Pete Seeger has been making children's records for over 50 years, but he has never made one like this, a full-scale collaboration with a group dubbed the Rivertown Kids who were, when he started working with them, fourth graders at the Forrestal School in Beacon, NY, where he lives. The album's third credit, to "friends," includes a batch of other folk singers, some of whom sit in to take lead vocals on songs they wrote. Indeed, while Seeger is heard throughout the disc in one capacity or another, he can be considered something of a master of ceremonies, speaking or singing lead here, playing a banjo part there. While it is reasonable to classify the album as children's music, "educational" music might be a better tag, since the songs, written not only by folk singers, but also in some cases featuring lyrics contributed by the children, touch on familiar topics for Seeger, including political issues such as environmentalism and civil rights, as well as enough references to the Hudson River to make it a concept album about the waterway Seeger has devoted decades to trying to clean up. The children are not professional singers, of course, but their unison vocals remain in key and comprehensible for the most part, and they take turns singing lead on.
Condition: NEW
TRACK LISTING
1 Quite Early Morning (With Spoken Introduction) 2:25
2 We Sing Out 2:57
3 There'll Come A Day 6:30
4 Solartopia 3:51
5 Down By the River 3:12
6 River 4:05
7 Mastinchele Wachipi Olewan The Rabbit Song 1:31
8 The River That Flows Both Ways 4:38
9 I See Freedom 4:26
10 Take It From Dr. King 3:52
11 De Colores 3:51
12 It Really Isn't Garbage 4:05
13 English is Cuh-Ray-Zee 3:06
14 River Song (Back and Forth the Hudson Flows) 1:48
15 It's A Long Haul 3:56
16 We Shall Not Be Moved 3:08
17 Turn, Turn, Turn 4:30
18 Tomorrow's Children 2:11
19 Quite Early Morning 4:04
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