WNC musician, former Black Mountain resident, releases first children's book

Former Black Mountain resident Bronwyn Cronin has a new children’s book available at Sassafras on Sutton.

The book, “The Goodnight Song,” marks Cronin’s first time as a published author.

The third-generation jazz musician said the story came from a lullaby she used to sing to her young child.

“I was tucking my 2-year-old in at night, and we were just saying goodnight to the birds and the trees and everything,” Cronin said. “I’m a musician, so we just made up the song and started singing it. It developed from a song that we were singing at night.”

Cronin said the book is designed for children from the time they are infants up until the age of 3.

The physical book can be read to the child, but each copy also comes with a QR code on the back linking to a video.

“It’s to encourage caregivers to sing and read with their children,” Cronin said. “It’s so important at that age.”

The video goes through each page of the book. The music in the video is composed and arranged by Cronin. Cronin provides vocals with Kevin Kehrberg on bass, Hanako Hjersman on violin and Richard Shulman on piano.

Cronin is no stranger to the music business. She said her grandfather attended Julliard and her mother was a singer-songwriter. Cronin currently leads the band Jazzville, which performs across Western North Carolina.

She said while she performs mostly jazz, she is now writing in different styles as well.

Cronin said she often finds inspiration in nature and while not all of her ideas become a full-fledged song, she often finds she is able to create more ideas from her completed work.

“I often have melody that accompany my lyrics, so it’s probably very rhythmical,” Cronin said. “I’ll have an idea and then just kind of ruminate on that, think about it for a little bit, and then if more ideas come, then it turns into a song. If not, then it’s just a little idea that I have for years that never really comes to fruition.”

Though she currently lives in Mills River, Cronin said she has strong ties to the Black Mountain community and enjoyed her time at the Black Mountain Library with her child when they were younger.

Cronin said “The Goodnight Song” is available to purchase as Sassafras on Sutton as well as on her website, thegoodnightsong.com, where readers can also watch the video and stream the song.