Listen To This: "Jumping Through Hoops" - The Bright Siders (feat. Zara Bode & Gabe Witcher) (World Premiere!)

Way more than a decade ago, I noted how kids music — at least a lot of the new music produced in the 21st century — hadn’t really taken emotional intelligence as a theme. Several years later, at least some such songs had been written, but it wasn’t a list that you could put on Spotify and listen to for days on end.

I’m sure that list is out of date at this point, but there’s always room for more music that’s tuneful and meets kids where they are, emotionally.

So I’m excited that the venerable Smithsonian Folkways label — who’s long included music in service of kids as part of their catalog — is releasing the debut album from the new duo The Bright Siders. The band consists of singer-singer Kristin Andreassen (charter member of “Crayola Doesn’t Make a Color For Your Eyes” Fan Club here) and Brooklyn-based child psychiatrist Kari Groff, MD.

Their album, A Mind of Your Own, is released next week, on January 21, and it’s a whole album inspired, as they put it in the liner notes, “from our shared desire to connect with children through music, and to spark meaningful conversations between adults and children about growing up and all the emotions that go with it.”

On the track I’m world-premiering today, “Jumping Through Hoops,” the duo turns over singing duties to Zara Bode and Gabe Witcher, two of many artists Andreassen and Groff bring on board for the project. Groff says that the song is a tribute to all those New York City kids who do so much to handle the intensity of a big, hot crowded city and is “intended to inspire all children to have courage and perseverance, especially during tough times.” The song itself is a loping bit of positivity with a sweet bit of fiddle.

Times are tough at the moment — perhaps you need this, too.

Anyway, I’m happy to world-premiere this track — you can find it in all the usual places.

Andreassen and Groff in front of a colorful building (Credit: Jefry Andres Wright)

Smithsonian Folkways · The Bright Siders - Jumping Through Hoops (feat Zara Bode and Gabe Witcher)

Photo credit: Jefry Andres Wright

Video: "Daddy-O" - Frances England (World Premiere!)

Frances England and her favorite Casio keyboard

It has been a long time since San Francisco-based musician Frances England tiptoed her way onto the kids’ music scene with a homemade, handmade slimline CD titled Fascinating Creatures. Nearly 15 years, to be exact. It’s a little hard to remember just how… novel the album sounded at the time. It had a lo-fi sound, and there were just very few kids music artists who were merging a more personal lyrical approach with an indie folk sound. So taken was I that England was the very first interview on this site.

Fast forward lo these many years, and England has moved from sending CD-R’s to the handful of people writing about or playing kids music at the time to playing across the country, earning a Grammy nomination, and recording her first album for the brand new kids’ record label 8 Pound Gorilla Records, an imprint of Nashville’s comedy record behemoth 800 Pound Gorilla Records.

That album, an EP called Honey, is released today and while there are some new songs for England’s fans to enjoy, she also redoes some of her older tracks, including “Daddy-O,” an ode to fathers from that very first album Fascinating Creatures. The gentle, hushed tone of the original is still there, but the new track features some additional guitar work from Ramon Fermin and light drums from Jason Slota to give it a gentle push.

Why did England choose this particular song to re-record? She says that “My husband was definitely the inspiration [for the song], but I was also thinking about my own dad when I wrote it. I included it on this EP because, probably more than any other song of mine, I've heard so many stories from people about what this song has meant to them. It's such a simple, little song but I've seen how families have included it in such important moments, which is why I wanted to re-record it and put out a version of it I was happy with.”

So now the old song has been buffed up and given a new video by England. I’m very happy to get to world premiere “Daddy-O.” Honey is out everywhere today.

Frances England - “Daddy-O” [YouTube]

Photo credit: Meredith Preble

Video: "Blue Beat" - Dean Jones & Jacky Davis (World Premiere!)

Always, always happy for new music from kindie uber-producer Dean Jones. Jones’ music, be it with his main band, Dog on Fleas, or with any of his other musical partners, is sui generis — entirely unique. But I also love the way that Jones’ work and his enthusiasm for the genre binds together a lot of the musicians that have been making music for families, many of them for more than a decade.

The latest effort from Jones is a album of songs with children’s book illustrator Jacky Davis. No fancy name for them, they’re just Dean Jones & Jacky Davis, and their first album together is Where Does Your Mind Wander?. The pair co-wrote the songs, with Jones performing almost all of the music. The whole album is kinda mellow, kinda dreamy, and quite a bit electronic (both Kraftwerk and minimalist composer Terry Riley are cited as inspirations).

This world premiere track is called “Blue Beat” — I dig its lo-fi beat and its lyrical conceit (which takes a few words to grasp). The video is similarly lo-fi. The accompanying video is just as lo-fi as the song, simple and slightly hypnotic. Together they make for a video that would never win a contest to win the most eyeballs, but might just draw a small collection of devoted fans.

There’s a lot more to tell about a site that this video is actually a sneak preview from… but not today. Hopefully soon, because it’s a cool concept and is in the spirit of Jones’ kids music work to be sure. For today, however, you’ll just have to enjoy this track. Where Does the Mind Wander? is out now everywhere digital music is streamed.

Dean Jones & Jacky Davis - “Where Does the Mind Wander?”

Video: "Giant & Colossal Squid" - Marsha and the Positrons (feat. Barry Louis Polisar) (World Premiere!)

You know how with the pandemic we’re all going back and finding shows to watch that have been around for a couple years or more? Well, creators sometimes do the same thing, too.

Take, for example, this video for “Giant & Colossal Squid” from DC-area musician Marsha Goodman-Wood, leader of Marsha and the Positrons. The song was on their 2018 album Positronic. The video was actually filmed at about the same time the album was released — that’s why, you know, you have the oh-so-2018-vibe of a whole band dancing right next to one another. It just took a couple years for the proper combination of time and talent to come together properly to make the final video you see today.

It’s a little goofy; mostly educational; mixes puppets, animation and live action; and on top of that you have the slightly subversive kindie music legend Barry Louis Polisar as the voice of a squid. Worth the wait, happy to give the video its world premiere here.

Marsha and the Positrons - “Giant & Colossal Squid” (feat. Barry Louis Polisar) [YouTube]

Video: "Flying Starfish" - Elena Moon Park (World Premiere!)

Even though I’m not posting quite so much these days, I will always make time to post music from Elena Moon Park, the New York singer/violinist/multi-instrumentalist who first came to kindie prominence as a member of Dan Zanes’ band. (And not just because her non-musical background suggests she’s a policy nerd like me.) She’s always drawn from a deep well of influences, yes from East Asia as noted on her first album Rabbit Days and Dumplings, but beyond that.

Her new album Unhurried Journey takes another dip into that deep well, effortlessly melding sounds from different cultures. This song from the album — “Flying Starfish” — is deceptively simple but the instrumentation, featuring the musical saw and jarana with some electronic instrumentation as well, gives it a dreamlike feel. As for the song itself, Park notes that “I sang this song to my niece Zora when she was born, making it up as I went along. While holding her for the first time, I thought of all the exciting adventures coming her way, the transformations and changes that come with them, and how her family would always be waiting for her when she returns.”

This world-premiere video features drawings by the musician and artist Dana Lyn that match the song in its simple, otherworldly texture. All around, a lovely song for your family to get lost in for a few minutes.

Elena Moon Park - “Flying Starfish” [YouTube]

Video: "Jump for Joy" - Red Yarn (World Premiere!)

There is… a lot going on in the world right now — death, destruction, anger, systemic injustice made manifest. And so I completely understand someone’s surface-level reaction to the idea of posting a video for a song titled “Jump for Joy” at this point.

Red Yarn (aka Portland, Oregon’s Andy Furgeson) gets it, too. He’s releasing his sixth album, Backyard Bop, on August 7th, and when he wrote the leadoff single “Jump for Joy” in January 2020, the world (at least in the United States) looked a lot different than it does as summer officially kicks off. At the time, Furgeson says, “I was thinking about the power of activism and my responsibility to spread joy from my position of privilege… I had no idea what the world would look like just six months later. Now, in this moment of pandemic and civil unrest, I'm more aware than ever that I have a duty as a privileged white male artist to use my small but mighty platform for good.”

So, yes, on the one hand this video is a silly little thing, featuring Furgeson’s trademark puppets as the crew for the video. (Furgeson assures me that it was filmed in a socially-distanced manner by Lake Karavias, also known round these parts as the ringleader of the Big World Audio Theater.) But with a chorus featuring the lyrics “Stand right up, raise your voice, get up with me, and jump for joy!,” the rockabilly song has a social activist heart that puts it in good company with recent releases from artists like the Okee Dokee Brothers, Alastair Moock, and Alphabet Rockers (not to mention legends like Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger, and Raffi). And most activists will tell you that there’s got to be a bit of joy alongside the hard work of social change.

Anyway, I’m happy to present the world-premiere of the video. You can listen to “Jump for Joy” wherever your family streams music here, or also via the player following the video below.

Red Yarn - “Jump for Joy” [YouTube]

Red Yarn · Jump For Joy