Skip to main content

Molly Song of the Week - Laura Veirs - Tumble Bee

Part of the ongoing series of 'Molly Songs': a weekly look featuring songs that our children will love, but more importantly parents can enjoy as well.

I've had a chance to talk to a lot of parents about this and I'm not the only parent to have this dilemma.  It's either subject yourself to the crap that's called kids' music or torture your child with your stuff, right?  Not so, has been my position.  Seems it's shared by indie artist and first-time mom Laura Veirs.  She and her husband, music producer Tucker Martine, took matters into their own hands and made an incredible folk-children's album.

The thought was, per Tucker Martine, @5;18 in the video below, "Kids love the Beetles! You know, they just like if you put good music in front of them.  So, we definitely kept that in mind that we just need to make something that we enjoy ...  maybe speaking to our child-like nature."

Inspired by the birth of her son and by countless fans who’ve told Laura over the years how much their kids love her records, Veirs became curious about the history of American children’s music. She and Martine listened to hundreds of songs from the past several centuries, including Harry Smith’s famous Anthology of American Folk Music. They selected what Veirs calls, “a sampling that reflects our richness as a people.” Tumble Bee was recorded at home in the spring of 2011.  (see Laura Veirs.com for more bio)

On Tumble Bee, Laura did some recruiting, gatherin collaborator Colin Meloy of the Decemberists, Luke Ydstie, Kati Claborn, and Israel Nebeker of Blind Pilot, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Béla Fleck, amongst others. 

Tucker Martine speaking to his wife Laura Veirs in the video mentioned above and embedded below, says "I'd like to think that those fans of your music that don't have children will also enjoy it!"


Truth be told, I barely had known Laura Veirs beyond 'July Flame' and 'Carol Kaye, but when I heard about her album I thought she'd be perfect.  Tucker was right and then some.  There are many kids' albums out there, that reach new heights of silliness and many that are child like, but not many hit the mark as a great album overall.  Elizabeth Mitchell, Jack Johnson, and Medeski Martin & Wood have all succeeded where many have failed.  Laura Veirs & Co. have joined those ranks with Tumble Bee!

Laura Veirs & Tucker Martine discuss the making of Tumble Bee

To hear full samples of Tumble Bee try these tracks ** FREE DOWNLOAD ALERT ***

Now that you've had a chance to sample some songs, head over to The Laura Veirs store!  The album, besides sounding great, is a great package.  It will make a great Mother's or Father's day present.  Not to mention a cool present for any lucky kid you might know!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New Release Q&A - Sonja Sofya answers some questions for "Patterns We Know"

The buzz has been all about Sonja Sofya and her new album The Patterns We Know .  Tonight Sonja Sofya and band take to the stage at Boot & Saddle in South Philly along with a great line-up featuring Arc Divers and the dove and the wolf. Right off the top we have some great reasons to expect great things from this album, such as produced by Ross Bellenoit at Turtle Studios and excellent musicianship by guitarist/producer Ross Bellenoit, bassist Jonathan Colman , and drummers Matt Scarano and Jonas Oesterle . But we at Root Down In The Shadow wanted to dig further and see what Sonja had to say about the album. Here's 3 questions we had for the songstress Sonja Sofya: RDITS: What was the impetus to make a full length record and why did you pick the people you worked with? At a certain point, playing and writing as much as I was, it felt like the logical next step, but I waited for a while, trying to find the "perfect" time to go into the stud

Bands Pick The Bands - 2016 XPoNential Music Festival Presented by Subaru - Artists Preview

Wooo Hooooo It's XPoNential Fest Time!!!!  Every year WXPN brings a ton of great bands and artists to the Wiggins Park shore in Camden, NJ.  With so many bands on the line-up it's daunting to figure out which bands to see.  Fortunately, the way WXPN does the line-ups you CAN make it to every band should you choose.  However, we all know it's going to be hot as hell.  Not quite as hot as 2011 with the 100 degree days, but still super hot.   Luckily for us, some of the festival performers have put in their two cents for which bands they are excited about. Rosemary Fiki   starts the fest at 4pm today on the JerseyArts.Com Marina Stage. Let's see what she's recommending: Band Most Excited to Share the Festival Stage with : This is our first time time performing at XPoNential so to be completely honest, I'm super stoked to share the Festival stage with everyone! If I absolutely had to choose, I would say The Districts. We actually shared the stage wit

New Chris Kasper single - City By the Sea

Here's a wonderfully bluesy tease to the upcoming Chris Kasper album.   New single "City By The Sea", is just enough to keep fans from getting restless, while he tours with Carsie Blanton along the West Coast.  Hopefully there will be some local dates soon, as 2017 seems so far off right now. City by the Sea by Chris Kasper