A treasure hunting motif is carried throughout the album in the songs and the media package. The cover book has Laurie, Susie, and Adam in all sorts of fun cartoon locations, each page with a hidden treasure chest for your little one to search for. Sprinkled throughout the songs are more treasure hunts, each with their own style. There is a blues version of Going on a Hunt, a calypso version, a jig, and finally a hand jive! Along with various musical genres, there is also a wide range of instruments featured in the album; Five Days Old begins with an a capella first verse, and then the bass, guitar, banjo, and hand claps kick in for the next few verses giving it a sudden bluegrass feeling. Mr. Bassman projected a catchy tune through bass solos with finger snapping and piano solos including pieces of very recognizable classic piano pieces, such as Mozart. Hearing the bass and piano engaged in a friendly duel just may inspire your little one to want to learn an instrument when they get older, so they can play those fun tunes too! The lullaby Nona and Winter Lullaby includes a string trio, and Jump and Fly features a baritone and tenor saxophone and a trumpet, creating a funky beat and feel. Each song has a creative surprise, whether it's a new instrument and sound, beat, or creative lyrics.
Has your child ever heard a bassoon? They will, in Candy Cane Jane, where they can also yell "giddy-up!" and clap right along with Berkner. Most of the songs offer fun sound effects for listeners to mimic, such as "Crack, crack, bam, bam, crashedy chrash!" in Thunderstorm, "oowah, oowah" (the sounds of the river) in Walk Along the River, or the animal sounds in Farm Song. Let's Samba is not only great dancing music, but it also sings the alphabet in Spanish at the end - a great learning tool for your child. Little listeners can lose themselves in imagining the lyrics coming to life in Mouse in My Tookbox, My Blue Sailboat, and One More Stop on the Train. The title track, Rocketship Run, makes dancing fun with abrupt tempo changes from the slower walking pace of andante to the to vivace allegro (lively and fast); it also offers practice counting down from five and ten.
My three-year-old friend, Sam's favorite song of the moment is Mr. Bassman, and he says it makes him want to play the piano when he's big. Sam made my favorite song be Fast and Slow after I witnessed him jigging his heart out to the Irish-sounding music. I asked Sam if he would teach me his jig, but he said I "probably couldn't do it because it's too hard." I guess I will have to be content just watching Sam dance his hear out.
--Audra