Review Over the Mountains CD by Ceilidh-Jo Rowe and Matthias Weston IF YOUR children aren’t already completely succoured and suckered by the colder excesses of pop culture, here is a children’s album to give them that will help inoculate against full-scale descent into the shallows of this attention deficit century.

Over the Mountains never patronises for a moment, yet still manages to accommodate enjoyable action-based songs such as My Hat, which won’t make any sense unless you read the songbook, alongside exquisite evocations of nature and songs that should appeal to anyone with an ear for a catchy tune and a taste for freedom; songs like The Green Tree, Come Little Senerin, Working on the Railway and Freedom Train.

Ceilidh-Jo Rowe’s approach to singing folk music is wide-eyed and clear-voiced and is complemented beautifully by the guitar of Matthias Weston. There are songs here that will get your children moving, bits of songs that are easy for them to play on the piano themselves and songs that will possibly last them a lifetime -Wind in the Trees, for example, is an apparently simple round made hypnotically lovely by the multi-layering of Ceilidh-Jo’s voice. It builds into one of the most hauntingly joyful songs I have heard in many years.

Over the Mountains is a wonderful album, possibly even better than their first for children, A Land Very Close. Buy it for your children or for yourselves. The less self-conscious may have a wonderful time dancing along in their front rooms – and those who can’t cope with that can always make an iPod playlist for songs that don’t require actions...

8/10 Adam Horovitz * Over the Mountains will be launched at the Star Anise Cafe, Stroud this Saturday at 11am and at Mother Goose, Nailsworth on Saturday, November 19 at 12.30pm.