Video: "I'm a Little Fish" - Laura Doherty

"I'm a Little Fish" is a simple acoustic folk song that leads off Laura Doherty's fine album In a Heartbeat, and there's an accompanying video that's every bit as charming as the song itself. The art by Jessica Pignotti and animation from Dick Schmidtling... well, it just does everything right. A tiny little jewel.

Laura Doherty - "I'm a Little Fish" [YouTube]

Itty-Bitty Review: Good Egg - Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights

When I think of the female stars of kindie -- Laurie Berkner, Elizabeth Mitchell, Frances England, Molly Ledford of Lunch Money, to name some -- the names that come to mind are folk-rockers or indie-rockers, (sometimes) with more of an emphasis on preschool audiences. What's missing are lots of nationally-known names making pop-rock for the elementary school crowd -- the female equivalents of your Justin Roberts, Recess Monkey, and Ralph's World (among many more).

I'm not going to speculate on why that is, but would suggest that New York City's Joanie Leeds is close to staking her claim in the kindie pop-rock star canon. On her sixth kids' CD, Good Egg, Leeds and her Nightlights run through the gamut of kid-accessible topics -- food fights, Halloween, parents, doctor's visits -- filtered through a pop-rock lens (with the occasional punk-rock or arena-rock touches). She's not tackling the subjects in any particularly unique way, but the combination of her fine voice, solid playing (and producing from Dean Jones), and hummable melodies produce a set of songs that sound good here (and will sound good live as Leeds increasingly plays on a national stage).

I think Leeds is at her best in songs with the tiniest bit of edge. Songs like "Food Fight" (I think you can guess what that's about) and "Confusing Costume" have more vim than the kinder, gentler Leeds on tracks like "Kids Place" or "With My Dad." (I'll forgive "Hipster in the Making," which seems likely to bore the kids while amusing the Park Slope parents in Leeds' backyard with Pitchfork and dub-step references.)

You can stream the entire 42-minute album -- most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9 -- here. I'm not sure that Good Egg is the final step towards Joanie Leeds' total world domination, but it is a slick collection of appealing pop-rock songs that, if your family is a fan of Justin Roberts and Recess Monkey, perhaps your family should try on for size. Recommended.

Radio Playlist: New Music July 2014

The July playlist is a little smaller than the June playlist (see that playlist here), but this is a nice 20 minutes or so of tunes.

As always, it's limited in that if an artist hasn't chosen to post a song on Spotify, I can't put it on the list, nor can I feature songs from as-yet-unreleased albums. But I'm always keeping stuff in reserve for the next Spotify playlist.

Check out the list here or go right here if you're in Spotify.

**** New Music July 2014 (July 2014 Kindie Playlist) ****

The Not-Its! – Raise Your Hand
Bill Currier – Old Macdonald Family Band
Jon Samson – Mockingbird (Something to Say)
Daisy Uke – Watering Can Can
Raffi – Love Bug
Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips – My My My
Sara Hickman – Beautiful Boy

Itty-Bitty Review: ¡Uno, Dos, Tres con Andrés! - Andrés Salguero

I'm not sure what the demand for Spanish-language kids music is, but the supply is once again full. Three or four years ago, the market was flooded by Spanish-language music that was essentially bilingual early education (songs about numbers, fruits, and colors) and, whatever its educational value, was often low in musical distinctiveness. That tide has receded, but there may be a new wave of Spanish kindie in which the main purpose is in making fun music for kids that just happens to be (mostly) in Spanish.

Andrés Salguero offered up his entry in this second wave, ¡Uno, Dos, Tres con Andrés!, earlier this year. Compared to the mostly indie-pop and rock sensibilities of his compatriots (Lucky Diaz, Moona Luna, the releases from Spain's Minimusica), Salguero takes a different approach, as his album features 10 different songs in 10 different Latin American musical styles. From "Los Colores" (a mellow bachata, popularized in the Dominican Republic) to "La Clave" (a percussion-driven -- of course -- Cuban/Puerto Rican salsa tune), Salguero samples Latin America's rich musical heritage. His most ambitious song is "Daddy Was a Migrant Worker," a Norteño song which takes the rural, ballad form and applies it to the type of narrative to which the Norteño and corrido form often applies. I tended to find Salguero's music (both the melodies and their performance) more sophisticated than his bilingual lyrics, which often lean towards to the basic and educational.

The 32-minute album will be most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 6. (Listen to the album here.) ¡Uno, Dos, Tres con Andrés! is a welcome complement to the indie-rock sound of much new Spanish kids' music. (I say that even as someone with a natural indie-rock bias.) I look forward to hearing more from Salguero in the future as he takes his songwriting skills and tells stories for, and celebrates lives of, children from many different backgrounds. Recommended.

World Premiere: "Archaeology" - Danny Weinkauf

Danny Weinkauf has released a number of videos for his poptastic album for families No School Today and I'm pleased to bring you the world premiere of his latest video from the album. It's for "Archaeology," and seeing as he also wrote and sang a little song called "I Am a Paleontologist," perhaps Weinkauf is now attempting to corner the kindie market on these aged issues.

In any case, the video from Yvonne Grzenkowicz is a little kinetic wordplay mixed with some rock. Or, er, rocks. Enjoy!

Danny Weinkauf - "Archaeology" [YouTube]