From The Birminham News : May 12, 2006
Music Columnist Mary Colurso
Carnie Wilson wraps up new CD for Mother's Day

Friday, May 12, 200
Carnie Wilson doesn't want to put everyone to sleep with her music.

But if her new CD soothes a baby fussing in its mother's arms, that would make the singer proud and happy.

"A Mother's Gift: Lullabies from the Heart" ($13.98, Big3 Records) is Wilson's way of rocking the cosmic cradle - very gently, of course - and paying tribute to her own child with husband Rob Bonfiglio.

The disc was released May 2, with a Mother's Day audience in mind.

Lola Sofia, 1, has changed Wilson's life considerably, she says. And it's only natural for a musician to express those feelings through song.

"Having a baby, watching her react to music and become comforted ... well, it's the place I'm in right now, every day," says Wilson, 38. "When you sing to your baby, you sing from the heart. And I know it sounds corny, but I picture our hearts connecting."

She's hoping to capture that essential feeling with her disc, which includes standards such as "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World." Wilson also recorded a duet with her father, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, tenderly covering "You Are So Beautiful."

Her uncle, the late Carl Wilson, wrote the track titled "Heaven." Two others, "Lola Sofia" and "When you Dream," were created for the newest addition to the family.

Guest artists include Jim Brickman on piano; Bonfiglio on guitar, organ and harmonies; and Wilson's sister, Wendy Wilson, on vocals.

The Wilson girls hit the pop charts in 1990 when they formed a trio, Wilson Phillips, with Chynna Phillips, daughter of Michelle and John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas. Their self-titled debut went mutiplatinum, producing popular radio singles such as "Hold On," "Impulsive" and "Release Me."

The group broke up in 1993, although all three women have reunited for various projects since then.

Wilson says she had intended to make her first solo recording on a different theme, but found pregnancy and parenthood too powerful to ignore. Also, while Wilson was expecting, she found herself listening, over and over, to Kenny Loggins' children's CD, "Return to Pooh Corner."

"It's exactly the way I want my record to be," she says. "Classy and comforting, but not cheesy."

Wilson says she and Bonfiglio would play all kinds of music for Lola Sofia during her pregnancy; one favorite was "Here Comes the Sun."

Bonfiglio also liked to bring a guitar into their bed, where the two would play and sing for their daughter in the womb. He and Wilson wrote "Where You Dream" in the bedroom, adding lyrics to a melody Bonfiglio had come up with previously.

Wilson says she can recall her father and her mother, Marilyn Rovell, singing "Frere Jacques" as a lullaby during her childhood. Right now, she says, Lola Sofia prefers "The Wheels on the Bus" to just about any offering on the "Mother's Gift" CD.

But the child will stop her in little tracks and listen closely when she hears the song that bears her name.

"It's nice to think that when she gets older, she will have this and know that she was the inspiration," Wilson says.

More family music is likely to follow, Wilson says, perhaps an entire CD of Beach Boys' songs arranged as lullabies.

"I'm already thinking about volume 2," she says. "Maybe I'll do duets with daddy singers - people like Sting and Phil Collins and Michael McDonald."