Spring Harvest - Pre-School Praise 1

Reviewed by Ian Hayter

More from the Spring Harvest stable - this time a selection of songs intended for pre-schoolers from a variety of writers, including John Hardwick, Nick Harding and Judy Mackenzie-Dunn. They are ably arranged by Andy Harsant and sung with a certain amount of enthusiasm by Jim Bailey, Cathy Burton and Harsant himself. There are a couple of old favourites ("Father Abraham" and "My God Is So Big"), together with a number of new songs ("What A Great Creator", "Right Here, Right Now", "I Can Wriggle" and the wonderful "God Made Me"). As usual, each song also has a vocal-less backing track which would make the album useful for sing-along sessions. However, the songs are not terribly easy to sing along to. With one or two notable exceptions, the songs here are not repetitive enough (lyrically or musically) nor rhythmic enough to make them easy to sing for the target audience of tiny tots. That's not to say it's not a good album to listen to, nor that there aren't one or two catchy refrains - just beware of putting the songs on and expecting your little darlings to join in straight away.