Peter Himmelman plays with words and music the way a toddler plays with his food. Think about it – a toddler takes ordinary edibles and reconfigures them into new creations that make him laugh and, frankly, more apt to gobble up the fresh concoction. This is what Himmelman does on My Trampoline. He takes familiar strains of pop/folk/country/rock/soul, bends words into wholly new verbal shapes, and makes it endlessly consumable.
Himmelman’s talent and hard work have taken him to enduring popularity as a singer-songwriter for grown ups and as a composer for TV and film projects such as Bones, but he inhabits rarefied air as the philosopher-jester of the family music world. On My Trampoline, Himmelman’s gifts radiate from themes on imagination (such as the appropriately named “Imagination and the groovy title track) and natural wonder (evidenced by the rollicking “Florie Loves Flowers” and rambling “Endless Green”). Of course there are plenty of songs that defy categorization with their downright silly topics, including “Peter’s a Pinhead” and “Are There Any Kids Named Steve Anymore?”
On the heels of his previous Grammy-nominated album, My Green Kite, Himmelman has given us another collection of eminently catchy and brain tickling tunes.
