Let’s All Sing!, the tenth album for families from Parents’ Choice Gold Award-winning musician Susie Tallman, is set for release on November 3, 2023.

 

“This record is all about the love of singing and singing with the people you love,” says Susie Tallman. “For me, music and family have always been connected. I started singing with my family as a child, and many of the songs on Let’s All Sing! are traditional tunes that take me back to those happy childhood memories. My hope is that they will impart the same joy and love of music my family was so fortunate to share, and that listeners will want to sing along!”

 

Susie invited several of her favorite children’s artists to collaborate with her on Let’s All Sing!, including Scott Durbin from the Imagination Movers, singer/songwriter Suzi Shelton, pianist Vivian Fang Liu, and Brady Rymer of Brady Rymer and the Little Band that Could. Other performers include Susie’s friends, African musician Kobiana Nakigan, who sings on “Che Che Kule,” and EJ Ouellette, who plays fiddle and upright bass on two songs, “King Kong Kitchie” (a version of “Froggie Went a-Courting”) and “Green Grass Grows All Around.”

 

Susie Tallman has proved to be a consummate musical chef. On Let’s All Sing! she blends a little bit of pop into two of her original songs, “Garden of Sounds” and “Gotta Give Love,” adds a pinch of Americana with the classics “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” “Green Grass Grows All Around,” and “This Land is Your Land,” and provides a dash of African rhythm with the irresistible call-and-response song, “Che Che Kule.”

 

“The Crawdad Song,” a tuneful conversation between Susie Tallman and Scott Durbin, showcases Scott’s enthusiasm and energy and Susie’s vocal command, using her voice in the manner of a great country fiddle player. Throughout the album she sings with outstanding personality, clarity, musicality, and verve. Three-time children’s GRAMMY nominee Brady Rymer joins Susie Tallman on “Little Red Caboose,” which was released as a single in 2022 and has already been honored with a prestigious National Parenting Products Award. The NAPPA judges praised this version of the oldie-but-goodie as “a HIT!”  Susie’s love of opera comes center stage in the album’s pièce de résistance, her original song, “Pizza Pasta Opera.” Here she gives a tip of the hat to both Queen in the song’s bridge and Giuseppe Verdi in the chorus, which uses the melody of “La Donna è Mobile” from the opera Rigoletto. Vivian Fang Liu’s piano artistry adds an extra soupçon of classical flair.

 

“I want to keep the simplicity of singing children’s songs alive and the joy in music as my priority,” explains Susie Tallman. “I don’t sing about loss or fitting in or growing pains. In this record I sing about fishing and frogs, pizza and baseball. I want singing to be an escape from the hard stuff for just a few minutes. The hard stuff IS important and there are incredible artists out there that do an awesome job explaining the tough aspects of life, how to cope, how to fit into this world. But for me, especially with this album, I want kids to sing. I want them to gain confidence through song, through quacking like ducks, joyfully singing the same song their grandma is singing, and feeling that connection to family and friends through music.”

 

Let’s All Sing! will be available on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Tidal.

 

ABOUT SUSIE TALLMAN

With a B.A. in vocal performance from UCLA in her hip pocket, Susie Tallman secured a job in the music business at A&M Studios with renowned producer Jimmy Iovine. She subsequently moved with Jimmy to start Interscope Records as one of its founding employees. While at Interscope, Susie production-coordinated albums for Tracy Chapman, Robin Zander, Tom Jones, NIN, and A Very Special Christmas, as well as singing backup on records by Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love, and Cheap Trick.

 

Yearning to live and study abroad, Susie traveled to Paris for advanced vocal training, where she sang with the Choeur International and the American Chorus. Her next move found her studying classical voice at the New England Conservatory of Music and working at the extraordinary indie label Q Division Records. Susie’s many performance credits include such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Forum, and Pauley Pavilion. Her studio work includes commercials for Taco Bell, Coca-Cola, and the movie Beaches. Several PBS stations around the US play short versions of Susie’s children’s videos as interstitials between kids’ shows.

 

Susie’s love of choral singing led her to perform with the New Mexico Symphony Chorus and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. In San Francisco, Susie sang under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas on the Symphony’s legendary recording of three works by Igor Stravinsky, which won what the Los Angeles Times called “a classical Grammy triple-whammy” in 2000.

 

Now living with her family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Susie is busy raising three children, two dogs, thirteen chickens and 150,000 bees while recording, teaching, and singing in the choral group Coro Lux.

 

Previous releases include Spanish Songs for Children Learning Spanish (2019, Parents’ Choice Gold Award, Creative Child Award, National Parenting Center Award), Animal Songs & Stories (2012), Come On, Let’s Go! (DVD, 2010, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, Parents’ Choice Recommended Award), A Child’s Christmas: Holiday Songs & Carols (2008, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award, Parents’ Choice Approved Award), Let’s Go: Travel, Camp & Car Songs (2007, Parents’ Choice Approved Award), Classical Baby (2005, iParenting Media Award), Children’s Songs: A Collection of Childhood Favorites (2003, re-released in 2011, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award), Classic Nursery Rhymes (2002, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award, Parents’ Choice Approved Award), Lullabies for Sleepy Eyes (2000, iParenting Media Award), and Lullaby Themes for Sleepy Dreams (1999, Parents’ Choice Gold Award).