Indian Elephant Tea

The exotic title is misleading–more than anything, what chief Big Kid Skip Ewing brews up here is a twangster’s funfest. All thirteen songs (minus the title track, an original poem penned by Ewing’s grandmother) get the twisted classic treatment: Old McDonald not only had a farm, for example, he also had a band–“and that band could rock, you understand.” “Oh Susannah” morphs into “Old Joe Clark,” and the itsy-bitsy spider in “The Itsy Bitsy Spider Took the ‘A’ Train” spills his arachnid guts about his homesickness for the waterspout. The Big Kidz Band brings on the guitars, mandolins, and even the odd sousaphone with gusto, but what cinches this record tight is Ewing’s warm Nashville drawl–he pours on the vocal playfulness as if right out of his grandmother’s favorite teapot. Expertly steeped in down-home silliness for kids ages 2 and up. –Tammy La Gorce