Record Reviews

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer w/ Brave Combo

All Wound Up: A Family Music Party (Rounder)

The Combo continue their second career as backup band for various party, eccentric, and/or kiddie acts. This disc fits both the first and last categories, with the band supporting the Grammy-nominated Fink and Marxer on a dozen young'un-friendly tunes that avoid the sort of cloying Barneyisms that have sent many a parent to the psycho ward, while thankfully also avoiding the need for fart jokes and the like. As with all Combo projects, the songs are listed not only by title, but by genre; the version of "Chopsticks" is a salsa, "De Colores," the "favorite folksong of the United Workers Union," is a mariachi/waltz, and Fink's original "Swing It Baby, Swing" is -- you guessed it -- swing. You can't ask much more from a children's album than giving equal time to small fries and big shakes alike, now can you?