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  • Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings release from 2012

    Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings release from 2012

    Sneak Preview: Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie sung by Elizabeth Mitchell

    On July 10, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will release Elizabeth Mitchell's Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie, featuring re-imagined renditions of 13 kid-friendly Guthrie classics.

    The only CD of Guthrie’s children’s songs coinciding with the Woody Guthrie Centennial, Little Seed pays tribute to the legendary songwriter's uncanny ability to inhabit both the perspective of a loving, protective parent and the voice of a freewheeling child. The album includes thoughtful versions of children’s songs “Riding in My Car,” “Grassy Grass Grass,” and “Bling Blang.” Mitchell also shares her version of “This Land Is Your Land,” Guthrie’s signature song that many people consider a second national anthem.

    Sneak Preview: Listen to “This Land Is Your Land” and “Bling Blang”

    As always, she is joined on the recording by family (husband Daniel Littleton and daughter Storey) and friends, including Amy Helm, daughter of the late Levon Helm, pillars of the American acoustic music scene Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, and Ruthy Ungar of Mike and Ruthy and formerly of the Mammals.

    "Woody Guthrie’s songs for children are a gift to all of us. They are a part of me, part of my family," says Mitchell. "Thank you, Woody, for giving us this beautiful experience and so many others like it. We can feel this profound musical joy anytime, anywhere, with you in our spirits and your songs in our hearts."

    Little Seed is her third Smithsonian Folkways album, following You Are My Little Bird (2006) and Sunny Day (2010), and features eight newly recorded tracks and five previously issued favorites. This summer’s tour dates include the Clearwater Festival in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, on June 17, the Wolf Trap Theatre near Washington, DC, on July 5–7, and the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, RI, on July 28–29 (hosting the kids’ tent).

    TRACK LIST:

    1. Riding in My Car
    2. Bling Blang*
    3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8*
    4. Why, Oh Why *
    5. Sleep Eye *
    6. Who’s My Pretty Baby?
    7. Rattle My Rattle*
    8. This Land Is Your Land*
    9. Merry-Go-Round*
    10. One Day Old
    11. Little Sugar
    12. Grassy Grass Grass
    13. Little Seed*

    *Previously Unreleased

    Sneak Preview: Little Seed: Songs for Children by Woody Guthrie sung by Elizabeth Mitchell | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings