Jackie Oates "Lullabies"

There is something about a good lullaby that can have a very primal, calming effect. English Folk singer and musician Jackie Oates has long been fascinated by them, being struck by the way that adults can hear a lullaby and have very strong childhood memories and feelings. This new album is a collection of her favourite lullabies and sleep songs, found in old song collections, books and recordings - and, particularly if you have small children to calm down in the evening - I can heartily recommend investing in a copy.

Jackie Oates has long been a firm favourite on the Local Global Show. She has folk music in her DNA and first came to world-wide attention with Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. Between 2006 and 2011 she released a series of four solo albums to great critical acclaim - "Hyperboreans" and "Saturnine" being the most recent and most feted. Along the way she has won an array of awards and been involved in a number of side projects, two of which have featured in these pages before.

She was an integral part of The Cecil Sharp Project and is now a permanent member of The Imagined Village, re-inventing English Folk with an infusion of multiculturalism. But with this new solo project, she has really come into her own. The intrumentation is always gentle and sparse and she has chosen some great musicians to accompany her on this journey. There's Belinda O'Hooley on piano and Barney Morse-Brown on cello as well as an Icelandic string quartet which creeps in from time to time to great effect. Oates herself plays violin, viola and shruti box.

The CD opens with a cracker: "Dream Angus" is a well-known Scottish lullaby about Angus, the Celtic god of dreams, and the arrangement is quite beautiful. We then have two short "Dandling Songs" of Swedish origin - to be sung while dancing your baby on your knee. Next up is "Waiting For The Lark", one of her own childhood faves, often sung by her folkie family. There are also a couple of sublime Icelandic lullabies contributed by guest musicians during dark winter's night recording sessions in Reykjavik.

Oates has found and dusted off some real gems that have long been hidden away in historical song collections, and she uses the words of Shakespeare, AA Milne and Thomas Hardy to great effect in three songs. There's even a fine traditional Australian lullaby "Little Fishes / The Rainy Day Fisherman".

One of the most successful - and surprising - song choices is the quirky and insightful "Junk" by Paul McCartney, written while he was in India with The Beatles and recorded on his 1970 solo album. While not strictly a lullaby it has a lilt and rhythm that seems designed to soothe and calm and it's a perfect fit for this collection.

The strongest, most arresting song is the Cd's closer - "Sleepers Awake", sung with great tenderness by Oates and the talented Chris Sarjeant. It is acapella apart from the hum of the shruti and is a brilliant rendition of the 1969 Incredible String Band classic. I imagine you'll be enjoying some peace and quiet by the time you get to the end of this CD. I'd be very surprised if your little ones weren't asleep halfway through "Dream Angus".