Playlist

Thrice a year, I mount the children's stage at Celebrate Fairfax! events and play 45 minutes of "Songs for Children and Their Parents" on guitar and vocals.

I'm doing it again on June 9th and 10th. I'm the opening act on the children's stage when the fair is just starting. So I get a pretty small actual audience in front of me. (I usually know most by name.)

On the other hand, I'm next to the petting zoo, so I'm a virtual cult icon among certain cliques of llamas and yaks.

I'm putting together my play list.

Non-negotiable are Monkeyboy's three duets. Mid-show he comes up and joins me in Puff, the Magic Dragon. At the end he helps me lead Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" and Peter, Paul and Mary's version of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer".

Here are additional options. They'll give you an idea of my repertoire. I've already got more than 45 minutes listed here. Any favorites? Any ideas in the same genre?

Man Gave Names to All the Animals - Bob Dylan
The Marvelous Toy - Tom Paxton
Paradise - John Prine
Country Roads, Take Me Home - John Denver
Grandma's Feather Bed - John Denver
The House at Pooh Corner - Kenny Loggins
Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter Yarrow
You Don't Mess Around With Jim - Jim Croce
Roller Derby Queen - Jim Croce
Speedball Tucker - Jim Croce (cryptic reference to amphetamines makes this one questionable)
The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell
Cat's in the Cradle - Harry Chapin
Teach Your Children - Graham Nash ("hell" makes this one questionable.)
Your Momma Don't Dance - Kenny Loggins
I Will - Lennon & McCartney (but in an arrangement from a Ben Taylor album.)
Hammer Song - Peter Seeger (but in the Peter, Paul and Mary arrangement that even Pete Seeger has adopted).
This Land is Your Land - Woody Guthrie (first two verses only).