The Simon Sisters (Lucy and Carly)

Sisters Carly and Lucy Simon wrote and recorded these songs for the wee ones in the late 1960s, which may explain their lack of cootchie-coo goo. Instead, this reissue of The Simon Sisters Sing The Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children, which has resurfaced numerous times, sparkles with folky close harmonies, simple instrumentation (mostly guitar with some contributions from tambourine, harmonica, and piano), and poetry, the source for nearly all of the lyrics here. Lewis Carroll ("The Lobster Quadrille"), Edward Lear ("The Owl and the Pussycat"), and Christina Rossetti ("Who Has Seen the Wind?") all make appearances, meaning the words are often above grade-level and the voices, if occasionally fond of nonsense, much more interesting than "I love you. You love me."

These are less campy than Peter, Paul and Mary's renditions of the same kind of stuff. They're also not as hipster-y as some new entries in the genre. These songs are a sweetly sung, unpretentious and wonderful introduction to the beauties that lie in the deceptively plain words of William Blake ("Little Lamb"), Robert Louis Stevenson ("The Lamplighter"), and Robert Burns ("A Red, Red Rose").

—Hillary Brown
12.18.08

This is a retitled reissue (with a different cover and some additional recording and mixing done in 1973) of The Simon Sisters Sing the Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children, originally issued in 1969. In the late '60s, Lucy Simon, pregnant with her daughter Julie, wrote music to poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Burns, and others. These were recorded in 1969 with her sister Carly Simon, then yet to become a solo singer/songwriter star, for an album geared toward children. As an artifact in the career of Carly Simon, it's a curiosity: she didn't write any of the songs, and only takes one vocal solo (on "A Red, Red Rose"), as most of the tracks are duets (Lucy Simon solos on "Calico Pie" and "Who Has Seen the Wind"). As music pure and simple, it's agreeable but twee pop-folk (and occasional light folk-rock), Sam Brown's arrangements tending especially toward fruitiness in the winds. Carly and Lucy's harmonies are a throwback to the coffeehouse folk era, as heard in their earlier, non-children's Kapp recordings. As a kid's album goes, though, it's well above the average in quality and depth of content. And there are hints of artistry that go beyond children's music: Carly Simon's vocal on "A Red, Red Rose" is low, earthy, and subtle, and "A Pavane for the Nursery" has beautiful bittersweet harmonies. Incidentally, the version of "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" here is not the same as the original modest hit version that the Simon Sisters had with the differently spelled "Winken, Blinken and Nod" in the mid-'60s. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide