The Young People’s Music of Little Folkies | Acoustic Guitar Sessions

It’s fitting that the San Francisco Public Library was the catalyst for Irena Eide’s Little Folkies project. The public library and the folk music tradition have a lot in common. Both are community-based cultural and learning institutions, and each has a children’s section. “I was getting CDs and songbooks at the library, by people like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Ella Jenkins, and I’d take them back to the kids I was babysitting and nannying,” Eide recalls. “And when I started teaching music to kids, I got even more into this huge, amazing canon of American folk music for kids.”

Eide took that passion and created Little Folkies, a music program that aims to get young kids engaged with folk music. The Little Folkies curriculum is seasonal; and a four-volume set, Songs for Fall, Songs For Winter, Songs for Spring, and Songs for Summer is out now on Smithsonian Folkways.

We caught up with Eide to hear some music (“Wise Old Owl” and “Lula Gal”) and learn more about the origins of the project and the musical lives fostered by Little Folkies.

Eide also performs non-children’s music in the band Rainy Eyes, and she was kind enough to play the title track from their latest record, Lonesome Highway.

Joey LustermanOpinionated creative slash beginning guitarist. Joey has worked in every department at Acoustic Guitar in the past 10+ years: front desk, ad sales, editorial, sound guy, camera man, booth babe, email coder, podcast editor, photographer, book designer…