Product Review: Twistable Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to Shel Silverstein (CD)
A Musical Tribute To The Songs Of Shel Silverstein
Okay, so fair warning, this is not exactly a children’s CD, but parent’s need music, too! In fact, as a CD with a ‘classic country’ with a mix of an Americana feel, there are a few songs that have some coarse language so I decided that I will notate all the kid-friendly tracks (there are six great ones) on this album below. However, since some of the songs in this tribute album are kid-friendly and this is a wonderful collection of songwriting by one of my favorite children’s poets, Shel Silverstein, I thought I should go ahead and share the info with my readers.
My favorite book of poetry as a child was Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. It has whimsical, interesting words and pictures that I loved as a child and I sometimes still cite poems from that book, like the simple and silly Lazy Jane. “Lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy Jane. She wants a drink of water so she waits and waits and waits and waits and waits for it to rain.” However, Shel was not only a writer and poet he was also quite the songwriter. “The Cover of the Rolling Stone” performed by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show was written by Shel. “A Boy Named Sue” performed by Johnny Cash was written by Shel. In fact, Sugar Hill Records put together an entire 15 track tribute of Shel Silverstein’s songs that I think are pretty perfect for parents and a few that you can listen to with your child. If you love Shel’s work and are a fan of classic country, you will love this album and bands like My Morning Jacket and Black Francis (Pixies) with Joey Santiago are impressive artists to cover his songs. I absolutely love the CD insert which has all the song lyrics from the CD and a very touching foreword from Bobby Bare, Sr, who was a Shel collaborator and friend for over 40 years. Bobby’s cover of “The Living Legend” (Track 13) is quite beautiful especially when you realize what a great tribute it is to his old friend.
Track Listings (Kid-Friendly tracks are notated with an asterick *)
1. Lullabys, Legends and Lies (My Morning Jacket)
2. The Twistable, Turnable Man Returns (Andrew Bird)*
3. This Guitar Is For Sale (John Prine)*
4. The Unicorn (Dr. Dog)*
5. The Winner (Kris Kristofferson)
6. Queen of the Silver Dollar (Sarah Jarosz with Black Prairie)
7. Daddy What If (Bobby Bare, Jr. with Isabella Bare)*
8. The Cover of the Rolling Stone (Black Francis with Joey Santiago)
9. Sylvia’s Mother (The Boxmasters)
10. Me and Jimmie Rodgers (Ray Price)
11. A Boy Named Sue (Todd Snider)
12. The Ballad of Lucy Jordan (Lucinda Williams)
13. The Living Legend (Bobby Bare)
14. The Giving Tree (Nanci Griffith)*
15. 26 Second Song (My Morning Jacket)*
About Sheldon Allan “Shel” Silverstein: Born in Chicago in 1930 (Died 1999), Shel started drawing at age 12 and published his first work through Roosevelt University’s newspaper. His first book Take Ten (1955) was a compilation of his Take Ten cartoon series that was published by Pacific Stars and Stripes while he was in the military and that started a lucrative career in print. Interestingly, Shel only started doing children’s work after the encouragement of his editor at Harper & Row who said he would be a natural for creating poetry for kids. Be sure to check out Shel’s first collection of poems for children (and my personal favorite) in his book Where the Sidewalk Ends (HarperCollins, 1974). I will also recommend his book The Giving Tree (HarperCollins, 1964), one of his best known books, about the relationships of a boy and a tree.
About Sugar Hill Records: Canadian turned American, Barry Poss, launched Sugar Hill Records in 1978 with an album that featured an artist that Poss thought embodied the Sugar Hill Records Image, Ricky Skaggs. Poss was interested in blue grass music and songs by the grandchildren of ‘mountain men’ and has been credited as having a record company that helped re-invent country music.
Pssst! I did notice that the ‘26 Second Song’ (Track 15) times out at 27 seconds, but I will let that one slide, Sugar Hill Records!
Twistable Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to Shel Silverstein (CD)
List Price: $14.28
Momma's Bacon 