Tumble Bee [CD]

If you have young children and a general liking for folkish/acoustic music, then this is absolutely ideal.

Tumble Bee is NOT an album aimed primarily at adult listeners, so those childless Veirs completists who have bellyached about this exquisite collection of songs in other reviews should perhaps have listened to Veirs herself (find an interview about the making of Tumble Bee on Youtube....) before purchasing it. She wanted to produce an album of traditionally-based children's folk songs using her trade-mark sparse yet heartfelt arrangements and in my view, she has succeeded handsomely.

Probably the best judge of Tumble Bee is a child - for example, my own almost-two year-old daughter, for whom we bought the CD as a Christmas present. She was intrigued by the illustrations on the CD cover and in its booklet, but her reaction to the music was the most gratifying.

"Again!" she shouted after hearing the first track, and then after each subsequent track: "Again, again!!"

And she's not the only one. Various friends with children - toddlers and older - report similarly enthusiastic reactions from their own offspring. Not to mention the adults' own enjoyment of Veirs' efforts.

Tumble Bee has hardly been off our stereo since we first played it to our daughter. But because it's such a charming, jolly and catchy collection of songs - with none of the set-your-teeth-on-edge patronising tedious tinkliness of other CDs aimed at children, we are only too happy to keep pressing the play button.

I don't have kids,but I do like Laura Viers and I like this album.Okay,it's not July Flame, it's a covers album,but so what?It's well played and performed versions of traditonal American folk songs that sits well with her other work.Because of it's brevity, and it is short for a modern album, but actually not all that short for plenty of LPs released before the advent of the CD,it takes perhaps a few more plays to get into it,but once I had I find it unfailingly enjoyable.Tuneful, funny and sad and just flat-out fun.Simple yet not unsophisticated, check out Why Oh Why,it's in the great tradition of American folk and none the worse for it.Five stars for July Flame, but a solid four for this.

The tendency of new parents to re-visit their own childhood in an attempt to give their own offspring the best possible start in life is not an uncommon one. When you're a singer and songwriter that reminisence will probably take the form of the rediscovery of songs your parents sang to you. All very well and understandable then that Laura Veirs, mother of the delightfully named Tennessee Veirs Martine (dad is the talented producer Tucker Martine : Decemberists etc) should record an album of children's songs as her follow up to 2010's magnificent July Flame. Understandable perhaps but on hearing this news for the first time this reviewer felt a sense of despair, the exictement at the prospect of a new Veirs album dampened by the fact that it would be full of kid's songs and not her own compositions.

On reflection there is a childlike quality to many of Veirs songs and her (in the best possible way) wide-eyed approach to music which means that if anyone could get away with an album of children's songs as an artistic and musical venture worthy of more than a single listen then Veirs would probably be top of the list. So, whilst this is not a great album by any means it's better than I imagined it would be.

Many of the songs covered here will be familiar to followers of American folk and old-time music most notably "All the Pretty Little Horses" and "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Meo" (once covered, menacingly by Nick Cave) both featuring Veirs wonderful claw-hammer banjo (with help from Bela Fleck on KKKKM). Other songs such as "Soldier's Joy" feature hoe-down fiddle whilst elsewhere there is much stomping and whooping, especially on "Jump Down Spin Around". Other notable guests on the album include Colin Meloy and assorted Decemberists and My Morning Jacket's Jim James.

It's quite refreshing to hear these mostly very old songs played "straight" without any attempt to bring them up to date or be ironic in singing them. There is no hidden agenda here - what you hear is what you get and the album sounds childlike without ever being childish. Ending beautifully with the haunting and lovely "Prairie Dream" this album will be a delight for new parents wishing to introduce their kids to "proper" music, sung and performed brilliantly and like a Pixar movie it works on two levels with plenty for children and adults to enjoy. As an adult however, I can't imagine myself playing this too many times when the kids aren't around and I don't think it will have the longevity of Veirs other albums.