No Earthworms, no humans
Earthworm Ensemble & friends wrap an eco-conscious message, and silly fun, inside their kid-friendly music
By Bliss 03/04/2010
Plenty of parents make up silly songs for their children. Few record them for anything more than home movies. But when you’re a musician with a studio … and your wife’s singing to your toddler, who’s fascinated by artists recording with Dad … it’s only natural to turn those homespun tunes into something more permanent. Hello, Earthworm Ensemble.
Earthworm Ensemble is the brainchild of I See Hawks in LA drummer Shawn Nourse, his wife Sherri, Hawks guitarist Paul Lacques and his wife Victoria Jacobs. As Nourse recalls, he was sufficiently charmed by songs Sherri was making up for their son Nolan to want to “put the ideas down, recording-wise.” As fate would have it, Lacques and Victoria were also writing children’s material. In short order an album — and an environmental theme — emerged. Hawks bandmates, the Chapin Sisters, Christina Ortega, Mike Stinson and freestyle rapper Zachariah, among others, contributed to the final recording.
“We like to play music around the house that’s not necessarily children’s music … more along the lines of classic rock and classic country,” Nourse says. “[Nolan’s] kind of following our path. I thought there was kind of a void for family music that isn’t goofy or dumbed down that can drive everybody up the wall.”
Refreshingly, Earthworm Ensemble’s lighthearted CD is neither goofy nor dumbed down. Songs like “That’s What the Earthworm’s For,” the bluegrass-flavored “The Traveling Train” and “Pizza Moon,” which quotes Lynyrd Skynyrd and features a dazzling rap from Zachariah, are a far cry from “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
“Children are born with very sophisticated ears,” Lacques says, “and their learning curve from infancy through 10 years old is astonishing. You could play them Stravinsky or Gram Parsons or the Beatles or Schoenberg, and if that’s what they’re listening to, by age 4 … that’s going to be children’s music for them.” He says there’s little difference between writing music for kids and I See Hawks in LA.
“We wrote the songs and arranged them [like] an I See Hawks in LA record. I think they sound almost the same, sonically. Lyrically, you take a different approach. Three-year-olds have a limited life experience, so you try to remember — or if you have kids, you observe — what they see, what’s going to make sense to them. Life’s difficult enough, so you want to make the lyrics fun.
“It’s kind of liberating. It’s just really fun to write about earthworms and making pizza. If you’re playing the Wiltern for adults, they’re not really going to want to hear about earthworms [laughs]. And earthworms are important. No earthworms, no humans; it’s a pretty simple relationship. Doing children’s lyrics, you have the opportunity to express that in a really simple, basic way.”
Earthworm Ensemble and friends give a matinee performance at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Echo, 1822 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park; $8. Info: (213) 413-8200. earthwormensemble.com
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