Award winning children's songwriter and performer Mary Lee Sunseri puts all your favorite nursery rhymes to music and sings classic children's songs in the Parent's Choice Recommended, Mother Goose Melodies. Mary Lee keeps it simple using primarily her voice, with some help from her guitar, recorder, and small percussion instruments. This recording is great for interactive playtime with parents or grandparents.

Mary Lee has taken these Mother Goose stories one step further by putting the beloved rhymes to music. Now, your little one can hear Little Bo Peep, Little Miss Muffit, Jack Be Nimble, Hey Diddle Diddle, and many others in a whole new way. The nursery rhymes are often coupled together with an already-established children's song, and perhaps another nursery rhyme, that share a common motif. For example, This Little Pig is presented with Old MacDonald's Farm, maintaining a pattern of farm animals. Five Wild Dragons is a fun makeover of the Five Little Ducks song, continuing the idea of one less dragon returning each time to the mother dragon. Some of the song, such as Rock-A-Bye Baby, are a capella, while others utilize particular instruments to emphasize them, like the hand percussion in Old King Cole, or the triangle used to create the beat in Mockingbird. Mary Lee even loops her voice and harmonizes beautifully with herself in Mary Had A Little Lamb, being sure to include the "fa la la la"s between verses.

Watch your little one for signs of recognition, whether they recognize the words, instrument, or overall tune. Mister Turkey & Mister Duck uses the same tune as Yankee Doddle, while The Hayride Road is the same tune as Turkey in the Straw. In the first song, listeners can "gobble gobble gobble" and "quack quack" with the song, then "cock-a-doodle-do" in The Hayride Road. More fun animal sounds abound in Old MacDonald's Farm, where listeners can be a cow, sheep, pig, and rooster. Participate in Singing School and learn to sing the scale, "do, re, mi, so, fa, la ti, do," as Mary Lee goes up and down the scale a few times slowly. Green Grow The Rushes-O! and The Farmer's Apple Tree are good counting sounds, moving up or down one number for each verse. Finally, for the youngest children, there is the forever-loved Pat-A-Cake which is a wonderful participation song for children as young as one.

I listened to this CD with my one-year-old friend, Dano. A common game we play with Dano is to add an 'o' to the end of a word to make it rhyme with his name. This is already done in The Fox, so he thought I was being silly when I plugged his name into the song and added another 'o' for, "Dano-o." He giggle and asked for more. Dano had fun watching me and my husband sing and act out man of the songs, helping him with the hand motions to participate as well. He now requests it often in the car by calling out "La la! La la" (his word from music).

--Audra

Mary Lee Sunseri is the winner of two American Library Notable Children's Recordings and four Parents Choice Awards. She has produced and performed 16 CD's of traditional and original music. Mary Lee has performed with the legendary Burl Ives, opened for Bill Cosby and Lily Tomlin, recorded the title song to Walt Disney's movie The Apple Dumpling Gang, recorded nursery rhymes for Mattel Toys' See 'N Say, toured as a member of "Randy Sparks & The Back Porch Majority,"and appeared in the MGM Elvis Presley movie The Trouble with Girls.

Mary Lee received her certificate of study in Musical Theatre from London Drama School with distinction in singing. She performs at festivals, concerts, folk clubs, and corporate and academic groups. She is a frequent performer at public schools and　libraries throughout California, Massachusetts and Washington, and gives workshops on music and infant brain development.

LULLABIES