Video: "Henry Box Brown" - Lloyd H. Miller (World Premiere!)

I'm a longtime fan of Lloyd Miller's song "Henry Box Brown," liking it when Miller first recorded it with his band The Deedle Deedle Dees for their 2007 album Freedom in a Box. For his new album Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!, Miller re-recorded the track, giving the song a sped-up klezmer spin.

Now he's got a brand new video to go along with the new version, and it tells the story of the slave who escaped to freedom in the North by, yes, mailing himself in a box. And it does so via a craft version of Brown by Miller's daughter Hazel. It's cute and effective. (Also: Google Maps - hah!) Enjoy this world premiere!

Lloyd H. Miller - "Henry Box Brown" [YouTube]

Itty-Bitty Review: Turkey Andersen - Turkey Andersen

The debut EP is the proof-of-concept of the recorded music industry. It's not intended to be perfect, it's just supposed to be an introduction, something that says, this could work - this does work.

Such is the case with the debut self-titled EP from Turkey Andersen. Who is Turkey Andersen? Well, I don't think he and Northampton, Massachusetts musician Henning Ohlenbusch have ever been seen together at the same time. More importantly, though, in the course of 8 songs and 16 minutes, these songs put smiles on faces and quirky, poppy earworms in brains. "If a Sandwich Was a Sandwich" is the most brilliant 30-second song ever ("If a sandwich was a pillow then the bread would be the pillow case," the song starts out, and maintains that level of rational absurdity for another 25 seconds). The centerpiece of the album is "Time Travel Clothes," all about the trouble you can get into if you wear the wrong clothes while traveling through time. (We've all been there, right?) I also find "Hot and Stuffy" very funny and also educational about how to get a room to the right temperature.

You can stream the album here. It'll be most amusing to kids ages 3 through 7. Its combination of TMBG quirkiness and songwriting with Jonathan Richman-esque earnestness and vocals is pretty much instantly appealing. If this debut is proof-of-concept, then I think it's proven that Turkey Andersen needs some investors. More, please. Definitely recommended.

Note: I received a (digital) copy of the album for possible review.

Itty-Bitty Review: Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue - Papa Crow

I praise the willingness of musicians to follow wherever their idiosyncratic muse takes them, and by that measure, few kids musicians would receive higher praise than Michigan's Jeff Krebs, aka Papa Crow. It's not that he changes musical styles dramatically from album to album -- you can hear his gentle folk-pop on his fine albums Things That Roar and Full Moon, Full Moon and you can also hear it on his EP about farting and tooting, What Was That Sound?. It's the subjects that are wildly different.

You can also hear his folk-pop on his latest EP, Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue. His subject this time? The nonsense poems of 19th century writer Edward Lear. Accompanied with nothing but his vintage 1947 Gibson guitar, Krebs tells these stories through melodies he's written for the album. Lear might be most well-known for his poem "The Owl and the Pussycat," which Krebs includes here, but the strongest songs to my ear are the leadoff track, the sea-shanty-like "The Jumblies," and the blues-y "Calico Pie." (Special shout-out to Krebs for recording the 110-line "The Courtship of the Yonghy Bonghy Bo," which Krebs reports took him 54 attempts to reach a suitable take.)

The album will be most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can stream and purchase the 19-minute EP here. Kids will need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy the songs here -- they do require some attention -- and these may work better mixed in with other songs, rather than in one set. But it's a fun album nonetheless. Settings of 150-year-old poetry to song is probably not the way to kindie fame and fortune, but I'm glad that Papa Crow has chosen to explore this particular side path. Recommended.

Note: I was given a (digital) copy of the album for possible review.

Best Kids Music Albums for New Parents

Although I run a well-respected kids music site (psst, it's this one), it's not something I'm constantly trumpeting. (I still get co-workers walking into my office with a quizzical expression the morning after an All Things Considered review airs saying, "I was driving home last night and I heard this familiar voice on the radio…") As a result, I'm often in the situation of explaining this interest of mine to co-workers or neighbors, and it's not uncommon for the following question to come up:

"So what albums do you recommend for my kid/niece/grandson?"

Now, I probably should have developed a concise answer by now. But when you've been listening to this music critically for more than a decade, trying to distill that knowledge into, say, three albums is difficult, and probably a little unfair as it leans too heavily on my own personal tastes.

Having said that, giving that response doesn't do the person asking the question any good. So I've decided to dive in and provide a list. I'm actually going to provide a series of lists, but the one I want to start out with is for new parents and their infants, toddlers, and maybe early preschoolers -- basically, kids ages 0 through 3.

There are lots of great kids musicians whose music isn't specifically targeted towards that age group. I love Justin Roberts' music, for example, but most of his music is pitched at a slightly older age group. (Believe me, when I get to the next age group, there will definitely be a Justin Roberts album in that collection.) The albums for this age group feature more simple, classic songs you may already know or faintly remember.

Now, there's no way I can limit this list to the number of albums I've featured. (For example, I was struggling immensely until I realized that I could make lullaby albums their own category. That'll be a future post.) So I've suggested some possible music series if you think my list is too limited or not diverse enough in its musical scope.

With all of that said, here's my list, organized in no particular order -- and if you want to add any for consideration, please feel free to do in the comments.

Raffi: The Singable Songs Collection (1976-1979) -- OK, this is cheating slightly, since this is actually a 3-CD set featuring the kids music superstar's first three albums. I've always suspected that people who make fun of Raffi have never actually listened to more than five minutes of his music (or have only listened to his later albums, which sound more dated in parts and a little more preachy). These 3 albums, particularly the first 2, Singable Songs for the Very Young and More Singable Songs for the Very Young, are a mix of traditional kids' songs and Raffi originals, arranged with a light but not too-light touch and with actual instruments. Raffi has the best male singing voice in kids' music (even today), and here, it rarely sounds treacly. Just try it -- I'm pretty sure you'll be fine with it and (more importantly) your kids will probably swoon.

Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower: You Are My Sunshine (2002) -- I might be accused of sticking too close to home -- Mitchell was the start of my kindie journey -- if it weren't for the fact that everyone else adores her as well. As with many artists on this list, narrowing it down to just one album has flummoxed me. (Really, I've been staring at a blank spot for the album title for far too long.) What I really want Mitchell to do is to release her first 3 albums as the You Are My Collection, named for the fact that those first albums all start with the words "You Are My..." I slightly prefer the album after this one, You Are My Little Bird, but think it's pitched at a slightly older age group, maybe starting at age 2 or 3. But if you want to substitute that one for Sunshine, I won't judge.

Old Town School of Folk Music: Songs for Wiggleworms (2000) -- Saying that singing to your child is important isn't some dramatic statement on my part, because early childhood experts agree that it's a Good Thing. But I think it's important to have a CD that helps model singing songs to the very young in addition to music that takes those songs and performs them in more varied and elaborately ways (such as these other disks). There are about 3 dozen songs here, arranged very simply so that the focus is on singer themselves and the lyrics of the song. The new parent who is tentative about singing to his or her child should feel more confident after listening to this, and the kids will be drawn to the renditions as well.

Laurie Berkner: Whaddaya Think of That? (1997) -- The closest we have to Raffi's spiritual heir. She's generally been content to write music for preschoolers and not have her music change to address an older age group. She's also the biggest kindie superstar, able to draw large crowds for her occasional shows. In part, that's due to her presence on Jack's Big Music Show on Sprout in the mid-to-late-2000s. But it's also due to the earworms of hooks she writes and the verve and humor with which she delivers them. You could always make your own Laurie Berkner mix on iTunes, or maybe get the follow-up Buzz Buzz instead, but this'll do you just fine.

Caspar Babypants: Sing Along! (2011) --The adults reading this may be more familiar with Chris Ballew's run with the Presidents of the United States of America, but I think it can be legitimately argued that 20 years from now his most lasting impact will be on kids music. What's most impressive in his career making music for families is the sheer consistency of his polished and reformulated folk music for the 21st century -- generally an album every less-than-a-year, all of high quality. It took me a long time to try to figure out which CB album I should list here (other contenders: More Please! and, well, just about any of the originals). What I'm saying is that you should just get a Caspar Babypants album and don't sweat the details too much.

Now, as I noted above, limiting your choices to these is, well, a little foolish. I could easily list another 5 or 6, and then complain that I couldn't limit myself to 10 or so, and I think you can see where that is leading to. So instead I'll list a few series that offer a broad range of options for the very youngest for you to dip into.

Smithsonian Folkways: In addition to Elizabeth Mitchell, Folkways has an amazing collection of recordings for kids. Some of them are more appropriate for a slightly older kindergartener-ish (the many Pete Seeger albums come to mind), but Woody Guthrie's and Suni Paz's records and the many albums of the legendary Ella Jenkins are targeted at the under-5 crowd.

Putumayo Kids: Just like its "parent," the kids offshoot of the Putumayo label scours the globe for interesting sounds, and many of the resulting themed albums are a nice way to dip into the music of a non-American culture. The "Playground" albums are geared toward a slightly older audience, but their "Dreamland" albums feature lullabies from around the world (including, sometimes, the English-speaking world).

Music Together: Having spent a number of years with my kids in this music-participation series, I'm biased in that I'm familiar and comfortable with the songs on their many in-class CDs. They've collected favorites on 3 different CDs they sell to the public, and I find the sound -- engaged vocals, restrained but not simplistic production -- to be reminiscent of Raffi's.

Baby Loves...: They started out as Baby Loves Disco, producing dance afternoons for kids barely old enough to walk (and their older siblings and parents). And they've sort of returned to that. But in between, they produced 4 albums -- disco, jazz, hip-hop, and salsa -- that are worth checking out for your almost-preschooler.

Review: Flight of the Blue Whale - Pointed Man Band

When you look at the Amazon page for Flight of the Blue Whale, the second album from Portland, Oregon's Pointed Man Band, here are the three genres in which Dan Elliott (who in the great indie rock tradition has taken on a band nom de plume for his music) has slotted the album:

- Children's Music

- Avant Garde & Free Jazz

- Miscellaneous

That, readers, is a review -- and an accurate one -- in seven words. Oh, were we all able to be so concise! But citations of Amazon genre categorizations are not why you visit this site, so onward I press.

In my review of the debut Pointed Man Band album Swordfish Tango from 2013, I wrote that the album was a "combination of Tom Waits and Shel Silverstein, the Beatles and Parisian cafes, the music [smelling] of hardwood floors and flannel and wood construction blocks." The follow-up is both slightly more mainstream and weirder, if that's possible.

Flight of the Blue Whale tells a story in song of a red fox who operates a small clock and watch repair shop, comes home to find moles invading his garden and the town, and goes off on an adventure to... well, it ends with a flight of a blue whale. What happens in that ellipsis is, frankly, a little confusing and I don't even really think that's the point. Bottom line, the more conventional narrative drive of the story -- whose moral is about taking time to dream and not just work -- is just a structure on which to hang these songs.

And the songs are just as odd as their predecessors. The album kicks off with perhaps the most straightforward track, "Red Fox," an indie-pop tune featuring an infectiously catching organ motif, but from that track, we move on to the stomping sound of "Moles on Parade" and the accordion-drenched near-instrumental "Valse de Taupier," one of a couple waltzes on the album. Sometimes Elliott sounds like Tom Waits (as on "Moles" and "Baleen Curse"), but more often his voice will remind listeners of a certain age and sensibility of David Byrne, as on careening "The Plan" and the modern big band sound of "Tunneling to Paradise." The title track (another instrumental) sounds like a Parisian cafe dragged begrudingly out to the seaside.

The 33-minute album will be most appreciated by kids ages 5 through 9. You can listen to the album here. (I also think the album artwork from Brooke Weeber is lovely and complements the album and story itself.)

Flight of the Blue Whale is most definitely not an album that will please all listeners. It is, as I've noted, a little confusing in places, esoteric in its musical choices -- it's not eager to please. It is, however, joyful and all those things I just mentioned are also its strengths. Some kids and families will adore this album -- they are the families who probably really liked Wes Anderson's take on The Fantastic Mr. Fox. (Note: We were one of those families. This album is in some sense a spiritual sequel to it.) So, not for everyone, but maybe for you. Definitely recommended.

Note: I received a copy of the album for possible review.

Video: "Spring Day" - Karen K and the Jitterbugs

I know, I already featured the stream of "Spring Day" from Karen K and the Jitterbugs, but since the Boston area is in the low 50s today, it's clear that they need all the spring-affirming good vibes in the song and video.

But clearly, any time you take out your frustrations on a homemade reproduction of Olaf from Frozen, as one kid does in the video, it's time for winter to end.

Karen K and the Jitterbugs - "Spring Day" [YouTube]