The life of a folk song depends not upon print, but upon its appeal to children. If the young ones don't like what they hear their old folks singing, those songs will be forgotten. In this sense all folk song is made for children and that is why ... folk song has a permanence not shared by any other kind of music. The songs especially created with children in mind possess incomparable vitality and staying power. Since they must please the most critical and candid of audiences, they have unmatched charm, subtlety, strength, and, above all, fancy. — Lomax, John & Alan, "Best Loved American Folk Songs," p. 3 (Grosset & Dunlap, 1947).

I wouldn't say all folk songs are children's songs, but I do maintain that the best, most durable, children's songs have a joke at their heart, by which I mean they set you up for a surprise. But most  jokes told to you are stale when you hear them again. The jokes in these songs give me pleasure every time I hear them, even though I know very well how they're going to turn out. After all, I sing many of them myself. I think it's like when you play peek-a-boo with a very young baby. You put your hands over your eyes, then take them away and say "peek-a-boo!" The baby laughs every time you do this, even though it's no longer a surprise. Perhaps the laughter is because of the memory of the first surprise.

In our first song, the joke is that a musical instrument (the fiddle) is used for the markedly unmusical imitation of barnyard sounds: Johnson's Old Gray Mule, performed by J.E. Mainer & His Mountaineers, vocal & fiddle by J.E. Mainer. Recorded 1959 in Concord, North Carolina by Alan Lomax, and released on Atlantic LP 1350, American Folk Songs For Children, as part of the Atlantic Southern Folk Heritage Series. Reissued by Atlantic as part of a 4-CD boxed set, Sounds of the South, available from internet sources such as Amazon.com. J.E. Mainer (1898-1971), along with his brother, Wade, recorded in the 1930s. Wade celebrated his 100th birthday in 2007. Happy Birthday, Wade.

Another type of joke popular in children's songs is the scheme where one verse leads logically to the next verse, until we end up far from the beginning. One example, The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, has the lady swallowing larger and more improbable animals. This one is a little different: Mama Buy Me A Chiney Doll, sung by Almeda Riddle. Recorded in Heber Springs, Arkansas by Alan Lomax, and released on the American Folk Songs For Children LP mentioned above. Riddle (1898 - 1986) sang with a wonderful, clear, mountain voice that sounds best when there are no instruments to muddle it. She was not a professional, but in her later years appeared at many music festivals, including at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas.

In these days when recordings routinely carry gross obscenities, it's easy to forget that even the mildest swearwords, such as hell, were once strictly forbidden in polite company. Children were especially not to use them, so a song that comes to the edge of using a proscribed word was very amusing. One example is Hopalong Peter, performed by The New Lost City Ramblers: Mike Seeger, vocal & fiddle; Tom Paley, banjo; John Cohen, guitar. Released in late 1950s on The New Lost City Ramblers Play Old-Timey Songs For Children, Folkways 10" LP FC7064. A CD copy of this album (and any Folkways LP!) is available from Smithsonian-Folkways at http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=1252. The Ramblers learned this song from a 1938 recording by Fisher Hendley and his Aristocratic Pigs.

Here's a sure-fire combination for longevity in a song: it makes fun of eccentric old men with grandiose romantic goals but no resources, and it has a verse scheme that makes improvisation easy. Old Shoes and Leggings, sung by Uncle Eck Dunford with harmonica, guitar, banjo and mandolin accompaniment. Recorded October, 1928 in Bristol, Tennessee by the Victor Company. The recording is re-released on the Smithsonian-Folkways 6-CD set, Anthology of American Folk Music. For more commentary, lyrics and music, see http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-OldShoes.html.

Hallucinations caused by a snake bite may not seem like good material for a children's song, but when a banjo-playing woodchuck and a dancing skunk show up, it's a winner: Fod, performed by Henry King, vocal with guitar and mandolin. Recorded 1941 at a Farm Services Administration migrant workers camp in Visalia, California, by Todd & Sonkin. Released by Library of Congress Archive of Folksong on LP album L-2 (available as a cassette at http://www.loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html). For more commentary, lyrics and music, see http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-Fod.html.

Tall tales were popular in rural communities, but were seldom recorded. One of my favorite exceptions is An Automobile Trip Through Alabama, performed by Red Henderson with banjo accompaniment by (probably) Emmett Bankston. Recorded August, 1928 in (probably) Atlanta and released by Okeh Records. Re-released on Yazoo CD 2018, The Roots of Rap. Lee "Red" Henderson was guitarist for Earl Johnson & His Dixie Clodhoppers, a terrific Atlanta stringband. It's the only solo piece he recorded. It would be interesting to know where in the world (or from what world) this story of a hippopomorphic Ford originated. We're still looking for a car that will use so little Loco-Pep gasoline.