By ROBERT LINNEHAN
An interesting Haddonfield children’s library event is coming to a close tomorrow night at the Treehouse Coffee Shop in Audubon when about 28 kids will debut their own album to the coffee shop crowd.
It’s the culmination of a new — and already very popular — children’s program at the Haddonfield Public Library. “Read, Write, Rock” was a six week program financed by the Friends of the Haddonfield Library to encourage local children to become interested in music and reading, explained children’s librarian Dorothy Peppard.
For the past six weeks the young musicians have met once a week, Friday’s after school, with local singer and songwriter Sara O’Brien. Every Friday the children came into the library for almost two hours to write two songs.
“They all contributed lyrics to the songs. Sara helped them with the music and by the fifth week, last week, they had the lyrics ready to go and they were ready to hit the recording studio,” Peppard said.
The group travelled to a nearby music studio in Merchantville to record their two songs. They learned what went into the music process, Peppard said, receiving a tour of the music facility. All of the kids went into the recording booth and helped sing both songs.
“It was probably the coolest program we did here. The kids were really able to see how the song was recorded, they had to be real quiet, they had to listen to it back in the sound room,” Peppard said. “They were able to see the sound board and what went into it all. It was very good learning experience for them.”
The CDs were burned at the recording studio and Peppard and O’Brien prepared the album cover last Friday. They will be officially “released” tomorrow night at the coffee shop from 6 to 7 p.m.
“It was just a great program. All of the kids will be performing Friday night so come out and see it,” Peppard said.
The Treehouse Coffee Shop is located at 120 W. Merchant Street in Audubon.
