Jess & Richard Arrowsmith
Album: Off We Go Again!
Label: Arrowsmith
Tracks: 40
Website: http://www.arrowsmithmusic.co.uk

Jess and Richard live a busy life up here in Sheffield, with work as a duo alongside membership of the bands Crucible, Melrose Quartet and Hekety and active participation in the local session, dance and ceilidh scenes, Oh, and in between all this musical and vocal activity they've managed to start a family! Shortly after the arrival of the baby, they discovered a mutual love of nursery rhymes and decided to record a CD of such, with the help of their mates, including other family-carrying members of the folk scene who just happen to live close at hand (Jon Boden, Fay Hield, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan). This CD, Off We Go!, appeared in 2010, and has since proved such a success (and was such Fun to make!) that the Arrowsmiths just couldn't resist concocting a sequel - hence Off We Go Again!…

Actually, the original Off We Go! was one of the most entertaining kids' records I can remember, not least because of its enterprising and well-balanced choice of material, its refreshingly unpatronising conception and attitude, its varied and apposite instrumentation, its enthusiastic singing and its playful (but not over-the-top) demeanour. It was reputed to have been conceived in a bid to while away allegedly interminable car journeys with children in tow - and by all accounts it sure succeeded! Volume 2 contains a further canny selection of nursery rhymes and songs, with old chestnuts unashamedly interspersed with little-known joys, some mere trifles, and some of Jess's own compositions (doubtless penned in moments of inspired exasperation!). The disc's sequence is cleverly intended to be as useful to parents as possible, in placing the singalong action songs at the beginning of the CD (to tire the kids out?) and the lullabies at the end (just to make sure!). Or are we imagining another of those car journeys? Either way, what's important is that once again Jess and Richard and their musical chums have provided a CD that parents will enjoy listening to alongside their kids (well, for the most part, provided they're not drowned by those kids' eager and willing participation, that is!).

The performances exhibit a refreshing degree of childlike - as opposed to childish - relish, with a modicum of delightfully restrained silliness and (happily) not a trace of unwelcome sentimentality. From the opening three-minute jolly, bouncy, jangly-bell Welsh Border Medley and Nick-Nack Paddy-Whack through The Owl And The Pussycat and Incy Wincy Spider to the breathless All In The Wood and Michael Finnegan, the uplifting Sunshine Mountain, the iconic Teddy Bears' Picnic, a veritable mini-bestiary (not just Old Macdonald and his hippo!), fine renditions of Wind The Bobbin Up, The Jolly Miller and A Fox Jumped Up, through to oddities like Lucy's Hair (clearly writ from Jess's own experience!), Old Roger Is Dead, Five Little Men In A Flying Saucer, and the mini-round On The Moor (a little experimental for the kids this one perhaps, methinks), and finishing on a delightful snooze with the lovely closing lullaby quotient - the whole disc is delightful.

Musical accompaniment is traditional, upbeat, cheery and sensible (using "real" instruments like fiddle, melodeon, oboe, clarinet, guitar, bouzouki, whistle and bagpipes), with Jess providing a majority of the vocals and guest appearances (and inevitably, farmyard impressions!) from the aforementioned mates familiar from volume 1. There's even some cheeky, timely interjections from offspring too, while I'm glad that producer James Dumpleton has resisted the temptation to overdose on the "sound effects" element that ruins so many kids' records and decreases their repeatability for the humble adult. Presentation is just great, with full lyrics in the booklet and in even larger print on the website. Off We Go Again! and its predecessor can sit easily in the illustrious company of the likes of Bagpuss and Roy Bailey's Why Does It Have To Be Me? (to name but two classic latter-day children's records), in providing unembarrassing and entertaining fun that all generations can unashamedly enjoy together.

David Kidman