Whitney Fowler's children's album 'a sing-along gem'

A good children’s album, a truly good one, doesn’t feel like it’s just for kids. 

Rather, it has to have something for all ages, music to which young and old alike can snap their fingers and sing along. Music that the entire family can revisit long after the kids are grown up, without evoking memories of excruciatingly long car trips with the same annoying song played over and over. 

Sure, there’s plenty of room in the children’s music universe for the classics, like Sharon Lois and Bram with their Skinamarink, Raffi with his Wheels on the Bus, or The Wiggles with their version of Fruit Salad.

But let’s face it - the sheer mention of those silly earworms can send chills down your spine.

Former Niagara-on-the-Lake resident Whitney Fowler’s new Singing Hen album is one of those truly good children’s albums that can be listened to again and again without eliciting those chills. 

Released in December, the album features 11 original compositions, all with the former Whitney Peterson’s gently-strummed acoustic guitar, ukulele or piano, and soft vocals that at times seem almost whispered.

The songs were recorded in the Cayuga, Ontario home she shares with her husband Jordan and their children John and Melody.

It all came together organically in their home studio, a makeshift setup in the couple’s farmhouse bedroom. Jordan captured his wife’s performances and the tracks were sent to St. Catharines producer Joe Lapinski for mixing. Fittingly, sounds of the farm often creep into the mix, with birds chirping at the start of some numbers.

The album title is also the name of the singer-songwriter’s new musical persona, which she told The Local last year was a natural fit. 

“I saw myself as this flightless bird that has a lot of adventure-seeking personality, that loves to sing,” she said. “I don’t think of my voice as this pure, singerly voice. The name humbles it down to the chicken. We don’t think of chickens as being particularly good singers. They squawk.”

Songs such as Seeds, Combinations and Sister Brother are simple folk songs. They could have easily fit on any of Fowler’s earlier albums released under the name Whitney Pea, such as 2012’s With a Heart Intending Forward,  All A Feeling from 2014 or the 2016 EP Full Bloom.

There are, of course, some songs that are obviously aimed at the pre-tween demographic.

Eddie Morley is about a spider, whose web “shone like diamonds,” as the song’s protagonist notices while waiting for the bus. “Will you wait for me, while I learn all day,” sings Peterson wistfully, “you’ll catch flies, I’ll catch a song in my brain.”

On My Bike is My Friend, an ode to a two-wheeled companion with a rusty chain and a plain paint job, Peterson is joined on the song’s coda by a number of local children who tell stories about their own bicycles.

During Freshly Washed Potato, she conjures up late Canadian legend Stompin’ Tom Connors with a lyrical rather than a sonic reference to his classic Bud the Spud. 

Crickets chirp throughout Melody, named after her charming daughter, who sits “in the flowers, singing songs to the earthworms, and they wiggle to the surface, just to hear that Melody.”

Fowler takes a fully whimsical approach on When My Mom Swallowed the Clock, during which a timepiece, a car, the cat, and some toys, are all ingested much to the dismay, and, it must be said, the amusement, of her children. 

Seeds is a perfect song for springtime. It’s about going out and planting seeds, and the hopefulness and excitement that comes from waiting to see them sprout and grow into new life. Fowler has described it herself as a fun little ukulele song, and she hits the nail on the head with that description. One can picture Melody joining her mother digging in the garden wearing their pyjamas. 

And Combinations celebrates making blanket forts and reading books, rainy days wearing puddle boots, and eating strawberries and cream. For an added treat, check out the playful stop-motion video for this song on the Singing Hen YouTube channel. 

The album ends with the beautiful lullaby Love You So, played softly on the piano with Fowler accompanying herself on background vocals. 

It’s a great way to end a great collection of songs that anybody will love, and will love to return to long after their own chickens have flown the coop.

At just under 24 minutes, Singing Hen the album is over in a flash. Another measure of a truly good children’s album? The listener is left wanting more. 

Singing Hen is available to stream now on Apple Music and Spotify