One of the highlights is Rufus Thomas reinventing “Old MacDonald Had A Farm”. Even those of us old farts who see the title and think ‘No, not again, please!’ can enjoy and even dance to it. Then Keb Mo goes in the opposite direction with the O’Jays old hit “Love Train”. He takes something originally intended as dance music and remodels it as a gentle reflective song to listen to (or sing along with if you like, kids, but quietly please).

Great care has gone into the packaging. The lyrics are printed and sung in English, and the sleevenotes are accessible without being patronising - a paragraph about each song and the performers and/or writers in English, Spanish and French. For instance, “Rufus Thomas was a popular singer of soul, blues and funk. He used to call himself ‘the world’s oldest teenager’ because even when he was an old man he still liked to act silly and have fun”, or “This song (“Don’t You Push Me Down”, written by Woody Guthrie, performed by Taj Mahal) is about how important it is to be nice to your friends and never hurt them. It also says you should stand up for yourself and let someone know when they are doing something you don’t like”.

The tracks I haven’t mentioned are of a folkier nature but I am impressed that a CD like this can be compiled using contributions from five estimable bluesmen. If you play, or if you’re teaching children to play, the chords can be downloaded from www.putumayokids.com (which also has details of this and their other CDs).

After all that it’s a shame that this is effectively only half a CD. There is under forty minutes’ material here, so Putumayo could have put on twice as much music, and with a CD like this that would mean you hear “Play it again, play it again, please”, half as often. It surprises me that Putumayo seem to thrive despite persistently issuing CDs that are such bad value, a lesson for your kids about either the stinginess or the irrationality of grown-ups. So, while the CD has good music well presented, wait until you can buy it half price.

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