It's not often ignorance can make for a better review, but it just might in this case. Selected ignorance, in any case. I was actually familiar with
Caroline Herring's recording of
The Little House Songs, an album (or musical, really) based on the 1942 book
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. I also followed the Atlanta-based Herring as she financed the album via a
successful Kickstarter campaign. But the book itself? Sorry, it's one of those Caldecott Medal winners I missed. (I had to check Wikipedia for the publication date.)
So while I can't say whether the album adequately reimagines an obviously well-loved book, I can say whether it
evokes a well-loved book, and on that score, it succeeds. In brief -- and I say this solely based on listening to the album (though I've now since seen the summary) -- a house is built in the country, an expanding city encroaches upon it, it falls into disrepair, a new owner falls in love with it and moves it into the country once again. Obviously there are themes of wistfulness and the passage of time, and Herring does a great job of conveying those themes musically, such as on the wistful "The City Grew Up Around Her" and "Shabby." But it's not entirely downbeat -- "Building of the Road" is an uptempo folk-rocker propulsively carried along by rhythm guitar and Herring's voice until it just slows down, while I loved the violin's mimicking of wheels on happy "House on Wheels." It's mostly folk, with some songs tending a little more country, all tastefully arranged.
Kids ages 3 through 7 will most appreciate the 25-minute album. You can listen to all of "House on Wheels"
here and other clips
here and
here.
The Little House Songs is a simple little album, made with care, much as the book that inspired it was. (It's also made me want to read the book, which is always a good sign of the quality of an interpretation in a different medium.) Herring reportedly is interested in doing more of these albums based on children's books. Based on this first attempt, I am hoping she is true to her word. Recommended.
Disclosure: I received a copy of the album in my registration bag at Kindiefest.
The Verve Pipe made their name the first time riding the wave of alternative rock in the early-to-mid 1990s. Now they are making their name as enthusiastic performers of music for families. At the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival I chatted with guitarist Brian Vander Ark and drummer Donny Brown (that's them at top middle and top left), the two guys that have been in the band since the very beginning, talking station wagon music, upcoming plans, and differences between name-brand and generic cereal.
What are your earliest musical memories growing up?
Brian: Back seat of a station wagon with five kids, two parents, and Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue." When that song came on, it was the first time I paid attention to melody and singing along. It was... 1971?
It's a great song...
It is a great song.
And you?
Donny: I remember being in the car... I come from a family with seven kids. So we'd be in the station wagon where the last seat faced out toward the window. They wouldn't allow that now. And my ear was right next to the speaker on the right-hand side. And I remember "See You in September" from the Happenings... do you know that tune?
I don't, actually.
[Sings a bit of the song.]. It's a very much a Four Seasons ripoff.
I can hear that.
It's exactly like the Four Seasons without Frankie Valli, but from a band called the Happenings.
So you had a big career in the '90s and into the 21st century... You wrote a kids song for a compilation - was that the first attempt you made at writing songs for families, or had you written songs even if they were for your own...
Brian: No, that was it...
What was it about that song that made you think you'd want to do more of this?
Recently, Steve Denyes, the hardworking songwriter behind the Southern California duo 
Freed from his devotion to the alphabet (see: A-H, 
It's 
