Little Bird

More incisive, searing social and political commentary revealing how folk music can speak as much for our times as it could for 19th century industrial workers… hang on, that was Megson's last studio album, Con-tra-dic-shun (#147). If you want the perfect antidote for these achingly serious times, try Little Bird: Another Collection of Children's Folk Songs.

I know it's a hackneyed old phrase, but these really are folk songs for kids from one to 92. There are the classics – from ‘Bobby Shafoe’ to ‘Coming Round the Mountain’ and ‘Ha Ha This a Way’ – alongside brilliantly inventive new material, such as ‘Marjory Clogs’, a song that sounds like a timeless nursery rhyme. For those older, folk aficionado kids, there's also a transatlantic favour with a couple of songs taken from Pete Seeger's repertoire – ‘All Around the Kitchen’ and the title-track. And this album's version of trawling Roud folk ballads involves Iona and Peter Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Even if you think you've heard things like ‘Coming Round the Mountain’ enough for one lifetime, Megson's treatment brings you something new – in this case, a beautiful minor note at the end of the chorus that transforms the song. Lovely, uplifting stuff – and there's even a spaniel called Nathaniel. What more could you want?