Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts and other folk songs for children

Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts and other folk songs for children

by Sam Hinton

The album comes with a 28-page booklet with an interesting biography about Hinton, as well as track notes (written by Hinton personally) for each song. The track notes are loaded with information about the songs origins, and any personal attachment Hinton may have to the song. For example, Hinton explains that Robin the Bobbin is more than 2,000 years old and was originally a very serious song;. However, it changed a little each time someone new sang it, until it reached the fun version that Hinton sings on this album. The track notes explain that Mr. Rabbit is a mixture of a game song and a church song and comes from African Americans in East Texas. All Hid is an old song kids used to sing instead of counting when they were 'it' in hide-and-seek. Your child may even want to start using it while playing with their friends! Hinton is also known for his unabashed dedication to delivering songs in a fun and relatable way; he has no qualms about making silly noises, creating new words, or singing falsetto if the song requires it. Hinton makes Frog Went Courting his own by adding rhyming gibberish throughout; he whistles like a bird, meows likes a cat, barks like a dog, quacks like a duck, honks like a goose, and gobbles like a turkey in The Barnyard Song; he snorts and "Wee, wee, wee's" with piglets in Three Foolish Piglets; he hums between each verse in Old Boastun Was Dead; and adds a surprise at the end of Little Old Woman All Skin and Bone that is guaranteed to make you jump!

Hinton states in his track notes, "One of the most important things about folk songs...everybody can sing them in his or her own way." Hinton encourages listeners to do just that. The title track is a playful song that builds on itself. It begins with just 'good peanuts', moves on to 'Girl Scout Cookies', gets more complicated with 'double-decker chocolate ice cream cones', and eventually builds up to 'rich red ripe juicy strawberry shortcake with lots of whip cream on top of it'! This song is a great test of memory though repetition; Can your little one keep up? Can they think of their own food to add to the list? The upbeat and allegro The Green Grass Growing All Around is another song that builds on itself, teaching through repetition. Hinton challenges listeners in his track notes to "add more verses if you have enough breath to sing 'em." Michael Finnegan creates another great challenge for your little one - can they come up with rhymes for 'Finnegan' like Hinton's, "He got drunk from drinking gin-again" and, "He didn’t know where he'd been-again," or even, "He got fat and had to get thin-again"? Little listeners will also have fun joining Hinton in the happy-go-lucky tune, "t-wang, t-wang, t-wang, t-wang, rattle-e, rattle-e, bang!" in Jolly Old Roger, mimicking different creaking methods in The Frog Songs, or dancing to the staccato notes in The Crawdad Song.

My three-year-old friend, Sam, likes to listen to this CD while playing with his toys in his play area. He will often make his stuffed animals or action figures dance around to the music, and he always grabs his stuffed frog for The Frog Song. One of Sam's favorite songs is A Horse Named Bill because he likes the many different silly stories told throughout it; a lady named Daisy who sang and drove her cat crazy, a man who turns himself inside-out and jumps in a river, and a horse who runs away to a barbershop...I am as entertained as Sam by all the shenanigans!

--Audra

Hinton plays the harmonica, guitar, and has an uncanny ability to remember songs - it is quoted within the cover booklet that he knows more than 5,000 songs by heart! He majored in zoology, directed the aquarium at the Scripps Oceanographic Institution for more than 20 years, and taught a varied group of classes in biology at the University of California, San Diego. He was also UCSD's Director of Relations with Schools for 16 years. It was during this time that Hinton developed his techniques for performing music for children.

Smithsonian Folkway Recording is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. Their mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkway Records in 1948 to document music, spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian Folkways Recording has continued the Folkways tradition by supporting the work of traditional artists and expressing a commitment to cultural diversity, education, an increased understanding.