Cool Kidsongs: You Are My Sunshine

Elizabeth Mitchell: You Are My Sunshine

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Gray Sky Girls: You Are My Sunshine

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Norman Blake: You Are My Sunshine

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You Are My Sunshine was a popular song written in a time when the audience fragmentation of modern culture had not yet taken place; songs back then were for everyone, and other than playground rhymes, the conceit of "children's song" was a meaningless term. But like so many innocent love songs from the era - see, for another example, Bushel and a Peck - switching its subject from lover to son or daughter only makes the song that much sweeter. And so the song has come to be associated with childhood, a perfect pitch from parent to child, despite the undertone of fear and loss which flavors its lyric.

A few years ago, just before their divorce was finalized, my parents overheard my wife and I singing this song to our daughter, and noted that they had sung the song to me, together in harmony, when I was just a tiny thing myself. It was the last time I saw them smile together, and since then, it's harder to sing without choking up a bit. But we still sing it, just the same.

This and That: Notes and Daisies

Liz and Lisa: Notes and Daisies

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I'm sharing a rarity with our readers tonight. This track is off the self-titled demo tape put out by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell when they were roommates at Brown University in the late 80's and working as a folk duo called Liz & Lisa. I think I should get double word points for also having the artist name match the theme, I mean, hey, if this were musical Scattergories that'd be the rules!

I can't tell you how much I love the early work of Lisa Loeb. Her album "Tails" was a huge thing for me when it came out, and it's the album that got me to be more than a casual music listener. The Liz & Lisa tapes remain some of my favorite of her work though. They have all the charm of "Tails" (in fact, a number of the songs from Tails started as Liz & Lisa songs, and Liz sings back-up on Tails as well), but also have the intimacy of folk music and sharing the vocal reins with Elizabeth Mitchell is also a nice treat. Many people have heard of Lisa, but not as many know Liz. She's going by Elizabeth these days, but Liz Mitchell was part of the band Ida before she started releasing children's folk albums as a solo artist a few years ago, the first of which she made with Lisa.

This song features Liz on vocals, but Lisa is easily heard in harmonies. The picture above came up repeatedly in searches for daisies in the search engine, and I love the TV show "Pushing Daisies", from which the photo is a promotional shot, so I thought "why not?!". But then the more I got to thinking about it the more I thought "well, you know, Pushing Daisies started out with musical numbers in each episode, and this song does seem like something I can imagine Olive Snook singing to Ned, her boss, and the man she has a crush on", so yeah, it does sort of fit too since the song is about telling someone the way you feel about them. Two great things that go great together...this and that, indeed.

Bodies of Water: Lily Pond

Elizabeth Mitchell: Lily Pond

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A tiny transitional song, originally written and performed by modern freakfolk forerunner Vashti Bunyan, who we featured last week as part of our highly successful run of train songs. The tune is borrowed from a highly familiar source, and carries with it the desired impression of childlike innocence; the lyrics are sweet and summery, and feature full immersion in the body of water in question.

This lovely, delicate little interpretation comes from fave kidfolk artist Elizabeth Mitchell, who with banjo and voice manages to lend warmth and intimacy to the song while retaining Bunyan's tender sense of awe and oneness with the natural world...even after clipping a good 24 seconds off the original.

Cars: Riding In My Car

Woody Guthrie: Riding in My Car [purchase]

Bruce Springsteen: Riding in My Car [purchase]

Elizabeth Mitchell: Car Car [purchase]

Woody and Arlo Guthrie: Riding In My Car [purchase]

Every time someone tries to deify the great troubadors of early folk in my presence, I remember that I grew up listening to this silly yet classic Woody Guthrie song, thinking this was folk music, and wondering what all the fuss was about. Apparently, I'm not the only one, either. Bruce Springsteen's tribute-album cover is hilariously earnest; Elizabeth Mitchell's duet with her own kid is surprisingly tender. Woody's cross-generational recut, a jouncy hillybilly romp with jaw harp, banjo, harmonica, and son Arlo, is a bit too long for its own good, but a decent novelty all the same.