Children Go Where I Send Thee

I thought about posting this week’s performance previously, but the occasion never seemed quite right. Christmas perhaps, or as part of a series focused on pop/folk music or vocal ensembles. But on hearing that Kenny Rogers (1938-2020) died last week, barely making the headlines, I want to do it now.

His career stretched over many decades. I may have heard him live once, but I’m not sure. While he was a member of the New Christy Minstrels, I went to one of their concerts (or was it their “farm team” the Back Porch Majority?). That was back in the 60s.

Our Friday series showcases some very accomplished musicians. Most, but not all, fall into the category broadly named as “classical,” although that term brings in too much ambiguity. Certainly folk and jazz get regular attention here. I have not featured anything that the term “country music” normally implies, although there is much about country music (especially going back a few years) that I enjoy. Kenny Rogers’s music usually falls into that broad category. But, you see, we’re already awash in terms and categories that don’t provide much clarity.

Maybe I should say this: In a time when many popular performers bring some questionable talent and training to the table, Kenny Rogers could sing. And the group he teams up with here, Home Free, can also sing. And they create interesting arrangements.

“Children Go Where I Send Thee” is not country music, but a negro spiritual in the form of a “cumulative song.” Cumulative songs involve sequential numbering and a repeated pattern—obvious in this song and others like “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” “Green Grow the Rushes Ho,” and “I Bought Me a Cat.”

You might also enjoy the comments at the end.

Image: John Mathew Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0)