Search - Barney Saltzberg :: Crazy Hair Day (Dig)

Barney Saltzberg, like Sandra Boynton before him, has taken the next logical step in his career as a successful writer of warmhearted but wackadoo kids' books: set his non-story-length juvenile musings to music, enlisting a battalion of big names to help. Unlike Boynton, who let her flamboyant flock of Philadelphia Chickens cluck for themselves, though, Saltzberg goes the extra mile by singing and playing acoustic guitar himself. Other than the story this CD takes its name from, read at a perfect pace by Dustin Hoffman, "Muriel," with the kids' music vet Peter Himmelman, scores highest for its brilliant concept--the title girl's affection for soggy cereal sets the stage for an excruciatingly long breakfast. Elsewhere, Saltzberg switches it up between sweet ("Be With Me," "Best Friends" with Vonda Shepard and Jackson Browne) and silly ("A Big Box of Sox"). The author's gifts for singing and strumming may not win him coffeehouses full of adult fans, but they won't soon wear on grown-up ears, either. And his hair may be crazy, but his heart couldn't be in a righter place: all the artist royalties from this disc go directly to Concern, a cancer research institute. --Tammy La Gorce