My 2-year-old son was obsessed for quite a while with a CD of silly toddler songs. Every time we would get in the car he would yell out his request: “Icky song, Mommy” or “Fish song” or “Sing song”. While he thought they were pretty great, the rest of the family was getting pretty sick of silly songs. I was on a desperate search for a replacement CD—one the whole family could enjoy.
My order for How Great Can This Day Be by Lori Henriques could not come soon enough. This is a CD of full ensemble jazz arrangements with talented vocalists and even a whistler. As soon as I put the CD in, the whole family started dancing. The CD is full of fun beats and thoughtful lyrics with topics from friendship to happiness. My husband and I both thought it sounded like the soundtrack to a musical and a fresh take on children’s music.
Lori Henriques has two previous CDs, The World is a Curious Place to Live and Outside My Door, both of which have earned Parents’ Choice Gold Awards. Growing up as a piano competitor, Lori now uses her degrees in French and English to help her write songs. And she uses many musicians around Portland (along with some family members) to collaborate on her CDs. Her two preceding children’s albums, Outside My Door and The World Is A Curious Place To Live won Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, rave reviews, and hours of airplay on Sirius XM’s Kids Place Live. In addition to writing more songs for children, Henriques is working on two children’s books and a musical for adults.
We’ve listened to the CD several times since it first arrived and I’m happy to say that we all still like it. We listened at dinner tonight and started it again after it finished just so we could all hear the title song one more time. My {very crabby teething two-year-old} son even cheered right up during our Lori Henriques dance party.
Take a listen for yourself here and see if you start your own dance party.
