This Land Is Your Land by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.
Last night we watched "Up In The Air", an Oscar nominee this year. This song led off the film, and is not what you may be used to hearing from Woody Guthrie, its composer, or, say, Pete Seeger.
Sharon Jones did her version a few years ago. Although I am a fan of her gospel/funk/soul sound that makes me imagine a blend of Mavis Staples and Tina Turner, I had never heard it before. But you can now:
Coincidentally, we happened to see Sharon Jones a couple of weeks ago on Saturday Night Live, so you can probably find a video clip of her performance then.
They may roll their eyes now, but I am hoping that someday my kids will come to wonder what interests their dad and whether some of his notions might be worth exploring after all.
I sure as heck don't know much about music or art or culture, but I do increasingly find that music, especially, is almost as important as eating and sleeping in how I get through each day. I just want to share this with Nik and Ivi, and if anyone else wants to listen in, welcome! (And one of these days, I might get my photo blog and sites reworked for more of this kind of thing.)
So there you have it -- a highly-biased (mostly) music appreciation course for my kids.
(btw ... most of the snippets of music presented herein are lo-fi, found wherever, often recorded under very unfavorable circumstances and may be almost unlistenable. However, we hope that your interest will be sharpened just enough to seek out proper recordings or performances for the Real Deal ...)