Parents' Choice Awards : Audio : Music
Singin' In Our Own Backyard
Fall 2008 MusicReview:
"Life is kind of how you spell it...with possibilities from A to Z." In veteran folksinger Jack Pearson's sunny 1995 children's album those possibilities include the creation of kinder, gentler times. His heart-songs and wordplay ("The Ballad of Jana and Dana on the Susquehanna," "Blue Suede Smores"-to the tune of the Elvis classic) and irresistible acoustic rhythms are still country breeze fresh. And Pearson, a master strummer (with fine fiddling provided by Peter Ostroushko), wrapped his songs in a message that resonates with even more relevance today: it's healthy and spirit-lifting for kids and adults, too, to take a break from the relentless noise and rush of the everyday just to think, make music, play and imagine.
Lynne Heffley ©2008 Parents' Choice
A long-time Parents' Choice music critic, Lynne was a staff writer for 25 years at the Los Angeles Times where she established and maintained the paper's first weekly children's arts and entertainment beat and was a general arts reporter. Now a freelance writer, Lynne works in the areas of non-profit communications, the arts and family entertainment (specializing in children's theater, music, audio books and book illustration). In her spare time, when she's not reading, Lynne is likely to be found strumming American Songbook standards and Tin Pan Alley novelty songs on one of her seven ukuleles.
