It ain’t easy being the star of a music video when you’re four. All the admiration and the constant playing and re-playing by your parents — it was great at first, but Clare Power-Maunder is so over it now.
“Now she’s kind of getting a bit tired of it, but she really likes it,” Clare’s mom, singer/songwriter Colleen Power, said. “She’s really proud.”
Clare is the star of Power’s newest video from her latest album, “Songs for Little Ones,” recorded with bluegrass band Crooked Stovepipe.
Called “Clare Marie” and written in French, the song is a love song for the little girl.
“Who’s dancing in the sand?
Who’s sitting on the table?
Who loves kiwis?
It’s Clare. My Clare Marie,” Power sings in the song, written during a family holiday in Cuba when Clare was about 18 months old.
“I just had a ukulele with me. I never even had my guitar, and I just started writing a song about her and the little things she was doing,” Power explained.
Power said the song just came out in French — something not unusual for the Placentia native, who grew up learning French and recently earned a French degree.
Four of Power’s five albums contain French songs, while the fifth, “Terre-Neuvienne,” is a francophone CD.
Power’s partner, filmmaker Roger Maunder, made the music video using clips of Clare shot mostly on Super 8 millimetre since she was a baby — Clare dancing, Clare jumping in a pile of leaves, Clare playing guitar with her mom.
The video ends with a clip of Clare with her new baby sister, Ida Sinead, born Oct. 19.
“Roger came up with the idea of putting it all into a video, and I had already been thinking the same thing, because I had a pile of stuff on my camera,” Power said.
“I just dumped what I had into his editing suite, and he had it all edited together in a day.”
In addition to “Clare Marie,” “Songs for Little Ones” isn’t a lullaby CD, Power said — it’s a danceable bluegrass album that has original tunes, traditional songs adapted by Power, songs by other people, including Ron Hynes, and one song co-written by Clare herself called “Gimmee Gimmee.”
“You know that Mommy loves you and you are her best friend.
She makes sure you are happy on her you can depend.
She keeps you safe and cozy so please don’t smarty-pants her.
If you yell ‘Gimmee some cookies!’ Mommy will not answer,” the song goes.
“Songs for Little Ones” is available in St. John’s at Fred’s Records, O’Brien’s Music, Gingersnap and Coo Chi Coo.
To watch “Clare Marie” go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsR3LsMRgZc.
tbradbury@thetelegram.com
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