“Crankie” Video For Late Singer Sonya Cohen Cramer’s “Oh The Wind And Rain” Ft. Elizabeth Mitchell, Daniel Littleton Out Today

Today, Sonya Cohen Cramer (1965-2015), the singular vocalist, graphic designer, and art director is being honored with an unreleased track and video ahead of the first-ever collection dedicated fully to her music, You’ve Been a Friend to Me, releasing on May 17th via Smithsonian Folkways. This 30+ years body of work reveals the full arc of her musical life as a member of one the most important families in folk music history. 

Listen to “Oh the Wind and Rain” HERE, and watch the “crankie” music video made by Dio Cramer HERE.

Sonya, a niece of Pete Seeger, intimately interprets this traditional murder ballad alongside celebrated musicians Elizabeth Mitchell, Daniel Littleton, and others. Sonya’s aunt, Peggy Seeger, and Ewan MacColl recorded a version by Christina MacAllister of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1962. The music video, created by illustrator, graphic designer, and printmaker Dio Cramer, uses the traditional storytelling form called the "crankie" or moving panorama: a backlit scroll that's cranked across two dowels to unfold its narrative. 

The late singer was the daughter of John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers, and her mother Penny’s elder siblings were folk musicians Pete, Peggy, and Mike Seeger. She was the granddaughter of musicologist Charles Seeger and the avant-garde composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, and her godfather was Folkways founder Moe Asch. 

Known mainly for her graphic design work for Folkways, her musicianship during her time in the New York Times-acclaimed folk band Last Forever (featuring composer and producer Dick Connette) was admired by the likes of Jeff Buckley, Loudon Wainwright III, Meredith Monk, and Joe Boyd.

The upcoming project reveals Sonya’s life as both a familial and mission symbol of the Folkways ethos, committed to revitalizing the oldest songs of Folkways Records and the American musical canon.

Check out Stereogum’s piece on the first single of the project “You’ve Been a Friend to Me” HERE.