Musician Ella Jenkins turns 93 this summer, and has collaborated and put together a fun album just in time for this summer!

Renowned children’s performer Ella Jenkins has vivid memories of singing at summer camps, and if you were a camper, you must too! She and her friends invite you to share those experiences and celebrate her 60 years as a Folkways artist with this recording. Ella assembled a group of children, parents, and teachers from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, along with Tony and Kate Seeger from Camp Killooleet, to sing these classic camp songs, rounds, silly songs, and campfire sing-alongs with you. (from http://folkways.si.edu/)

Ella Jenkins
Photo credit: Bernadelle Richter

The CD features a variety of songs perfect for camp, from familiar songs to ones we hadn’t heard before.  We were familiar with songs like Row, Row, Row Your Boat, This Land is Your Land, and Kumbaya.  It was nice to have songs to sing along with that we already knew the tune and words.  The renditions on this CD add something new to old classics.

There are also plenty of songs that we hadn’t heard before, like The Court of King Caractacus, Sloop John B, and Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder.

The CD comes with a 36-page-booklet to read along with the songs, which is nice to read about the background of the song and see the lyrics (especially for the songs we are unfamiliar with).

Ella Jenkins Camp Songs

There is plenty of music time on this CD, which clocks in at 62 minutes.  With 25 different tracks, and lots of different artists joining Ella Jenkins in song, this album has a lot of variety to enjoy.