Caribbean Voyage: Brown Girl in the Ring

Caribbean Voyage: Brown Girl in the Ring

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This collection of children's song-games from the Caribbean marks a high point in the annals of field recordings. Alan Lomax, who has traveled from work fields to prisons to front porches in order to best capture the spirit of folk music, caught these songs in fine fashion, even with the limitations of his audio equipment. The title track, recorded twice at different tempos, is robust and widely familiar to kids as both a game and a song on Smilin' Island of Song, a winning kids' recording by Cedella Marley Booker (Bob Marley's mother). There are dozens of tracks on the CD, each of which conveys the spirit of sing-along play in numerous manifestations. Kids thrill at the sound of their distant peers' voices, and Brown Girl makes an excellent educational tool for those interested in international cultures and a fun play tool for those interested in.... playing. --Andrew Bartlett

Amazon.com

This collection of children's song-games from the Caribbean marks a high point in the annals of field recordings. Alan Lomax, who has traveled from work fields to prisons to front porches in order to best capture the spirit of folk music, caught these songs in fine fashion, even with the limitations of his audio equipment. The title track, recorded twice at different tempos, is robust and widely familiar to kids as both a game and a song on Smilin' Island of Song, a winning kids' recording by Cedella Marley Booker (Bob Marley's mother). There are dozens of tracks on the CD, each of which conveys the spirit of sing-along play in numerous manifestations. Kids thrill at the sound of their distant peers' voices, and Brown Girl makes an excellent educational tool for those interested in international cultures and a fun play tool for those interested in.... playing. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

great.......1998-12-26

A very worthwhile addition to the thoughtful person's record collection. Rounder says:

Brown Girl in the Ring is a collection of delightful and inventive game and pass play songs, sung by children and adults from Trinidad, Tobago, Dominica, St. Lucia, Anguilla, Nevis, and Carriacou. Recorded by Alan Lomax in 1962 in the Lesser Antilles and Eastern Caribbean, this album is a joyful mix of African, British, French, and Spanish rhythms and traditions -- movement, song, and preparation for life.

The Alan Lomax Collection gathers together the American, European and Caribbean field recordings, world music compilations, and ballad operas of writer, folklorists and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. Remastered to 20-bit digital from the original field recordings. Contains previously unreleased recordings.

"A feast of field recorded songs sung by children and adults in the Eastern Caribbean. These game and pass-play songs present to the ear a delightful mix of African, British, French and Spanish rhythms and traditions." --Parenting Council

I'm looking forward to future CARIBBEAN VOYAGE installments, which are to include sea chanties, work songs, story songs, ballads, and social dances.

Music Review: