The Young Person's Guide to Songs

My daughter has a fondess for travelling on the Park and Ride bus. I don't know why exactly but later this morning we'll be on it as we travel to Oxford. What she doesn't know is that we're going to her first gig.

In our house (and in the car) we listen to a wide range of music. As she's grown up Freya has expressed interest in everything from King Crimson to The Beatles to Richard Stauss. But she's also keen on more straightforward children's songs. An awful lot of these can sound cloying and annoying after a few listens but, one man has managed to produce albums of songs that work for her, her younger brother and the rest of us.

Nick Cope, once of Oxford band The Candyskins (and possibly someone I went to school with) is that man. We love his songs. Freya's first independant CD purchase was one of his albums (My Socks) and even Jude, at two, can be heard singing what he thinks the lyrics are while he's playing with his alarmingly large collection of toy tractors.

Of course, we haven't left yet. So the next post could well be all about how we nearly saw and heard Nick Cope. We'd better get going.