Good Evening..

Thankyou to those of you who made it to our shows in the North Island. We had a lovely time on tour with The Eastern..

When we headed off we were at varying stages of illness, having been struck down by the lurgy. We played shows in New Plymouth, Auckland, Raglan, Paekakariki and Wellington.. (My personal favourite show was at The Yot Club in Raglan, we played well, nice ambience, friendly audience..)

We also dragged ourselves out of bed early on Thursday and played on the Good Morning show..(apparently it sounded very nice, but I couldn't bring myself to watching it!)

Our album has been out for a few months now..we've had some nice reviews including these two.


CHEESE ON TOAST
RAGAMUFFIN CHILDREN - The Seahorse Emporium (She'll Be Right)
With 2007's Werecat Lullabies raising the bar of beautiful music in New Zealand, the Christchurchian duo of Anita Clark and Brooke Singer had their own standards to compete with in making this new album. Fortunately for us all, The Seahorse Emporium couldn't be better. Recorded by Wellington producer-legend Lee Prebble, Ragamuffin Children sound less like children and more like a fully realised unit. Anita's voice invites the listener down a dreamy garden path while songwriter and pianist Brooke lulls you undersea to a world you'd forgotten about. Joined by a host of special guests rounding out the sound, Ragamuffin Children have once again raised the beautiful music bar - all the better for us.MC

NZ MUSICIAN MAGAZINE
By Amanda Mills

Having heard some of the tracks from this second album performed live by Ragamuffin Children a few times over the last year, I had already come to a conclusion: if ‘Werecat Lullabies’ shows their songs of innocence, then ‘Seahorse Emporium’ presents songs of experience – self-aware and knowing. A more mature beauty and eloquence is present here, especially on the aching Better Than Some which has a true depth of emotion. The whimsical naiveté of the debut has been replaced with a polish that enhances the talents of Anita Clarke and Brooke Singer – Clarke’s voice is an instrument of singular beauty, and Singer is honing her fine songwriting skills. The recording and mixing was done in Wellington by Lee Prebble at the Surgery, and his evocative slide guitar on A Fine Storm recalls his lap steel work on ‘The Return of Fly My Pretties’. The lush production of Seahorse Emporium enhances the instrumentation. Special mention must also go to multi-instrumentalist Benjamin James (Spartacus R), and vocalist Karena-Tui Miles-Hemopo, whose clarinet and backing vocals (respectively) are worth the admission price. This is an important step forward for Ragamuffin Children and I cannot recommend this album enough. •