A Review of the Simon Mayor & Hilary James CD
"Lullabies With Mandolins"
"Lullabies With Mandolins"
by Simon Mayor & Hilary James
Acoustics Records CDACS049
Copyright:
Acoustics 2004.
This review is written by Dai Woosnam, daigress@hotmail.com, 1/05
This British duo have a long tradition
of recording albums aimed at children. Amazingly this is the twentieth
album they have recorded together and a good percentage of them have
been embraced by kids.
And this one is no exception, apart from the fact that it brings out
the “kid” in us all, and if we suck on the songs long enough, madeleine
cake-style, we somehow are back in the nursery and ready for our
afternoon nap.
They are exquisitely performed by this multi-instrumentalist duo: not
only are they ultra-talented musicians, but both are vocalists who can
safely negotiate the minefield that an ostensibly simple lullaby can
represent.
My favourite cut “Hush-a-bye Baby” is, to my generation, synonymous
with the BBC’s long-standing radio programme “Listen With Mother”. It
is so easy to sing it on auto-pilot, and bore us all to the point where
we CANNOT sleep, (perhaps for the sheer frustration of listening to
recording artistes refusing to stretch themselves!) But these two avoid
such an approach like the plague: instead, their approach to the lyric
is like they wrote it just ten minutes ago.
And when these lullabies are played and sung with real freshness as
they are here, you can as a reviewer, subject it to the acid test. Play
it as you turn the light off at the end of your day. And see if you are
asleep before the CD has got halfway!
I am pleased to say that every time I was asleep in ten minutes! So
that is a tribute to the “medicinal” qualities (so-to-speak) of this CD
!! I had to play it in the mornings to properly honour my obligations
as a reviewer, i.e. to listen to the album all the way
through.
It might seem a back-handed compliment, but believe me, you should abandon your pharmacist. Instead, invest in this fine CD.
Obtainable by mail-order worldwide. Enquire at this address: mail@acousticsrecords.co.uk
Dai Woosnam
Grimsby, England
daigress@hotmail.com
Track List:
- 1. Lavender’s Blue – 3.32
- 2. Pieds en-Pair – 2.17
- 3. Fais dodo – 3-15
- 4. All the Pretty Little Horses – 5.02
- 5. Over the Hills and Far Away – 2.50
- 6. Grieg’s Cradle Song (Grieg) - 2.05
- 7. Dance to your Daddy – 3.03
- 8. Andante from Concerto for Two Mandolins (Vivaldi) – 3.11
- 9. Golden Slumbers – 5.08
- 10. Schubert’s Cradle Song (Schubert) – 2.04
- 11. Hush-a-bye Baby - 3.25
- 12. Raisins and Almonds (Goldfaden) – 3.25
- 13. German Cradle Song – 2.45
All songs “Trad” unless shown.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Kevin & Maxine’s Celtic & Folk Music CD Reviews. All rights reserved.
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