Stream Frances England's "Mind of My Own"

San Francisco's Frances England may be a pro at making lovely handmade art, but she's also good at that newfangled electronic stuff. As I noted this summer, England's signed up with the folks at Topspin to get her music heard far and wide. And so it is that her new, not-even-yet-released album Mind of My Own is available for your streaming pleasure. Just click away below. Might I suggest the leadoff title track, or #6 ("Place in Your Heart," with Mates of State), or perhaps #9 ("Cookies and Milk," featuring the Jellydots' Doug Snyder)? Or perhaps just the whole thing. And once you've done that go here and give her other albums a spin. Mind of My Own is released Nov. 9th.

Listen To This: "You Are Here" (Lunch Money vs. Grody Remix) - Lunch Money

A couple months ago, I premiered "You Are Here" by the South Carolina band Lunch Money. It was one of the many fine tracks on the Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti benefit disk released on Bill Childs' Spare the Rock Records. And then about a week afterward, I received an odd e-mail -- a remix of the song by one Bil Hooper (known here as Grody), who described the result as "re-imagined as a cross between Neutral Milk Hotel and the Sundays." Yeah, he had that about right. I said it sounded pretty cool, and Hooper apologized for the low sound quality of the remix since he only had the actual mp3, not the individual tracks. "You know, Molly [Ledford, Lunch Money songwriter extraordinaire] might be willing to share the original tracks with you," I said (essentially). Which is how Bill world-premiered the remix below on his show this morning and why, with Bill and Molly's permission, you can stream it here. I still think it's pretty cool.

Listen To This: "Hula Hoop to Da Loop" - Keller Williams (World Premiere)

Keller Williams is releasing his new album for families, Kids, on October 26 and, courtesy of Williams, I'm happy to offer a world premiere of one of those songs, "Hula Hoop to Da Loop," right here. Your kids don't have to be expert hula hoopers, nor do they have to be experts in looping technology, to enjoy and groove to the song streaming below. (And don't forget to check out all the other Williams songs streaming this weekend, which Gwyneth kicked off yesterday.)

Listen To This: "Trick or Treat" - Justin Roberts

I yield to nobody in my admiration of "Trick or Treat," Justin Roberts' ode to Halloween trick or treating. Seriously -- I've got a long history praising the song. So if Roberts decides to post the song for streaming for this Halloween season, who am I not to let you know? Go here or just stream it below...

Trick or Treat SINGLE by JustinRoberts

Listen To This: "You Are Here" - Lunch Money (from Many Hands)

When I was given the opportunity to share with you a track from Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti, the hardest part was picking the track. There are lots of great songs on the compilation put together by Dog on Fleas and Bill Childs to benefit a variety of Haiti efforts, limiting myself to just one was hard work. (But in a good way.) I picked this track from Lunch Money because in a couple ways it exemplifies the album as a whole -- 1) the benefit compilation itself is the first I can think of that consists primarily of family musicians performing (as opposed to adult artists performing kids' tracks), and 2) its theme of connecting with people elsewhere in the world fits well within the album's underlying intention to connect this part of the world with another part of the world -- nearby geographically, but far away in other ways. Also, 3) it's just a really fun and sweet track. Many Hands: Family Music from Haiti is officially released next week, Aug. 10. (You can preorder the album at Amazon, among other places.) Until then, courtesy of Dean and Bill and Lunch Money, stream this track. [Ed: But only for a limited time. The album's out today...]

Moona Luna: Twice the Languages, Twice the Fun? (Hopefully Not Twice the Wait.)

There has been no shortage of bilingual Spanish-language family music released over the past couple years, not just traditional music, but also some with a bit of rock -- Dan Zanes is perhaps the best-known, but others like Mariana Iranzi also recording albums. One that I've been waiting for since the beginning of the year is the debut from Moona Luna, the family music alter-ego of Latin-alternative band Pistolera. They've had a couple tracks on their website for awhile now, but now they've got three up in blogger-friendly Bandcamp form. The band, led by singer-songwriter (and new mother) Sandra Velasquez, is actually recording two albums simultaneously -- one as Pistolera, one as Moona Luna -- so that probably explains why it's taken so long. But based on the tracks they've released thus far, I think it might be worth the wait.