Ted Jacobs: Back to the Garden CD Review + {Rafflecopter Giveaway - Ends 11/18} (CLOSED)

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Many people are familiar with poet Robert Louis Stevenson. Musician Ted Jacobs has taken Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses and put it to music in the Back to the Garden CD. Children will enjoy the soft soothing acoustic sounds. It is great for nap time, quiet time, relaxing time and bedtime.

PARENTS’ CHOICE GOLD AWARD WINNER

TED JACOBS 

INVITES KIDS

‘BACK TO THE GARDEN’ 

BELOVED POETRY OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON SET TO MUSIC

"Inspired musical renditions of poetic visions  … Jacobs matches singers' voices and folk, country and classical ballad styles to poems carefully selected for the way they speak directly to the emotional colors of children, to parents, and to any adult who remembers childhood.” 

– Parents' Choice® Gold Award review of Ted Jacobs’ The Days Gone By 

“Robert Louis Stevenson's children's poetry, timeless verses that so vividly describe the world of a child's imagination, are set to music by Ted Jacobs with a Celtic flavor and lullaby rhythms.” 

– Parents' Choice® Silver Honor Award review of Ted Jacobs’ A Child’s Garden of Songs

 LOS ANGELES (July 12, 2011) – Musician/composer Ted Jacobs is dedicated to presenting exquisite acoustic musical settings of the world’s most beloved poetry, and it is with tremendous pride that he announces the September 20 release of his third studio CD, Back to the Garden, a collection of songs based on poems from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses.  More than ten years in the making, this album is a companion to Jacobs’ award-winning recording, A Child’s Garden of Songs.  Throughout his highly celebrated life, Robert Louis Stevenson possessed the unique gift of being able to maintain extraordinarily close contact with the spirit of his own childhood, the result of which was his beloved collection of poetry, A Child’s Garden of Verses. Amid the hustle and bustle of today’s world, children are often deprived of time to dream, and, at the same time, there isn’t much stimulus for reflective thinking to be found in the majority of contemporary children’s music.  Back to the Garden affords a perfect antidote to urgent schedules and electronic fascination, providing time and space for children to reflect, dream, and imagine while they nurture their creativity with music that’s an ideal match for Stevenson’s poems. All the singers and players who came together to create Ted Jacobs’ A Child’s Garden of Songs reunited to decorate Back to the Garden with the sounds of uillean pipes, fiddle, penny whistles, mandolin, dulcimer, accordion, and other acoustic instruments. Celtic players of olden times would feel right at home with Jacobs’ original compositions, which also sparkle with contemporary relevance. The resulting collaboration has such a way of lighting up the meaning of the poems that children find themselves memorizing without even realizing they are doing so. The poems are sung exactly as the poet wrote them. Nothing is repeated, nothing is deleted and the singing, both ensemble and solo, rings with artistic integrity and beauty.

Back to the Garden highlights include a waltz-time melody that embraces what may well be Robert Louis Stevenson’s most popular poem, “The Swing.”  Listeners will practically taste the spray of the salty ocean and feel the nautical sway of sea chantey rhythms in “My Ship and I.” The lively energy of “The Hayloft” is beautifully contrasted with the nostalgic reflection of “Keepsake Mill,” whose poetry must have impinged on Stevenson’s thoughts during his years of wandering far from his native Scotland. “Autumn Fires” (a rustic, minor key jig featuring fiddle, fife, and children’s voices) is a sure fire favorite. “The Land of Nod,” whose music incorporates instrumental passages that allow plenty of space for contemplation, is another perfect setting of a poem known to millions. “Escape at Bedtime,” a nocturne transporting listeners of any age to another time and place, brings the album to a dreamy conclusion.  

It is of interest to note that these poems were written by a man in his thirties who had already composed some of his most famous creations while leading a life fraught with high adventure and challenge.  Writing A Child’s Garden of Verses was Stevenson’s way of connecting with childhood memories at a time when adults typically are reflecting on, and sometimes reassessing, their own juvenile experiences from the safety and objectivity of time, often while rearing children of their own.  Listening to Back to the Garden is a beautiful way for parents to reintroduce these poems into their own lives.  

Ted Jacobs' first two albums, A Child’s Garden Of Songs (1999) and The Days Gone By (2000) were honored with the prestigious Parent’s Choice® Award, with A Child’s Garden of Songs receiving a Parents’ Choice® Silver Honor Award and The Days Gone By taking home a Parents’ Choice® Gold Award. The Days Gone By was additionally honored by Parents’ Choice® as one of their “25 Best Albums of the Last 25 Years.”  Both albums also received NAPPA (National Parenting Publications) Gold Awards.
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CD Details: Back to the GardenFor ages birth to six.
Label: House at the Corner Music
SRP: $14.99
Run time: 33 minutes. 

http://houseatthecorner.com

Ted Jacobs Back to the Garden CD has been a popular one for my son. He enjoys listening to it at bedtime. It's good exposure to this literature that he might not hear at his age. And the music is catching and fun to listen to. I think this is a great CD for young children especially. It's nice to have a calm CD to enjoy as well.

You can find out more about Ted Jacobs on his website- http://houseatthecorner.com. And you can purchase the Ted Jacobs Back to the Garden CD on that website. Or you can enter in the form below to win a copy of the CD here!



*Disclaimer: I received this product to review. All opinions are my own.*