John McCutcheon's Four Seasons:
Summersongs
Grammy Nominated!

Summersongs is the first of John McCutcheon's Four Seasons series of family albums celebrating each season of the year. McCutcheon, whose previous family albums have received awards from the American Library Association and Parents' Choice Magazine, masterfully evokes children's sentiments of summer, from swimming holes, ice cream men and lawn mowers to backyard camping and meteor showers. Adults will be surprised at how easily their own summer memories return. Come spend the summer with John McCutcheon and this uplifting family recording. Winner of the 1995 NAPPA (National Association of Parenting Publications) Gold Award, and ALA (American Library Association) Notable Children's Recording. Grammy nominee for Best Musical Album For Children for 1995; Album Producer.

"A terrific collection . . . most of the dozen tunes are irresistibly cheerful." —Booklist

"The first of a planned 'four seasons' series, this John McCutcheon masterpiece just might have you barefoot and mixin' lemonade in the dead of winter. The subject matter of the songs will bring a smile to kids and a memory to adults. . . ." —San Diego Parent Magazine

Read the Walnut Valley Review of "Summersongs"

Personnel

John McCutcheon guitars, hammer dulcimers, percussion Michael Aharon, piano, organ, synthesizer, tubatronic / Pete Kennedy, electric guitars, banjo, mandolin / Robert "Jos" Jospé, drums, percussion / Bobby King, bass / Bob Read, clarinet, saxophones / John D'earth, trumpet / Mark Wenner, harmonica / Seamus Egan, whistles, flutes, uillean pipes, bodhran / Jon Carroll, harmony vocals / JT Brown, harmony vocals

Formats

Compact Disk: Rounder CD:011661803626 Cassette: Rounder CS:011661803640

Produced by John McCutcheon & Bob Dawson
Year Released: 1995

Lyrics

Swimming Hole
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

In the morning at the city gym
In the evening at the neighborhood school
Down the road at the old farm pond
Up the street at the community pool

Chorus

• Hey-ho, come on let's go
  Down yonder to the swimming hole
  Cool, cool waters gonna rest your soul
  Down at the swimming hole
  Down at the swimming hole

It's a pond with a muddy bank
It's a creek with a big flat rock
It's a sprinkler in your own front yard
It's a "Y" in the middle of the block

Chorus

Bridge

• In the city with the hydrants flowing
  On the mountain where the rain falls hard
  Feel the shiver when the wind starts blowing
  Past the wading pool in your back yard

It's a lake where the dirt road ends
It's the ocean where the big waves roll
It's a river that twists and bends
Like your memories of the old swimming hole

Chorus

Mud
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

It's waiting for me out in the yard
It's hiding over in the neighbor's lot
It doesn't matter if I try real hard
I just can't remember how I got

Chorus

• Covered with, covered with mud, mud
  Covered with mud, covered with mud
  Covered with, covered with mud, mud, mud
  Covered with, covered with mud

I brush my teeth and I comb my hair
Scrub my face until it glows
Polish my shoes until they shine
Put on my finest dress-up clothes
Sun is shining in a clear blue sky
Not a rain cloud anywhere
Open the door and I step outside
Oh no! Not again! It's just not fair! (I'm...)

Chorus

Bridge

Dad said, "I don't believe it!
"It's a family disgrace!
There's mud on your pants! Mud on your hair!
Mud in your underwear!" (but...)

On Sunday Dad will watch TV
They're playing football in the rain
They're covered from head to toe like me
But Dad says that's just not the same
While somewhere out in the garden patch
Mom is down on her hands and knees
All day long she'll weed and scratch
By suppertime I know that she's...

Chorus

Chorus tag

Covered with, covered with
Fathered and mothered with
Everybody's smothered in mud

Haircut
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

I know, I'll wear a cap
No one will ever know it
Maybe in a year
I might be brave enough to show it
I explained it to him twice
And then he had to go and blow it
I got a haircut
I got a scare cut

I don't know what comes over me
I do it every summer
Even though I'm older
Still it seems I'm getting dumber
That barber is a bum
But this is just a bummer
I got a haircut
I got a scare cut

My own mother said
"Who's that at the door?"
My own sister
Wouldn't let me in
My own dog
Tried to bite me on the head
But all it got was skin

My dad said
"It's not as bad as what it seems"
He talked about something
That he called my self-esteem
I'm only nine years old
And look like I'm in the marines
I got a haircut

Now all of you who laugh at me
And makes those funny faces
I wouldn't laugh too long
Because we'll soon be trading places
My hair will soon be long again
And you'll be wearing braces
I got a haircut
I got a scare cut

My own brother said,
"I don't recognize her
"After all the ones she's had
"You'd think she'd be a little wiser
"Maybe she should spread her head
"With lots of fertilizer
"That might help it grow!"

My grandma said she likes it
`Cause it makes me look mature
My best friend said at least this way
My haircuts will be fewer
There's nothing I can do
I guess that time's the only cure
I got a haircut
I got a scare cut

Meteors/The Perseid
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

On the night when the stars come down
We camp there in the meadow
Far away from the lights of town
Beneath the mountain's shadow

Chorus

The sky is alive on a mid-summer night
Before the moon comes rising
Stars will dance with their ribbons of light
Stretching to the far horizon

Silent in a field of grass
We lie so still for hours
The August sky is shooting past
And the night comes down in showers

Chorus

Bridge

Far away the ships at sea
Plot their lonely courses
Looking homeward just like me
To heaven's star-lit forces

Once a year in the midnight dark
We watch the stars a-fallin'
We see the sky all streaked with sparks
And we hear the heavens callin'

Chorus

The Kid Who Hates Summer
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) and Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

I lie in my bedroom,
All night toss and turn
Eaten up by mosquitoes,
My skin so hot it will burn
I sweat like a river
And I drip like a lake
I'm all covered with sunburn,
Every part of me aches

Chorus

I'm the kid who hates summer
I'm someone you know
I can't wait till it's freezing
And it's thirty below

I eat burnt food at cookouts
I go on picnics with bugs
They make me camp in the forest
With poison ivy and slugs
The house is covered with cat hair
It makes me sniffle and sneeze
The dog sleeps in my bedroom
And he's all covered with fleas

Chorus

But when it's good out for sledding
When the rivers all freeze
They make me sit in a classroom
I dream of cross-country skis
And I'm thinking `bout Christmas
Forget the Fourth of July
And when I say I love winter
Everybody asks, "Why?"

And in July comes my birthday
And that's the thing that's most cruel
If I was born, say, in November
I'd get a party at school
But I have to play with my brother
He'll mess with all of my stuff
Then he'll go cry to my mother
I tell you summer is rough!

Chorus

Dad and Me
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

I wonder if he's changed since I saw him last December
I wonder if he'll know me, I'm so tall
I brought along his picture to make sure that I'd remember
It's been nearly half a year now, after all

Chorus

Winter is a cold time, when snow is on the ground
Fall is when the leaves fall from the tree
Springtime is a good time, 'cause school is out at last
And summertime is time for Dad and me

I wonder if he knows that I can get up in the morning
And fix us both a breakfast by myself
How I can ride my bike alone and almost always catch the ball
And read most any book that's on the shelf

Chorus

Bridge

I know that he gets lonely, and when he's feeling down
I can always find a ways to make him smile
I'll let him tell me stories and tuck me in goodnight
It's good I'm going to be here for awhile

So just like every summer I'm riding on this train
Wondering how my summer's gonna be
I wonder if he's happy, I wonder if he's scared
I wonder if he wonders just like me

Chorus

Camping in the Wilderness
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Big sister said "You kids are too small
"You'll never last an hour with the bugs and all
"Because it's gonna get dark, it's gonna get cold
"And it's gonna get scary for an eight year old!"

Chorus

Oh no, wouldn't you guess
We're all going camping in the wilderness
Oh no, it's so hard
Camping in the wilderness in our back yard
Camping in the wilderness in our back yard

By eight o'clock it was really, really dark
We were afraid we were gonna get bored
Sarah went to the house and was back in a minute
With a lamp and a hundred foot extension cord

I said, "Oh no, it doesn't seem right
To lie around cold in the middle of the night!"
So she swiped the 'lectric blanket off of big sister's bed
Her electric pillow and electric spread

Chorus

By nine o'clock it was really, really quiet
And we'd read four books and a magazine
So we brought out the TV and the VCR
And three or four movies that we'd never seen

I said, "Oh no, it doesn't seem right
To go without music in the middle of the night!"
So back in the house, little Sarah did go
And brought out the boombox and the radio

Chorus

By ten o'clock we were really, really hungry
And we knew couldn't wait until later
So we got the toaster oven and the microwave
The blender and the big refrigerator

I said, "Oh no, it doesn't seem right
To go without friends in the middle of the night!"
So we had a big party, everybody was there
The fire department and a polar bear
The tent was rocking, it was oh, so good
Dancing with the kids in the neighborhood

Next morning Sister said, "I guess I'm wrong
"I wouldn't have believed you'd make it all night long!"
Some like it easy, some like it hard
But there's nothing like the wilderness in our back yard!

Chorus

Ice Cream Man
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

We started out this morning
Just kinda hangin' around
Looking for something fun to do
Like every other bored kid in town
But no matter how bad my day gets
Just you wait and see
About four o'clock coming down the block
Is something sweet for me

Chorus

Looky, Mama, look! Here comes the ice cream man
He drove all the way from the ice cream land
Standing on the corner with a dollar in my hand
Waiting for the truck to come around
When I hear those bells go ting-a-ling-a-ling
Well, my heart begins to pound
'Cause it sounds so sweet all around the street
To hear the ice cream man come down

Did you ever think that you could find
So many different kinds?
Each one looks so cool and fine
They're all all right by me
Such a smile on every face
So many flavors all in one place
Ice creams and summer dreams
That's the way the world should be

Well, I got this job in high school
The very first that I ever held down
Now, in the long run, I'm the only one
Who knows every kid in town
They come running in from the mansions
And from the shacks by the riverside
They all seem oh, so different
But they want the very same thing inside (They're singing...)

"Looky, Mama, look! Here comes the ice cream man!"
I drove all the way from the ice cream land
They're standing on the corner with a dollar in their hand
Waiting for my truck to come around
No, I don't make very much money
But I got the best job in town
'Cause it sounds so sweet all around the street
To hear the children come a-running all around

Did you ever think that you could find
So many different kinds?
Each one is so cool and fine
They're all all right by me
Such a smile on every face
So many flavors all in one place
Ice creams, and summer dreams
That's the way the world should be

"Looky, Mama, look! Here comes the ice cream man
He drove all the way from the ice cream land!"
Standing on the corner with a dollar in my hand
Waiting for the truck to come around
When I hear those bells
Well, my heart begins to pound
'Cause it sounds so sweet all around the street
To hear the old truck humming
See the children come a-running
Hear the ice cream man come down

Power Mower
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

It's out in the backyard
Sitting in a shed
Pretty as a picture
All shiny and red
Mom and Dad bought it
Back in '81
And every year they told me
That my time would come
My sister used to do it
And my brother did too
Said, "It's too complicated
For a kid like you!"
Now my brother and my sister
Are grown and gone
And it's my turn to
Mow the lawn!

Mom said, "Careful"
Dad said, "Slow"
I promised that I would
And then I said, "Let's go!"
Ran to the shed
Threw open the door
Gonna take me a ride
On a power mower
Check the oil and the gas
And adjust the seat
Gotta reach both pedals
With both of my feet
Give a little gas
But not too much
Throw her in gear
And release the clutch

Started out in our backyard
What are they talkin' 'bout?
This thing ain't hard
Go a little faster
Cuttin' on the side
Second gear, third gear,
What a ride!
Got to the front yard
Pickin' up speed
Just a little more gas
Is what I need
Threw her into fourth
And the clutch went €Pop!€
Jumped the curb
Hey, this thing won't stop!

Mowed every yard
From here to school
Look at me
I'm a mowin' fool!
Past the bank
And the grocery store
Around the world
On my power mower

Chile, China, Vietnam
Istanbul and Lebanon
Greece, Zimbabwe, Chad, Peru
Guatemala and Katmandu
Greenland, Thailand, Cairo, Spain
Madagascar and Bahrain
Jinotepe, Carriacou
Argentina, Rome, Baku

Mom came back
At half past eight
She said,
"Gee, the lawn looks great!
The mower's right
Back where it goes
And look! you've still got
All ten toes!
You did it better than your brother
You did it better than your sister
The whole place looks so nice and neat
You get to do it again next week!"

Riding My Bike
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

This looks so easy
But this is so hard
I practiced all summer
Out in my back yard
Mom running before me
Dad right beside
Watching me close
With their arms open wide

Chorus

Mother, I'm flying
Come catch me, Dad
The most wonderful feeling
That I've ever had
I'm riding, I'm falling
I'm falling, I'm riding
I'm falling, I'm riding my bike

My friends all have fancy ones
Ten, fifteen gears
Mine is a Schwinn
That my Mom's had for years
With its big old fat tires
Its ragged old seat
I think it's the coolest bike
Out on our street

Chorus

Tricycles, training wheels
Tell them good-bye
We just don't need them,
My old bike and I
Three wheels are too many
One is too few
Now that I'm six
I'll just get by on two

Chorus

Our Own Backyard
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

Sometimes grownups forget things
It really isn't very hard
Maybe we can teach them something new
In our own backyard

You can walk to the store, you can ride your bike
It really isn't very hard
Recycle that can for another time
In our own backyard

Chorus

Right in our own backyard
Right in our own backyard
Here's a thing or two that kids can do
In our own backyard

Take your own bag to the grocery store
It really isn't very hard
Pick up the litter on your street (and)
In our own backyard

Chorus

In this world there's problems and pollution
But it really isn't very hard
For you to become a part of the solution
In our own backyard

Chorus

I Love Summer
© 1994 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP) & Si Kahn/Joe Hill Music (ASCAP)

No more alarm clock in the morning
Get up and fix my breakfast for myself
No more running for the school bus
My book bag's lying empty on the shelf

No more tests and no more homework
I decide the books I want to read
Gonna leave my shoes back in the closet
Now it's three months of barefoot life for me

Chorus

I love summer
I'm so glad it's here
Life is slow and lazy
It's the best time of the year
No school till September
That's how it ought to be
Yes, I love summer
And summer loves me

Gonna ride my bike into the country
With a sandwich and my Mom's old fishing pole
There I'll meet my friends and all my cousins
Down beside our favorite swimming hole

Chorus

Bridge

Gonna visit Grandma
Down at the old homeplace
And the hillside grave where Grandpa lays at rest
It don't smell like the city
But it feels like home to me
That's the part of summer I like best

Back home in my bedroom in the darkness
I can hear the city sing its song
As it rolls its lazy way from June through August
Summer is the place where I belong

Chorus