Review in Brief: High Meadow Songs - Various Artists

High Meadow Songs is a collection of tracks from artists in New York's Hudson Valley to benefit High Meadow Arts, a local non-profit providing arts education for children and families. When getting a bunch of local musicians together for a benefit album, it doesn't hurt if your definition of "local musicians" includes Elizabeth Mitchell, Dog on Fleas, and Medeski, Martin & Wood. And if the CD just consisted of the tracks from those artists or collaborators, you'd have a pretty nifty 9-track album. Dog on Fleas turn in a very Fleas-ian (and local) "Buffalo Gals" and sound a bit like The Band on "Jenny Jenkins." Mitchell covers Jane Siberry's sweet "When Spring Comes," while MMW offer their reworking of "All Around the Kitchen" (accented with kids' voices) from their upcoming Let's Go Everywhere CD. Luckily there are a number of other tracks worth it for someone who's not from the area -- for example, Rebecca Coupe Franks & Her Groovemobile offer an original jazzy instrumental, "Ella Skye," and Abby Hollander and a whole bunch of High Meadow students perform Mark Morgenstern's story-in-song "Hudson River Girl." The album isn't so much an album of "kids music" as much as it is an album of kid-friendly folk music, "folk" defined rather broadly, as the album also includes a song from a musical comedy based on Beowulf ("True True Friend") and a couple of tracks from drummers Fode Sissoko and Toby Stover. As with any benefit album, especially a 65-minute one such as this one, the quality (or interest) of the tracks is not uniformly high, but the high points outweigh the rest. You can hear the first three tracks in their entirety here or listen to samples at the album's CDBaby page. It's probably most appropriate for kids ages 5 and up. High Meadow Songs will appeal most to fans of Dog on Fleas and Elizabeth Mitchell, but I think any listener (or family) who's a fan of folk music will find many pleasures here. It's a testament to one particular community's creative vibrancy. Recommended.

My Favorite Kids and Family Albums of 2007

It's time once again for me to list my favorite kids and family albums from the past year or so. As I noted in last year's list, I don't put tremendous stock in individual "best of" lists, because taste is idiosyncratic. (Please note the title here is "favorite," not "best," a deliberate choice of words.) The idiosyncracies of taste are one reason why I came up with the idea for the Fids and Kamily Awards. The fact that I think Recess Monkey's Wonderstuff is one of the year's best CDs might be more easily dismissed if it weren't for the fact that a good number of 19 judges happened to agree with me. As for my list, the top 10 below reflects my Fids and Kamily ballot. But as with last year, limiting a list of favorites to just 10 albums would leave off a number of very, very good albums. In fact, as a whole, 2007 was even stronger than 2006, making this year's decisions even more difficult. Although I lost count some time ago, I'd guess that I probably heard 250 to 300 new albums this past year -- even at 20 albums, I've left off some great music from this list. So without further ado...

Review in Brief: Brazilian Playground - Various Artists (Putumayo)

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.

Review: For The Kids Three! - Various Artists

The "For the Kids" series was kids' music before kids' music was cool. Or at least really cool. Its first two compilations, released in 2002 and 2004, were earnest and enjoyable collections of, for the most part, adult artists tackling kid-friendly tunes. The first disk had a few more heavy hitters (Sarah McLachlan, Tom Waits), while the second had a bit more of an underdog feeling (Robyn Hitchcock, Nada Surf). How, then, to describe this third installment, which will be released by Nettwerk tomorrow? Well, let me put it this way -- it's the first kids' music compilation where I almost feel too old. Now, you might be thinking, "Ummm.... it's a CD of music for kids... you're supposed to feel too old." True, but in this case I'm talking about the bands -- some of them aren't in my core demographic. For example, Of Montreal, who leads off the disk with "I Want To Have Fun," is a darling of the Pitchfork crowd, and while I don't say that pejoratively -- I'm a member of the Pitchfork crowd -- I also realize that the sub-crowd of parents who are members of the Pitchfork crowd is a small crowd indeed. So it matters little that, against my expectations, the song is pretty good, because I'm not sure the people in my child-rearing crowd (a considerably larger one) would care. Same goes for the Format, who turn in a slightly odd and operatic "Does Your Car Have a Mustache?" or Blitzen Trapper, who add the zippy "New Shoes" to the mix. Good bands, not quite in the my demographic. One of the hallmarks of the series has been its relative lack of interest in musicians who make their living playing for kids, and that holds true even more here. Only one band, the Sippy Cups, get a slot here, and that's with a cover of a non-kids' song, "I'm a Believer." There are a few traditional songs on the CD -- O.A.R. do a brief reggae-tinged "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and while Steve Lee-compatriot Kyle Andrews and the Submariens turn in a peppy "Wheels on the Bus" and trip-hoppy "My Darling Clementine," respectively. There are some other good tracks here (the awesome "See You on the Moon," from another compilation, by the Great Lake Swimmers; "James Taylor's "Jellyman Kelly," done appealingly raggedly by Mates of States), but there are three tracks here that are key for me. The first two are songs that are decent enough and will probably have everyone talking. Over the Rhine's "The Poopsmith Song" is a song that illustrates, in repeated detail, where one should and should not poop ("Not on your arm / not on your leg / not on your toast / not on the eggs"). The transgressionary nature of the Seussian tale (yes, I just used the phrase "transgressionary nature" in talking about kids music) might be too cute by half if I didn't hear kids (probably the bands' own kids) singing -- it probably was a song written to help them use the toilet. MC Lars' "The Lint Song" is another one of those "too cute by half" songs that's probably more amusing to the parents than the kids, but there will probably be some 8-year-old older siblings who find the rap about, well, lint the funniest thing ever. And then, finally, there's the Barenaked Ladies. A band which, if I'm any indication, has probably almost fallen off the radar screens of many of the purchasers of this CD. Cassettes of Gordon lost, the CDs of Stunt simply disappeared as the band pursued other, more serious songs. After a listen to their previously-released (though new to me) rendition of the traditional "The Other Day I Met a Bear," I wondered aloud, "Why has this band not recorded a kids' CD?" The track is my favorite on the CD, which is saying something, considering "See You on the Moon" is on here, too. The tune (originally released on a Simple Life-branded collection, for goodness' sake!) is energetic and with the band sounding like they're having a ton of fun -- listen to them chant "Ten Feet!" with ever-increasing loudness. It may no longer be cool to listen or like the Barenaked Ladies, but this track is just too much fun to let those silly notions carry. The songs here are most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 9. The 56-minute album, like its predecessors, will serve as a benefit in the US for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. (In Canada it'll benefit the Sarah McLachlan Outreach Project.) You can check out the tracks at various internet retailers, and Blitzen Trapper's "New Shoes" here. For the Kids Three! is a solid collection of songs for kids, songs for parents, and, well, songs for those somewhere in between. It doesn't always hit all the sweet spots at the same time, but everyone will find something to like here, especially given the collection's broad range of indie-rock styles. And for those of you who loved the first two compilations, but are wondering just who these bands are scattered amongst Moby and the Barenaked Ladies, I encourage you to take the plunge -- your kids might find a new favorite song, while you might find a new favorite band. Definitely recommended.

Review: Mary Had A Little Amp - Various Artists

Mary Had A Little Amp was originally released waaaaaaay back in, er, October 2004. OK, it really wasn't that long ago in the cosmic scheme of things. But if it's not quite the paleozoic era to the current mesozoic era, it does seem like it comes from a different time. The big thing about the current wave of kid-comps (kids' music compilations) is that the CDs tend to be composed of songs recorded specifically for the CD. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, mind you, and some of the songs on those CDs aren't specifically "kids music," but, more often than not, when the artist or band went into the studio, they had a pretty good idea of who their audience was going to be. Or, at the very least, the track listing makes some sense. Not so with Mary Had A Little Amp. The songs here seem to have been compiled as much by the artists' affinity for for the album's benefactors (proceeds go to support preschool education projects) as by the appropriateness of the songs. "We Walk," for example, is a perfectly kid-safe song from R.E.M. (or at least as far one can tell in Michael Stipe's earlier, mumblier phase), but its appropriateness for a kids-music album is somewhat remote. You can count Moby's "Anchovie" and "Sing Along" (the Blue Man Group along with Dave Matthews) as songs whose lyrics are reasonably kid-safe, but probably not of much interest to kids. Which isn't to say there aren't some stellar tracks on here, they just tend to be the ones that are more suitable for a kids-comp. The Dixie Chicks' cover of "The Rainbow Connection" is almost worth the price of the CD by itself -- sweet, with sufficient banjo to make fans remember the original. Jack Johnson turns in an early, laid-back version of "The 3 R's," revved up later on the Curious George soundtrack. Madonna's "Little Star" is surprisingly good and Rosanne Cash's "How To Be Strong" is by far the best original. The album is probably best-suited for kids ages 3 through 9, though I doubt any kid will really get into the whole CD, there's such diversity in age-range here. You can hear snippets all over the internet and here. With an overall mellow mood and a collection of slightly older stars, this collection might make a good gift for your older sibling who had a child of their own a little after you did. While it's a decent lineup of artists, compared to some of the more kid-centered (and rockin') compliations that followed it, Mary Had A Little Amp is, well, a little unplugged.

Review Two-Fer: Best of the Land of Nod Music Store, Vol. 1 & 2 - Various Artists

It's a little odd, given the wave of popularity kids' music is riding right now, that there aren't more best-of compilations. They're not unheard of, mind you (and, no, the Rachael Ray compilation doesn't count), but they're certainly not crowding the shelves either, are they? In part, I'm guessing it has something to do with the very independent nature of 99% of the kids' music produced. Sure, there are artists like They Might Be Giants or Ralph's World who are recording for a major label, but the vast majority of albums are self-released.

So perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the Land of Nod's first kids' music compilation, Best of the Land of Nod Store Music, Volume 1, originally released in 2004, is that it actually attempts to provide an overview kids' musicians of the past and present, off labels major and not, fitting the bill like little else on the market. You have the great quartet of Smithsonian Folkways artists -- Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie -- making an appearance alongside current stars Dan Zanes, Justin Roberts, Ralph's World, and They Might Be Giants. With the exception of maybe Roberts' "Yellow Bus" and Zanes' "All Around the Kitchen," there are no absolute must-have tracks here by the artists above, though the tracks chosen are solid, and picking just one track out of the many by each of those artists would be exceedingly difficult. Of the lesser-known artists, Rosie Flores' "Red, Red Robin" (off Bloodshot's Bottle Let Me Down comp) and Peter Himmelman's "Sherm the Worm" shine out most brightly here.

If Vol. 1 is a solid, if safe, collection that you could give to your parents for them to play when they have the grandkids over, Best of the Land of Nod Store Music, Volume 2, released in 2005, makes an attempt to speak to parents who might actually buy the CD for themselves. To some extent, it goes over the same ground as Volume 1 -- Zanes, Roberts, Mitchell, and Himmelman make a repeat appearance, as does Lead Belly. It's the new stuff that skews considerably younger. Cake's funky reworking of "Mahna Mahna" or the Mr. T Experience's rollicking "Unpack Your Adjectives" aren't necessarily seminal kids' music tracks, but they're a heck of a lot of fun. Andy Partridge from XTC provides not one but two excellent tracks of music originally written for Disney's James and the Giant Peach. (It was rejected in favor of music by Randy Newman -- hey, I love Randy Newman, but let somebody else do the Disney movies for a change.) If the first volume had more of an establishment view of the kids' music universe, this volume includes more newer and less conventional music to give a better sense of the possibilities inherent in the genre. At 38 and 40 minutes long, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are a good mixtape length. You can find them at any major internet retailer as well as the Land of Nod itself, natch. Regular readers of this website will probably be familiar with many of the artists on the two CDs, and will even have a number of the tracks' original releases in their families' collections. If I had to recommend just one CD, I'd probably go with Vol. 2, just because I think the less-familiar songs are stronger. Having said that, both collections are strong and would be a nice introduction for your doubting neighbor or relative that there isn't some great music being made for kids now (or 50 years ago). Recommended. Obviously, there are some conflict-of-interest issues here, seeing as my reviews (warts and all) are also used on the Land of Nod website. All I can say is that the collections here were one of the reasons why I decided to sign on with them. I'd be posting the exact same review even if I had no association with them.