About Folk Playground

1 Victor Johnson • This Old Man
2 Zoe Lewis • Sheep
3 Jon Gailmor • Just Kidding
4 Michelle Shocked • Got No Strings
5 Brady Rymer • It's All How You Look At It
6 Dan Zanes • Hop Up Ladies
7 Laurie Berkner • Froggie Went a Courtin
8 Trout Fishing in America • Fill It Up
9 Justin Roberts • Roller in the Coaster
10 Leon Redbone • Polly Wolly Doodle
11 Elizabeth Mitchell • Crawdad
12 Eric Bibb feat. Michael Jerome Browne • Just Look Up

Years ago, before the advances of modern technology gave us MP3 players and video phones, people used to get together with family and friends to make music. Gathered around the fireplace or sitting on the front porch, people of all ages would pull out instruments and sing traditional songs that had been passed down from previous generations. Parents learned from grandparents and children learned from parents. In this manner, a circle was created and the music was preserved for future generations to know, learn and love. This is the very essence of folk music, and its legacy continues on Folk Playground, a family recording from Putumayo Kids.

In the 1950s and 60s, many songs that had survived the passing of time found renewed life and meaning for a new generation of performers and audiences. Singers like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Odetta and others were part of this popular revival and many of the people who sing on Folk Playground grew up listening to their songs. As adults, these musicians have continued the folk music tradition by performing their own versions of classic songs or by writing new ones inspired by those songs.