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"Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony (@oliveranthonymusic) is a GREAT Song! But what about the "Poor Men South of Portland"?

Perhaps worse than trite politicization of classic tunes is failing to pass on the wealth of a child's musical heritage. Here are some ways to start offering that audible feast to your child.Just as what you feed your baby (and eat while pregnant) trains her palate toward good food or junk food for life, what your baby sees and hears does the same for her artistic tastes. Kids raised on mental junk food have a harder time developing an understanding of and affinity for more complex, subtle, and nourishing brain foods later in life.Many parents nowadays pay immense attention to...

"Couple of Hillbillies" telling Axis they're bound to lose

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NAACP And Parents Object To Song About Slavery (Oak Park, MI) -- A song that many feel glorifies slavery in the United States is causing quite a stir in one Michigan community. North Oakland County NAACP President Dr. Eugene Rogers told the "Detroit News" that he can't believe Anderson Middle School students in Oak Park are going to perform the song "Pick A Bale Of Cotton." The student choir is scheduled to perform the song on Wednesday. The parents of an African-American child in the choir have pulled their daughter out of the show in protest.

BERKLEY, Mich., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A suburban Detroit public school Monday pulled a folk song about cotton picking from a school program after complaints it glorified slavery. The predominantly-white choir at Anderson Middle School in Berkley, Mich., was going to sing "Pick a Bale of Cotton" during its Wednesday choir program, but after an African-American father removed his daughter from the concert, the song was pulled, the Detroit News reported. Greg Montgomery, whose daughter China sings in the choir, asked that the song be removed from the program last week. After his request was rejected, said his daughter would...

BERKLEY, Mich. (AP) — A black parent and the NAACP are criticizing a middle school's choice to perform a song that they say glorifies slavery. The song, "Pick a Bale of Cotton," is on the folk music choir program Wednesday at predominantly white Anderson Middle School in the Berkley School District. The song's lyrics include, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh Lordie, pick a bale a day." Greg Montgomery said he complained to school officials, and when he was dissatisfied with their response, decided to pull his 11-year-old daughter China from...

An ethnomusicologist considers the Sawkins v. Hyperion case. With the Sawkins v. Hyperion case, the classical music world has discovered a fact about copyright law that has long bothered folklorists and ethnomusicologists: under certain circumstances, the law allows individuals, in effect, to "privatize" works that are common property. Anonymous works handed down via oral tradition — the sort that make up the musical heritage of many small-scale societies — have always been vulnerable to legal appropriation. For a recent (and relatively benign) example, consider the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek's "Pygmy Lullaby" (from the 1996 recording "Visible World"). The title notwithstanding,...