SUZANNE McNEIL 
Candescent
Willow 
11 tracks 
On her new and second release, Suzanne McNeil further explores a mainstream-pop-somewhat- folksy style that has been the meal ticket for female singer-songwriters for many years. With the help of a very strong band, led by Guitarist Tim Mahoney, and a solid recording engineered by Sean McLaughlin and mixed by Ducky Carlisle, McNeil has developed into a very good recording artist. Willowcontains several strong tracks including “Bend” and “Aphrodite” (my personal favorite), which she lets loose on. Unfortunately, you have to labor through several average songs to get to the good ones. In this case, like many other potentially great singer-songwriters, the material can always be the obstacle that holds you back. This is not to imply that this record is not good because it is very good, but it can get even better for McNeil. She needs to keep this solid band together and start writing more songs like “Aphrodite” and then she could really be on to something. 

BEST ALBUMS: Great music you won't see on the charts

“Willow” by Suzanne McNeil (Candescent)

It’s always a trap to cite a friend’s work, because there is always that assumption that the fix was in, but in truth we’re probably overly hard on friends’ music, and frequently expect too much. Quincy’s McNeil, who usually gigs about seven nights a week in the area, has nonetheless delivered a startlingly potent collection of songs. There’s an emotional arc to the album, and an overriding air of endurance and perseverance – a more personalized take on the Holmes Brothers’ theme, if you will. The rebirth inherent in “Spring” is immediately affecting, and the pathos in “Bend” is stunningly powerful. “Cut ‘Em Loose” has to be one of the year’s best twang-rockers, and “Lost in Boston,” this Canadian import’s ode to Beantown, never fails to stir the juices. Fronting a five-or-six-piece rock band, led by Braintree’s Tim Mahoney, McNeil reaches heights her local solo and duo gigs only hint at.

Quincy singer-songwriter McNeil’s second CD is a pleasant surprise. Her smart pop comes with more twang this time, lending it an Americana flavor that should broaden her appeal. A Massachusetts native raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, McNeil shows a wide range of influences that can be heard in her 11 originals, some co-written with her trio partners from Lipstick and Laughs. Reminiscent of Kathleen Edwards, McNeil’s poignant stories are sung in a strong and affecting voice, with enough hooks to catch the ear. She shows deep affection for Boston, even for its crazy traffic in “Lost in Boston,” a song any local will relate to. Download: “Bend.”

http://www.patriotledger.com/musical/x719368656/Suzanne-McNeil-LP

We have written previously about the quality of Suzanne McNeil's new album, "Willow," but hearing the Quincy songwriter fronting her quintet is truly a revelation. Performing solo, or in her usual duo with protean Braintree guitarist Tim Mahoney, McNeil is a superb musical craftsman navigating a wide variety of covers.  But when given the chance to do her own material with her own band, McNeil reaches a level of passion and emotional resonance that elevates her work to the rarified territory of singer-songwriters like Rosanne Cash and Kim Richie.

McNeil's 50-minute set had several highlights, from the soft-to-rocking dynamic tour de force of "Spring," with Mahoney provided espeically scintillating guitar lines, to the brisk two-step of "All About You" where Mahoney's stellar guitar solo channeled his inner Marty Stuart.

But it was McNeil's rendition of "Bend," from its dramatic tom-toms-only start from drummer Jason Nute, to the singer's pulse-pounding vocal catharsis with its stunning sustains, that really raised goosebumps.  McNeil's mastery of subtle nuances is usually her strongest point vocally, and to hear her cut loose with such unbridled passion, while maintaining such perfect tone, is frankly breathtaking.

Elsewhere, McNeil's "Cut 'Em Loose" was the hardest rocking tune, a kissoff song that'd make Lucinda Williams proud. And "Mr. Non-Committal," from her 2005 debut album, came across as a Tom Petty-like rocker, with a few tasty dollops of Janis Joplinesque wails at the end. 

Hearing McNeil do a set of her own music with a full band, you wish she could do that every night. But in the meantime, until the rest of the music world wakes up to this huge talent among us, Quincy fans can hear her doing mostly covers at tiny places like Paddy Barry's, where she and Mahoney will be gigging Saturday night.

McNeil isn’t ‘Lost in Boston’ these days

Suzanne McNeil is probably the only songwriter to ever compose a lively little pop tune lamenting how much she misses being stuck in Boston traffic.

That song, “Lost in Boston,” is already turning up on the local airwaves, and McNeil will be celebrating the release of her latest album, “Willow,” with a free show from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Dante’s at Firefly’s in Quincy.

McNeil, born in New England and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, has had a varied existence even by musicians’ standards. Brought up in a culture where traditional music reigns, she gravitated early to folk and rock. McNeil worked for several years as a singer on cruise ships, mastering pop hits and standards. That experience made her a versatile performer, if a bit rootless in her personal life.

McNeil settled in the Boston area in 2001, and soon founded a music program for kids, introducing preschoolers to the joys of hearing, singing and playing music. Her main job during her first years in Boston was as singer with the house band on The Odyssey, the dinner-cruise ship. Before long her school in Milton had hundreds of kids enrolled, she left the Odyssey and kept her own performance career alive with a string of gigs in South Shore clubs. Quincy’s Gerry Hanley had his youngest daughter in McNeil’s program, and became an early supporter, booking her at his old club, The Holy Ground. In 2005 McNeil released “Bliss,” an album of mostly originals in a buoyant folk-rock mode, along with some well-chosen covers, like Bill Withers’ classic “Use Me.”

But in 2006, McNeil took a 180-degree turn, getting married, selling her music school, and moving to suburban Philadelphia with her husband. Not knowing anyone in Pennsylvania, her performance career languished, as she devoted most of her time to supporting her husband’s busy touring schedule. The marriage ended after about a year, and McNeil retreated to her parents home in Nova Scotia.

It was there, secluded in her parents’ basement because she was too disheartened to even go out and see people, that McNeil began writing what would become “Willow.” The first song was a wacky little number where she looked back at all the automotive misadventures, and confounding things she’d encountered living in Beantown. To her own surprise, McNeil realized she even missed getting lost in Big Dig detours – the line “totaled my car in Southie” is a real-life result of just such an incident. McNeil’s humor is often self-deprecating, and her details about life in this area are spot-on.

“I was wondering where to start over, and I began realizing how much I loved Boston,” McNeil said from her Quincy home. “I was born here, and even if my family moved back to Cape Breton when I was 9, this feels more like home. I just feel very fortunate to be back in this area, because I feel the Boston area gave me my music career. I still play cover gigs, and I have more work than I can handle.”

McNeil’s web site (www.suzannemcneil.com) is asking fans to vote for which new tune should be her first single. So far, “Lost in Boston” is far ahead, which might be a problem, since no one outside Route 128 is likely to understand lines like “the Pru is all aglow...” or “a one-way street that Beacon meets.”

The album includes some truly affecting, even heartwarming songs, and her studio band, led by Braintree guitarist Tim Mahoney, gives it all a lively country/folk-rock feel that should entice Americana fans to her music. Throughout, McNeil’s gorgeous vocal tones and subtle control of her alto gives it an intimate aura. McNeil co-wrote most of the songs, with a variety of songwriters, including some she’s met in Nashville.

“My first album ‘Bliss’ was literally the first nine songs I’d ever written,” McNeil said. “When you start out, each song you write seems so precious you never want to change a thing. But I went to Nashville to shop it around, and began learning from the writers down there. What I learned mainly was: rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.”

The CD opens with “Spring Has Come,” a lovely acoustic song about rebirth and starting anew. The album’s title comes from “Bend,” a potent vignette that frames a relationship in the metaphor of needing to bend and not break.

“I just loved that image of a willow tree, which is why it’s on the album cover,” McNeil said. “Like an oak tree will split in the high wind, but a willow won’t. It’s not meant to be very specific, just a reminder we can all be a little less rigid and stuck in our ways.”

“Cut ’Em Loose” is the album’s hardest rocking tune, a cathartic workout that has slowly building tension in the verses resolved with a breakout chorus. It sure sounds like someone ditching a scoundrel of a lover.

“Well, I meant it as getting rid of any negativity in your life,” McNeil said.

More optimistic subjects are found in the buoyant “People are People,” the thoughtful “There You Are,” and the jaunty love song “It’s All About You.”

McNeil is also one-third of the Lipstick & Laughs trio, which includes Iowa songwriter Jill Miller and Nashville’s Diona DeVincenzo. McNeil met those two at workshops held by the Nashville Songwriting Association, and returns to Music City every few months for songwriting sessions. The trio has done a couple of tours through the Midwest over the past year, rotating their solo songs and backing each other up. McNeil composed the title song, a light-hearted theme about how when times get tough, nothing eases a woman’s problems like getting together with her galpals. There’s an EP of songs from Lipstick & Laughs, and McNeil’s lead vocal on the title cut is among her best ever.

In the meantime, McNeil continues her educational side, as a program director for Real Kids in Burlington, introducing children from newborns to 5 years old, and their parents to music. “We don’t give babies enough credit,” she noted, “they learn music just like a spoken language, and can begin appreciating it very early.”

'Lost in Boston'
Local singer-songwriter Suzanne McNeil perfectly captures the love-and-frustration relationship Bostonians have with their city.

“She’s funky and upbeat as she exudes more than a hint of country underpinnings in her songwriting.”

One listen to “Down the Highway” will have you cryin’ in your beer and wishing you could have been there to beat the piss out of the dude that broke her heart.”

Her natural songwriting talent shines bright in ‘Bliss’. It’s relaxing, smooth and 100% pure enjoyment.”

WOMEN IN MUSIC
SUZANNE McNEIL
Quincy , MA
Unsigned
http://www.suzannemcneil.com/
Singer/Songwriter Suzanne McNeil was born in Massachusetts but grew up on Cape Breton Island , Nova Scotia ( Canada ) where, she says, music is as natural as breathing to the people. Based on her SonicBids EPK however, it seems New England is lucky enough to have her back, right here in Quincy , MA .

Suzanne and her equally talented band (Tim Mahoney-guitar/background vocals, Dave Leitch-Bass, Jason Nute-Drums) seem to be putting out some great rootsy material with a pop rock sound and soulful edge; clean, crisp, quite melodic and enjoyable.

Suzanne’s musical career began in a most unusual way. It seems she truly loved people and helping others and entered into a career of Social Work. However, her passion for music (and I’m sure her friends and fans who noticed her obvious talent) made her decide to send a demo off to an agent to see what developed. From this, she found herself quickly getting road gigs where she lived out of Hotel Rooms in the Mid-West.

Suzanne says she thought she was truly in heaven; getting paid to sing and to bring happiness to others. From that experience she soon found herself performing around the country with various bands and various styles of music. All the while, Suzanne was honing her skills and developing her talent and preparing to pursue a dream; something she could call her own. Now she has put her lyrical and musicical writing skills together to write her own all original CD – “Down the Highway.”

With a very appealing and gentle voice, great writing and catchy material, Suzanne, I feel, has done quite well for her first release. Not stuck in the debut “similar sound, similar content” rut, Suzanne has managed to develop a progressive release where each song takes the listener somewhere else in sound, design and spirit.

Because of Suzanne’s writing and performance style, I feel she is an artist that crosses over into several musical genres. Her music can be enjoyed by alternative fans as well as fans of Pop, melodic rock, singer/songwriter and even into the electronic folk realm. Her material is both entertaining and very enjoyable. Check out her site and her her music to see for yourself!

Metronome Magazine
November 2005
Singer songwriter Suzanne McNeil has an uncanny knack for putting everyday observations to song. Propelled by her beautiful voice, McNeil and her band, Tim Mahoney on guitars, Dave Leitch on bass, Jason Nute on drums, Matt Glover on mandolin, Keith Reid on B3 organ, Nancy McNeil, Scott Bowser and Deidre Wait on vocals and Ducky Carlisle on percussion (Carlisle also engineered and mixed the proceedings), incite poignant sounds capes with their fine playing and singing.
With a folky, laid back delivery, McNeil reflects the female singer-songwriters of the sixties and seventies more than her new millennium contemporaries. She’s funky and upbeat as she exudes more than a hint of country underpinnings in her songwriting.
Best songs: “Unaware,” the chiming “Smile of the Moon”, the cleverly penned three chord strut of “Mr. Noncommittal,” and McNeil’s super-cool cover of Bill Withers, “Use Me”

The Noise-Rock around Boston-Issue 258 january 2006
SUZANNE McNEIL
Candescent
Bliss
10 songs
About 35 seconds into this, the names Suzanne Vega and Alanis Morissette were wrestling for supremacy in my mind. But praise the Lord, they vanished pretty quick (The Cowboy Junkies took over, but that’s cool with me). Just because Suzanne may sound a bit like someone else doesn’t mean jack-shit. This is a bit more countrified that one would expect after the first cut, but one listen to “Down the Highway” will have you cryin’ in your beer and wishing you could have been there to beat the piss out of the dude that broke her heart. There are tears a-plenty here (the title track will have you curled up on the floor if you actually have a heart), but there’s an overall uplift that makes it feel more like gospel than Opry. When John Mayer sings the blues, it feels like a rip-off. Not the case here. These songs didn’t come out of some generic cheat-book. Never met her, but she must have some stories to tell.

It isn’t just country---there’s plenty of genre-bending (and where isn’t there these days?), as well as an oddly fitting, soulful cover of Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” to make it all rise above. Like going to a swanky lounge and finding a few peanut shells on the floor. Fine, fine stuff.(Tim Emswiler

The Patriot Ledger (South Boston, Mass.)
January 23, 2006
MUSIC PREVIEW: McNeil is on a constant musical journey

Singer/songwriter Suzanne McNeil will play at the Holy Ground in Quincy and The Snug in Hingham this weekend. (Courtesy photo)
By JAY N. MILLER
For The Patriot Ledger
Connecting the geographical dots in Suzanne McNeil’s young life could get complicated. Born in Framingham, she was raised in Cape Breton, went to college in Nova Scotia, and ran a school in Vancouver after graduation, before following her musical urge to a variety of jobs singing on cruise ships.
Which eventually led to her landing back in the Boston area, where the Milton resident now teaches 115 preschoolers by day, and nurtures her singing career by night.
McNeil’s musical journeys are almost as all-encompassing. Her Cape Breton upbringing led to a Celtic flavor in her work, although she tends toward folk-rock these days. But those days and nights on cruise ships led to a versatility that is unmatched, as jazz, country and pop are all within her range.
McNeil appears at The Holy Ground in Quincy on Friday, fronting her quartet.
On Saturday, she’ll be at The Snug in Hingham in a duo format with guitarist Tim Mahoney.
McNeil’s debut album, ‘‘Bliss,’’ on her own Candescent label, is a startlingly vivid taste of how she melds all those disparate influences into compelling folk-rock and pop. The album was recorded at Ice Station Zebra in Medford, with Ducky Carlisle as engineer and mixer, and a backing band of musicians McNeil met at the weekly Wednesday open mikes at The Holy Ground.
‘‘Unaware’’ opens the album with a rocking fervor that suggests Christine McVie’s heyday with Fleetwood Mac, although jazzy and folk undertones give it a unique flair. ‘‘Smile of the Moon’’ is the kind of delectable folk tune that evokes Lori McKenna’s best. The title cut suggests a Sarah McLachlan-like dreamy pop, but with serious alt-rock grit. And one of the CD’s most tantalizing cuts is a cover of Bill Withers’ old hit ‘‘Use Me,’’ with Mahoney’s fuzz-toned guitar and Keith Reid’s Hammond B-3 organ crafting a funk-rock treatment that honors, yet expands, the soul classic.
McNeil keeps her day job in education with a preschool program designed by a child psychologist and an off-Broadway composer, called Music Together.
‘‘We do things like teach the kids seven or eight different rhythms in one class,’’ said McNeil. ‘‘Most adults would be too confused by it to take it all in, but the kids are so natural and open they pick it up right away. We do our best to get the parents involved too, and it’s usually a nice sound we produce. The program has expanded into Canada, Italy and even Russia now, and is headquartered in Princeton, N.J. We have no school as such, but use a room in one of the local churches, and right now I have 115 kids in class every morning. It’s a lot of fun and allows me to be not such a starving artist.’’
One of McNeil’s first Boston jobs was in the house band aboard the Boston Harbor cruise ship The Odyssey.
‘‘The Odyssey was like playing a wedding every night,’’ she said. ‘‘We had to literally play everything. They hired a lot of people from Berklee School of Music for that reason.’’
But when McNeil began exploring her solo potential, she found not many clubs willing to book an unknown from Cape Breton who plays folk rock.
‘‘I had a tough time getting any gigs on my own,’’ McNeil said. ‘‘But when I mentioned Cape Breton, Gerry Hanley at The Holy Ground asked me to come on down. I sang a song one night with (Holy Ground regular singer) Derek Keane at (neighboring affiliate club) Paddy Barry’s, and that’s what got me going.
‘‘Gerry even helped me find the church room for our preschool. I’ve been doing their Wednesday open mikes since they started them, and most of the musicians on the album are people I met there.’’
As her performing career began to take off, McNeil also discovered the joy of songwriting. She wrote nine of the album’s 10 songs, five with Mahoney as co-writer.
‘‘Last year I started writing in earnest, and found I loved the process,’’ she said. ‘‘I could’ve written five albums, I had so many ideas. The CD is all over the place stylistically, but I think it has a basic folk-rock theme. Coming from Cape Breton, I’ve always been labeled a Celtic singer, but I’ve always wanted to rock out. There is also, I’ve found, a fine line between Celtic and country music, so there is that influence in my work too. I’m still finding my own way.’’
When she’s writing, she starts with a story, she said. ‘‘I always seem to write the words first, and I guess that’s a result of my years of teaching. I am usually hearing melodies in my head as I write, or even in my sleep.
‘‘On the song ‘Bliss,’ I was literally hearing the vocal harmonies in my head as I wrote it. Tim does the opposite, and begins with the music first, so we complement each other very well.’’
The CD is available on McNeil’s Web site, suzannemcneil.com, or through cdbaby.com, at shows, and at Best Buy stores in New England.
One associate of McNeil has devised a plan to market the tune ‘‘Mr. Noncommital,’’ a jaunty folk-rocker about a reluctant swain, as a single, so a special re-release of the CD is in the works.
When she’s not teaching or working her solo career, McNeil sings most weekends with The Online Band, a Berklee-rich big band led by vocalist/saxophonist Dave Ayotte, which also includes Dixie Dreg T. Lavitz.
‘‘I am one of three singers in that band. It’s mostly jazz in high-end country club settings, with a lot of stunning musicians.’’
In her show at The Snug in Hingham, McNeil will be in duo format with Mahoney, while The Holy Ground show will be a quartet adding drummer Jason Nute and bassist Dave Leitch. Special guests might also pop up at the Quincy club, since most of McNeil’s cohorts at the open mike have sung or played with her many times.
‘‘You get real music lovers at The Snug,’’ McNeil said, ‘‘and it’s a very intimate, tiny room. As a duo, Tim and I will do a lot of originals, pop, rock and country, and we do a lot of girl-guy vocal things. At The Holy Ground we will do one set as a duo, and then do two full-band shows. It is basically a trio with me playing guitar too, but my sister Deirdre Wait and Scott Bowser are likely to join us for vocal harmonies.’’
And about that cover of ‘‘Use Me’’?
‘‘I loved Bill Withers’ soul, but as a white girl doing it, I knew we had to change it up,’’ she explained. ‘‘I knew what I wanted, upright bass for instance. But the bulk of that song was a collaborative effort with the other musicians, trying to give me what I wanted and trying different things.
‘‘A lot of that song’s success comes from the band, and I learned a lot. But the way Ducky ran the studio, it was always just a fun time exploring all these ideas - I can’t wait to make another record.’’

Suzanne McNeil
"Bliss"
Genre: pop
In her debut release, Suzanne McNeil unleashes a refreshing collection of songs full of personal journeys, experiences and love. Her natural songwriting talent shines bright in “Bliss”. It’s relaxing, smooth and 100% pure enjoyment! The catchy tunes with have you singing along in no time!

Suzanne McNeil is probably the only songwriter to ever compose a lively little pop tune lamenting how much she misses being stuck in Boston traffic.

That song, “Lost in Boston,” is already turning up on the local airwaves, and McNeil will be celebrating the release of her latest album, “Willow,” with a free show from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Dante’s at Firefly’s in Quincy.

McNeil, born in New England and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, has had a varied existence even by musicians’ standards. Brought up in a culture where traditional music reigns, she gravitated early to folk and rock. McNeil worked for several years as a singer on cruise ships, mastering pop hits and standards. That experience made her a versatile performer, if a bit rootless in her personal life.

McNeil settled in the Boston area in 2001, and soon founded a music program for kids, introducing preschoolers to the joys of hearing, singing and playing music. Her main job during her first years in Boston was as singer with the house band on The Odyssey, the dinner-cruise ship. Before long her school in Milton had hundreds of kids enrolled, she left the Odyssey and kept her own performance career alive with a string of gigs in South Shore clubs. Quincy’s Gerry Hanley had his youngest daughter in McNeil’s program, and became an early supporter, booking her at his old club, The Holy Ground. In 2005 McNeil released “Bliss,” an album of mostly originals in a buoyant folk-rock mode, along with some well-chosen covers, like Bill Withers’ classic “Use Me.”

But in 2006, McNeil took a 180-degree turn, getting married, selling her music school, and moving to suburban Philadelphia with her husband. Not knowing anyone in Pennsylvania, her performance career languished, as she devoted most of her time to supporting her husband’s busy touring schedule. The marriage ended after about a year, and McNeil retreated to her parents home in Nova Scotia.

It was there, secluded in her parents’ basement because she was too disheartened to even go out and see people, that McNeil began writing what would become “Willow.” The first song was a wacky little number where she looked back at all the automotive misadventures, and confounding things she’d encountered living in Beantown. To her own surprise, McNeil realized she even missed getting lost in Big Dig detours – the line “totaled my car in Southie” is a real-life result of just such an incident. McNeil’s humor is often self-deprecating, and her details about life in this area are spot-on.

“I was wondering where to start over, and I began realizing how much I loved Boston,” McNeil said from her Quincy home. “I was born here, and even if my family moved back to Cape Breton when I was 9, this feels more like home. I just feel very fortunate to be back in this area, because I feel the Boston area gave me my music career. I still play cover gigs, and I have more work than I can handle.”

McNeil’s web site (www.suzannemcneil.com) is asking fans to vote for which new tune should be her first single. So far, “Lost in Boston” is far ahead, which might be a problem, since no one outside Route 128 is likely to understand lines like “the Pru is all aglow...” or “a one-way street that Beacon meets.”

The album includes some truly affecting, even heartwarming songs, and her studio band, led by Braintree guitarist Tim Mahoney, gives it all a lively country/folk-rock feel that should entice Americana fans to her music. Throughout, McNeil’s gorgeous vocal tones and subtle control of her alto gives it an intimate aura. McNeil co-wrote most of the songs, with a variety of songwriters, including some she’s met in Nashville.

“My first album ‘Bliss’ was literally the first nine songs I’d ever written,” McNeil said. “When you start out, each song you write seems so precious you never want to change a thing. But I went to Nashville to shop it around, and began learning from the writers down there. What I learned mainly was: rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.”

The CD opens with “Spring Has Come,” a lovely acoustic song about rebirth and starting anew. The album’s title comes from “Bend,” a potent vignette that frames a relationship in the metaphor of needing to bend and not break.

“I just loved that image of a willow tree, which is why it’s on the album cover,” McNeil said. “Like an oak tree will split in the high wind, but a willow won’t. It’s not meant to be very specific, just a reminder we can all be a little less rigid and stuck in our ways.”

“Cut ’Em Loose” is the album’s hardest rocking tune, a cathartic workout that has slowly building tension in the verses resolved with a breakout chorus. It sure sounds like someone ditching a scoundrel of a lover.

“Well, I meant it as getting rid of any negativity in your life,” McNeil said.

More optimistic subjects are found in the buoyant “People are People,” the thoughtful “There You Are,” and the jaunty love song “It’s All About You.”

McNeil is also one-third of the Lipstick & Laughs trio, which includes Iowa songwriter Jill Miller and Nashville’s Diona DeVincenzo. McNeil met those two at workshops held by the Nashville Songwriting Association, and returns to Music City every few months for songwriting sessions. The trio has done a couple of tours through the Midwest over the past year, rotating their solo songs and backing each other up. McNeil composed the title song, a light-hearted theme about how when times get tough, nothing eases a woman’s problems like getting together with her galpals. There’s an EP of songs from Lipstick & Laughs, and McNeil’s lead vocal on the title cut is among her best ever.

In the meantime, McNeil continues her educational side, as a program director for Real Kids in Burlington, introducing children from newborns to 5 years old, and their parents to music. “We don’t give babies enough credit,” she noted, “they learn music just like a spoken language, and can begin appreciating it very early.”