Sweet Babe of Mine

We're remixing "Sweet Babe of Mine," a beautiful lullaby sung by sixteen-year-old Margie Maddox in her Texas high school's coat closet in 1939. Our guests are Jesse Hocking from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and musical duo Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton of the band Ida.

Transcript

LOC Mixtape Episode Transcript, October 2025
“Sweet Babe O’Mine”

[Audio Intro: LOC Mixtape theme sting, “This is LOC Mixtape.”]

Postell (narration): This is LOC Mixtape! I’m Postell Pringle. I’ve spent my entire professional career actin’ a fool on a theater stage, in front of a camera or in the music studio. And, my favorite thing to do – remixing!

Join me as we dig through the stacks of the largest library in the world to make the ultimate mixtape. The Library of Congress has over 4.3 million audio tracks in its collection.  I’m linking up with some friends, finding the most uniquely inspiring songs in the library, learning who made them and why. Then – we mix it up! Crazy talented songwriters and musicians will be rollin’ through to make awesome new songs inspired by what we unearth from the archives. With further ado – I’m ready! You ready?!

Someone press that record button, please!

[Music: Instrumental sting, source clips]

Postell (narration): You know that kid that seems to love speaking in front of people, can easily talk to an audience, big or small—at a graduation or an assembly, at a concert or in the classroom? Maybe you are that kid, confidently holding court in the lunchroom. What if you're not that kid, and you get nervous at the thought of standing there by yourself, all eyes and ears on you? But what if something inside you still felt like you had to do it?

Years ago, before I ever dreamed of performing professionally, I started a new school in a new city, far away from my old one. When I say I didn't know anybody, I mean not a single person. The school had an assembly welcoming new students. Teachers said hello, clubs and sports teams did presentations. Then they asked if any brave souls wanted to come up and say something or show off a talent. I don't know what it was, but something inside me said, "Pos, sing a song!" So I gathered my courage, went up in front of the entire school, and sang a song from my mom's favorite artist, Sam Cooke, totally a cappella. Maybe it was the shock of a strange new kid bursting into song, but the crowd cheered. I guess singing in front of a bunch of strangers somehow made them, and me, feel a little less strange.

[Audio: Sounds of car engine]

Postell (narration): The song we're talking about today is "Sweet Babe of Mine." This one really tugs on your heartstrings, and whoa, nelly! – the story of how it was recorded is a real doozy.

Picture this: It's 1939, and two ethnomusicologists, John and Ruby Lomax, are driving through the Southern United States, collecting songs for the Library of Congress, free-roaming around the country with a big, old portable analog recording machine in the trunk of the car. So they're cruising through Texas and pass a bunch of Black American children, happily playing outside a small, lovely white schoolhouse: Liberty High School. John and Ruby stop, look at the kids, look at each other, and then are like, "Yo! These kids are bound to know some folk songs we've never heard before."

A dozen or so students sing for them: hymns, schoolyard songs, you name it. John Lomax offers a quarter to any student willing to share a lullaby. One very brave young lady steps up: seventeen-year-old Margie Maddox. A bit shy, she doesn't want to sing by herself in front of the whole classroom. The Lomaxes set up a microphone booth in, well, a coat closet. Despite her clear nervousness – I mean, who wouldn't be? – Margie sings a gorgeous lullaby.

[Music: Primary Source, Sweet Babe O’Mine:

Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine
Lullaby, lullaby, eat ways be thine
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine
Hushaby, hushaby, eat ways be thine]

Postell (narration): When I heard the recording, I had to know – who was Margie? And why did the Lomaxes choose her school in the first place? So I hit up Jesse Hocking, who works at the American Folklife Center. The Folklife Center has crazy collections of all kinds of songs and writings. Man, they even got your grandma's recipes up in there. All these gems of recorded history, including Margie's lullaby. Thankfully, Jesse was willing to help me sort it out.

[Audio: Sounds of a tape deck turning on.]
Postell: I am here with Jesse Hocking, who is the acquisitions coordinator for the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. First of all, what does it mean to be an acquisitions coordinator? What is that?
Jesse: Yes, so an acquisitions coordinator for the American Folklife Center means that I help coordinate the curation of the archive.
Postell: Cool. So what would you say a normal week as the acquisitions coordinator looks like for you?
Jesse: A normal week would be sorting through a lot of inquiries and offers from the public. They can come from people who studied in the field of ethnomusicology or folklore, or it can just be members of the public who, you know, found some tapes in their grandparents' attic and think that they might have some value for capturing some spirit of the American folklife.
Postell: Like I said before, this recording of Margie was made by the Lomaxes, the first family of fine, funky, famous, folky ethnomusicologists. T       ry saying that three times fast. They have a ginormous collection at the library of just stuff they archived. When we talk about the Lomaxes, the words used get a bit, well, complicated. Titles like "ethnomusicologist" got a lot of meaning. I asked Jesse to break it down for me.
Jesse: An ethnomusicologist is someone who studies music and music-making with regard to its social context. So they're investigating why people are making music, how they're making music, how it's reflective of their environment, and then what's important about that. My familiarity with the Lomax material started when I was in high school and college learning about these artists that had been, quote-unquote, "discovered" by the Lomaxes. This is, you know, Leadbelly, Jelly Roll Morton, Muddy Waters—the bigger names that went on to have big commercial careers.
Postell: The Lomaxes were ethnomusicology rebels without a pause. Before Jesse and I spoke about Margie's recording in particular, I needed to know the process. How did the Lomaxes record people? What was it like for the folks they recorded?
Postell (narration): And what were the Lomaxes, what were they using to actually record her? How did they actually capture this audio?
Jesse: Yeah, oftentimes when they were doing these recording trips, they would bring a Presto disc cutter with them, which would record instantaneous discs and just carve out the grooves into a metal plate while they were recording.
Postell: But they were carrying around this recording equipment in their car, driving from, driving through the southern states?
Jesse: Mm-hmm.
Postell: So what do you think the odds are that Margie would've even seen something like this before?
Jesse: Yeah, extremely low odds that Margie or any of her peers would've seen any sort of recording equipment before. This is brand, brand-new technology that even the Lomaxes could only really afford to carry through their association with the Library of Congress.
[Music: Primary Source, Sweet Babe’O Mine:

Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine
Hushaby, hushaby, eat ways be thine
Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe f mine]

Postell (narration): I asked Jesse what he thought about the recording.
Jesse: Yeah. You know, it carries that quality of something that feels like an unexpected or an improvisational recording. You know, it's clear that this person is just sort of singing on the spot, that this isn't a super rehearsed recording, and it has that quality of something that was recorded, you know, nearly a hundred years ago.
Postell: Yeah. How do you think Margie might've felt recording it in this way?
Jesse: It's hard to say, but I would imagine that it was a pretty bewildering experience, both the setting and then the idea of speaking into this machine you had never seen before and having no idea how that would be transmitted to people or what life it would have decades after it was recorded.
Postell (narration): Ruby Lomax wrote the field notes—written notes explaining where, what, and who was being recorded. In Ruby's notes about Margie, she writes, quote: "Mr. Lomax offered a quarter to any pupil who would sing a lullaby. Finally, a tall, awkward girl whispered that she knew a lullaby. She wouldn't sing before the crowd, but consented to go into the coat closet where she sang, quote, 'Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine. Hushaby, hushaby, eat ways be thine.' She must have needed the quarter badly, for she was covered with confusion. She could not explain what 'eat ways thine' means." I asked our pal Jesse how Ruby's field notes might make him think differently about the recording.
Jesse: Yeah, it certainly makes me, you know, put myself in the shoes of the girl who is so nervous to sing in front of her peers, both, you know, socially, just thinking about the dynamics of being a teenager again and having to perform in front of your peers. But it also brings up a lot of questions about, you know, why was she nervous? Why did she feel awkward in that moment, if what they wrote is true? And it's hard to say, you know, it could be because there's this economic incentive here that she stepped up to sing. It's hard to tell if she was intimidated by the recording equipment or by something else that could be, you know, economic differences between her and the Lomaxes or a racial dynamic. There's a lot of elements of power that come into play when you have adults recording children, especially in this particular setting.
[Music: Primary Source, Sweet Babe’O Mine:

Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine
Hushaby, hushaby, eat ways be thine
Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine]
Postell: Was there any written documentation concerning permissions or rights for Margie? Did they, like, did they have anything that she signed that helped explain what was actually going on?
Jesse: No, there was almost never that level of permissions or documented consent at the time for people that were recorded, and that's something that we certainly do much differently today.
Postell (narration): In other words, the Lomaxes recorded a teenager who didn't know them from a can of paint and put the recording of her lovely lullaby in a library where it can be heard by literally anyone forever without getting her or her parents' or her teacher's permission. Wow. I have to sign a permission slip if my kid goes to a petting zoo with her class. If she was recorded for the archives of the world's largest library for all time – um, yeah, I'd wanna make sure we were cool with that.

Postell: Do you think there was a set of assumptions that John and Ruby were making about, like, about Margie and her, one, her willingness to do this, but then also, yeah, the song itself?
Jesse: Yeah. I think there was an assumption here that what was most important was that this recording would be taken back to a place where it could be appreciated in a public archive. And I think we think about that very differently today. We focus more on the importance of these recordings for the community itself. And so when we work with ethnomusicologists and folklorists, our first question is, how does it actually serve the community? How are we gonna keep these recordings in the community so that the preservation of those recordings can serve the people?
Postell: So that makes me want to ask this question, which is – one, we know that we know all about the Lomaxes. Big old biographies have been written about them and they're super celebrated in our culture, and probably rightfully so. But what do we know about Margie?
Jesse: We know very, very little about Margie, and that's in part because learning about Margie and her background, her family, how she learned this recording, was not the primary objective of this recording trip. And you can tell that through the recording. You can tell it through the field notes. And today I think that would be very different. Our mission would be to do just that, to try to understand the context more—and why this lullaby was important to her personally, and how did that serve her family or her community, and how does it continue to live in that community?
Postell: So, Jesse, was there anything else about this beautiful lullaby, "Sweet Babe of Mine," sung by Margie that, um, I don't know, made you one, either wanna listen to it again, or what it reminded you of? Was there anything that, like, ever called for you?
Jesse: Yeah, I think it's a really touching recording and it obviously embodies something very personal. This idea of a lullaby that is sung in that way makes me think about how did this person learn this beautiful song? You know, was it sung to Margie as a child? Does she sing it now to, you know, her nieces, her cousins, or someone important in her life? And, yeah, unfortunately we don't know those things, but I think it's a really powerful recording and a beautiful rendition by Margie.
Postell: Yeah. How do you think Margie's song, how do you think that fits into our contemporary world now?
Jesse: Yeah, I think hearing a song like this, it definitely brings me back to the sort of songs that you learn from people in your family and those that are important to the people around you. And it's not always, you know, what is most popular at the time, but it's something that's easy to learn, that's easy to sing, to perform with people you love. And so, yeah, it reminds me of my own childhood and what it was like growing up in Georgia and hearing the music that was important to my parents and the people around me.
Postell: Yeah, I can just imagine, like, I think for all artists to some extent, we sing or we create what we know, so I, you know, I can imagine a song like this making its way either in terms of melody or in terms of words into actually, like, new modern music. Like, honestly, Margie was singing a great hook. She was singing a dope hook. But I think that that's all the time we have for today. I really, really, really appreciate you talking to us, Jesse. I appreciate you, homie.
Jesse: Yeah. Thank you so much. This was really great, and yeah, it's a pleasure to be part of this.
[Music: Primary Source, Sweet Babe’O Mine:

Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine
Lullaby, lullaby, eat ways be thine
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine
Hushaby, Hushaby, eat ways be thine]

Postell (narration): Jesse gave me a whole lot to think about. And I especially wanted to find artists who could take all that info and create something new with Margie’s song and still really honor what she did when she so bravely stepped into that coat closet to sing.
So I enlisted some new artists for the mixtape, Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton. Elizabeth and Daniel are indie rock and folk musicians. They’ve been making music in the band, Ida, and Elizabeth has also released seven albums of children’s music Even their daughter, Storey has joined the music bandwagon. BTW, Liz and Dan are married.

I just knew they would be feelin’ Margie’s song and create something amazing with it. So we sent them Sweet Babe O’ Mine and our interview with Jesse. A couple of weeks later, they sent us their beautiful lullaby. Peep our conversation about it.

[Audio: Sounds of a tape deck turning on.]

Postell: Thank you guys so much for joining us on the LOC Mixtape.
Daniel: Thank you for having us.
Postell: Just to start, I really would just wanna know more about you guys. Where are you from and what it is you do?
Elizabeth: Well, we've been playing music together for 30 years, 35, something like that. We started in our early twenties, uh, in Brooklyn where we lived when we started dating and we started a band called Ida. And that band has put out, gosh, too many albums, that I can count.
Dan: Depending on who you ask, too little, too many.
Elizabeth: Never too much. It's a lot. But then, along the way, we also started making children's music and working with Smithsonian Folkways, and that was 25 years ago. We put out our first album, You Are My Flower.
Postell: Yeah. Wow.
Postell (narration) I was clamoring to know how Liz and Dan started playing together and writing songs while also dating.
Postell: Because, you know, I don't know, it's one thing to be like studying each other and then all of a sudden start courting each other and like, you know, "I like this person" or whatever, but it's another thing to start like creating art together. Yeah, that's, you know, that's, so I would love to hear a little bit how that collaboration coalesced.
Elizabeth: I was in my last year of college and I was working with a friend who was a filmmaker, and he showed me a piece, a collaborative film, dance, and music piece that he was making with two of his friends from high school. And I heard that music and right away I was like, "Okay, this music is making me feel something different. I need to know who this person is." And so then we met that spring. So anyway, I think it was pretty instantaneous. And there was kind of no fighting it.
Dan: No, we just started, once we started hanging out, there was just, music was everything for both of us. Like, that's what our life was about. And so it's already happening. And then when we found each other, it was really a matter of like, "Oh, you know, what does this sound like? Could you do this part?" or just playing songs together.
Postell (narration): It was cool and dope and amazing and kind of romantic to hear how Liz and Daniel sort of connected as human beings and as artists. When they first heard each other's music, I was psyched for them to share their initial thoughts on hearing young Margie Maddox's lullaby.
Daniel: First thing, just the first thing I thought when I heard this piece of music was how rhythmic, naturally rhythmic it was. It's got kind of church and it's got rock and roll in it. It's got all these kind of components to it. And it also sounds very vulnerable, and it's a beautiful, simple lullaby. She sounds like she's young and maybe a little bit nervous, but she's singing something that's close to her heart and it just comes through.
So, with all the things that are kind of strange about that circumstance and must have been strange and even uncomfortable for her, that essence comes through so clearly, and I find it really relatable. My initial impression was like, what a brave kid and what a beautiful fragment of song that just points to so much that we may or may not ever be able to say. And that she shared just a little bit of it took courage, and you can hear the depth in her music and her musicality.
Postell: Liz, what was your impression?
Elizabeth: Yeah, I mean, you know what first struck me was the rhythm and the cadence. Like, I heard, I just heard like all of rock and roll in that recording. You know, that like, you know, an African American teenager in 1939, like there it is. It's just, you can feel it. It just makes you, just makes you, you know, move a little bit that way. And it just is like, it all came from right there. And even though, and it's a lullaby and it's a beautiful, tender lullaby, that spirit is just like underneath it, just carrying it through. Yeah. And that really moved me.
[Music: Margie’s Lullaby, by Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton:
Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine
Lullaby, lullaby, love so divine
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine]

Postell: You guys already kind of talked about how Margie's began to inspire yours, but I would love to also hear about some of the nuts and bolts of the creation of it. So you guys both listened to the song, you guys both had a thought, and then what did you say to each other? What was the first thing you did?
Daniel: Hmm. Why are you looking at me?
Elizabeth: Because you wrote the song, sweetheart.
Dan: All right. No, here, the other day this happened really fast. We'd both been kind of listening and talking about it, and I had these rhythmic ideas and Liz had the same kind of feeling about it. And then a mutual friend, somebody I didn't know too well, passed away.
Postell: I'm sorry. My condolences.
Daniel: Thank you. And she, it's a very sad situation in which she left behind a young, young daughter. She was quite young. And so this was on my mind a lot. And I kept thinking about, like, what is a lullaby? What is the lullaby, like, really about? And at some level, I think the thing that just came through the most to me is that we think of a lullaby as like, oh, this gentle moment where you put the child to sleep and, you know, you lull them to sleep, literally.
But there's another meaning in it, which, like, any parent or caregiver of a child really knows well, which is that we don't survive without the protection of some parenting somewhere. And I thought, like, Margie's song, there's an element of that. We don't know if her grandmother or her mother, whoever was caregiver for her, planted this seed of this song somewhere in her past. We don't have that data, but I started to imagine, like, a little bit of what those meanings are that somebody is invoking when they lay their child to sleep and they sing to them. And so those feelings kinda just, the words just kind of came out. And Liz was really, it was important to her that "thine" was um, was in there.
Postell: I was gonna ask about that word. I was going to ask about "thine," 'cause we think of "thine" as such an antiquated, right, like almost old English sort of word in the phrasing. We almost think of it, you know, like you say it when you're holding a cup of tea and your pinky is out. But the use of the word "thine," it feels so intentional and works so well in the song. Please talk about that.
Elizabeth: Well, it was in her original, and when he first wrote his version of the song, he didn't use the word "thine." He used "it will be done."
Daniel: Right.
Elizabeth: And I said, "No, boo, no, it's, it's gotta be 'thine.' It can't, what do you mean 'done'? No, it's 'thine.'" Right? And then he asked me, "Well, what will be thine?" And I said, "All these things that you dream of." Yeah, yeah. Like, these things that you want, these things that you dream of, it will, the peace that you're, whatever it is, it will be thine. And he said, "Okay, I'll go back. I'll figure it out."
[Music: Primary Source, Sweet Babe’O Mine:

Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine
Hushaby, Hushaby, eat ways be thine…]

[Music: Margie’s Lullaby, by Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton:
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine.
I will meet you in your dreams
Out on the rolling sea…]
Postell: I love the way that you guys would sing the melody and then at different times just like separate into a harmony and then come back. It almost felt, even though you were singing it simultaneously and together, it almost felt like I was hearing it in stereo, meaning I was hearing it from two different people.
Elizabeth: Mm-hmm.
Postell: Because you didn't necessarily sing every word exactly together. I almost felt like I had a father singing to me from some capacity, and like, I travel a lot for work, so I'm constantly, like all the time, just talking to my kids. And, you know, what I would say to them, or what I would sing to them, and then what my partner who might be at home at the time, like how she might be saying the same thing but in a different time code, in a different, you know, in a different space.
Daniel: It's great. I like that we are kind of all together. It's like, you know, just hearing your interpretation of it, it resonates because it's like we're together. We're together on this, you know, and that's the message of the song somehow. Whether it's two parents or one that's coming through or whether, you know, and I think Liz also felt like, let's stay with the bones, with the essence of the song.
Elizabeth: I wanted to be connecting with Margie's, with what she offered, with her gesture, 'cause it's really kind of more of a gesture than a full song, you know? But that's so often what a lullaby like, you know, having done children's music for as long as I have, oftentimes the shortest songs are my favorite, and they're the most compelling and they're the most effective, you know? Because that's really what a child can take in, like one minute of music, great.
Postell: Yeah. That's very punk rock too, you know?
Elizabeth: But yeah, right. Exactly. So that's all you need, you know, is sort of a mantra to just stay focused on the story that Daniel told in the lullaby. You know, maybe someday we will record it and have an instrumental section and build it up, but for this exploration of really Margie's intention, I wanted to just keep it very focused.
[Music: Margie’s Lullaby, by Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton:
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine,
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine. ]

Postell (narration): Before I let Liz and Dan head out, I had to talk to them a bit about a question we’d asked Jesse. I feel like Margie is part of the stream of oral storytellers. A personal, cultural lineage of music. What does it mean that she made this recording in the first place, as uncomfortable or weird as the circumstances may have felt at the time?
Daniel: I think it's really valuable. Like, we want to hear people's personal stories, we want to hear people talking about their life.
Elizabeth: I think for me, it's so exciting. This is what I am constantly searching for, you know, um, for these moments of music and time that haven't necessarily been carried through in a widespread commercial capacity. I feel a lot of my work with Smithsonian Folkways is pulling a thread through time, you know, a conversation with past generations that I can have through music and keep songs alive. You know, that part of the folk tradition, keep songs alive, keep them going, carry them on to the next generation. And there's always gonna be some sort of transformation in that process and that's a good thing, I think, ultimately. So, you know, we've recorded lots of well-known songs, and that's a beautiful experience to have also. But I'm much more excited about finding a fragment and a moment of history of the past and bringing it and having a conversation with it now and carrying it through and keeping it alive. So this was amazing.
Daniel: I agree.
Elizabeth: But there's definitely a mindfulness you need to bring to it, in honoring that gesture from the past and shining a light on the original creator.
Daniel: I just wanted to add something, like, just also kind of along the line of honoring the source and like where, you know, being in dialogue with that time. It's like one thing that occurred to me in listening to the interview that you all did with the archivist—
Elizabeth: Jesse.
Daniel: Yeah. It's like ethnomusicology has had to evolve, you know, and has to continue to evolve. Like, just as, you know, the kind of dialogue that Liz is talking about and you know, all the questions keep cooking. The methodologies have to shift. The respect always has to be there. The humility always has to be there,
Postell: A hundred percent.
Daniel: Because, you know, it's like we just, everything that Liz said about this little girl, like the courage, the beauty of her work that she just puts out there, who knows if her family knows about this. I would hope that there was a way that we could thread the needle and find some of her people and, you know, just be like, “People are still listening and inspired by what you've done. You know, people are making stuff, making music inspired by your ideas.”
There is a connection that people have through time. So I just wanna represent that because, like, I feel very moved and changed by this experience of getting to encounter this young girl's music through you guys.
Postell: Good, thank you. I'm so happy about that.
Daniel: And so we're putting it out there, like hopefully people will get interested and maybe somebody will kind of come forth and go like, "Yeah, that's my grandmother."
Postell: Speaking of respect, humility, and acknowledgement, I just want to thank you guys so much, so, so, so much for joining us for LOC Mixtape. Thank you so much for chopping it up with me. And before we go, is there anything that you guys want us to know about?
Elizabeth: I just want you to know how grateful we are that we got to sing Margie's song and talk to you. Yeah, this was amazing. So thank you for having us.
Daniel: So thanks for having us.
Postell: Thank you guys so much.
[Audio: Sounds of a tape deck turning on.]
Elizabeth: This is Elizabeth Mitchell and—
Daniel: Daniel Littleton.
Elizabeth: And here comes Margie's Lullaby.

[Music: Margie’s Lullaby, by Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton:
Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine,
Lullaby, lullaby, love so divine,
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine,
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine.

I will meet you in your dreams
Out on the rolling sea,
Where the stars are falling free,
I will sing to thee.

Out on the rolling sea, boys,
Out on the rolling sea,
We will always meet again
Out on the rolling sea.

Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine,
Lullaby, lullaby, love so divine.
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine,
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine.

Time don't stop for anyone,
Time don't walk, it flies.
Time don't mean that much to me
When you're on my mind.

When you're on my mind,
When you're on my mind,
All my troubles just resign
When you're on my mind.

Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine,
Lullaby, lullaby, love so divine.
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine,
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine.

Time’s a train that don't come back,
Time’s a ship that sails.
Time disappears in the face of love,
Love won't ever fail.

Love don't ever fail, dear,
Love won't ever fail.
Even if this world goes off the rails,
Love won't ever fail.

Lullaby, lullaby, sweet babe of mine,
Lullaby, lullaby, love so divine.
Hushaby, hushaby, sweet babe of mine,
Hushaby, hushaby, it will be thine.]

Postell (narration): A spankin’ new gorgeous tune to add to our mixtape. Thanks to Jesse Hocking and big ups to the hardest working couple in folk-biz, Elizabeth Mitchell & Daniel Littleton for their lovely lullaby. Most of all, thanks to Margie Maddox. Her bravery gave us these beautiful songs.

Don’t forget, there’s literally millions of audio tracks just waiting to inspire you at loc.gov. Check one out. See you where it takes you. Okay, press the stop button in 3…2…1

[Audio: Sounds of a tape deck turning off.]

[Music: Instrumental]

Credits: 

The Library of Congress Mixtape was produced by audiyo-yo, FableVision Studios. Created and Executive Produced by Anne Richards and Postell Pringle. Produced by Snow Xue Dong, with Production Support from Ash Beecher and Kaz Long. Hosted by Postell Pringle. Sound Design and Voice Recording by Dan Walsh. Additional Music by Postell Pringle. Content and Curriculum Advisor, Carolyn Bennett.

Thanks to our guests, Jesse Hocking, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Dan Littleton. 

Funded by a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, through the Lewis-Houghton Initiative. Content created and featured in partnership with the TPS program does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress. Visit the Library of Congress at loc.gov.