I am sure this must have sounded like a good idea at the time. Just how that trip to the Lakes in January must have sounded from the warm, cosy platform of your laptop in June. Mercury-Prize winning Northern folk-heroine, Kathryn Williams and her punky playmate, Anna Spencer put down their baking trays, cleared the table of a crazy accumulation of crayons, paints and handy-wipes and set about creating an album for kids that sailed beyond the usual limitations of ‘The Wiggles’ and ‘Blue’s Clues’ and went some way towards introducing the average pre-schooler to the likes of the Velvet Underground and Small Faces. Well that didn’t really happen. What they did put together was this: ‘Playing Out – Songs For Children & Robots’, a slightly dopey collection of tunes about robots, pirates, dancing on the moon and all the spookiest things known to the infant mind (including scary trees and trolls!). What kind of sense is it likely to make to those who don’t have children themselves and don’t have the perks and patience of a remarkably tolerant record label supporting them is anyone’s guess but if it can entertain Louis (4) and Lenny (3) for the 35 minutes it takes to prepare and serve their alphabet spaghetti it can’t be a complete waste of time by any means.
Kathryn returns to this planet for a series of solo shows this summer, performing songs from her 10 year career, including from her most recent album, ‘The Quickening’, her first for One Little Indian.