Thursday, September 13, 2012

Elizabeth Mitchell Blue Clouds Review and Giveaway

One of my favorite folk children's music artists is Elizabeth Mitchell. Her newest album called Blue Clouds is precious. There are acoustic guitars, harmoniums, banjos, pianos, fiddles, glockenspiels and gentle drums and bass creating a deep ambiance together with her voice. Like honey her voice is lovely and sweet. She also has her beautiful daughter and others on this CD singing along with her. This CD has included them in the title as "You Are My Flower" which is also the name of her first album. There are a few songs from her other albums on this CD, but I love this one as much as all her others. I love the simplicity and darling childlike manner of all her albums.

My daughters love to dance and twirl to Hop Up, My Ladies. Many times my 4 year old daughter Teela has said, "this is my favorite song, Mommy" to practically all the songs on this CD. I love to sing along with Elizabeth on this CD. I think it would be a great honor to be a guest singer on one of her Albums. Arm in Arm is a cute song about an octopus family inspired by a book by Remy Charlip of which the illustrations to this album are also from. Kooks is one of my favorites by David Bowie. I Wish You Well is such a wonderful heartfelt song by Bill Withers. Summer is Icumen In is a beautiful traditional medieval round that is written and sung in Middle English. Rollin’ Baby was written by their own Aunt Anna and perfectly tells the story of a little baby's perspective in a large city. Little Bird is one of my favorites because it reminds me of last fall when my kids and I made these peanut butter and birdseed pine cones to hang in our large cherry tree and we would watch all the birds fly over to nibble on them. Circle of the Sun is about their daughter's cousin Destry, who died tragically at the young age of 4, in remembrance of her. May This Be Love is a gorgeous guitar and vocal piece. It was originally written by none other than Jimi Hendrix and the guitar work by Daniel Littleton (Elizabeth's Husband) is inspired by Joni Mitchell and her lovely dulcimer music! It sounds like a waterfall. I love San Toki (Mountain Bunny) and Yuki (Snow) because they are bilingual and teach children both the Korean or Japanese and English equivalent of the song. Blue Sky is a sweet soft melodic song by the Allman Brothers. Blue Clouds is the perfect song to close this album of the same name and it was written as a lullaby by Daniel for their daughter Storey when she was only 3. There are many other great songs on this album too, sixteen songs in total.

Track List:
01. Hop Up, My Ladies
02. Froggie Went A-Courtin’
03. Arm in Arm
04. San Toki (Mountain Bunny)
05. Kook
06. I Wish You Well
07. Summer is Icumen In
08. Rollin’ Baby
09. The Little Bird
10. Circle of the Sun
11. Moon Don’t Go
12. Everyone
13. May This Be Love
14. Yuki
15. Blue Sky
16. Blue Clouds


Elizabeth Mitchell will be in Portland, Oregon on Sunday, November, 4th! Maybe if I am lucky I will get to go with my family to see her perform at The Village Ballroom there. You can see listings of all her shows HERE.

BUY IT
You can preorder this album from You Are My Flower for $14. It will be released October 23rd.

WIN IT
Prize: Win a copy of Blue Clouds by Elizabeth Mitchell.

I am trying out Rafflecopter on my blog. Please click on this post link if you do not see the script for it below. Also, if there is anything that is wrong with it let me know by emailing me: finamoon AT gmail DOT com I will try my best at fixing it. Thanks for being awesome readers! 

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Smithsonian Folkways for sending me product for free to review and letting me giveaway one. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 comments:

jamaise said...

We have "You Are My Little Bird", "You Are My Flower", & "You Are My Sunshine". I would love to have Little Seed and oh course the one you are featuring :)

kgosborne said...

My 2 children (ages 9 & 5) and I all love and adore Elizabeth Mitchell's music. We have 3 of her recordings: You Are My Flower, You Are My Little Bird & Little Seed. We love them all. I would love to win a copy of Blue Clouds. Thanks for the chance!

melissa said...

I have not been able to stop playing "Little Seed" since it arrived yesterday. I would love this one, too, and I'd also love You Are My Little Bird! :)

Unknown said...

Little Seed sounds good!

Guavalicious said...

Definitely little seed because we love Woody Gutherie!