

These Are My Friends
Spring 2012 MusicWith wit and warmth, gravel-voiced folk artist Alastair Moock more than matches the zany charm of his first entertaining family album, "A Cow Says Moock," with this second foray into the genre. Moock takes zany hairpin turns in a nursery rhyme and alphabet mash-up ("CBAS and a Twinkle Baa"). In the title track, he introduces some rather unusual friends: "One hundred stale french fries/Each one has got his own name and they're such great little guys/They sleep with me when I'm lonely - and so do all these flies." He brings raspy warmth to Woody Guthrie's folk classic, "Mail Myself to You," along with some perky child singers. "Born to Dance" could be the observation of fond parents watching their little ones hop and twirl with "beats in their feets and the ants in their pants." Moock, who has young children of his own, is not only a fine musician, he's an observant dad whose songs clearly come from the heart.