Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer: Bon Appetit! Musical Food Fun

15 May 2002 | Amazon.com

by Tammy La Gorce

Loading their blankets with dreams and their pillows with wishes landed Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer a couple of Grammy nods, and sprinkling the stardust that's lining their pockets on this last installment of the trilogy should short-list them for a third. A parcel of lullabies this crafty and playful pops up so infrequently it practically commands us to take a stiff broom to our own sleepiness and listen along, wide-eyed. The pair's vocal caresses and wound-down instrumentation aside, kids aren't apt to conk out right away either. But that's by design. Fink and Marxer promote here what hero Pete Seegar called "nighttime propaganda"—they sneak up on the sandman, ambushing him with a track-by-track tempo tone-down. Opener "Rhythm of the World" is downright upbeat with its steel drums, congas, and "Ching-a-ling-a-ling, hear the bells ring/ Ching-a-ling-a-lum, hands ona drum" verse, but by the time we reach "I Got Pajamas" in mid-CD, the m ood is decidedly mellower (never mind the safari, spaceships, and a bed full of llamas). "Whispers" and "Wish for Tomorrow" preside over the final descent into dreamland, with flowers whispering to the grass, grass whispering to the dew, and the moon rising high in the blue. Stylish but not oversimplified lyrics, the occasional sweet strains of a children's ensemble, and well-played bites of cittern, viola, fiddle, dulcimer, banjo, mandolin, oboe, and rain stick scatter a mellow blend of stardust that'll see kids ages 1 to 8 taking off their nightcaps yet again to the reigning queens of PJ propaganda.