I have been a fan of Rhode Island-based Keith Munslow since hearing his fun 2005 album Accidentally (on purpose) (review here). But I hadn't heard any of his storytelling until giving his recently-released Dressed Up For the Party a spin.
I should have known his storytelling would be every bit as fun (and funny) as his music. There are just 4 tracks here stretching out over the album's 47-minute runtime, nicely sequenced. The opener, "Five Second Rule," is storytelling with some strutting blues bookending Munslow's observations on the eternal food/floor conundrum. It's an amusing appetizer to the main two stories here. The 18-minute "No Token, No Milk" tells the story of a school-aged Munslow losing the token he needs to get his carton of milk. It's the funniest story here.
It's followed up by "Marfa the Barfa," a more dramatic story (though not without funny points) with no music about a 13-year-old girl whose fondest wish of going out to sea with her fisherman father is thwarted by her throwing up over the side of her father's boat (repeatedly). At nearly 20 minutes long, you might think that it would drag or fail to keep the kids attention, but my kids (especially the 6-year-old) hang on to every word. I could see where both stories were going (or at least the major plot points), but in storytelling it's the details and the execution (listen to the squeak of Martha's brother's tricycle and its use), and Munslow's got those down pat.
The disk wraps up with the title track, an amusing musical number about a kid who doesn't want to, uh, get dressed up for the party. It's a light dessert to the disk. It shows off Munslow's musical chops, along with that of his co-producer, Bill Harley (a talented singer/storyteller in his own right, and a Grammy-winner to boot). With the exception of "Marfa," music is important to the tracks, and even in the comparatively non-musical "No Token," Munslow's use of the African box drum the cajon made my two-year-old dance like crazy.
The stories will be of most interest to kids ages 4 through 10. You can read the liner notes and lyrics at Munslow's page for the album or listen to samples at its CDBaby page.
Dressed Up For the Party is a solid album of storytelling with some sweet musical accompaniment. In pajamas at home, or in school clothes in the car, your kids will enjoy the disk and you will, too. Recommended.
I love what Enzo Garcia does, kids-musically. There are lots of kids' musicians who make great music for listening to, for dancing with, but it warms my heart knowing that flame of participatory kids music -- music that encourages singing along and interacting with the music and others -- still burns bright. Enzo Garcia is one of the best at keeping that fire going.
With his latest release, Field Trip with Enzo, his tenth album of original songs, the San Francisco-based Garcia combines his all-hands-clapping approach with an abiding interest in the natural world. Songs about raccoons, squirrels, monkeys, and frogs -- two times -- are found on the disk, blended with other concepts. "Raccoon" is a Garcia original that's a bluesy counting song, while "Monkey Motions" is, as you might guess, a movement song encouraging the mimicking of different animals. "Side of a Mountain Top" is a rollicking movement song.
This sounds a lot like prior Enzo disks -- folky, with an array of rustic instruments including banjo, accordion, jaw harp, slide flute, and, yes, the "enzotar." While almost all of the songs have some interactive component to them, there are a few tracks that sound sweet all by themselves -- Garcia's hypnotizing "Hand Over Hand" and the concluding lullaby "When the Sun Goes Down", and his duet with Erin "Mimi" Lucas on the traditional "The Green Grass Grows."
The album will appeal most to kids ages 3 to 7. For the moment, it's just available at the Pokey Pup (hear samples here), though I believe that will change soon. You can also hear "Monkey Motions" at Garcia's Myspace page. I should also mention that longtime Zooglobble reader Deb in SF gets a nice shout-out from Garcia in the liner notes.
As with all of Garcia's previous kids' CDs, Field Trip with Enzo will work best if you and your kids stand up and actually play along with the music. If you're not willing to do that, then this CD might not be for you (though I think it holds up OK even in that case). But if you're willing to follow Enzo on his trips, then I think you'll be pleased where you end up. Recommended.
A hazard in reviewing kids' music is the need to be conversant with a broad range of musical styles. For "adult" music, editors generally wouldn't have the same person reviewing classical music and metal, but in this field, well, anything goes.
So when the press release for It's A Bam Bam Diddly!, the first CD for Rankin' Don aka Wayne Rhoden aka Father Goose on Dan Zanes' Festival Five Records, lists a whole bunch of special guests, they are names that don't mean anything to me. Unless you're an expert in Caribbean or dancehall music, they probably won't mean anything to you, either.
And you know what? You won't care -- you'll think the album's great.
In essence, this album is exactly what a Dan Zanes album might sound like if Zanes made a Caribbean album. Zanes is like the Jon Stewart of the kids music field -- he's helped invigorate the genre and has surrounded himself with a bunch of talented musicians who get his approach. And so just as Stephen Colbert has branched out on his own, Father Goose has created his own world here.
In fact, just like Zanes on his kids' CDs, Father Goose often stays in the background on this disk, content to be the ringleader and letting the other artists shine. Father Goose introduces the winsome "Panama," but it's guests Gaston "Bonga" Jean-Baptiste and longtime Zanes artist Barbara Brousal who carry the vocals. Two of my favorite tracks -- "Long Time Gal" and "Nah Eat No Fish," which both sound very much like they could appear on a Zanes CD -- feature Judith Murray and Aggie.
It's not to say he's not around -- Father Goose adds humorous counterpoint to the Dan Zanes / Sheryl Crow duet on "Flying Machine" and has spoken-word interludes on Zanes' rendition of Harry Belafonte's moving "Island in the Sun." But he's content to blend in on songs like the lovely waltz "Jane and Louisa" or "Chi Chi Buddo," with the title phrase getting stuck in your head.
In fact, these aren't really downsides to the CD, but you should be aware that it's definitely not the "Father Goose Show," in case your kids are huge Father Goose fans from the Zanes CDs. Nor is it really as uptempo and high-energy as the role he plays on Zanes' CDs and (especially) in concert. It's really for slightly older kids, and while it's not sleepy-time music, it's not bounce-around music either.
I think the songs here are best for kids ages 4 through 9, though perfectly OK for younger kids, and, frankly, this really is an all-ages album in the best Zanes-ian tradition. You can listen to some samples from the 53-minute album here or elsewhere around the web.
I feel bad about mentioning Dan Zanes' name so much, because It's A Bam Bam Diddly! is a strong album, and Father Goose really deserves credit for being such a great ringleader. I think in part it's because I know a lot of people might be interested in this CD because of their previous enjoyment of Zanes' CDs and to those fans I say, "get this album -- you won't be disappointed." But just as Stephen Colbert has created his own career outside of Jon Stewart, with this CD Father Goose shows he's a force to be reckoned with, too. Great stuff and hopefully the start of a great run of CDs -- definitely recommended.
I have come to think of Morgan Taylor, the creator of Gustafer Yellowgold, as the exemplar of the Kids New Wave, the term I have coined just now to encompass the genre and the artists responsible for its resurgence, especially in the past five years. A background in making music for adults, the unplanned shift into making music for kids, the occasional difficulty in figuring out where the distinction lies between the two -- the New York-based Taylor fits all of these categories. By no means is Taylor the only artist these apply to, but he's done a great job creating a musical path all his own, on his own terms.
Taylor's second foray into the world of Gustafer Yellowgold, the DVD/CD set Have You Never Been Yellow?, released this week, is every bit as wonderful as the debut Wide Wild World and shows that Taylor has a fabulous career ahead of him.
What distinguishes Taylor from many other talented kids' musicians is his visual artistic skills, which are obviously on prime display on the DVD. If you're not familiar with the Gustafer "animation," I can try to describe it, but it's easier to just show you. Here's the leadoff clip from the DVD/CD, "Pinecone Lovely"
As you can see, it's animated in only a minimal sense -- the camera pans and scans, zooms in and out, and various components of picture move around, and that's about it. But it's very absorbing to watch. Taylor does the drawings but does get some help with animation aspects. While the animation on Wide Wild World was fine, the pictures and animation here are crisper and sharper -- the difference is small but noticeable.
Of course, the animation could be done by Pixar and if the music (and images) were dull, you wouldn't care. Luckily, that isn't the case. As a group, I think the songs are stronger here than on the debut. "Pinecone Lovely," with its ode to nature ("Pinecone Lovely / To thee I sing") and sing-along chorus, I think finally fulfills the promise of the karaoke audio option that is once again present on the disk. "Beard For All Seasons" has a touch of Beatles to it while "The Bluebird Tree" gives Ralph Covert's "Hideaway" a run for its money for the title of "Best Song About Needing Time By Yourself." There are some tracks I think are only OK musically, but there's definitely no filler. Pop and power-pop, well-played, with some brass instruments providing some sonic boost, particularly on the closer, "Dream In Green."
And the images are strong, too. The aforementioned "Bluebird Tree" has some of the most stunning visuals (the title is literal) on the disk, while "The Mustard Slugs" pairs amusing images with the silly math story. And, yes, "Punching Cheese" is the sequel to Wide Wild World's "I Jump On Cake" and every bit as funny. In fact, the whole disk feels ever so slightly lighter than the original, if only because the videos here seem a little more like vignettes rather than part of a story (Wide Wild World has a slightly stronger narrative drive). That's neither good nor bad, just that if you're looking for something with a concrete beginning/middle/end, you'll be disappointed here.
I should also note that the DVD comes with, yes, an audio commentary. Morgan Taylor does the honors, of course, and it's definitely worth a listen for an adult Gustafer fan (or older child with the patience to listen to someone talking over the music for 30 minutes). Finding out which Steve Martin movie helped inspire "Aye, Aphid" or which '70s band "Dream In Green" apes was a cool bonus. Repeating spins probably aren't necessary, but it's worth at least one run-through.
Kids ages 2 through 7 are most likely to enjoy the animation (and songs) here. In addition to "Pinecone Lovely," you can also watch the clip for "Birds" here. (Gustafer's two YouTube pages are here and here.) Or listen to "Beard for All Seasons" and "The Mustard Slugs" at his Myspace page. For being from the sun, Gustafer's adapted quickly to our modern technological modes of communication, no?
Gustafer Yellowgold's Have You Never Been Yellow? is a fabulous DVD/CD set. Taylor has a gift for memorable images both visual and musical and I'm looking forward to many more images from him in the years to come. This set is highly recommended.
May as well get it out of the way -- yes, it's that Meredith Brooks.
But a decade after that big hit (and what seems like a lifetime ago) Meredith Brooks has released a kids album, If I Could Be... that is 100% kid-safe. The album has been out there since last year but got its formal release late last month. It's a sugary pop blend that might surprise those listeners who, like me, might have expected a slightly more rock approach based on our memory of that one song. (And who might not have followed Brooks as she continued to write and record over the past decade.)
Because Brooks is a parent of a preschool-aged son, it's not surprising that the tracks are primarily geared lyrically at that age group. Brooks succeeds best when she simplifies the lyrics -- "Dance, Shake, Wiggle!" spends a good 50% of the song repeating those words in the album's most infectious chorus. It will be difficult for kids to resist that one. "What's Your Name?" has a fun chorus, too, with lyrics designed for kids to shout their name.
If there's something that keeps Brooks from kicking Laurie Berkner off her perch at the top of the preschool musician pile, it's the lyrics. Brooks has a tendency to be too wordy for preschoolers, I think, sometimes forcing a line for the sake of a rhyme. Sometimes I felt she was writing for 3-year-olds using lyrics a 6-year-old would understand. "In My Chair" is an exception -- the more I listen to it, I think it's a very well-crafted song, though the line "I love my chair / And it loves me" cracks me up every time I hear it. (Y'know, it's not so unreasonable to think a preschooler might think of a chair in that way.) Regardless of my quibbles with lyrics, the music here is well-produced -- it's high-quality pop music, a step above the person-with-a-guitar-or-bad-keyboard production of a lot of music for this age.
I think the music here will be of most interest to kids ages 2 through 5. You can hear samples from the 38-minute album at its CDBaby page. For those of you looking for a rock-guitar-focused album, you will probably be disappointed by the CD. But this is a decent album of pop tunes with a number of fun cuts. Perhaps as Brooks' son grows up and Brooks experiences some not-so-easy times with her child, maybe we'll get another album with a harder edge. Recommended.
The latest in Putumayo Kids' "Playground" series, Brazilian Playground continues Putumayo's tradition of selecting appealing tracks from cultures near and far and mixing them together for families' enjoyment.
A stroll through Putumayo's typically well-done liner notes reveals that many of the songs weren't written with kids in mind -- songs about love or dancing until dawn. Of course, the foreign-language nature of the songs allow parents to use themes as a jumping-off point and the music as a dancing-off point. Claudio Jorge's "Coco Sacudido" ("Shaken Coconut") is about a Brazilian religion with a lot of rituals and ceremonies -- your kids won't care, they'll just be dancing to the big band. For the kids who've been raised on their parents' Bebel Gilberto CDs, Marissa's brief electronica bossa nova "Alo Alo" ("Hello, Hello") will sound familiar. One warning about the disk, though -- the CD's description of the tracks as "lively" is somewhat generous -- the two tracks above are among the more shimmering and vibrant of the tracks here. Which isn't to say that the rest of the CD is bad, just that the overall vibe is a bit more subdued than I'd expected. More 4 PM (if not quite 4 AM) than 9 AM...
Musically, the 36-minute CD is appropriate for kids of all ages, though kids ages 3 through 7 will probably respond to the kids' voices in some of the songs. You can hear samples (and download a teaching guide) at Putumayo's page for the CD (released a couple weeks ago), or hear samples elsewhere on the web. If your family has enjoyed Putumayo's previous Playground releases, they will enjoy this one, too. It's another good compilation. Recommended.
I have been a fan of Rhode Island-based Keith Munslow since hearing his fun 2005 album Accidentally (on purpose) (review here). But I hadn't heard any of his storytelling until giving his recently-released Dressed Up For the Party a spin.
I should have known his storytelling would be every bit as fun (and funny) as his music. There are just 4 tracks here stretching out over the album's 47-minute runtime, nicely sequenced. The opener, "Five Second Rule," is storytelling with some strutting blues bookending Munslow's observations on the eternal food/floor conundrum. It's an amusing appetizer to the main two stories here. The 18-minute "No Token, No Milk" tells the story of a school-aged Munslow losing the token he needs to get his carton of milk. It's the funniest story here.
It's followed up by "Marfa the Barfa," a more dramatic story (though not without funny points) with no music about a 13-year-old girl whose fondest wish of going out to sea with her fisherman father is thwarted by her throwing up over the side of her father's boat (repeatedly). At nearly 20 minutes long, you might think that it would drag or fail to keep the kids attention, but my kids (especially the 6-year-old) hang on to every word. I could see where both stories were going (or at least the major plot points), but in storytelling it's the details and the execution (listen to the squeak of Martha's brother's tricycle and its use), and Munslow's got those down pat.
The disk wraps up with the title track, an amusing musical number about a kid who doesn't want to, uh, get dressed up for the party. It's a light dessert to the disk. It shows off Munslow's musical chops, along with that of his co-producer, Bill Harley (a talented singer/storyteller in his own right, and a Grammy-winner to boot). With the exception of "Marfa," music is important to the tracks, and even in the comparatively non-musical "No Token," Munslow's use of the African box drum the cajon made my two-year-old dance like crazy.
The stories will be of most interest to kids ages 4 through 10. You can read the liner notes and lyrics at Munslow's page for the album or listen to samples at its CDBaby page.
Dressed Up For the Party is a solid album of storytelling with some sweet musical accompaniment. In pajamas at home, or in school clothes in the car, your kids will enjoy the disk and you will, too. Recommended.
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A hazard in reviewing kids' music is the need to be conversant with a broad range of musical styles. For "adult" music, editors generally wouldn't have the same person reviewing classical music and metal, but in this field, well, anything goes.
So when the press release for It's A Bam Bam Diddly!, the first CD for Rankin' Don aka Wayne Rhoden aka 
I have come to think of Morgan Taylor, the creator of 
May as well get it out of the way -- yes, it's 
The latest in 
