Album Notes

About Old Time Songs For Kids:

“Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis’s uncomplicated instrumentation and uncompromising vocals give this very engaging collection of traditional tunes a down-home genuineness. Dance tunes, songs, and ballads from a variety of Anglo-American folk traditions are performed a capella or to the accompaniment of a lively mélange of banjo, fiddle, dulcimer and other instruments. Attentive production and informed and accomplished performances make this most appealing collection a rare and special treat for the whole family.”
Booklist

“When Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis play old-time music, they are among the most interesting performer-arrangers we have heard. They have gleaned a fresh repertoire from songbooks, folklore collections, and the performances of lesser known revivalists, and arranged this repertoire on banjo and nicely raspy old time fiddling. Old Time Songs for Kids could just as well have been called simply “Old Time Songs,” since this rollicking outing makes no concessions to kiddie tastes but rather displays Warner and Davis at their most inventive as pickers and arrangers. Their twin banjo setting for Stephen Foster’s “Glendy Burke” should start that song into wider circulation....”
The Old Time Herald

“This duo may be doing themselves a disservice with the ‘kids’ categorization: this collection of songs is sung and played in a most attractive style.”
Folk Roots (UK)

About Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis:

“Jeff and Jeff” are among the nation's foremost performer/interpreters of traditional music. “They sing in a style that bespeaks a love and understanding of the songs, and they craft their arrangements with an unerring respect for the origin and natural life of the music.” [Folk Song Society of Greater Boston].

Childhood friends, Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis grew up listening to the songs and stories of Anne and Frank Warner and those of the traditional singers that the Warners met during their collecting trips--beginning in 1938--through the south and rural northeast. Warner and Davis forged a musical partnership that lasted for more than twenty years and took them to scores of festivals and hundreds of schools on both sides of the Atlantic.

Of one recent (2004) Jeff Warner visit to an elementary school, a First Grade Teacher wrote: “He knew his stuff, knew who he was stuffing and stuffed them elegantly. Really, what a splendid opportunity to learn from and participate with a talented man and musician.”