“Music is… the sound life uses to keep the living alive.”

Woody Guthrie

American Musician (1912-1967)

From: Woody Guthrie : songs and art * words and wisdom (2021) by Nora Guthrie & Robert Santelli.

Woody Guthrie’s music certainly keeps the living alive. And to me, the songs he wrote for his children in the 1940’s are among those most brimming with life.

Woody recorded many batches of these songs in 1946 and 1947 over the course of several sessions in the New York City recording studios of Moses Asch. One of my favorites of these wonderfully exuberant and joyful songs is called “Car Song.”

“Car Song” – aka “Riding In My Car” & “Take Me Riding In My Car” – was first released in 1950 by Folkways Records on an album titled: Songs To Grow On, Volume One: Nursery Days.

Smithsonian/Folkways placed “Car Song” as the second track (right after “This Land Is Your Land”) on their 1997 release: Woody Guthrie – This Land Is Your Land, The Asch Recordings Vol. 1.

Here it is. Get ready to smile!

Two other of Woody’s children’s songs that I highly recommend are “Bling Bling” and “Mail Myself To You.” Check ’em out!