Vered Targets Newborns (Never Fear, It's All Good)

I don't want to say that Vered Benhorin has never been on our radar. Her first CD for newborns, GOOD MORNING MY LOVE, happened to reach our ears just after our younger son, Matthew, had "aged out" of her listening audience. Her latest CD, HELLO MY BABY, renews her enthusiasm for engaging the parent/new child connection via music therapy.

As Vered explains, "Research in developmental psychology shows that the first two years of life are critical for a baby’s emotional and social development. How ‘in tune’ we are with our babies can predict the child’s ability to regulate emotions, cope with stressors, and create fulfill."

Reading her Baby In Tune website, followers come off as disciples or converts. Vered has developed a methodology and her CDs allow parents-in-training to bring her program into their homes. The concepts are simple – "Grandparents," "Cooking," and "Peekaboo," just to name a few. The title track is NOT to be confused with the famed Michigan J. Frog number. The title track is "Hello," not the Adele song. And you can even enlist Vered (for a fee) to personalize the song for a specific child.

I don't want to suggest that Vered can be bought, literally. But it's important to buy into the concepts that she's expressing. And she's got a whole lot of top-shelf support staff on her side, led by uber-producer Dean Jones. HELLO MY BABY brings together an Okee-Dokee Brother (Justin Lansing) and a Nightlight (Joanie Leeds). Not to give anyone short shrift, Jon Samson and Rachel Loshak's names also jumped out at me.

Vered knows that parents want. In the closer, she sings "All I want is to sleep seven hours." Hey, my younger son just turned FIVE. That's about how many hours a night that I average with my eyes closed (luckily he chose to nap yesterday, so we all collapsed for a wee bit). Singing along with Vered takes on a larger meaning for some parents – these songs are meant to be sung TO children, to inspire them to song along and to sing back. For music-loving adults, there can be no greater joy than those small moments. On those occasions, a dad really does want to say "Hello my baby, you've arrived."

HELLO MY BABY is available from Vered's website, Amazon, iTunes, and CDBABY.

Here is the video for "Something Other Than a Mother":