Seven Sleepy CDs: A Whole Bunch of Lullaby Reviews

I get lots of CDs, of course, and just like sometimes you'll see a whole of TV shows suddenly appear with the same theme, earlier this year I got a raft of lullaby/sleeptime CDs. I've collected some of the more interesting ones from that rush, plus a few slightly older ones that got overlooked the first time around.

That's right, folks, seven CDs. At least one of them's gonna put you (or your kid) to sleep but in, like, a good way. The list starts after the jump.
Cher and Gene Klosner's 2007 album Stardust Lullaby is a 2-CD collection of lullabies both traditional and original. It's the most lushly produced album here, and the wide-ranging instrumentation sounds great. I actually found it a little too lush for my taste; the first CD in particular seems a bit too peppy for relaxation. The second CD is quieter, and the last track, "All the Alphabets Are Going to Sleep," a simple song Cher and her husband used with their kids, quite lovely. If, however, you do like a little more production in your lullabies, this'll be a good bet. Listen to sound clips here and here.

Paul Cuneo's 1999 collection Rest Here is a collection of original lullabies, recorded primarily with voice and piano. There are some nice touches (the song "The Night Train" has a definite "train" sound to it) and some intriguing songs (the otherworldly-sounding "Jeremiah Lights the Fire." While the vocal/piano combination tires somewhat after 66 minutes, the gentleness and echoes of more traditional songs will appeal to the connoisseur of albums best played at 2 AM. (Listen to clips here.)

Longtime friend of Zooglobble Eric Herman released Snail's Pace in 2007, a collection of mostly previously-released songs. This isn't so much a lullaby album but, as the name implies, a "downtime" album, one you'd play when your kid needs a little break from the day. The collection includes a small reworking of Herman's classic "The Elephant Song" plus other gentle tunes. Some of the songs may cross the line between gentle and saccharine depending on where you put that line but on the whole, the songs are restrained without sacrificing all of their liveliness. (Listen to clips here.)

The recently-released Putumayo collection African Dreamland will be, because of the language barrier, the CD least likely to be sung along with. To me, it also sounded a lot more pensive and wistful -- it just seemed like there were a lot more songs in the minor key. That's not a bad thing, by any means, it just gives the album, which includes a wonderful Ladysmith Black Mambazo tune, a somewhat different tone than most of the albums here. (Listen to clips here.)

Lullabies and Wildflowers is the debut collection from Melissa Errico, and it takes a jazzier approach than any of the albums here. "Mockingbird" and "Hushabye" (AKA "All the Pretty Horses") sound like they'd be at home either at 11 PM in a dimly-lit nightclub or at 11 PM in a dimly-lit nursery during a nighttime feeding. Some of the songs are a little too uptempo ("Wildflowers") for a lullaby album, and it's definitely not underproduced, but the vocals are a highlight. (Listen to clips here and here.)

As with the Putumayo CD, the fact that many of the songs on World Music For Little Ears are not in English may make it harder for the native English-speaking family to get into the CD. Which isn't to say there aren't some wonderful songs here. The album is actually a sampler CD of songs from Ellipsis Arts' various "For Little Ears" CDs, so if you find your family grooving more to, say, the Latin-inflected or Celtic tunes, you'll know exactly where to go for your next multicultural lullaby CD. A good quiet-time album. (Listen to clips here.)

Finally, I happen to put the first album of lullabies from Alabama's Mae Robertson, All Through the Night (review) at the top of a very short list of essential lullaby albums. (It looms large over all of these CDs.) If I don't think its followup, 1997's The Sun Upon the Lake Is Low, is quite in the same league, that's expecting too much. Robertson and musical partner Don Jackson have put together another album of gentle lullabyes familiar (the sweet "Michael Row the Boat Ashore") and unexpected (Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game"). Even if it's just a little more produced than its predecessor, the folky arrangements (with hints of Irish and Celtic music) and Robertson's beautiful voice still make this a lovely album. (Listen to clips here.)

Review: Dream - Mae Robertson

There is no other way to say this, so I'll state it up front -- I am going to be unfair to Mae Robertson in this review.

I could blame this on Robertson herself, but, really, it's me. Or our family. You see, her debut CD, 1995's All Through the Night, recorded with Don Jackson, still gets regular rotation at our house. We first heard it when our daughter was still an infant, and it was the soundtrack to many a bedtime routine or midnight feedings. (Here's my original review.) It was one of the first good kids and family CDs I heard and it is, without hesitation, my favorite lullaby CD.

Robertson recorded three albums of lullabies before moving back to Alabama from the New York City area in 2000 and recording 2 albums for adults and a Christmas album. Earlier this year, she released Dream, in which she returned to the lullaby world.

In some ways, little has changed since that first album of lullabies, now 12 years old. To start out with, Robertson's voice has lost none of its smooth luminosity. It is one of my favorite voices in all of music, and to hear it is to feel the warmth of a towel just out of the dryer. Robertson also has a broad-ranging view of the definition of lullaby. Her debut featured two songs made famous by Elvis, and on subsequent CDs she covered Van Morrison and the Talking Heads, among others. On Dream artists such as Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Tom Waits get her cover treatment. She certainly picks some familiar songs (Radney Foster's "Godspeed," which the Dixie Chicks sang, and Bob Dylan's "Forever Young," perhaps best known in Rod Stewart's cover) but also covers some less familiar territory.

In spite of these similarities to her debut, this album left me uninspired. I think the reason has to do with its production. Make no mistake, the backing musicianship here is first-rate. But it's just way too much for an album of lullabies. "The One Who Knows," a Dar Williams track which Robertson cites as an inspiration for the CD, leads off the album, but is way too uptempo and, well, loud for such an album. It's not like the drummer goes all Keith Moon on us, but the mere presence of the drums is such a change from that debut, which was all hushed and didn't have a drum to be found. Other musical flourishes (the guitar on Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes" or the piano on Waits' "Midnight Lullaby") would sound great on an album of mellow adult pop, but were hard for me appreciate in the context of a lullaby CD.

Like most lullaby albums, it's most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 5 and their parents. You can hear samples from the 47-minute CD at the album's CD Baby page, or you can hear a couple full tracks at Robertson's Myspace page.

So I'm probably being too harsh on Robertson here, not because Dream is bad musically (because it's not), but mostly because Robertson hit the ball so far out of the park and probably hard-wired the lullaby part of my brain to forever set my preferences for quieter, simpler songs. This album has some lovely renditions, but it's not an album I envision I playing at nighttime. If you have different preferences, you may like this for its intended purpose. And if you're like me, then get All Through the Night.

The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time: Songs 31-35

The list continues. I'd been planning to post this entry this morning, so I found the fact that somebody just posted a comment on the last list of "Hey, whatever happened to the rest of the list?" amusing.

And to think I originally thought I'd crank these out in about two weeks.

In any case, here are the previous entries:

Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

And don't forget, there's still time to enter the contest. You can win a free CD!

35. "All Through the Night" - traditional: A traditional Welsh lullaby with less than straightforward lyrical hurdles to jump ("Soft the drowsy hours are creeping / Hill and dale in slumber steeping"), it's the melody that makes this classic. I'm amazed that this isn't covered more -- it's not like the lyrics are that difficult -- easily within the reach of a parent tired of singing more familiar lullabies. (Listen to a sample from Mae Robertson's rendition here.)

34. "Skidamarink" - traditional: Most uptempo lullaby ever. Actually, I'm not sure it's even a lullaby -- I just first heard it on a lullaby album. Compared to the very serious lullabies (see #35, for example), this is a refreshing alternative. (You can hear a sample of the version that introduced me to the song here. Listen to a sample from the Old Town School of Folk Music rendition here. A bit more uptempo.)

33. "Skip To My Lou" - traditional. There's the innocuous version ("Fly's in the buttermilk / Shoo, fly, shoo") and the embittered, scorned-preschooler version ("Lost my partnet / What'll I do?... / I'll find another one / Prettier than you"). (Raffi does the innocuous version, Bullfrog Jumped includes the other version.)

32. "If You're Happy and You Know It" - traditional. One of those songs that if you're the least bit cynical and tired you're just not going to appreciate. But it's a very simple song that kids have fun with -- who doesn't like clapping their hands or stomping their feet when they're 3? (The Old Town School of Folk Music -- who else? -- does a fun version on Songs For Wiggleworms -- sample here.)

31. "BINGO" - traditional. Actually, this is kinda hard for kids to completely master, though they'll have fun clapping. Now that I think about it, by the time the song gets to "clap, clap, CLAP CLAP OH!," I still have problems with it. Unfortunately, I can't think of any must-hear versions of the song -- it's too prescriptive for massive creativity. (Still, you can always go back to Wiggleworms Love You here.)

Review: All Through the Night - Mae Robertson and Don Jackson

h... the traditional lullabies. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." "All Through the Night." Elvis.

Elvis? As in Presley?

I admit, I would not have expected Elvis Presley to be tops on my list of good lullaby artists. But Mae Robertson's and Don Jackson's album All Through The Night: Lullabies and Love Songs includes not just one but two songs made famous by Mr. Swivel-Hips himself. And those songs -- "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Love Me Tender" (co-written by Elvis) -- fit in wonderfully with this beautifully chosen and sung collection. Though not written specifically for a parent-child relationship, their placement in this collection shifts your perspective on the lyrics -- they really can be lullabies.

One of the advantages of the 15-song collection is that with the exception of the songs I've already mentioned above and "The Water is Wide," I was completely unfamiliar with the songs. Since the same dozen or so lullabies end up making it onto any lullaby CD, this variety is a good thing. Besides Elvis, Robertson also covers Van Morrison and poet Robert Burns on this CD. (Of course, on later CDs she covers Joni Mitchell and the Talking Heads, so this isn't just a one-CD fad.)

The songs are treated in a gentle folk style, guitar and occasionally piano and other folk instruments (Celtic harp, dobro). Over an entire album, the songs begin to blend together, but with a lullaby CD, that's as much to its credit as its detriment. And Robertson, with a beautiful voice, knows how not to oversell her songs.

I stumbled across this CD when I was desperate for a change from traditional lullaby CDs (even good ones) with our first child. This may have been the one I used to accompany late-night feedings more than any other. It's available at Amazon.com and Robertson's own website. Like any lullaby CD, it's most appropriate for kids aged 0-2, but your kindergartners may still want to listen at night. Highly recommended.