Jenkins, The First Lady of Children's Music, celebrates 60 years as a Smithsonian Folkways artist. She has wanted to record camp songs for more than 15 years and assembled a group of children, parents, and teachers from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, along with Tony and Kate Seeger from Camp Killooleet, to sing these rounds, nonsense songs and campfire sing-alongs. The 25-track collection includes familiar camp songs "Michael Row the Boat Ashore," "Kumbaya" and "This Land Is Your Land."
Many of the tunes on Camp Songs with Ella Jenkins and Friends have been sung by generations of campers, including many of the 14 million children and adults who attend camp every year in the United States. The album has its roots in the songs Jenkins' brother brought home with him from Boy Scout camp when she was a child, and begins with a chorus of children singing the familiar round "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." But these selections come from a variety of traditions, among them African-American spirituals, European folk songs, and Jewish summer camps where Jenkins has performed. "Everybody Loves Saturday Night" has lines in a dozen languages, including Mandarin, Hindi, Serbian and Nigerian. The album's final five numbers, which include "Sloop John B." and "Goodnight Irene," are sequenced to resemble a campfire sing-along.
