Paul Greaver plays traditional lullabies from all over the world through the organic sounds of an acoustic guitar, creating a soothing mood for gentle bonding time with your little one. The lullabies include American classics such as Hush Little Baby, and All the Pretty Horses, Welsh songs Sou Gan and All Through the Night, Hebrew Noumi Noumi, Celtic Song of the Water Kelpiel, Dreams Angus from Scotland, and Sakura from Japan. Other songs include well-recognized classical favorites, Brahms' Lullaby and Schumann's Child Falling Asleep. The songs carry steady beats and many include heavy strumming or bass notes to emphasize the beat; a great example of this is All Through the Night. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star begins simply and gains complexity with the addition of chords, runs, eighth notes, while the final verse changes to a minor chord. The African lullaby Kumbaya also gains complexity as it goes, creating a bass made up of beautiful triads. Greaver teases the strings, dancing his fingers quickly over them and plucking, in Rock-a-by-Baby, creating a very unique and bubbly sound. The notes in Brahms' Lullaby are played staccato, sounding similar to a music box.
The steady and clear beats in the songs are very easy to rock to while you hold your little one near. If they are not yet asleep while you listen together, you can gently tap your leg to the beat so they feel it moving under them, or nod your head in time so they can see the beat while you smile down at them. The absence of words also encourages humming along, as you will know most - if not all - of the tunes. The vibrations of your voice will sooth your little one and encourage a physical connection with the music.
My friend, Mary, has been playing this recording to her infant son for the past few weeks. She said it was a saving grace when Eddie would wake up crying in the middle of the night. She would hold him close and rock to the music until he drifted back off to sleep. Mary said the music was soothing enough that she was also able to fall back asleep after Eddie was tucked back in, rather than laying awake frazzled.
--Audra