Reviewed by Tony Cummings

This album, described as "a collection of precious melodies and lyrics created with love and care for the young," has a front sleeve credit for J Aaron Brown, a four time Grammy-winning orchestra leader. In fact, the orchestrations here are the best thing about this album. The vocals are provided by Tanya Goodman who followers of Southern gospel will tell you once sang with The Happy Goodmans. Not that there's anything Southern gospel about this set of orchestral backed ballads written to lull your young ones to sleep. It's not too bad, really, though I'm not sure why 'A Child's Gift Of Lullabyes' has received Christian distribution. There's not a Christian song here. The sleeve claims that the songs are "designed to instil positive thoughts and encourage children to go to sleep." In view of that it was possibly unwise that "Tomorrow We'll Go To The Fair" talks about clowns - not every child's happy image. And while we're mentioning lyrics, Bonnie Nichols' "Hushabye Street" has some lines which sound like they're plucked from a '50s rockabilly record ("Rock away through the mornin'/Rock away through the night/Rock away in the arms/That are holding you tight").

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