VARIOUS ARTISTS "cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins" Smithsonian Folkways

9 December 2004 | Washington Post

In the '80s and '90s, folk music for children became a thriving sub-genre as parents learned that their kids would respond enthusiastically to music that was less elaborate and less condescending than standard TV fare. Among the stars in this field were such Washington area artists as Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Michele Valeri and Mike Stein. But the movement didn't materialize out of thin air; it built upon the pioneering efforts of Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton. Of the four, only Jenkins devoted herself full time to children's music, and she built a catalogue of songs and recordings for young listeners that has no rival.

To acknowledge their debt to Jenkins and to introduce a new generation of parents and children to her music, Fink & Marxer have produced "cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins," which features contributions from the duo, Sweet Honey, Valeri, Stein, Seeger, Paxton, John McCutcheon, Tom Chapin and more. Fink & Marxer wisely encourage their guests not to imitate Jenkins's original recordings but to put their own spin on the arrangements, proving that her songs are strong enough to work in any number of settings.

Thus Sweet Honey in the Rock puts Jenkins's best-known song, "Miss Mary Mack," through three different approaches -- call-and-response blues, scat-backed jazz and street-corner doo-wop; and Riders in the Sky put a Western-swing spin on Jenkins's "Let's All Sing a Yodeling Song." Fink retrofits "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song" to a clarinet-juiced Dixieland arrangement, and Marxer layers all manner of African percussion behind Red Grammer's vocal on Jenkins's Swahili song, "Jambo."