The theme of this entry is babies and children:
New Yorker, Alan Wilkis just finished his album called Babies Dream Big released this year. The album isn't really meant for children, it's meant for adults and it inspires the child in all of us.
It's well worth noting that it said that this was his "solo" effort, and I looked around to see what band(s) he was in, but I couldn't find any additional information.
Anyway, the first thing I read was that there were trumpets (by Eric Biondo) on "I Wanna Know", so it was the first song I checked out. This is a soulful pop song and the trumpets serves up nicely in the solo.
The album has a weird mix of styles, such as electronic and synth ("Burnin'", "I'm Famous", "Milk and Cookies"), mixed with some soul ("I Wanna Know", "It's Been Great ") and some classic rock ("Girls on Bikes").
However, with all the layers and electronic, I would have to admit that my favorite was the almost naked acoustic song, "Astronaut (Would You Be One?)". It's a great song to end the album and it sounds like it's a hippy song from the 60s. I realized that this song doesn't really represent Wilkis' music as a whole, so feel free to check out most of the songs I've talked about on myspace.com/alanwilkis and pick up the CD at cdbaby.com/cd/alanwilkis
Trivia: the cover art for Babies Dream Big is by Jerry Sabatini.
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07/06/08 Cedar Run Song Madison, VA
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Mae Robertson's album, Dream, features a baby on the front cover. This is an album full of classic and original lullabies. If you listen to "I See the Moon", it uses the music and melodies from "Hush, Little Baby".
As what lullabies suggests, this album features a very sweet and beautiful vocals of Robertson, singing gentle songs. I have to admit, it was hard to keep my eyes open when listening to this album, which I suppose it's just doing its job.
As a cover lover, I did enjoy her mellow versions of Meatloaf's "Forever Young", Dixie Chick's "Godspeed", and Art Garfunkel's "Dreamland", especially the later as hardly anyone ever covers Garfunkel's solo work.
I found out that she was "discovered" by a friend who overheard her singing "The Water is Wide" to her baby. After recording her first in a series of Lullaby & Lovesong Collection, All Through the Night (1994), she released three other in the collection: The Sun Upon the Lake is Low (1997), Sweet Dreams of Home (1999), Dream (2007).
She has an eighth album out called Meet the Sun Halfway, released in 2008 (possibly around February). I don't have her new CD, but Meet the Sun Halfway doesn't look like it's targeted towards babies, it looks like they're mostly cover of folk and pop songs.
All the details on all her music can be found on www.maerobertson.com and myspace.com/maerobertson.
If you're looking a fun music album for children, check out Kids Totally Rock by Jimmy G Pop. Most of the songs on this album are pretty much meant for children, but done in a variety of different music genres.
For instance, you have funk on "Funky Monkey", rock and roll surf music on "Banzai Buckaroo", Elvis-style 50s rock on "I Stink", and the obvious country-western on "Billy Goat's Gorge".
I'm dedicating this to all chihuahua owners (that's you Cranky & Papi Chulo): "Totally Chihuahua". This song is done in a Spanish-style song, and it's my personal favorite song off the album.
Not all the songs are fun & dumb for kids, but there are a couple songs that is actually sounds like storytelling protest songs ("My Piggies Fly" and "Everything's Gonna Be Ok"). Basically there's enough songs for kids, but also a few for the grownups so they aren't bored.
You can pick up the CD and find more information on jimmygpop.com and myspace.com/jimmygpop.
Links: www.weheartmusic.com
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