CD Review: Ziggy Marley, “Family Time”

May 7, 09 • In Music

Ziggy Marley – Family Time (2009, Tuff Gong) purchase this album (Amazon) I didn’t have much use for Ziggy Marley when he was riding high (ahem) on the charts 20 years ago, with the hacky sack anthem “Tomorrow People,” and nothing I’ve heard from him since then has changed my mind — until now, that is: for his new children’s album, Family Time, Marley has pulled out all the stops, assembling an Ocean’s Eleven-style dream team including some major names both within kids’ entertainment (Elizabeth Mitchell, Jamie Lee Curtis, the dreaded Laurie Berkner) and without (Jack Johnson, Toots Hibbert, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon). The result is a wonderfully easy listen that’s a lot more cohesive than you might think, given the succession of cameos — and if you, like me, have never given Marley much