Are Singing Freedom" from a  concert shortly after Makem's death:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzXRRxzXECM

Although this clip isn't from a WFMA concert, I could hardly end without a baton twirling exhibition from singer/songwriter Christine Lavin, which she often performed on the WFMA stage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98JnAxGZi0s

Great times.  Great music.  If you ever in the D.C. area, check out WFMA's website.

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: DARLENE LOVE

What a talent!  And she's Twenty Feet from Stardom.

"Do Ron Ron," "He's a Rebel," and "He's Sure the Boy I Love."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o55O3Abb0C0

"Today I Met the Boy I'm Gonna to Marry"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zQ_xCX6TA4

"River Deep, Mountain High"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W3C_xOPT9M

"Lean on Me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tlP49fSNo

"Alley Oop"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNlrC2xL3yA

"Chapel of Love"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v669V_UjiDo

"Strange Love"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdimD8Z-ppY

"Don't Make Me Over"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-zFawLIAQA

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: CLARK KESSINGER, COUNTRY FIDDLER

My college friend Chris could be moody.  Usually when that happened he would write poetry; sometimes -- not often -- he would rip urinals of the walls in men's rooms in various bars, then he would go back to the bar and drinking flaming shots while glaring at everyone there.  Needless to say, his coping skills needed some work.

My coping skills, however, were finely honed.  When I was in a bad mood (which was not often) I would put my copy of Clark Kessinger, Country Fiddler on the record player and turn the volume way, way up.  Thus, everyone in my dormitory could share my misery.  This is not to say that Kessinger's music is painful; it isn't.  Kessinger was a world-class fiddler and a large influence on old time music.  But "Turkey in the Straw" played full blast at 3:00 am is not everyone's cup of tea.

Judge for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6x2HSdfws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCCygnR9y5c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax5gWWc8g0s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJxG1LVWJqo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4bamxLIQM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1QegyEcHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqrnHlb2P2I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SwInLwtNZY

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC -- HALLOWEEN EDITION -- NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN

From Walt Disney's Fantasia, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.  Have a great Halloween!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMmfaaiWMEs

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: PROTEST SONGS OF THE 60S

 In this age of Trump, Covid, the rise of white nationalism, and the possible demise of democracy, I find is refreshing to look back to the turbulent Sixties, where popular music helped stop a war, bring civil rights to the forefront, attacked bigotry, and pointed out some of our more significant flaws.  Today, we have the late night comedians and the Lincoln Project, as well as Randy Rainbow and other satirists, doing that job for us.  To me, the Sixties were a special time when we could, and did, change the future.  Sadly, many of us lost that zeal as we aged, and greed and self-interest took over.  I still have hope, however, and the younger artists of today are part of that hope.

The link takes you to a compilation of 26 songs from the Sixties.  It's not the greatest compilation, but its a start.  Feel free to link to those songs that inspired you in the comments section.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV0XpgQL0MpkyD3xTilEEP5w6yQJs5vp-

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: JEANNE REDPATH

The voice of Scottish music, the voice of American ballards, the voice of the mountains...could it be anyone but Jeanne Redpath?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHfE8VpQj70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU3S5bY3vgY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjccsBqoGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tURKx7qOPHY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2y9hTUPBbU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnI9EWQr_K0&list=TLrHURkM4PixA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzyI_Hh8ufI&list=TLJOtDIhFMM0A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87MtC_tNWcA&list=TLTr4Zj8Vg1Ls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqA4Eh1Ik4g&list=TLZ7Npa-CnfyI

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: ANCESTORS OF ROCK AND ROLL

Yep, rock and roll is here to stay -- it will never die.  But it took a long while birthing.  You may recognize them as such but here are some of the antecedents, from 1922 to 1936, to a great musical genre.


1922 -- Trixie Smith, "My Man Rocks Me (with One Steady Roll)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHtSz4BooMA


1925 -- Papa Charlie Jackson, "Shake That Thing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNW-2BiGs44


1926 -- Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Black Snake Moan"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kic5rUrvv08


1927 -- Uncle Dave Macon and His Fruit Jar Drinkers, "Sail Away" and "Rock About My Saro Jane"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqpP6zNuAXE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXqk2mPtPo0


1927 -- Jim Jackson, "Kansas City Blues"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMBO2Sb_91k


1928 -- Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "It's Tight Like That"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuUReqRLAbc


1928 -- Pinetop Slim, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6dPdfXZVI8


1929 -- Blind Roosevelt Graves, "Crazy About My Baby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56rjRNQ1fPY


1930 -- Jimmie Rogers (with Louis Armstrong on cornet and Lil Armstrong on piano), "Standing on the Corner (Blue Yodel No. 9)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM


1932 -- Washboard Rhythm Kings, "Tiger Rag"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkW7osPfonU


1934 -- Austin Coleman and Joe Washington Brown, "Good Lord Run (O Jeremiah)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkxeB0gcLyA


1936 -- Harlem Hamfats, "Oh! Red"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2heVEC2djCE

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF THE CENTURY

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, edited by Tony Hillerman (series editor, Otto Penzler), 2000

People may quibble over individual choice here but all the selections are more than worthy, making this 800-page doorstop of a book with its 46 stories first published from 1903 to 1999 an essential collection for anyone interested in the art of the short story in the genre -- where "mystery" also encompasses the detective story, the crime story, and the suspense story.  A number of these tales will be familiar, but many may not.  

Among my many favorite are Melville Davisson Post's "Naboth's Vineyard," featuring the now (I fear) underappreciated Uncle Abner, Raymond Chandler's "Red Wind," with one of the greatest opening paragraph in all of literature, Stanley Ellin's "The Moment of Decision," from one of the absolute masters of the short story, Evan Hunter's "First Offense," one of his many tough tales of juvenile delinquency from the vastly under-rated magazine Manhunt (and from his vastly under-rated collection The Jungle Kids), Stephen Greenleaf's "Iris," which wowed me when I first read it in 1984, and Donald E. Westlake's "Too Many Crooks," because who does not love Dortmunder?

Dip in anywhere and enjoy.

The Stories:

• O. Henry, "A Retrieved Reformation" (from Cosmopolitan, April 1903; featuring Jimmy Valentine)
• Willa Cather, "Paul's Case" (from McClure's Magazine, May 1905)
• Jacques Futrelle, "The Problem of Cell 13" (from Boston American, October 30, 1905; certainly the most famous -- if not the best-- of Futrelle's The Thinking Machine stories)
• Frederick Irving Anderson, "Blind Man's Bluff" (from The Adventures of the Infallible Godahl, 1914; the Fictionmags Index list this as first appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, May 24, 1913)
• Melville Davisson Post, "Naboth's Vineyard" (from Illustrated Sunday Magazine, June 4, 1916; an Uncle Abner story)
• Susan Glaspell, "A Jury of Her :Peers" (from Every Week, March 5. 1917; later published separately in a stand-alone limited edition in 1927)
• Dashiell Hammett, "The Gutting of Couffignal" (from Black Mask, December 1925; a Continental Op story)
• Ring Lardner, "Haircut" (from Liberty, March 28, 1925)
• Wilbur Daniel Steele, "Blue Murder" (from Harper's, October 1925)
• Ben Ray Redman, "The Perfect Crime" (from Harper's, August 1928)
• James M. Cain, :The Baby in the Icebox" (from American Mercury, January 1933)
• John Steinbeck, "The Murder" (from North American Review, December 1933)
• Damon Runyon, "A Sense of Humor" (from Cosmopolitan, September 1934)
• Pearl S. Buck, "Ransom" (from Cosmopolitan, October 1938;  Buck was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature but her impact on Twentieth Century culture probably came from her novel The Good Earth -- when Robert de Graff first floated the idea of a cheap mass-market pocket-sized paperback, the popular response to Buck's novel spurred him to partner with Simon & Schuster to create Pocket Books in 1939 and the paperback revolution was born, increasing American literacy significantly.  We owe a lot to Mrs. Buck, if only for that alone.   That's my off-topic comment for today.)
• Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind" (from  Dime Detective, January 1938; featuring John Dalmas; several of the stories featuring Dalmas were rewritten and/or expanded to feature Philip Marlowe)
• James Thurber, "The Catbird Seat" (from The New Yorker, November 14, 1942)
• Cornell Woolrich, "Read Window" (from Dime Detective, February 1942, under the title "It Had To Be Murder; also published under the pseudonym "William Irish"
• William Faulkner, "An Error in Chemistry" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 1946; featuring "Uncle" Gavin Stevens)
• Harry Kemelman, "The Nine Mile Walk" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1947, featuring Nicky Welt; Kemelman's first short story)
• "Ellery Queen" (Frederik Dannay & Manfred B. Lee") - The Adcenture of the Presidents Half Disme" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 1947; featuring Ellery Queen)
• John D. MacDonald, "The Homesick Buick" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September 1950)
• "Ross Macdonald" (Kenneth Millar), "Gone Girl" (from Manhunt, February 1953, as "The Imaginary Blonde" by "John Ross Macdonald;" featuring Lew Archer)
• Stanley Ellin, "The Moment of Decision" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1955)
• Evan Hunter (born S. A. Lombino; name legally changed to hunter in 1952), "First Offense" (from Manhunt, December 1955)
• Margaret Millar, "The Couple Next Door" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 1957)
• Henry Slesar, "The Day of the Execution" (from Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, June 1957)
• Patricia Highsmith, "The Terrapin" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, October 1962)
• Shirley Jackson, "The Possibility of Evil" (from The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1965; this one won an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Flannery O'Connor, "The Comforts of Home" (from Everything That Rises Must Converge, 1965; Fictionmags Index indicates that the story was first published in The Kenyon Review, Fall 1960)
• Jerome Weidman, "Good Man, Bad Man" (from The Saturday Evening Post, July 1, 1967)
• Joe Gores, "Goodbye, Pops" (from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 1969; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Sort Story)
• Harlan Ellison, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" (from Bad Moon Rising, edited by Thomas M. Disch, 1973; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Robert L. Fish, "The Wager" (from Playboy, July 1973) 
• Joyce Carol Oates, "Do with Me What You Will" (from Playboy, June 1973)
• Stephen King, "Quitters, Inc." (from Night Shift, 1978)
• "Jack Ritchie" (John George Reitci), "The Absence of Emily" (from Ellery /Queen's Mystery Magazine, January 28, 1981; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Lawrence Bloch, "By Dawn's Early Light" (from The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1984; a Matt Scuddwr story; winner of an Edgar award for Best Short Story; later expanded into novel When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes.)
• Stephen Greenleaf, "Iris" (from The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1984; a John Marshall Tanner story)
• Sara Paretsky, "Three-Dot Po" (from The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1984; a V. I. Warshawski story)
• Sue Grafton, "The Parker Shotgun" (from Mean Streets, edited by Robert J. Randisi, 1986; a Kinsey Millhone story)
• Donald E. Westlake, "Too Many Crooks" (from Playboy, August 1989; a Dortmunder story)
• James Crumley, "Hot Springs" (from Murder for Love, edited by Otto Penzler, 1996)
• Brendn DuBois, "The Dark Snow" (from Playboy, November 1996)
• Michael Malone, "Red Clay" (from Murder for Love, edited by Otto Penzler, 1996; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Tom Franklin, "Poachers" (from Texas Review, Spring 1998; winner of an Edgar Award for Best Short Story)
• Dennis Lehane, "Running Out of Dog" (from Murder and Obsession, edited by Otto Penzler, 1999)

And because I love to carp, no stories by John Dickson Carr, Edward D. Hoch, Bill Pronzini, Ed Gorman, and so many others?

Which of these stories/authors are your favorites?  Do you have a nomination for a best short story that is not listed above -- one that has stuck with you over the years?

NOTE:  This volume should not be conflated Great American Mystery Stories of the Twentieth Century, an anonymously-edited volume issued by the Franklin Library in 1989.  That volume has only half as many stories and half as many pages the Hillerman book.  Although, to be fair, several of the stories repeat in both volumes.

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: ROBERT jOHNSON

It may be a stretch to call Robert Johnson's music unappreciated.  His influence has reached from the 1920s to today and will assuredly continue into the far future, yet I wonder how people actually listen to him today.

The myth that he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads to become a great guitarist has become a part of American culture and can be found on the printed page, in film, and on television.  There's no doubt that Johnson was one of the best guitarists of all time.  Spin magazine ranked him number 1
out of 35 guitar gods.  Rolling Stone had him at number five out of a hundred guitar greats.  Guitar.com was only slightly less enthusiastic, placing him ninth out of the 50 best guitarists.  Four of his songs was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.  He's in the Grammy Hall of Fame.  The U.S. Post office even issued a commemorative stamp of Johnson.

Robert Johnson has been praised by Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, John Hammond, Elton John, and Rory Block, among others.  Bands that have been influenced by him include Fleetwood Mac, Rush, and Slipknot.

It's not just his skill on the guitar that has brought him praise.  His voice, singing style, and his ability to write lyrics place him as one of the most outstanding musicians of the Twentieth Century.  But just who was this man?

He was born, perhaps in 1911, in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.  His  mother married Charles Dodds, who has forced to flee the area by a white mob.  Robert and his mother moved to Memphis for two years before Robert was sent back to Mississippi to live with his father, who had changed his last name to Spencer.  Thus Robert was known at that time as Robert Spencer.  Sometime prior to 1929, he adopted the last name of his natural father, Noah Johnson.  He married a sixteen-year-old girl who soon died in childbirth; the story went around that this was Robert's punishment for playing secular music (i.e., the blues).

He became an itinerant musician, playing on street corners, dances, and juke joints throughout the Mississippi Delta and beyond.  The record is spotty, in part because he used so many aliases while traveling.  He was a friendly, talented man who loved to drink and mess around with women.  The enigma that was Robert Johnson died in 1938.  One story has it that he was poisoned by a jealous husband, another that he died from syphilis.  He was, it is believed, 27.  He was buried in an unmarked grave, the location of which is uncertain although at least three sites claim  to be his final resting place.

The link below takes you to his complete recordings -- 29 songs recorded in 1936 and 1937.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWRtJz6dt9o

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: DAVE MALLETT

Dave Mallett is a songer/songwriter perhaps best known for the "Garden Song."  His music is lyrical and poignant.  His voice flows like honey.

Sung by school kids everywhere, the "Garden Song" (also known as "Inch by Inch")  has become an American standard.  Pete Seeger, in introducing the song, once mistakenly said it was written by "an old New England farmer."  Mallet hailed from Maine, but he was anything but old:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m0LewjkO4s

"This Town":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XkNpHgHAMI

A song about a personal disaster, "Fire":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HhO137Uqo8

"This Town":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ME5Ezju_8A

"My Old Man":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxoxwc4Yd4E

Emmy Lou Harris once called this the perfect love song.  'Red, Red Rose":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-06XZX_w7LQ&index=15&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3PE9TptTvQ2k2H8Be2clyXG

Haunting.  "Arthur":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjYc8BY89Lg&index=43&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3PE9TptTvQ2k2H8Be2clyXG


One of my favorites.  "The Candle and the Cape":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrbGCE6Hvig&index=85&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3PE9TptTvQ2k2H8Be2clyXG

A simple love song.  "Moon Upon the Left":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKN9_0Xu-lU&index=81&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3PE9TptTvQ2k2H8Be2clyXG

A cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "Second Cup of Coffee":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InpLOB2Mz4g&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3NN5yASx5bXIN5acaZj88bz&index=36

"Dulcimer":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVO3QsRP-fA&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3NN5yASx5bXIN5acaZj88bz&index=82

A bit of nostalgia.  "I Knew This Place":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWyBrT42SKw&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3NN5yASx5bXIN5acaZj88bz&index=90

"The Haying Song":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYD1DbE0Z-Q&index=123&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3NN5yASx5bXIN5acaZj88bz

Here's a song that Mallett wrote in honor of his friend, the late folk singer Jed Strunk.  "Change of the Seasons":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIhvB_eyVkE&list=PL6gbjSYvj-3NN5yASx5bXIN5acaZj88bz&index=191

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: JOHN McCUTCHEON ON THE HAMMERED DULCIMER

Virginia-based folk musician John McCutcheon has been poularizing the hammered dulcimer for decades.  There was a time when such instuments could be found in many attics throughout the country.  (I found one in our attic when I was a kid.)  A beautiful instrument, lovingly played by an expert.

Enjoy.

"Leviathan"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZQxJ5-PXKo

"Step by Step"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=089gSM2XmR4

"Star in the East" with vocals by the Washington Bach Consort
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DiG3toxhCQ

"Every Breath You Take"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVhdRLcoKcU&list=PL456FB17FD753A4BD

"Santiago"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZEA5kyvS5c

"Carolan's Welcome/Lord Inchiquin"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MkbsW3uqB4

"Babylon Is Fallen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyrcEEvJ9ok

"St.Krispajn's Cobblerguild"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGBNIJJFvhA

"Earl Eddy's Favorite/Snowflake Breakdown"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsggihTnuuY

"I Shall Arise"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sScxgw98FVE

"Frenchie's Reel/Denver Belle"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhkQCmDEc5Y

"Robbing Peter to Pay Paul"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnwWTNxX2CU

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: PINETOP PERKINS

 Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (1913-2011) was an influential blues pianist.  He started out as a guitar player and was playing at bars, juke jonts, and rooster fights shortly after he had left home at 18.  In the Forties, a knife-wielding chorus girl in Helena, Arkansas, severed several tendons in his left arm, ending that career.  Perkins switched to piano, an instrument he had learned when he was twelve or thirteen.  Perkins played for Robert Nighthawk on Nighthawk's radio program for KFFA, then moved to Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Time.  While there, he taught a young Ike Turner how to play piano.  Turner went on to record "Rockett 88," a song many consider to be the first rock and roll record, using a riff that Perkins had taught him.  "That means Pinetop would be at the birth of rock and roll," Turner has said.

In 1969 Perkins was tapped by Muddy Waters to replace the late Otis Spann in Waters' band. Perkins became a cornerstone of the band nd often recorded with Waters.  He and several other musicians left Waters in 1988 to play as the Legendary Blues Band.  

After years of serving as a sideman for both live shows and recordings, Perkins began a solo career in 1988.  He has been honored with 16 (!) W. C. Handy Awards (the "blies Grammy") for piano, was inducted into the Blue Hall of Fame, received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National endowment from the Arts, and recieved a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as well as two other Grammies.  The Pinetop Perkins Foundation offers annual workshops for young musicians interested in the blues and jazz.  The Pinetop Assistance League provides supprt for elderly, impoverished musicians.

The blues can be a way of surviving life's many hardships.  For Perkins that included a childhood of poverty and abuse. a lack of education (he never learned to read or write), being partially deaf from the 1950's. severe bouts with alcoholism and depression after his common-law wife died, losing his home when a stepson reneged on a mortgage (his stepsons "would steal sweetener out of ginger snaps and wouldn't break the crust"), being forced to move to worse and worse neighborhoods, and being struck by a train while driving a car at age 91, breaking his right arm and receiving 45 stitches but was back to performing two weeks later.

Perkins died in his sleep on March 21, 2011, at age 97.  At the time of his death he had more than 20 performances booked for later that year.  His death left David "Honeyboy" Edwards as the last of the original Delta blues musicians; Edwards died later that year on Ausust 29.  And so an era ended.

Here's "Pinetop's BoogieWoogie" -- the full album with 12 tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTKm5IadyY0

And "Born in the Delta" -- with 8 tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDkJn3fGcqc

And "Solitaire" -- 14 tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ_FVHf4P1U

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: JIM KWESKIN & THE JUG BAND

In these times of uncertainty it's important t experience moments of joy...and what can be more joyful than jug band music?

If you were a folkie in the Boston area during the mid-Sixties, the place to be was Cambridge's Club 47.  (Yes, Boston also had the Unicorn coffeehouse but Club 47 was really the place.)  One of the popular acts to appear there was Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band.

First, there was Jim Kweskin (guitar, vocals, comb). who for the five years the band was in existence, put a modern, blues-tinged edge to pre-WWII music with his semi-gravelled voice and his astonishing guitar stylings.  Fritz Richmond (jug, washtub bass) was the best washtub bassist in the country and a master of the jug.  Richmond was known to be able to play the bass on anything, including (while in the service) a quonset hut.  Geoff Muldaur (guitar, vocals, mandolin, washboard, kazoo) was a blues vocalist, musician, and songwriter who later worked with Paul Butterfield and others.  Maria D'Amato (vocals, percussion, fiddle) came to the group from The Even Dozen Jug Band; she married Geoff Muldaur and has since performed under that name even though the marriage ended in 1972.  She has performed with Jerry Garcia, Paul Butterfield, and Linda Rondstadt, among others, and has continued to have a solid career in Christian, secular, children's, jazz, and popular music.  Bill Keith (banjo, pedal steel guitar), a former member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, developed a banjo style that permanently altered banjo playing.  He also designed a banjo tuning peg that remains state of the art to this day.  Richard Greene (fiddle) was recognized as one of the most innovative and influential fiddle players of all time.  While playing with Monroe's The Blue Grass boys, he introduced the 'chop chord" to fiddle playing.  The charismatic Mel Lyman (harmonica, banjo) was called the "Grand Old Man of the 'blues' harmonica in his mid-twenties."  In 1966 Lyman founded the Lyman Family, a semi-hippie commune that slowly devolved to a cult status as Lyman's mental condition deteriorated.  Lyman supposedly died in 1978, although his "Family" could provide no body or death certificate; strangely, there was no investigation.  (Another source has Lyman dying of a drug overdose in Los Angeles that same year.)  Original members included Bruno Wolfe (vocals) and Bob Siggins (vocals and banjo).

With a slightly changing line-up over the years, Kweskin's Jug Band provided a welcome twist on old-time rural music with a dose of ragtime, blues, jazz, bluegrass, and country.  They helped make the mid-Sixties -- an era of protest, awareness, and rebellion -- a little more palatable.  And they helped make Club 47 a great place to be.

"Ukulele Lady"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94A4lNuaPhk

"Memphis"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJeI9WimWOk

"Papa's on the Housetop"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlhrmh3z8D0

"Somebody Stole My Gal"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMF13ZPxxFA

"Mobile Line"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2QbkRiDOp0

"When I Was a Cowboy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y6S-u42Oco

"Jug Band Music"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C50V0ODS-KQ

"That's When I'll Come Back To You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHPdtUq5VkY

"Storybook Ball"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il0-xTz47sE

"Christopher Columbus"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzVAy0dBnc

"If You're a Viper"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBGVX-T5JGw

"Never Swat a Fly"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grZJDjUId8

"Borneo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w20mtFCNwzo

"Mood Indigo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj1o2wKbLAw

"Boodle Am"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y-u-zuo8ko

"I Ain't Gonna Marry"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NctQ9LaGvbI

"Guabi Guabi" [also the name of our Siamese cat way back then]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aInhq3LFaA

"The Circus Song" [with greatest giraffe sounds ever!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB9o5CmA1mM


Great music.  Great memories.

UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: CHILDREN'S FOLK SONGS

I have always loved children's folk songs.  I hope you do, too.


Ella Jenkins is "The First Lady of Children's Folk Songs."  Here's her 1955 album "Multicultural Children's Songs."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaqmeU60qMY&list=PLD988MqDyXV64rhDriGutZFvvnUMcaJ6h



Pete Seeger loved to perform for children.  Here's one of his albums of animal songs for children, ""Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes:  Little & Big Animal Folk Songs."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwtZs7YyxEo&list=PLansJZQh1fBOHzsuMIfoorDKOkpVobgF6




The popular folk group The Limeliters recorded one of their children's concerts, "Through Children's Eyes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8NP5g4WAVc&list=PLh9EIqIXtg20HdbhyHlaRetm6Mmn2R5ll




We used sing a number of Rosenshontz songs to our children (still do, even though they are in their forties).  Here's their "Greatest Hits" album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd3KnBjsmCM&list=OLAK5uy_kC2ifQs279lVdNNZWTPK4WpsECORJuWUw



Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer entertain first graders from Leckie Elementary School and show them how music is made in this Library of Congress Video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhpVMs9KJ9A




Here's Tom Glazer with a few entertaining songs in these old 78s.  Then we have his album "On Top of Spaghetti," a classic, for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXHZmHRm18s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b70rKn8gV4s



Peter, Paul & Mary Mommy had a special link to the magic of childhood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEwOzTv_XWU



There are many more artist who could be spotlighted here, but let me just leave you with a Bob Dylan song recorded by Pete Seeger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezyd40kJFq0