Month: December 2018

Last year I had to buy a new car. While the vehicle is great and a real step up from my 12 year old two-door sedan, there is one major flaw. It doesn’t have a CD player. They just didn’t offer it. I keep hearing that this is the wave of the future. That CDs are on their way out. While that may be true, we still have a really long way to go and that is why album cover art continues to be so important.

While many parents are now either streaming music for their kids or playing children’s music videos on YouTube, there is still a large number of families who are buying albums, or in many cases, checking them out from the library. Much like books, people often check music out based on how the cover looks. In the case of Swamp Romp, the new album from Johnette Downing with Scott Billington, the cover is completely delightful.

Created by Heather Stanley, the whimsy and joy of the cover art perfectly captures the Louisiana roots music featured on the album. Stanley, who works as the Director of Creative Services at the Audubon Nature Institute, also illustrated two of Downing’s books (Petit Pierre and the Floating Marsh and Mademoiselle Grands Doigts). She works in many mediums from watercolor to digital technology, often showcasing nature and the animals who inhabit it.

Swamp Romp will be released on February 15, 2019.