What fun! And what good listening for kids or anyone! While this is the fifth album from Boston area singer-songwriter Wayne Potash, it was our first exposure to this master of kids� music.
Arrangements are widely varied, tight, and nicely voiced with a range of instrumental combinations including guitar, banjo, bass guitar, drums, harmonica, fiddle, horns, accordion, piano, pennywhistle and children�s chorus.
Normally a primary pleasure in children�s albums is the original material � seeing how successfully the performer has identified andtouched upon the joys and fears within their young audiences. Often the standards and traditional songs are fillers. But here the arrangements are often sweet, as with Tad Hitchcock�s lead guitar on �When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin� Along.� Similarly welcome are the contributions of the Boston Children�s School Children�s Chorus on five songs; they have the vocal texture of the enthusiastic young children, but with no distracting stray or sour voices.
Of the six songs by Potash, at least two will be keepers for teachers and others who sing with children. �Wiggly Tooth,� here nicely accompanied with guitar and pennywhistle, has a simple repeated eponymous refrain for sing-a-longs; with his �Lobster Dance� it�s easy to imagine the pleasure of children playing the roles of lobster, crab, and shark. Teachers may also want to consider the traditional �March of the Leprechauns� as another song for upon-their-feet fun... Ironically, the one song that common sense would have suggested dropping � a weak a cappella version of �Haul Away Joe� which quickly dissolves into laughter � has survived repeated listenings and still brings a smile.
� FL/SL Sing Out! Vol. 50 #2 Summer 2006
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