DESCRIPTION:
This popular American children's folk song is often played as a bluegrass tune. There are really no fixed words, and it is best played as a game, where one player sings a line ending with a colour and the next player has to come up with a suitable rhyme.

It sometimes ends with the following verse:
"So, what will you wear, oh my dear, oh my dear?
What will you wear, Jenny Jenkins?"
"I'll just go bare, with a ribbon in my hair!"

The song goes back to at least 1823, when it was known as "Jane Jenkins". A number of recordings were collected in the 1930s, though the earliest is probably one collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs. Delie Hughes at Cane River, Burnsville, N.C. in 1918, with a rather different chorus. Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson sang it on "A Prairie Home Companion," with children in the audience shouting out the colours for them. They used to rhyme "orange" with "the colour of a door-hinge"!

Alan Lomax explained that it was originally a courting song: "Such courting duets were popular at country suppers ... as a way to break the ice between a pair of timid lovers. He claimed that in English versions the color symbolism has magical association, but that in most American versions the list of colors merely serves as a framework for improvising impudent or downright silly rhymes."

It has been recorded by The New Lost City Ramblers (1959), Jean Ritchie and Oscar Brand (1960s), Jean Ritchie and Pete Seeger (on "Rainbow Quest", which you can see on YouTube) and Jerry Garcia and David Grisman (1993), who also turned it into a book. There are also some nice versions by YouTube singers such as paulbnoble and doogey9, who accompanies himself on ukulele.

I recorded the song with my sister Annette on the porch of her house overlooking the beautiful countryside of New Norfolk, Tasmania. There is some unavoidable wind noise.

Stay tuned for the bloopers!

A playlist of my children's songs is here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=PL9A4DBB328B5832A5

You can see a playlist of all my videos of music with family and friends here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCi_Xcl2_fAUEiMUatnoPGjTREqKm5Z1z

Lyrics and chords of many of my songs are no longer available, as my website has expired. I am currently posting lyrics to the information panels on all my videos and those that are too long to post in full will be found on my new website: https://raymondsfolkpage.wordpress.com