Elizabeth Mitchell | |
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| Born | 1968 (age 54–55) New York City, New York |
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| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Smithsonian Folkways |
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| Website | www.youaremyflower.org |
Elizabeth Ardis Mitchell [1] (born 1968) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She began her career performing with Lisa Loeb as the duo Liz and Lisa, then founded the indie rock band Ida in 1991, of which she continues to be a member. [2] [3] As a solo artist, she has been recording and performing music for children since 1998.
Mitchell was the first children's music artist signed to Smithsonian Folkways in the 21st century. She has released seven albums of children's music, including her 2006 release You Are My Little Bird , which was voted Best Children's Album of 2006 by Amazon.com. [4]
Mitchell has also collaborated with musicians including Levon Helm, Dan Zanes, Ella Jenkins, Jon Langford and Ziggy Marley.
Mitchell was born in New York City in 1968. She attended Brown University, graduating in 1990.
During her years as a student at Brown, Mitchell formed the band Liz and Lisa with fellow student and singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb, who was also in the class of 1990. The two put out two albums: Liz and Lisa in 1989, and Liz and Lisa – Days Were Different in 1990. Among their backing band was Duncan Sheik, another Brown University student. [5]
Soon after graduating from Brown, Mitchell moved to Brooklyn and got a job as an assistant teacher at the Roosevelt Island Day Nursery School in New York City.
In 1991, Mitchell and Daniel Littleton started recording and performing as a duo. After playing shows with double-bassist Rick Lassiter they recorded a 4-track cassette of their songs. Jenny Toomey, co-owner of Simple Machines Records heard it, and offered to release an album on her label; the result was Tales of Brave Ida in 1994. Littleton's brother Michael joined the band soon afterwards, and Karla Schickele joined in 1996, creating Ida's first classic lineup. They have since released seven studio albums, in addition to various live albums, EPs and compilations.
Mitchell fell into the world of children's music in part by accident. Her first album of children's music, You Are My Flower , was recorded in a single afternoon in 1998 at the home studio of Warren Defever of the band His Name is Alive. It was not intended for commercial release, but after much word of mouth demand, she released the album on her and Daniel's record label, Last Affair Records.
Mitchell samy a duet with Ziggy Marley on his 2009 release Family Time .
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released Elizabeth Mitchell's album Sunny Day on October 5, 2010. Sunny Day features performances with Mitchell's husband and musical partner, Daniel Littleton, their nine-year-old daughter Storey and Storey's cousins and friends. The album features two original songs written by Storey, and guest performers include Levon Helm, Dan Zanes, Jon Langford (Mekons), and the Children of Agape Choir of South Africa. Songs on the album range from traditional American folk songs, to Japanese and Korean nursery songs, to fresh new arrangements of popular songs.
Her next album, Little Seed, was released in 2012. Little Seed features performances with Mitchell's husband, Daniel Littleton, daughter Storey, as well as other musical friends. The album is dedicated to Mitchell's interpretation of America's musical bard, Woody Guthrie, including the well-known track, "This Land Is Your Land." The album was nominated in the Best Children's Album category for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.
The album Blue Clouds was released by Smithsonian Folkways in October 2012. Mitchell's inspiration began from a bedtime story that her husband Daniel used to tell her daughter called "Land of the Blue Clouds." As with her previous albums, Mitchell collaborates with her husband Daniel, daughter Storey, and other musical family and friends. The album includes covers from various artists including Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Bill Withers, as well as her own compositions.
You Are My Flower and You Are My Sunshine have since been re-released on Mitchell's own label, Little Bird Records. At the suggestion of artist Dan Zanes, Smithsonian Folkways signed Mitchell as their first new children's music artist of the 21st century. [6] [7]
Her first Christmas album, The Sounding Joy, was released on October 15, 2013. This collection of folk carols draws from Ruth Crawford Seeger's 1953 songbook American Folk Songs for Christmas. The album includes Mitchell's family, friends and neighbors, including Peggy Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Aoife O’Donovan, Amy Helm, John Sebastian, Dan Zanes, Happy Traum, and many others.
Mitchell married her longtime Ida bandmate Daniel Littleton in 1999. [8] They have one daughter, Storey, born in New York City in 2001. They live in the Catskill Mountains in New York. Dan is the guitar player for Amy Helm's band, the Handsome Strangers.
"Little Bird, Little Bird" from You Are My Little Bird was featured on the sixth episode of season six of Futurama, titled "Lethal Inspection".
"Three Little Birds", from the same album, was featured in the first episode of season one of Watchmen (TV series), titled "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice".
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Guy Hughes Carawan Jr. was an American folk musician and musicologist. He served as music director and song leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee.
Ella Jenkins is an American folk singer and actress. Dubbed "The First Lady of the Children's Folk Song" by the Wisconsin State Journal, she has been a leading performer of children's music for over 50 years. Her album, Multicultural Children's Songs (1995), has long been the most popular Smithsonian Folkways release. She has appeared on numerous children's television programs and in 2004, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Malvina Reynolds was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her songwriting, particularly the songs "Little Boxes", "What Have They Done to the Rain" and "Morningtown Ride".
Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment and educational functions. Children's music is often designed to provide an entertaining means of teaching children about their culture, other cultures, good behavior, facts and skills. Many are folk songs, but there is a whole genre of educational music that has become increasingly popular.
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary recordings, and performed in more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make known the caretakers of culture that inspired and taught him.
Catch the Moon is an album by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell released in 2003 by Artemis Records. The album is a collection of children's music played in a folk music style. It comes in the form of a child's cardboard storybook written by Erin Courtney and illustrated by Bonnie Brook Mitchell. The CD slides out the top of the back cover.
Ida is an indie rock band from New York City. They are known for their three-part harmonies; sparse, minimal, often quiet arrangements; and their three singer-songwriters. Their music shows strong folk, pop, punk, world, R&B, and American roots music influences, but there are also avant garde and experimental aspects to their sound.
"There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is a children's rhyme and nonsense song of a kind known as cumulative.
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records, donated the entire Folkways Records label to the Smithsonian. The donation was made on the condition that the Institution continue Asch's policy that each of the more than 2,000 albums of Folkways Records remain in print forever, regardless of sales. Since then, the label has expanded on Asch's vision of documenting the sounds of the world, adding six other record labels to the collection, as well as releasing over 300 new recordings. Some well-known artists have contributed to the Smithsonian Folkways collection, including Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly. Famous songs include "This Land Is Your Land", "Goodnight, Irene", and "Midnight Special". Due to the unique nature of its recordings, which include an extensive collection of traditional American music, children's music, and international music, Smithsonian Folkways has become an important collection to the musical community, especially to ethnomusicologists, who utilize the recordings of "people's music" from all over the world.
Liz and Lisa was a band formed by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell while both were enrolled at Brown University in the late 1980s. Both women were in the class of 1990 at Brown. Loeb wrote most of the lyrics and music, and was the principal musician, with Mitchell often taking lead vocals. They recorded a popular tape, with songs such as "Notes and Daisies" "Garden of Delights" and "Hadrian's Wall". Their supporting band at Brown at one point included Duncan Sheik on electric guitar.
You Are My Little Bird is an album by Elizabeth Mitchell, released in 2006 by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The album presents a collection of folk songs for children. In addition to versions of folk tunes, it features covers of a variety of songs by other artists, among them "What Goes On" by The Velvet Underground, "Little Wing" by Neil Young, and "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. On most of the songs, Mitchell is accompanied by family members. The liner notes include personal stories from the artist, but no lyrics.
"Worried Man Blues" is a folk song in the roots music repertoire. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 4753. Like many folk songs passed by oral tradition, the lyrics vary from version to version, but generally all contain the chorus "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long." The verses tell the story of a man imprisoned for unknown reasons "I went across the river, and I lay down to sleep/When I woke up, had shackles on my feet", who pines for his lost love, who is "on the train and gone." The melody in 4/4 timing has a strong resemblance to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", which is in 6/8 timing.
I Know About You is the second studio album by American indie rock duo Ida, released in 1996 on Simple Machines Records.
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
Suni Paz is an Argentinian singer, songwriter, guitarist, poet, folklorist, translator, and teacher, who has recorded and has been published extensively. Paz is part of the progressive Latin American music movement known as nueva canción.
The discography of Pete Seeger, an American folk singer, consists of 52 studio albums, 23 compilation albums, 22 live albums, and 31 singles. Seeger's musical career started in 1940 when he joined The Almanac Singers. He stayed with the group for two years until he was drafted into the Army to fight in the Second World War. After the end of World War II in 1945, Seeger helped found an organization known as People's Songs, along with the influential folk music magazine People's Songs Bulletin. He published several singles and a studio album with the magazine. Seeger would play at People's Songs events, called hootenannies, until the organization folded in 1949. After People's Songs, Seeger and another former member of the Almanacs, Lee Hays, founded the Weavers, who achieved commercial success. In 1952, The Weavers went on hiatus due to the Red Scare; Seeger and Hays both had Communist ties. After the demise of the Weavers, Seeger released a solo album, American Folk Songs for Children, in 1953 on Folkways Records. He continued to release albums on Folkways until he signed with Capitol in 1961.
American Folk Songs for Children is a studio album released by Pete Seeger in 1953 by Folkways Records. It was Seeger's first solo album.
Jeff Place is the Grammy Award-winning writer and producer and a curator and senior archivist with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. He has won three Grammy Awards and six Indie Awards.
Birds, Beasts, Bugs & Fishes is a 1998 compilation album by Pete Seeger and was released on Smithsonian Folkways as SFW45039.
Sleep-Time: Songs & Stories is a studio album by American folk singer Pete Seeger. It was released in 1958 by Folkways Records. It was later re-released in 1967 under the name Abiyoyo and Other Story Songs for Children by Smithsonian Folkways.
