Songs like “Me New Townie Man” and “Dead Bird in the Garbage” received plenty of local radio play. Now she is back with a new release for her Baygirl Music label, something very different from the last.
On Aug. 1, she will launch “For Little Ones,” a children’s album.
“I’m always playing kids’ songs for Clare all the time and I always did for my other daughter and I always did for birthday parties. Like all along, my whole career I’ve been playing kids’ birthday parties,” she said, when asked about the latest project.
Creating an album of children’s music ultimately became a collaborative effort, with 2006 East Coast Music Award winners Crooked Stovepipe. The band (these days) includes: Neil Rosenberg, Ted Rowe, Dave Rowe, Tom Power and Charlie Cook.
“The reason why I did it with Crooked Stovepipe was because I had their bluegrass CD and every time I used to put it on, (my daughter Clare) used to start dancing like crazy,” she said. “Every other tape or CD, she used to like it, but she wouldn’t dance to the whole thing. So I was like, ‘goodness, I should ask (the band) to do the kids CD with me.’”
“For Little Ones” is aimed at kids up to age six or seven. It is all children’s music, but it still receives Power’s downhome treatment.
“There’s a few traditional children’s songs on there. One was ‘Down by the Bay’ which I changed to ‘Around the Bay’ and re-vamped all the animals to Newfoundland wildlife and ‘watermelons’ became ‘partridgeberries,’” she said.
“‘The Muffin Man’ I changed around to include a couple of street names from Newfoundland, like ‘Willicott Lane’ and ‘Murphy’s Lane’ — that’s out in Freshwater, where I’m from.”
The Waffle Woman (friend of the Muffin Man) has been invited as a guest to the CD release party and will be providing free samples of her waffles.
Aside from some new characters and Newfoundlandia on the CD, Power has included three French-language tracks. French language songs are not new territory for Power, who released a full French-language album, “Terre-Neuvienne,” in 2006 and was credited with Maritime Artist of the Year following this year’s weeklong Montreal musical celebration “Rendez-vous de la Chanson Vivante.”
There are 14 songs on the album in all. Power wrote seven originals, leaving seven for traditional tunes or contributed songs. For example, bassist for the Idlers, Aneirin Thomas, has a tune he wrote on the CD. There is a Ron Hynes song called “Responsibility” and a song about bananas from Irish folk musician Tommy Sands.
The CD was recorded at Power’s home in downtown St. John’s. “I mixed it on my own. It was the first time I mixed a CD on my own. It was a bit overwhelming, but I think it turned out,” she said.
Power and Crooked Stovepipe received some funding from MusicNL for the project — significant since Power’s last five applications to MusicNL were turned down. Even so, she said, the money was only available after the album was completed, so she appealed to friends and fans to raise money for mastering, through a CD pre-sale. She was able to come up with close to $2,000 to complete the work.
While “Rejects” spawned follow-up music videos, Power said that is not in the plan for the children’s music collection — she is having a baby and planning some time off until at least December of 2010.
The CD launch for “For Little Ones” will be at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lion’s Club Chalet, Bonaventure Avenue. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children. Children under two can enter free of charge, but all children must be accompanied by an adult.
