A New (Old) Lullaby

My girls have a tendency to listen to the same CDs over and over and over again in the car. Part of it is they love repetition and the comfort of knowing all the words. The other part is sometimes CDs get stuck in the CD player and we're forced to listen to whatever it deems worthy.

After a few weeks of the Disney CD on heavy rotation, we were able to sneak John McCutcheon into the player without the car noticing.

It's a CD of the album Howjadoo that McCutcheon released in 1983. We had a cassette tape of it when I was a kid. My sister and I knew all the words to every song. A few years ago, Nana and Granddad gave us our own copy of it and I was able to introduce it to a new generation. They were skeptical at first. In this age of Beiber and Gaga, a hammered dulcimer is a hard sell. But now they ask for the CD and each have their own favorite tracks. Ainsley prefers Molly and the Whale while her sister prefers Here's To Cheshire. There's a beautiful lullaby on the album as well. It's called Tender Shepherd and McCutcheon sings it as a round. In Googling the lyrics to post them here, I learned that it is actually the lullaby Wendy sings in the stage version of Peter Pan. I've been singing it to Allie lately to mix up our lullaby routine. She really seems to enjoy it.

Tender shepherd
Tender shepherd
Let me help you count your sheep
One in the meadow
Two in the garden
Three in the nursery
Fast asleep