Folk Kids' Songs
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Folk Kids' Songs are acoustic, singable songs passed through families, schools, camps and folk performers. They often use guitar, banjo, hand percussion or simple ensemble backing, with lyrics that children can join quickly. The category includes traditional songs, folk-revival standards and modern family folk. Its value is communal: the recording models a song that can still work without electricity, stage lights or choreography.
History
Woody Guthrie's children's songs, Pete Seeger's family concerts and Folkways recordings helped make children's folk music a documented genre. Ella Jenkins brought participatory folk pedagogy to classrooms, while Raffi, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dan Zanes, The Okee Dokee Brothers and others renewed the sound for modern families. The style remains important because it offers a human-scale alternative to screen-first children's music.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Folkways catalogs
- family folk discographies
- folk revival histories
- school songbooks