Maps of Music

Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child (1991)

Where the lyrics of Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child take you, and where it was really made.

The final track was written for a son born the same year the album was recorded.

Place unknown

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Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child: a children's music collection by folk singer Woody Guthrie
Recorded in 1947; first released in 1956 by Folkways Records
Smithsonian Folkways issued a remastered recording in 1991
Several songs are instructional and help children learn to count
Other songs are songs of adoration that Guthrie wrote with his own children in mind
'Goodnight Little Arlo' was written for his son Arlo Guthrie, born in 1947, the year the album was recorded
Guthrie said he tried to aim the songs at children aged 4 to 6, but they spilled over a little on every side
The track listing has 18 songs, from 'Grassy Grass Grass (Grow, Grow, Grow)' to 'Goodnight Little Arlo (Goodnight Little Darlin')'

Guthrie first met Moses 'Moe' Asch of Folkways Records in 1944
In the years after his military service, Guthrie lived with his second wife Marjorie in a house on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island
The couple had four children during the Mermaid Avenue years, and Arlo was one of them
The Mermaid Avenue years are described as the most productive period of Guthrie's writing
The children's collection was written and recorded during that period

1	Grassy Grass Grass (Grow, Grow, Grow)	1:37
2	Swimmy Swim	1:57
3	Little Sugar (Little Saka Sugar)	1:26
4	Rattle My Rattle	1:15
5	I Want My Milk (I Want It Now)	2:22
6	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	1:15
7	One Day Old	1:37
8	Wash‐y Wash Wash (Warshy Little Tootsy)	1:38
9	I’ll Eat You, I’ll Drink You	1:44
10	Make a Bobble	2:11
11	Who’s My Pretty Baby (Hey Pretty Baby)	1:48
12	I’ll Write and I’ll Draw	2:33
13	Why, Oh Why	3:32
14	Pick It Up	1:56
15	Pretty and Shiny‐O	1:33
16	Needle Sing	2:20
17	Bling‐Blang	2:46
18	Goodnight Little Arlo (Goodnight Little Darlin’)	3:17

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, born July 14, 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma; died October 3, 1967 in New York.
Left Okemah in 1929 and followed his father to Pampa, Texas, where he began busking and playing music.
Moved to California during the Dust Bowl period and worked at Los Angeles radio station KFVD.

Solo artist; no group members.
Married Mary Jennings (1933), Marjorie Greenblatt (1945), and Anneke van Kirk (1953); fathered eight children in total.
His son Arlo Guthrie became a nationally known musician.

Known for songs such as "This Land Is Your Land" and "Tear the Fascists Down", with themes of American socialism and anti-fascism.
Wrote hundreds of country, folk, and children's songs; the 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads earned him the nickname "Dust Bowl Troubadour".
Wrote the column "Woody Sez" for the communist newspaper People's World (1939–1940); was never a formal Communist Party member.
Served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II before being drafted into the Army in 1945.
Diagnosed with Huntington's disease in 1952; hospitalized from 1956 until his death in 1967.
Influenced Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and many others; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

First release: 1956, on Folkways Records
Recording year: 1947
Remastered reissue: 1991, by Smithsonian Folkways
The label was the one Guthrie had worked with since meeting Moe Asch in 1944
Track listing: 18 songs
The opening track is 'Grassy Grass Grass (Grow, Grow, Grow)'
The closing track is 'Goodnight Little Arlo (Goodnight Little Darlin')'
Instructional pieces include '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8' and 'One Old Day'
Songs of adoration sit alongside the counting songs in the same collection
The collection is listed in the Woody Guthrie discography as a separate release
The album shows Guthrie writing for very young listeners, a different audience from his protest songs
No chart position, sales figure, certification or award is given in the source

Guthrie said the songs were aimed at children aged 4 to 6, but they spilled over a little on every side.
Guthrie first met Moe Asch of Folkways Records in 1944, and Folkways later released this album in 1956.
The 1991 remaster by Smithsonian Folkways came 35 years after the first release.
The track list includes a counting song, '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8'.
The album closes with a song written for Arlo Guthrie, who was born in 1947.