Q.:Who Are Grandfolkies?
A.:We thought you'd never ask!
"Grandfolkies" are (is?) us, Phyl and Walt Robbins. Why the name? We are people who enjoy hearing and/or playing folk music, particularly of the "traditional" variety. We lay claim to being proud grandparents of two wonderful, brilliant, and amazingly attractive young people, speaking objectively, of course! Also, we happen to think that being folkies is indeed a "grand" way to increase one's enjoyment of life. 'Nuff said?
The Song Collections
If you attempt the rather difficult task of trying to define what is folk music, you might easily overlook the silly songs and disgusting (or "yyucky") ones currently provided on this web site. These kinds of songs rarely find their way to the top of the charts.But, as they tend to be passed on in the oral tradition from one generation of yyuckies to the next, we like to think of them as true songs of some folk.
With lyrics often spoofing familiar songs, or using time-honoured melodies, they are a great outlet for the lyric composer lurking in young and old. This stuff isn't just for kids of a certain chronological age. We subscribe to the theory that there is a "kid" buried somewhere in all of us adults, and it's not such a bad idea to let it out once in a while!We hope you'll find yourself inventing new verses to add to those being offered here. And, will share them with the rest of us, too! These songs really cry out for continuous modification.
(Editor's note: Indeed, some of the yuckier songs in the collection cry out for oblivion. . .)
The difference between the "silly" song category and the "yyucky" one, is really more a matter of degree than of kind. All of the songs are silly but some silly songs are yyuckier than others. All the songs can provide much laughter and hilarity, provided that your sense of humour is sufficiently quirky, and somewhat warped!
Finally, we recognize the fact that our musical efforts are reflections of our own backgrounds and are heavily skewed toward the cultural bias of various parts of Canada and the U.S. We have no doubt that the silly and yyucky song genre of folk music can be found in many other places and in many other languages. After all, people are people; some silly, and some more yyucky than others!
Some techie notes or Our high-tech-low-key recording "system"
The old-timey, home-made, front-porch, corn-cob in the outhouse (Ed note: Hey! Let's keep it clean!) quality of our offerings is truly reflected by the manner in which (if you will pardon the expression) they were engineered. The sound files were carefully designed to convey the folksy touch, with some genuine pops, crackles and surface noise. This difficult technical feat was accomplished in Phyl's office, by the use of a tape recorder, a computer with a CD burner and a microphone slung over a desk lamp.We hope you are properly impressed with the authentically-engineered pure folklike acoustic results.
About Sparadigm Press
(On a more serious [unmusical], but even more absurd note), Sparadigm Press is our book and story outlet which includes that most amusing of all contemporary subjects: nuclear waste. If you think that songs can be silly, the attempt by our various governments to deal with this issue are downright ridiculous.
Other Sparadigm Press offerings found on this site include two childrens' stories, a curmudgeon's corner for "spleen venting," Phyl's increasingly popular "Song Swaps" page, Walt's guideline for planning and managing change and the P&W model railroad--a work in progress. Also, Walt has posted some of his favourite fiddle tunes for listening and downloading. We like to think that this is a fairly eclectic home-made web-site!
About Us
Phyl Robbins is a folksinger and former early childhood educator in Canada and the U.S. She has used guitar and autoharp to accompany herself and more recently has added the mouth harp and banjo to her instrument gallery. She compiled and arranged this on-line collection of traditional silly as well as rather disgusting songs for the edification and amusment of kids of all ages, from 0 to 90 and above. The "silly" songs on this web site are part of a larger collection found in her "Nonsensical, Preposterous, Ridiculous, (as well as) SILLY! Songbook. When she began her musical entertainments during the 1960's in Montgomery County (Maryland) area schools, she was known by many children as "the singing lady." During the 1970's and 80's, in herWinnipeg, Canada classrooms, children enjoyed using many of her silly songs for informal language arts activities, as well as for pure enjoyment.
While living in the Eastern Townships of Québec, she and Walt were members of the old-timey band, Six or So, which played at coffee houses and concerts throughout the region. She is an active gardener, cross-country skier, and a continuing collector of songs that amuse both young and old. Currently, she is the Music Committee Chair for the Kingston, Ontario, Unitarian Fellowship (KUF), and a contributer to some of the infrequent "Off the KUF" coffeehouses held there.
Copies of a genuine, hold-in-your-hand non-cyber version of Phyl's popular Silly Song Book are still available.
Walt Robbins: Born during the "roaring 20's," it is rumoured that Walt emerged with a violin in his tiny hands. When not taking violin lessons and/or performing as a child radio actor, he was, unfortunately, required to attend public schools in Washington, D.C, wherein the major thing he learned was "how to just get by without working too hard."
After two years of active service in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he was honorably discharged in 1946, with the rank of sergeant. He is a graduate of George Washington University and it was there that he and Phyllis met and discovered a mutual interest in music of many kinds as well as a shared kind of weird sense of humour.
Walt spent several lifetimes working for various agencies of the U.S. Government in Washington D.C. and for the Government of Manitoba in Canada, before he decided to join the ranks of the self-employed, and ultimately, the unemployed. As a human resource consultant, he roamed around the Canadian Prairies telling people how to run their organizations. Most didn't listen, but hey! it was a living.
Basically a trouble maker at heart, he became a spokesperson for the Committee of Concerned Citizens of Manitoba in January, 1980, and has been involved with, and written about the nuclear waste issue ever since. And, as some of the stuff has a half-life of over ten thousand years, he figures that there's still plenty of time, and much to be said on that subject.
Previous to their latest move to Kingston, Ontario, he and Phyl "retired" to the Eastern Townships of Québec, in 1988, where they continued their involvement with both folk music and nuclear issues, including the controversy over the ridiculously idiotic planned placement of a nuclear reactor at the major teaching hospital in Sherbrooke, the story of which you can find in Walt's Great Canadian Nuclear Waste Saga.