A tribute to Ella Jenkins, cELLAbration is a wonderful CD dedicated to the leading children's music performer. Her most famous songs, including "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song", are redone and performed by various male and female folk singers (including Cathy Fink, Tom Paxton, and Pete Seeger), children, and full band ensembles. Listeners be ready for everything from a Mexican cha-cha, to bluegrass, folk, country-western, Hawaiian, Dixieland, ragtime, classical, children's choir, and polka with professional yodeling! Instruments heard include guitar, ukulele, banjo, strings, brass (featuring the trumpet), bongos, clarinet, harpsichord, piano, and various percussion instruments. Songs vary in length from less than a minute to four minutes. The sound quality is excellent - better than the Jenkins' original CDs.

For children used to hearing just Jenkins' voice and minimal instruments, this CD will really pack a punch! The new voices add accents, inflections, and humor to the songs your little one may already know and love. Although Jenkins' songs are reworked and updated with new beats, tempos, and instruments, the timeless words and lessons remain the same. The songs are still fleshed out with rhymes and plenty of repetition. The tempos are upbeat and primarily in traditional 4/4 time, with a few songs that speed up as they go. "The World of Whickum-Whackum" is not even a song at all, but a hilarious tale of crazy rhymes that challenges any listener to keep up with the fast-talking narrator.

Many of the songs continue the traditional Jenkins style of call-and-response singing, which helps your child join right in, even if they are not previously familiar with these songs. So much can be learned from the songs, particularly simple phrases in multiple languages; listeners will learn how to say "Hello little Children" in Swahili in the song "Jambo", "Good morning, noon and night" in Russian through the song, "Rushing Around Russia," learn to say ‘please’ in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, in "Please is a Pleasant Expression", as well as some traditional Hawaiian phrases in "The Hukilau Song." Other lessons learned through Jenkins' songs include 'saying please' and different ways to travel. Does your little one like to make noise? Well then, they will have a blast with "Let’s All Sing a yodeling Song", as it teaches yodeling from a simple, "AaaaaE-O" all the way to a professional yodeler really letting the yodels fly. Perhaps your little one will discover a hidden talent!

My three-year-old friend, Sam, can't help but dance whenever "cELLAbration" is playing! His favorite song is the all-Spanish "La Raspa/Fiesta De Ninos", as the mariachi band gets his heart racing and limbs flailing, as well as a huge smile on his face. For the sudden drop in tempo and almost-lullaby interlude in the middle, he will usually jump up on the couch and sway to the beat, so when it picks back up he can take a flying leap off the couch and back to his imaginary dance floor. When it comes time for the big tongue roll at the end, Sam will squat, freeze, and roll his tongue with everything he has!

--Audra

Ella Jenkins is a prominent children's folk singer, whose career has spanned four decades and visited all seven continents. She was dubbed, "The first lady of the Children's folk song" by The Wisconsin State Journal and has appeared on Mr. Rogers and Barney. Jenkins has released a total of 28 records and 2 videos since 1957. Jenkins was also rewarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy.

"You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song" is Ella Jenkin's best-selling record, as well as the best-selling record ever for the record label, Folkway Labels. The record's title song was added to the National Recording Registry in 2007, joining other collections of sounds that are considered culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.

1 - You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song - Cathy Fink (3:12)

2 - Did You Feed My Cow? - Sweet Honey in The Rock (1:52)

3 - Dulce, Dulce - Michele Valeri (3:09)

4 - I Know a Tom - Tom Paxton (1:22)

5 - Please Is a Pleasant Expression - Tom Chapin (2:28)

6 - Let's All Sing a Yodeling Song - Riders in the Sky (3:17)

7 - The World of Whickeum-Whackum - Bill Harley (3:03)

8 - Jambo - Red Grammer (2:38)

9 - The Union Team - John McCutcheon (0:18)

10 - Turkey in the Straw - John McCutcheon & Band (3:39)

11 - The World is Big, The World is Small - Pete Seeger (1:45)

12 - Rushing Around Russia - Mike Stein (0:55)

13 - The Hukilau Song - Marcy Marxer (3:28)

14 - Go Miss Mary Mack (medley) - Sweet Honey in the Rock (3:01)

15 - Toom-Bah-Ee-Lero - Cathy Fink (2:01)

16 - La Raspa/Fiesta De Ninos (medley) - Mariachi Los Camperos (4:03)

17 - Circle of Friends - Spencer Perkins (0:11)

18 –-Sing Me A Song Again, Ella - University Park Childre's Ensemble (3:55)