That's an extemporaneous folk song I wrote just now, inspired by this happy little gem of a book. It is not a very good little folk song, certainly nowhere near as good as the music on the CD that accompanies the book. But the parents in my song, the kind of parents who give their kids names like Utah or Fern, Skeezix or Priya or Ruby or Ezra (most of whom are in fact named Sarah, but some of whom are named Josh or Molly or Jeff), will recognize this item as a thing that they would have made, if they had the time and the awesome indie musician friends.
Mitchell and Steedman craft little ragdoll people with round wooden
heads, sort of like what Fisher Price Little People used to look like,
but taller and skinnier and more prone to wearing dirndl skirts. In
this book, these funky little friends are posed in a variety of
cleverly made dioramas representing city environments. The main
character, Sunny, wanders around listening to the various city sounds
he hears, and then the kids put 'em all together in a music jam. Heavy
on the percussion, as most kids' music jams are.
It's the inclination toward the homespun that clicks this book in with those parents, the parents in my song and on my Facebook friend list. I think it's what happens when Pixies fans have kids. They learn that Pete Seeger
rocks OUT when he's in good form. They discover that Woody Guthrie
recorded some of the best weird children's songs ever. And they'd
rather make stuff themselves than settle for ANY of the crap at Toys R
Us, and most of the crap at the grocery store.
There - I just drew a straight line from punk to hippie. Or goth to
hippie. Indie to hippie. Sheesh. Labels are meaningless, leave me alone.
So much love and effort has been put into this project, with terrific results. Look at the black and white pictures they've used in the backdrop of this diorama. That's just the right dash of grit - and there's something like that on each page that halts any possible slide into sweetie-precious-land.
The songs are fun and upbeat, yet gentle enough for quiet time or even a lullaby. And they are real songs, with production effects and key changes and lyrics that make sense. (After 8 years of listening to this stuff, I love to hear artists who respect children enough to craft actual music, rather than cranking out three chords and some chanting and calling it a Grammy nomination.) (No disrespect to Ziggy Marley, or any of this year's nominees - Hi, Eric's dad!)
The doll-like figures are simple enough to inspire a kid to try to make his or her own Sunny. Even the camera angles on the dioramas are well-thought-out. Two girls playing hopscotch are shot from above, as if we are looking down on them from a fire escape.
It's a book any parent could feel good about, and any kid could fall in love with. More Mitchell & Steedman stuff is available on buyolympia - naturally!
