The Okee Dokee Brothers
Through the Woods
Reviewed by: Lara Supan
Well, this is delightful.
Barenaked Ladies, Raffi, and James Taylor would all buy this album for their children. Parents all over the country will appreciate this classic bluegrass album as much if not more than their offspring will, with intelligent lyrics, complex rhymes and innocent stories to entertain in a way most children’s artists can only dream about. Every single song on this album is a gem, so it’s hard to pick any to highlight. The instrumentation throughout is imaginative and demonstrative, threading the stories with illustrative orchestration and the subject matter is perfect for little ones and big ones alike.
Because of the statement alone, “Lighten Your Load” is possibly the best song on the album. Speaking in metaphor, and in the end literally, The Okee Dokee Brothers lay out the advantages of living a simple life. With perfect harmonies dominating Through The Woods as a whole, the lines “ain’t it a little bit funny what you think you need to live a life and succeed. We take a little of this, we take a lot of that, when all we really need is to give it all back” are perfect to show how to live in a different kind of harmony in every day life.
The Okee Dokee brothers are more than okay by me. If you don’t have children to use as an excuse to buy this album, I would suggest a babysitting gig pronto.
Rating: Bad-Ass
