Sings for Children

1	More Yet 1:04
2	Boll Weevil 3:42
3	Little Boy, How Old Are You? 0:58
4	Skip to My Lou 2:14
5	Red Bird 2:57
6	Sally Walker 2:42
7	Ha Ha This A-Way 1:37
8	Grey Goose 1:27
9	Christmas Is Coming 1:07
10	Blue Tail Fly 2:20
11	Polly Wee (The Frog Song) 1:15
12	Pig Latin Song 1:38
13	When a Man's a Long Way from Home 2:59
14	Good Morning Blues 2:14
15	By and by When the Morning Comes 1:56
16	Every Time I Feel the Spirit/Swing Low, Sweet Chariot/They Hung Him on 3:25
17	Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 1:05
18	Rock Island Line 1:35
19	Cotton Fields 2:09
20	Old Man 2:38
21	John Henry 4:03
22	Julie Ann Johnson 2:54
23	Whoa Back Buck 2:12
24	You Can't Lose Me, Cholly 2:39
25	Midnight Special 2:04
26	Pick a Bale of Cotton 1:33
27	Take This Hammer 2:54
28	We're in the Same Boat, Brother 2:37

Barnes & Noble

Fabled bluesman Huddie Ledbetter, known to the world as Leadbelly, began his children's music recording career in 1941 with "Play Parties in Song and Dance." The record had not been available commercially for years, but now it and several other Leadbelly kids' recordings are compiled on this must-own 28-track release. The sound quality is understandably less than pristine, but that does not diminish the power -- or the overarching sweetness -- of Leadbelly's performances. LEADBELLY SINGS FOR CHILDREN is a treasure house of essential American folk music, from Leadbelly's own compositions -- classics like "Cotton Fields," "Rock Island Line," and "Midnight Special" among them -- to traditional rhymes, spirituals, and blues airs. Throughout, the artist explains the songs' origins in kid terms, providing the perfect introduction to America 's only true homegrown musical form, the blues. Moira McCormick

All Music Guide

A dozen of these 28 songs were first issued on the 1960 Folkways album Negro Folk Songs for Young People. But this is not so much a CD expansion of that album as a lengthy compilation of children-friendly performances from the 1940s that uses Negro Folk Songs for Young People as its core. The additional tracks were recorded by Moses Asch of Folkways in 1941-1948, and include five of the six songs released on the 1941 album Party Songs/Sings & Plays, and a previously unreleased radio broadcast of "Take This Hammer." While many of these are simple tunes that can easily be picked up by young kids for singing along to, like "Skip to My Lou" and "Blue-Tailed Fly (Jimmy Crack Corn)," a bunch of these are classic folk songs of equal appeal to all age groups. Some of them are particularly identified with Leadbelly's interpretations, such as "Rock Island Line," "John Henry," "Cotton Fields," "Midnight Special," "Pick a Bale of Cotton," and "Take this Hammer"; other familiar standards like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Sally Walker" are also aboard. As the liner notes explain, Leadbelly didn't limit the repertoire of his performances for children solely to simple tunes, also putting in blues and folk songs that you wouldn't think of as kids' tunes, like "Good Morning Blues." The result is a disc that is simply a good Leadbelly album, whether listened to by kids or others. Richie Unterberger