Sometimes you hear about older CDs, and you think, "Huh. That sounds kinda cool, but, you know, there's so much good stuff coming out now that I'll just have to let it slide."

That was me with Alphabet Parade and Rainbow Lemonade, from Kansas-based Melanie Dill. The CDs sounded interesting, but swamped as I was (and am) with newer music, I never got around to getting copies. Until recently, when I happened to receive a set.

So my task here, then, is try to convince you to not make the same mistake I did.

Melanie Dill released her first record, Alphabet Parade in 1998. As you might expect from the title, there are a number of alphabet-related songs on the CD, most notably the parade itself, which over three tracks introduces all 26 letters and gives them each a little bit of character. (My favorite is "Big P, little p, rapping down the street / Going puh-puh-puh-p-p-puh-puh to everyone he meets," in a rapped style, of course.) But the alphabet thing isn't overdone, and there are lots of other topics of interest to preschoolers, such as discovery ("Look out the Window"), money (a barbershopped "Pennies, Nickles, Dimes and Quarters"), and colors ("Unripe Tomato"). The songs are a combination of traditional melodies and original songs.

Musically, most of the tracks are done in a simple folk style, though there are enough variations to keep things interesting, such as "Emily's Song," which deserves to be heard on your child's favorite merry-go-round. There are also a number of spoken-word tracks with musical accompaniment. Dill has an appealing, clear voice, but plenty of others share the vocal and instrumental duties (29 others, by my count, including Randy Kaplan). The kids' voices here (including that of Dill's daughter, Siel) are integral to the music. They're smartly incorporated into the music and sound like real kids who've had just a little bit of vocal training, enough to make the vocals pleasant but by no means too much to become grating. Let's put it this way, if you don't like the way the kids' voices sound here, you will never like kids' voices on record.

Flash-forward to 2002, when Dill releases Rainbow Lemonade, a worthy follow-up to Parade. The basic approach is the same as before, but the musical palette is broader. 60 musicians (many of whom, judging by last name, are related to Dill) plus an entire kindergarten class show up here with Dill, and the result is a fun blending of musical genres, from the hoppy and folky original "Baiba's Bungalow" to "Left and Right," which sounds like it was pulled straight out of a 1950s educational movie. "The Skeeter Song" is a bluesy number, while "Seaside" and "I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U" have gentle beach melodies.

Sometimes the genres are mixed in the same song -- "After the Rain," interrupts a slow, lush song about the end of a rainstorm with a punky interlude about mud. The kids' voices return, as do the spoken-word pieces. One of my favorites of these is "Explore," which underscores the kids' talk about exploration with a jazzy musical number.

Given the topics here, these CDs will be of most interest to kids ages 2 through 6. You can hear some of the tracks from the nearly-identical-in-length-36-minute albums at Dill's website.

These CDs are nothing less than Sesame Street episodes from back in their free-form days before everything got all scheduled on that show. They hop genres and subjects seemingly at a whim, but their overall structure and execution is very well thought-out. I like both of them equally, and would be hard-pressed to recommend one over the other. If you have young kids in your household, I think they (and you) would really like these CDs. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been to a lot of great concerts in my life -- Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Guy, U2. One of the key factors is the feeling that the crowd is having a shared experience -- amazement at Bruce's endurance, Guy's prowess, or U2's yearning. But that communal experience is one that ends up being focused on the performer(s) on stage (or not, as Guy ended up his concert jamming on the sidewalk in front of the Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill (back when it was in Chapel Hill) while his band played on inside).

The wonder of a Dan Zanes concert, then, is that he produces a very communal experience that isn't so focused on him. Instead, the community itself is the communal experience...

It started in the long line to get into downtown Tucson's Rialto Theatre (whose Frequently Asked Questions is a hoot-and-a-half, even if you never plan to see a show there). Lots of families saying "hi" to one another. That wasn't really the case for us, seeing as we drove two hours from Phoenix to see the show, but I'm guessing that a Dan Zanes concert -- especially one in a new area for him -- has that effect on people. "Hey," they're saying, "there are other Dan Zanes nuts just like us. And we're at a theatre 4 days after an Ice Cube show. Cool. I think."

The communal vibe continued indoors. We brought our DZ Flea ukelele, and so I talked with a guy ahead who also brought his. A guy next to me talked about how it looked like a Chilean stringed instrument made out of a turtle shell. Somebody passed out flyers for a preschool fundraiser.

And then the band entered, walking from the back through the front, playing "Sidewalks of New York." They disappeared stage left, Dan Zanes came on stage alone, and the party truly started.

I use the word "party" deliberately, because Zanes must've used it two dozen times during the set. He pleaded several times with the lighting person to increase the lights on the audience -- he wanted to see the audience, not play at them. But party it was -- it took two or three songs for the kids to start congregating up front, but eventually the area between the stage and the folding chairs was decently filled with pogoing kids.

More reserved kids (like, say, our daughter) took their time, but eventually couldn't control themselves and dashed for the side aisles and danced there. I spent a good part of the concert's last half dancing with my daughter on the side of the theatre. That's what I mean about the focus not being on Zanes and the band (who, I might add, were all excellent) -- we had a great time, but it wasn't because we were focused on Zanes.

The set list? Ah, the newshound in me wanted to write everything down, but the enjoy-er in me said, "Relax." So I relaxed. The set list did cover every single Zanes family album (including Parades and Panoramas and Sea Music). Zanes is lucky in that he doesn't have one or two huge hits he feels like he needs to play every time. As a result, whatever he plays will satisfy almost all his audience.

He brought a couple special guests. "Salvador" sang and danced a folk dance a bit, but I loved the mariachi band he brought in. Mariachis make almost everything sound better. That's one thing I really dig about Zanes -- he can bring in a mariachi band and it doesn't sound out of place. And when Father Goose came out (I'd forgotten him), that did add an extra jolt to the show -- he's a great ace in the hole to have.

And then, like that, the show ended with Zanes and company striding out the way they came in. The crew signed autographs in the lobby, with Zanes standing, mobbed, outside in Tucson's heat. Yes, his suit was that green. And he was very gracious with each concertgoer holding a t-shirt or ukelele case to sign.

It was a great concert, but I didn't expect anything less. Dan Zanes has made community a cornerstone of his all-ages musical philosophy -- his concerts are simply an extension of that vision. It's enough to make you dance.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

... but I'm not. The latest song from Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke tells the gently bouncy story of Sylvester the Pig. It's a fun enough song, but it's the shouted questions and comments in counterpoint that make me want to listen to the 2-minute tale over and over. Track #5, "Big Pet Pig".

By the way, it sounds like they're posting a new song every week or so, so I'll see you here next week.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know that Mr. David has had a new tune -- "Hey It's Lunchtime" -- available for listening or downloading on his Myspace page for awhile. It's kind of an angular post-punk tune delivered in his loose style.

That tune is growing on me, but his new single -- the title track from his upcoming Jump in the Jumpy House album (tentatively scheduled for an August release) -- is an immediately accessible and fun track.

And, courtesy of Mr. David, I'm proud to offer it to you for your own enjoyment.

Mr. David - Jump in the Jumpy House

That nifty, insistent guitar lead comes courtesy of Greg Lisher from Camper Van Beethoven. If you, or someone you know, is getting one of those bouncy houses (sorry, I call 'em "bouncy houses") for a kids' birthday party, you need to have this as the soundtrack -- nails the pogoing aspect of those things to a T.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Earth Day songs generally preach, and I think one thing that a lot of parents really dislike about a lot of kids' music is when that music tells listeners what to do. So, the trick in writing an Earth Day song for kids that parents will tolerate is writing a catchy tune.

Which Recess Monkey did with "3Rs for Ours," which debuted on last weekend's Spare the Rock show and is now available for listening and downloading at the band's Myspace page.

Yeah, it's April 25th, but get it now anyway. Because every day is Earth Day, right?

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Jersey-based Danny Adlerman is part of the kids' music equivalent of the Rat Pack (or the Brat Pack, or the Frat Pack, depending on your generation) -- along with Kevin Kammeraad and Jim Dague of ScribbleMonster, they seem to be responsible for about 10% of the kids' music released every year, and they all seem to be on each other's albums.

Adlerman's latest contribution to the genre is the recently-released Listen UP!, and while Dague isn't here, Kevin Kammeraad and a whole host of others join in. One benefit of having such a large extended musical family is a sense of familiarity blended with a diverse set of approaches. Although the songs are typically squarely in the rock tradition (the Who-inflected "Veggie Song," for example, or the big guitar-pop of "Crooked"), the musicians also tackle a few less straightforward songs such as the call-and-response game of "Flea Fly." In either case, the band sounds great together, especially on my favorite track, the goofy wordplay of "The Dozsins."

I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Jim Babjak from the Smithereens, who plays on the album and co-wrote 5 of the album's songs. A couple of the tracks -- "In the Future" and "Somewhere I Wonder" sound like they could have fit into a Smithereens album without much rewriting. Lyrically, those songs don't have an obvious "kids' music" stamp too them. Other songs, feature topics like eating pizza ("Too Much Pizza Blues") and the hundredth day of school (the old-timey "Hundred's Day," natch). Overall, the album is nice blend of songs targeted right at the kids and songs less age-specific.

I think the album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can hear samples from the 37-minute album at its CDBaby page. I hope Danny Adlerman keeps hanging out with his friends, because he's got a good thing going on musically. With a gentle sense of humor and playfulness, Listen UP! will be popular with many families looking for an album of kid-appropriate rock-n-roll. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have, in the past, babbled on regarding the need for artists to improve their album art and overall packaging.

Why? Because unlike many other genres of music, children's music is still very much reliant on physical modes of distribution and, as a result, the physical products counts, and far more than just about any genre.

Children's music publicist/all-around-good-person Beth Blenz Clucas' recent newsletter offers the thoughts of some of her clients on this very issue. It's worth a read, and not just because it agrees with my world view. There are some very good reasons given for why actual CDs won't go away, but one of my favorite has to do with cassettes. A couple people make the comment that cassettes, which I would guess many of us haven't purchased a cassette since, oh, buying that Erasure "A Little Respect" cassingle, took forever to go away in the kids' music industry. It's a technologically lagging genre. That does not indicate the dominance of downloads any time soon.

Frankly, because the parents are buying this music, not their 3-year-olds, and because the parents who are interested in this music grew up in a time before downloading, we're still comfortable with the physical product. Don't get me wrong, we still get music from iTunes and eMusic and elsewhere, but we like the physical product, too. We like to give the physical product to friends when they're having kids, and to the kids themselves at the birthday party. Face it, it's hard to wrap a download.

I realize that eventually CDs will go away even in the kids' music genre, but it won't really start taking hold until our 6- and 10-year-olds, who will have grown up in a downloading world, become parents themselves. And even then, their parents will still give their grandkids physical CDs.

(For whatever it's worth, here are more of my thoughts on 21st century kids music.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know. I've been writing about Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke a lot recently. You might be wondering if the whole thing hasn't been played out at this point.

I'm sorry, nope. Go listen to the newest addition, track #4, "John the Rabbit," and tell me that it doesn't put a smile on your face, especially the new verses. Very loping, very winning.

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know, it's a shame that the ice cream truck industry seems to have withered away. (At least it has in our neighborhood.) Who can resist ice-cream-on-demand? Well, perhaps the industry's demise can be traced to the lack of variety in ice cream songs, with parents and kids rushing indoors at the slightest hint of another overly familiar ice cream truck song.

Friends, Michael Hearst is here to do what he can for the industry with his recently-released Songs for Ice Cream Trucks. Yes, it's 31 minutes (could that have been intentional?) of all-new ice cream music, which sounds just like those ice cream songs of old, only better. Hearst uses a variety of vintage instruments -- glockenspiel, thermin, and a Casiotone -- to create his musical soundscapes, and they sound just like the trucks you know and love.

I preferred the slightly peppier pieces, like the opener "Ice Cream!" or "Tones for Cones," though possibly my favorite flavor, er, song was the slow and oom-pah filled "What's Your Favorite Flavor?" The title scans so well to the opening melody of that song that I wonder if there aren't lyrics to all these songs here. (As it is only the closer, "Before I Drive Away," has vocal accompaniment.) The downside of the album is that the songs begin to melt together -- it's better at creating a mood of happiness and occasional wistfulness than at being a great musical album.

Virtually instrumental in nature, this is truly one of those "all-ages" albums. You can listen to tracks at the album's Myspace page or samples at the album's page. (Order the album here.)

I love ice cream, but even I have a limit, and I think that will be many people's reaction here -- Michael Hearst's songs have an undeniable allure, but taken in one sitting the album will probably be too much for many fans. Still, Songs for Ice Cream Trucks achieves its own little piece of perfection and in small amounts (ie. mix tapes or shuffle play) is quite refreshing.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Those of you in the New York City area may be heading down to Central Park for Sunday's Green Apple Music & Arts Festival -- if you do, you may get to hear some new songs from Brady Rymer when he plays on the same stage as Laurie Berkner.

Luckily for those of us for whom a trip to NYC this weekend would be so not carbon-neutral, Time Out New York Kids has posted rough cuts mp3s of a couple new songs at the end of an interview with Brady and Laurie.

The first song, "One True You," is one of those midtempo feel-good Rymer songs that I don't have any great affinity for, although Rymer does these songs better than just about anyone. (And, if you're an adoptive parent, don't worry, the "families look like one another" theme is in the first verse only.) My preferrred song is the second, "Road Trip," which is a rave-up and lots of fun.

Appropriate, perhaps, for our own road trip to Tucson this weekend.

(Have I mentioned we're seeing Dan Zanes this weekend?)

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Let me tell you, it is no easier trying to figure out how to order the top sixth through tenth kids songs of all time than it is ordering songs 46 through 50. We're getting to songs that are ingrained in our (English-speaking North American) DNA, or should be.

Previous entries:

Songs 11 through 15
Songs 16 through 20
Songs 21 through 25
Songs 26 through 30
Songs 31 through 35
Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

10. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" - Sarah Josepha Hale (words) / Lowell Mason (melody): The fact that this agrarian-based song still has currency in spite of today's urban/suburban lifestyle speaks volumes of the text's popularity. (Wikipedia says that, like Academy Award-bait movies, it's inspired by true events.) Of course, the fact that you can play the melody, say, a Little Tikes one-octave (no-sharps, no-flats) technicolor toy piano (hypothetically speaking, of course) doesn't hurt, either. (You know the tune, so instead listen to Thomas Edison repeat the poem -- no music -- on the 50th anniversary of the first-ever audio recording of, well, anything here. Or you can watch Stevie Ray Vaughan burn through his version here. Or, and I'm not necessarily recommending this, you can watch Paul McCartney and Wings give their rendition here. People, why do you hate melody so much?)

9. "I've Been Working on the Railroad" - traditional, mostly: It's three, three, three songs in one! It's a railroad song, it's a nonsense set of lyrics, and it's a song about kitchens and banjos. (That last section was actually an older song credited to J.H. Cave folded into this one.) One of the depressing sidenotes of this whole Top 50 songs project is finding the racist undertones of many of the more traditional songs -- the first printed version of the song was done in minstrel dialect and was partially racist. And "Dinah" was a generic name for an African-American woman. Guess I have yet another reason for singing my kids' names instead from now on. (Listen to a ukelele-based version here. Raffi's and Laurie Berkner's versions are excellent, as is Johnny Bregar's, which you can listen to a sample of here.)

8. "Down by the Bay" - traditional: Y'know, if every time I came home, my mother insisted on asking utterly non-sensical questions, maybe I'd stay away, too. "For the last time, Mom, I've never seen a whale with a freakin' polka-dot tail! [Breaks into uncontrollable sobs]" Having said that, it's an animal song and a rhyming-challenge song, probably the best in that regard. (Raffi's version is the standard, but Candy Band's version at the link is a little more, uh, rocking. Loretta Lucas' version on the Family Hootenanny comp is appealing, too -- listen to a sample here.)

7. "Itsy Bitsy Spider" - traditional: Such a simple little song, the best hand/finger-motion song out there. Of course, as Ralph Covert noted on one of his Ralph's World songs, it's a very existentialist song -- the spider climbs up, the rain washes the spider down, and the spider goes back up again. (Now playing: The Camus Children's Album!) See Devon's thoughts here... though, I'm sorry, "eensey weensey" just sounds wrong to me. (Despite the fact that Gwendolyn agrees with Devon, I like her version -- click on the Get Up & Dance album to listen. Listen to a snippet of Ralph's version here, watch Carly Simon work it into her last big hit here. I remember that video. I don't remember it being nearly 7 minutes long, though...)

6. "Freight Train" - Elizabeth Cotten: This is a kids' song that was, well, written by a kid. Cotten wrote this song when she was just 11 or 12 years old. Now, she didn't record this song until nearly 50 years afterwards, when through a series of coincidences, she ended up working in the Seeger household. (Yes, those Seegers.) And it was at that point, when she was approaching 60, that she started her singing career. She toured for more than 30 years, until she was 90+ years of age. I love the way the song slides in between major and minor keys. It's about trains! (But, uh, much more.) (Watch Cotten perform her song here. I've also always been partial to Elizabeth Mitchell's rendition, which you can listen to here (click on "Flower," then "Listen").)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Listening to Seattle-based Recess Monkey's first album, 2005's Welcome to Monkey Town is a bit like watching some show called "Before They Hit the Big Time" -- even if everything isn't quite in place, you can definitely see the outlines of what's to come.

Whereas their breakout follow-up album, 2006's Aminal House had a stronger Beatles influence, this CD has more of a non-Beatles British Invasion feel to it, with the occasional veering into jangle-pop (the opening "We're Recess Monkey") or even something vaguely Doors-like (but not, you know, "The End"-Doors-like) closer "Math Vitamin." The best tracks here are the uptempo ones, such as "Monkey Bars," with a muscular guitar line, hand claps, and the occasional "la la la." I also really liked "I Got a Toy (But I Played with the Box)," all about imagination, and with a few nice melodic touches (the "beep-boop" signifying the robotic arm toy). (As for the slow songs, "Can You Build a Bridge?" has some nice lyrical touches - "Can you build a bridge to someone / By tearing down a wall?")

The difference between this CD and its follow-up lies in production quality and absurdist humor. To my (non-music-production) ears, the mix here felt muddier and distant, the lyrics not always crisp. Compared to the sonic bloom on Aminal House, the CD just didn't feel quite as alive -- I would love to hear what the band would have done with "Nancy (Librarian Extraordinaire)" two years later -- here it just feels flat. Also, there's some of the goofy humor that made the follow-up standout, but not enough. Songs like "Math Vitamin" or "Mercado" are more the exception here than the rule. And, I never thought I'd say this about a kids' CD, but I kinda missed the skits -- Mayor Monkey only makes the briefest of appearances.

Given the lyrical matter, the 33-minute CD's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7. You can hear 4 cuts from the album at the band's music page and can order it from the band or through the Land of Nod here.

This review sounds more negative than it really is -- I quite liked Welcome to Monkey Town. It just isn't the absolute hoot that its successor is -- if your family is new to the band, you should start with Aminal House. But if you liked Aminal House (or if you're new to the band), I think you'll like its predecessor. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I've finally gotten around to picking winners in a couple of recent contests and just want to share the results. Both the East and West Coasts represent.

First, in the contest to win the New York-based Deedle Deedle Dees' excellent new album, Freedom in a Box (review) for a local school or library, I randomly selected longtime reader and West Coast resident Katy, who offered four historical personages her family would love a Deedle Deedle Dees song about: Amelia Earhart, Abigail Adams, Benny Benson, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Lloyd Miller (Ulysses Dee) will actually record a song for Katy and her family using those people. No word yet on whether Lloyd will choose one or create his own historical mash-up of multiple characters. Anyway, thanks very much to Lloyd on that item.

Second, in our contest related to the KidVid Tournament 2007 final, the randomly-selected voter was East Coast resident Christine, a big fan of the Portland (Oregon)-based Captain Bogg & Salty and voted for "Pieces of 8ight." Because she already has all three of the band's albums (including Pegleg Tango), she asked for a copy of San Francisco-based Frances England's Fascinating Creatures CD. Thanks both to Captain Bogg and his crew and to Frances for offering their CDs as prizes. (I'm sure I will have another opportunity to give the Bogg CD away.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before you get too excited, it's not a national concert tour, it was just me and a ukelele and someone else with a guitar singing after church this weekend.

Didn't you do this before? Why, yes, I did have a singing party of sorts for my birthday a while back, but this time it involved two people playing instruments. Does that make it a hootenanny?

In any case, after a brunch-y potluck at church, about 20 of us got together with some songs, some egg shakers, a person who knows about three or four good ukelele chords (me), and a person who knows many more guitar chords (not me). Again, we found that the attention span of the kids was, well, considerably shorter than that of the adults (I do not yet have that commanding stage presence). Starting the singing at 11:45 AM or so probably wasn't the wisest move on our part, either.

But we did have fun... let's see, what did we sing?... "Pay Me My Money Down," "Polly Wolly Doodle," "John the Rabbit," "Kookaburra," "What a Wonderful World" (we closed with that one), "O Mary Don't You Weep," "Peace Like a River," "Little Liza Jane" (we have Elizabeth Mitchell and Ida Pearle's lovely songbook to thank for those two), "I've Been Working on the Railroad," and, if memory serves, "Jesus Loves Me." There were a couple others that were spur-of-the-moment things.

All the songs seemed to work pretty well -- I think some of the songs could definitely be improved upon with additional thought and arrangement (there's no reason why "John the Rabbit" shouldn't lead to kids shouting, "NO MA'AM!"). Also, I really need to master the G-major chord on my uke. (Gotta practice for the Dan Zanes show, of course.)

The national tour's probably a ways off, though.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So many things to do (or write about), so little time.

Which is probably good, otherwise I'd be spending too much time thinking about this weekend's Dan Zanes concert in Tucson. We are very excited about going, sad that our son won't be joining us. (We decided that a 2-hour drive and a concert smack dab in the middle of naptime was a perfect storm that might very well ruin the show for the rest of us.) We've been watching Zanes' All Around the Kitchen DVD this week to try to give our daughter some sense of what the show might be like, though we keep saying things like, "Yeah, I like her voice, but she's not going to be at the show."

What does the show look like now? Well, the Old Town School of Folk Music's burgeoning video library has a video of the band from a show last November. (Warning: took me forever to download)

In the meantime, I've got a couple reviews (I hope), maybe some other stuff. And, yes, I will get the contest winners announced very soon. Really.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We've been looking for activities for the kids this summer (we can only come up with so many art projects and trips to non-commercial air-conditioned locales), so I looked at the news of the "JAMbledance Camp" with interest. Art? Music? Yoga? Reading? With the participation of Charity Kahn? Our daughter would love that. We can fit that into the activities budget, right?

But, oh yeah, we live in Phoenix. The commute to and from San Francisco would be a bear, no? Oh, and that's the first week of school for our daughter.

Other than those things, though, we are so there.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been deficient in not mentioning Amy's contest to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you like the possibility of personal gain associated with contributing for a worthy cause, Amy's got a bunch of cool stuff to give away.

I was reminded of this after reading Amy's marathon entry listing 20 "Kids Albums for Parents Who Can't Stand Kids Music" (full entry here). I'd make a few changes to the list (and frankly, I see no reason not to throw, say, Justin Roberts' Meltdown! in there -- if that doesn't get 'em, nothing ever will), but to the list-compiler go the spoils. Or the props. Or something like that.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember when I told you about those cool songs from Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke?

Well, there's another song up at their website, and it's just as winning. Entitled "Pekepoo," it puts a dreamy new spin on the phrase "raining cats and dogs." Track #7, go now.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're in the homestretch, folks.

Unfortunately, because they missed the top 10, these songs just missed being on the "Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time" tour that will be coming to America arenas and sheds this summer.

Previous entries:

Songs 16 through 20
Songs 21 through 25
Songs 26 through 30
Songs 31 through 35
Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

15. "Five Little Monkeys" - traditional: I'm not sure there's really a set melody for this song, it's all in the lyrics. They jump on the bed, they fall off, their mother (and it's always their mother) calls the doctor. One would think that the co-payment system of today's modern American medical system would incentivize the mother to not make 5 calls to the doctor, so perhaps these are Canadian monkeys. (For more on the song, check out this timely post -- including video -- from Devon at Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that....)

14. "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" - traditional: Speaking of head, shoulders, and knees, this might just be the best movement song I know. Teaches body parts, gets the kids moving, and is perfectly adaptable to other body parts ("Knuckles, elbows, neck and waist..."). I mean, I do feel like I'm doing calisthenics when I'm singing along, but its secret weapon is an elegant melody. (Mama Lisa has a recording plus lyrics in several languages here. Perfect for those Swedish immersion classes.)

13. "Old MacDonald" - traditional: We're definitely in the "best song about X" portion of the list, and this, simply, is the best song about animals. Everybody knows the melodya and everybody has fun listing animals whose sounds are unknown and, therefore, available for making up. (What sound does a giraffe make? I like to think of it as an "Ooooop.") The most creative versions, of course, are the ones that talk about different things that the farmer might have. (My favorite reworking by far is Raffi's at the end of Singable Songs for the Very Young. Listen to a sample here.)

12. "The Ants Go Marching" - traditional: It's actually based on the Civil War song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Newsradio fans have their own ending), and so it partially distinguishes itself by not being an all so cheery major chord song. It's a counting song, it's a rhyming song, and it's got rain in it, so speaking as a rain-deprived desert dweller, it's always very soothing. (Ralph Covert has a nice version on Songs for Wiggleworms, but Owen Duggan's jazzy version might be my favorite.)

11. "The Wheels on the Bus" - traditional: Wah-wah-wah! Wah-wah-wah! The babies on the bus go wah-wah-wah! It's a kids' song that lets you mock your whiny kid! OK, in the end the parents love them, but still. And talk about adaptable -- I sing this song every week (with much different lyrics) in the baby-and-me swimming lessons I'm taking with our son. Oh, and it's the best song about buses, bar none. (Devon again is spot-on with his thoughts. Hear a sample of Raffi's version here.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are many types of kids' music albums, but one genre that's been mostly avoided is the very personal kids' music album. Now, there are a number of musicians who feel compelled to record intensely personal lullabye albums upon the arrival of a child into their family, but those generally end in, if not disaster, at least a goopy mess. Is it possible to make an album that draws upon a particular artist's life but speaks to many families?

All Together Singing in the Kitchen, from the Massachusetts based Nields sisters Nerissa and Katryna, shows one way that can be done. In the Nields' case, they've drawn upon their lives growing up listening to and singing these songs, yes, all together in the kitchen. The album is a collection of primarily folk tunes that the Nields learned singing with their father John Nields along with their mother. John has a clear voice with a bit of a warm warble; it reminds me of Dan Zanes compatriot David Jones. His voice makes a nice contrast with the more distinct voice of the Nields sisters. When they sing together, such as on their soulful rendition of "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep," it's a sweet, joyful noise. An even more joyful noise comes when the Nields sing with a local group of kids on three of the tracks -- the way the kids shout back "YES MA'AM!" in the call-and-response of "John, the Rabbit" makes me smile every time I hear it.

To some extent, I couldn't listen to the album without thinking of other versions of particular songs that I liked slightly better -- say, Dan Zanes' and Father Goose's version of "Hi Ho the Rattlin' Bog." And there are times when the personal nature of the album -- three generations singing "All Together Singing in the Kitchen" is more inspiring perhaps than truly compelling upon repeated listenings. But that's as much me bringing my own personal singing experiences to the table -- there's no reason why someone who wasn't as familiar with some of the tracks here wouldn't latch on to these versions. And the Nields do give back a modern folk classic of their own -- "Anna Kick a Hole in the Sky" is a great song about resilience and life.

In true Dan Zanes age-desegregated style, the album is appropriate for all ages, but let's say you've got to be at least 2 to get a lot out of it. The 43-minute album, which has been available regionally since last year, but is getting a national release next week, is available here or here. No samples available yet, but Bill and Ella had them on last week.

Like many hootenannies, All Together Singing in the Kitchen was probably most fun for the people making the record. It is a credit, however, to the Nields family that they've put together an album that is not only inspiring but also lots of fun to listen to. Definitely recommended.

*****

Note: I'm cooking up something related (in part) to this CD which I hope is ready for prime-time by next week. Stay tuned...

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My general rule on albums is that one awesome song usually makes an acceptable album; two, pretty good; and three awesome songs makes for an excellent album worth getting excited about.

Play, my friends, has three awesome songs. At least.

The album is the first kids' compilation from DeSoto Records, best known for releasing albums from bands such as Jawbox and the Dismemberment Plan. Five years ago -- two years ago, even -- the idea that an indie/punk record label would release a kids' album would have gotten you laughed out of yor co-op preschool. But it's no longer a joke.

In one sense, the songs collected here from both DC-area and Seattle-area bands meet the typical requirements of a kids' music compilation. Not one, but two movement songs, for example -- Anna Oxygen's slightly down-tempo "Born to Shake" and Mary Timony's "Clap Your Hands" (which is fine, but still no match for They Might Be Giants' song of the same name). Food plays an important role, too (see Mock Orange's "Holiday Dinner Song" and the Young Fresh Fellows' "Picnic"), as do animals (Georgie James' "Grizzly Jive," Sgt. Major's romping "Nellie the Elephant," who also gets hipster eyewear on the front cover).

But it also differs from many kids comps. For example, rather than sticking the slow songs at the end of the album, it puts the two slowest songs right at the front. At the end instead is Visqueen's revved-up remake of John Fogerty's "Centerfield." It's not really a kids' song, but as a baseball fan and the parent of a daughter who whacks the snot out of an oversized plastic baseball, it warms my heart to hear a woman sing those lyrics.

More importantly, there's a sense of energy and fun that sometimes is lacking from other kids' compilations -- rather than making kids' songs, the bands simply recorded songs that are totally kid-accessible. Georgie James' "Grizzly Jive" and the Young Fresh Fellows' "Picnic" are two of the best indie pop songs you'll hear all year anywhere. Soccer Team's "I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again" is an advice song whose sheer defiance and exuberance encourages kids to identify with the narrator and totally overcomes the resistance kids might normally have to that type of song. There are handclaps all over the place -- you can never have too many handclaps. Even the songs that are probably more enjoyable for the adults (Ben Davis & the Jetts' "Bouncin' Party" sounds like a cut from Daydream Nation if that album was actually Sonic Youth's kids' album) don't seem pitched at the adults -- they're adult songs that kids might actually groove to. There's a Mudhoney track here called "I Like to Make Noise and Break Things" whose title (and song) will appeal to the knowing adults, but many 4-year-olds will jump around to it, too.

The tracks here will appeal primarily to kids ages 3 through 8. The 39-minute album will be released next week (April 17) via mailorder and iTunes. (The iTunes release will include a bonus track, "Snacktime," by ex-Dismemberment Plan co-founder Travis Morrison.) The in-store (and Amazon, etc.) release date is May 22. You can hear a couple tracks (including the awesome "Grizzly Jive") here. And if you're in the DC area, go check out Rock-N-Romp for more details on an April 22 record release party featuring Georgie James and the Cassettes.

You can tell the artists collected here had fun recording their tracks, and that comes through clearly in the end result. It's early, but in all likelihood Play is the kids' music compilation of the year. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

... and say, hey, we all have an iTunes Essentials list!

That's right, there's now a Ralph's World Essentials list to go along with Zanes' and the Wiggles' lists. Since I, uh, compiled it, let me know which of your favorite RW songs I skipped. Not that it'll change the list at all, but you might feel better.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I'm belated in doing this, but welcome to those of you visiting here from The Poop, the San Francisco Chronicle's online parenting website. (Best. Online Parenting Website Name. Ever, by the way.) The KidVid Tournament was a bunch of fun, but noodle around here for more good kids' music.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ooooh. Top 20. We're definitely getting into "you should definitely know these" territory.

With this entry, your opportunity to enter my contest has now ended. I know there have been a number of entries submitted, but I haven't really looked at them. Might be interesting now that I know what my Top 5 are.

Songs 16 through 20
Songs 21 through 25
Songs 26 through 30
Songs 31 through 35
Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

20. "Hokey Pokey" - traditional: This far into the list, the songs here are usually easily adpatable to whatever variations you want to provide, which helps keep the song itself fresh. So if you want to put your patella in, or gluteous maximus in, or if you're a pirate, your pegleg in, go ahead. My own memory of this song is attempting to do this on roller skates. High comedy. (Listen to Dan Zanes -- with an assist from Father Goose -- give his take here.

19. "De Colores" - traditional: There was a point, very early on in our children's music lives, when probably half of our CDs had some version of this traditional Spanish-language folk song somewhere in the track listing. This is probably why my wife strongly dislikes this song. To this day, I can sing (phonetically) "Daaaaay" and not even get to "Colores" before she gives me "the look." Despite this, and the fact that a good English translation just does not exist, it has a beautiful, loping melody that conveys the point even if you don't understand much Spanish. (Go here for a bad English translation and Nana Mouskouri's version of the song.)

18. "Mama Don't Allow" - Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport: I just found out that this song was written by a man who was known by the name "Cow Cow." It was not his given name (mama don't allow no odd names on the birth certificate, apparently), but I kinda like it. The song, which encourages listener insubordination of the best kind (it's as if Mo Willems wrote Don't Let The Pigeon Stomp His Feet!), is a great music and movement song. (Hear a snippet of Fox & Branch's version or Brady Rymer's version.)

17. "Oh Susanna" - Stephen Foster: 160 years old this year, Wikipedia describes the lyrics here as "nonsense verse," which worried me, because the lyrics make perfect sense to me. OK, "It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry," doesn't make perfect sense, but it's songwriter's license. Kids love the "Oh Susanna" part. (Thankfully, Foster's shudderingly racist verse is no longer used.) (I kinda like Brian's energetic if slightly off-key version on the We Are... The Laurie Berkner Band DVD, and YouTube offers a copyright-unclear version here.)

16. "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" - traditional: First printed in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag (see my review of Dan Zanes' take on the book), the melody is what sells the piece. Oh, and the ad libs artists throw in when they're singing about, say, wool pajamas ("itch, scratch" says Laurie Berkner). And I say we throw the part about killing the rooster back into common usage. Kids gotta know where their dino-nuggets are coming from, though I guess they offer tofu dino-nuggets now, too. (Oh, you can find tons of great versions -- Laurie Berkner, Raffi, and Pete Seeger, to name just three -- but this made my day.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Once upon a time there lived a man with a kids' music website. The website was well-regarded, but even that had its downsides -- he received so many albums and artists worth discussing that to fully discuss them all would far exceed the time the man had available to him for his reviews.

One day his wife, a wise and gracious woman, suggested that he might combine fairly brief reviews of albums with some merit into a small grouping, or "bundle," thereby accomplishing his desire of writing about the albums without overly taxing his time.

And so the man was presented with three albums, all dealing with stories in and with songs.

The first album, Truly Hairy Fairy Tales, from New York musician Doug Waterman, most closely resembled the music the man typically reviewed. With a voice reminiscent of Jim Gill and a folky style and humor much like Jamie Barnett, Waterman retells familiar fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk and the Ugly Duckling. Most of the retellings are conventional and not very hairy at all, though some, like the amusing "Snow White and the Seven Dorks," earn the moniker. Sometimes Waterman puts a full band together with usually appealing results (the leadoff track "Big Bad Wolf" is a lot of fun, especially with its brass touches). Most likely to appeal to kids ages 5 through 10, you can hear some clips from the 51-minute album here. It's a bit long for listening in one sitting, but taken in limited doses (especially in teaching situations), there are some good songs here.

The second album the man had was Music Tales, the debut CD from Florida-based Musicians Out of the Box. This CD generally combines familiar stories (Goldilocks, the Arabian Nights) with mostly-familiar classical music arranged for string quartet, which serve as musical counterpoint to the words. The musical selections are mostly appropriate ("Carmen" for "Ferdinand the Bull," "Scheherazade" for "The Arabian Nights") and are well-integrated with the expert story-telling. The world premiere of "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" based on a Chris Van Allsburg is pretty good, but I was lost without additional text (at least some pictures are provided in the liner notes. Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" isn't well-served by a selection from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but the album closer, "Goodnight Moon," set to "Claire de Lune," is well-nigh perfect. The stories are appropriate for kids ages 3 through 9 (and stories for kids older than that. You can hear samples from the 66-minute album here. The album is an excellent mixture of classical music and storytelling.

Finally, the most traditional story-telling album is Tell Me A Story, a collection of folk tales from around the world, collected by Amy Friedman with musical accompaniment written by Laura Hall. For the most part, the music on this 71-minute CD remains in the background, opening and closing pieces and typically serving as transitional interludes. It's good, but the focus is on the actors' voices who are performing the stories in monologue. Some stories contain a moral of sorts ("A Sense of Theft"), some are more silly ("Anansis and Turtle's Feast"), and some of a hint of sadness ("The Selkie Bride," which will be familiar to anyone who has seen John Sayles' classic movie The Secret of Roan Inish). The performances are compelling enough to have kept my daughter's attention. The stories are appropriate for kids ages 6 and up. You can hear samples here. The album will satisfy listeners looking for a high-quality storytelling experience.

And with that, dear readers, the man ended his review, satisfied that he had conveyed to you the key points of these three albums. If forced to choose between the three albums, he might have had a slight preference for the Music Tales CD, but that is a story for another time and another place.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One final reminder: you have until tonight to enter our contest to win Freedom In A Box, the great new album from The Deedle Deedle Dees, for your local library or school. Not only will they get a new occasionally historically-themed album (and associated coloring book), Lloyd Miller (Ulysses Dee) will write (and record for the randomly-selected winner) an acoustic song on a historical event or person of your choosing. Who knows, maybe it'll be so inspired that it'll end up on the Dees' next album.

And then you can give that album to your local library or school. Enter now to win.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:22 PM | Permalink

I like deadlines. Be it at work or trying to finish a review, it usually helps me to have a due date, however artificial, staring me in the face.

The same principle underlies the RPM Challenge, which challenged musicians to "record an album in 28 days, just because you can." It was a response to the 2007 challenge that led South Carolina musician Bryan Murdaugh to complete his second Uncle Widget CD, ABC-sides.

Murdaugh must work well faced with deadlines, too, because there are some pretty good cuts here. The leadoff track "Snack Time" has a nice Jack Johnson-goes-electronica feel while "Tickle Monster" relies on the riff from Golden Smog's "Corvette." The songs' themes will be familiar to any preschooler (or their parents) -- the titles alone ("Why," "Makin' a Mess," "Ready To Grow Up," for example) are a pretty clear indication of the concerns here.

One downside of such a quick turnaround time is that there might not be enough time to polish up the songs. Murdaugh plays all the music on the album, including programming the keyboards, drum loops, and occasional bleeps and bloops. (The press release name-checking The Postal Service is dead-on.) Some of the tracks with a more minimalist feel, such as "Ready To Grow Up," work OK, but others, such as "Rockinghorse Cowboy" just sound underproduced. (And the two more obvious message songs on the CD, "I Need To Share" and "I Wanna Help" fall into this latter category, which makes the message harder to endure.) The downside of the RPM Challenge is that it precluded taking another month or two, which could have been used to polish these songs either lyrically or musically.

Given the fairly direct topical aim at late-preschool-age kids, the 33-minute CD is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 6. You can hear samples from all the tracks at the album's CD Baby page or "Makin' a Mess" at Uncle Widget's homepage. [And, for those who care, it currently comes produced on a CD-R. Not a big deal to some, but might be to a few.]

While this is by no means a perfect CD, ABC-sides contains some really good songs. A lot of artists would be lucky to write and record that many good songs in a month. Given the opportunity to fine-tune his songs, Bryan Murdaugh's next Uncle Widget CD (the forthcoming Uncle Widget... Goes To First Grade) is probably one worth watching out for.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I posted my review of If You Ever See An Owl from The Terrible Twos nearly a year ago. I've had a long time to think about the record, and given that time, I haven't changed my opinion one bit -- it's a fabulous record, a hoot (pun intended) for kids and adults alike. It's getting its long-awaited national release on Vagrant/Poquito Records next week so I thought this was a good time to reprint (and update) my review.

*********

The Terrible Twos are a side project once removed. Singer-songwriter Matt Pryor, of the emo band the Get Up Kids, formed the New Amsterdams as a side project with a more alt-country sound. With The Terrible Twos (the New Amsterdams to a man), Pryor has shifted his subject matter back maybe 15 years, targeting the young nieces and nephews of the New Amsterdams fans.

And with If You Ever See An Owl, Pryor and his band have crafted an album that will entertain those nieces and nephews along with their parents and aunts and uncles. Melodically, it's reminiscent of alt-country/Americana-pop artists like the Old 97s, Rhett Miller, and early Ryan Adams, with some Death Cab for Cutie and hints of Wilco thrown in for good measure. (Obviously, it's most like the New Amsterdams themselves.) Acoustic rock of tempos both fast and slow, melodies wrapping their way around your brain. The uptempo "When I Get To Eleven," about a boy's acceptance of growing older, makes counting to 11 a lot more fun than it has any right to be. The love song to a little girl named "Vivian" is worthy of lovesick Miller or Adams. And "A Rake, A Broom, A Mop, A Shovel," just like They Might Be Giants' "Violin" turns a very angular song into something enjoyable.

Lyrically, the 32-minute album covers ground familiar to many kindergarteners -- math, burping and being polite, the problems of a birthday too close to Christmas ("Caroline, don't worry about birthday time / Don't think that on 22 / There's none for you / It's just not true" on the shiny "Caroline"). It's unclear if Barney was the inspiration for "We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs," but a purple dinosaur stars in a treacle-free song about tolerance. Elsewhere the lyrics target the parents as much as the kids (the disappearing baby of "The Little Houdini," the kid in the driving "Pizza and Chocolate Milk" who says "Don't try to force me to eat vegetables I hate / You may think I'm kidding / That I won't win / If I keep screaming you'll cave in.") But throughout the album there runs a feeling of love and affection for the subject matter (and kids who serve as the inspiration) that distinguishes the album from many others.

Kids aged 4 through 10 are most likely to enjoy the subject matter and the occasionally slow-paced song. The Terrible Twos' e-card lets you listen to "Ladybug," "When I Get To Eleven," and "We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs," while their Myspace page has "Ladybug" and three more songs. (Oh, and you can listen to samples of all the songs here.)

Due to unspecified release issues, the album was for a long time only available at New Amsterdams shows. I can only think of Wilco's troubles in getting their terrific album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot released after getting dropped by their own label. It took a great deal of effort before the album saw the light of day and attracted great praise, perhaps more than it otherwise would have. If You Ever See An Owl deserves not only a release but lots of fanfare to accompany that release, because this is an album that's going to make lots of kids and parents very happy. Now that it has the national release it richly deserves, let the happiness commence. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After a furious day and a half of voting from more than 100 readers, we have a winner in our first (and probably not last) KidVid Tournament:

PIECES OF 8IGHT! from Captain Bogg & Salty

Frances England's "Tricycle" put up a good fight, but when you've got one of that video's stars, England's son Liam, voting for the competition, well, you know you're facing an unstoppable force.

So the heartiest of congratulations from this landlubber to Captain Bogg's crew and to all the artists whose videos have amused us here the past few weeks. You have acquitted yourself admirably. I cannot offer you pieces of 8ight, but I can offer you my admiration.

I will be randomly selecting a winner from the voters in the final and asking which CD they'd like to receive.

Now, for one last time, your KidVid Tournament 2007 champion, "Pieces of 8ight," from Captain Bogg & Salty:

(And because what tournament would be complete without "One Shining Moment"?)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you haven't voted yet (and, frankly, with the number of times I've posted this, how could you not), go here and do so.

Lots of pirate talk, lots of tricycles, and a relative minimum of trash talk. (Heck, Frances and Captain Bogg voted for each other's videos, so, really, no put-downs needed.) Plus, you could win a free copy of one of the finalists' CDs.

Avoid scurvy, win the Tour de France in your underpants, and vote now.

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:53 PM | Permalink

It's Tuesday, and my baseball team is undefeated. So it's not too late for me to update my list of baseball songs. But first...

My very first major league baseball game(s) were watching the Minnesota Twins in the Metrodome (for School Crossing Guard Day(s). Really). So I was excited to hear The Hold Steady have recorded "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (download at their Myspace page). It's exactly what you'd expect a Hold Steady version of the song to sound like -- half-spoken/half-sung, massive guitar solo. It's also got a shout-out to the Metrodome, which is fine, but maybe Craig and the boys aren't getting the Minnesota papers in Brooklyn -- the Twins are getting a new (open-air) stadium. (Watch MTV's video of Finn recording vocals here.)

It's also a good time to mention Ben Rudnick and Friends' new sampler album The Challenger Baseball Song and Other Hits, proceeds of which will go to benefit the Challenger Division of Little League Baseball. The title track is a zippy Rudnick-ian jam, and the other tracks are a good selection of the band's music. Learn more and listen to sound clips here and here.

*********

There are very few sports-related children's songs that come to mind. I can understand why, as sports like football and hockey require a lot of equipment and are typically for older kids (this is especially the case for football). Basketball and baseball are easier to play, perhaps -- less equipment, introduced at an earlier age. Since the major sports typically become mostly a spectator sport as we grow up, perhaps it's good that there isn't much children's music about sports since a song about watching other people do something is kinda depressing as a kids' song. (It does make me think that the genre of children's soccer songs is a niche waiting to be filled.)

Here goes:

-- "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (well, duh) -- try Wiggleworms Love You, from the Old Town School of Folk Music (nicely bipartisan, cheering for both the Cubs and White Sox)
-- "Baseball Dreams" -- off At the Bottom of the Sea, by Ralph's World (Cubs all the way in this one)
-- "I'm Gonna Catch You" -- off Under a Shady Tree, by Laurie Berkner (it has one relevant line -- "So I jumped into Saturday / And I had a baseball batter-day" -- yeah, I'm really reachin' here)
-- "Centerfield" -- off Centerfield, by John Fogerty (not kids' music, but a great song anyway). See also Visqueen's rendition on the forthcoming Desoto Records kidscomp Play!
-- "Talkin' Baseball -- off countless albums by Steve Cashman, who just re-records and updates his song -- baseball history lesson in 3 minutes
-- "Big Train" -- off the RTT's Turn It Up Mommy!. About Walter "Big Train" Johnson. I'd probably disagree that he's the best pitcher ever, but that's another blog. Good song.
-- "Right Field" -- Peter, Paul and Mary.
-- "Cryin' in the Dugout" -- off Daddy-A-Go-Go's upcoming Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate album. A humorous song -- "Baseball Dreams" played for laughs instead of nostalgia.
-- "The Greatest" -- Kenny Rogers.
-- "Roll Around" -- Peter Himmelman, off of his My Lemonade Stand CD. A fun, rollicking song about a baseball who retires, then comes back to his calling.
-- "Baseball" -- Milkshake, off Play!. Guest-starring Cal Ripkin, Jr.
-- "The Challenger Baseball Song" -- Ben Rudnick and Friends. All about the Challenger Division of Little League, for kids with mental and physical disabilities.
-- "Baseball, Baseball" -- Stephen Cohen, off Here Comes the Band. [Good call, Gwyneth!]

And finally, an artist reviewed here on this very site wrote me to suggest four more songs, including at least one I'm miffed I forgot... the comments in quotes are the artist's, not mine.
-- "Catfish" -- off Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series. I am unfamiliar with this one. But it's Dylan.
-- "Joe DiMaggio’s Done it Again" -– Wilco and Billy Bragg, from their Mermaid Ave Vol. 2
-- "A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request" –- Steve Goodman – "Classic, and very funny." See "Talkin' Baseball," above.
-- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" -- Brave Combo - "two very cool versions... wacky and fun." It's Brave Combo, how could it not be fun?

If any of you have more suggestions (or can point me to a family-friendly soccer song), leave me a comment.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

A reminder about three contests going on RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE! (Unless, of course, you're reading this on Saturday. In which case, that sense of urgency up above is going to sound sort of silly.)

1. Pick the Top 5 Kids' Songs of All Time -- the person closest to the actual songs (that would be, er, my list) wins a free CD from a selection of my choosing. Entries are due before I post songs 16 through 20, which will probably happen in the next day or so.
2. Vote in the KidVid Tournament Final -- One randomly-selected voter will get to choose between copies of Captain Bogg & Salty's Pegleg Tango and Frances England's Fascinating Creatures, fine albums both of them. Voting closes tomorrow (Tuesday) night.
3. What Historical Event/Personage Should the Deedle Deedle Dees Write A Song About? -- Tell us, and win a copy of the Deedle Deedle Dees' great new album Freedom in a Box, not for you, for your local school or library system.

But that's not all on #3. Lloyd Miller, Ulysses Dees himself, has offered to actually write a song based on the event or person you list. That's right, folks, not only are you contributing a CD to a local school or charity, you're contributing a song to the world at large. How totally cool. So if you haven't entered, DO SO NOW. (Entries are due by Thursday night.) TR would want you to.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I hear good new music that doesn't even have a record associated with it, I'm sometimes tempted to keep it secret, to spring it upon the world when the record is finished.

Luckily, I soon come to my senses, recognizing that not only is that a stupid idea (I'm probably not the only one who knows), but it's a selfish one, of course. And since the sharing, communal nature of much of kids' music is one of its most appealing points, being selfish about good music seems, well, just so wrong.

And so I am happy to share this music from New Jersey-based Key Wilde. Key seems mostly drawn (pun unintended -- really) to the visual arts, but the seven songs from an upcoming CD (listen here) recorded as "Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke" show a playful musical side, too. A number of the songs have a loping folk-country feel, but "Favorite Names" is a fun multilingual punk tune, while "Rattling Can" is an awesome bluegrass re-envisioning of "Rattling Bog."

Fans of Frances England and Dan Zanes should definitely check the songs. (Which, I should note, have already received some airplay on Belinda & Hova's show. See what I mean? Somebody else knows.)

And then, yes, I will tell you when the CD finally comes out.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, we're down to the final contest of KidVid Tournament 2007: "Pieces of 8ight" from Captain Bogg & Salty up against "Tricycle" from Frances England.

I'm really looking forward how these two fun (but completely different) videos do when pitted against one another.

Now, I'm expecting more than 100 comments below based on the response these videos generated previously. One of those lucky voters will get their choice of the CD from which these songs are drawn, courtesy of the artists themselves. (Thanks, artists themselves!) The randomly-selected voter will get to choose, and you're not restricted to the band you voted for -- perhaps you're a huge Captain Bogg & Salty fan and want to see what all the Frances England fuss is about.

Vote in the comments below. Rules: Video with most votes wins. One vote per e-mail address, please. Votes due by Tuesday 11 PM-ish East Coast time.

And remember, this contest is for entertainment purposes only. Please -- no wagering.

"Pieces of 8ight" - Captain Bogg & Salty

This video, directed by Vince Malone, is from the band's fund second album, Pegleg Tango. It's got a sly sense of humor ("Go Bobcats.") and captures the band's energy and sense of play.

"Tricycle" - Frances England

This video is for a song off of England's fabulous debut CD, Fascinating Creatures. The video's director, Jane Holland, says that they "shot and produced the simple little video from a child's eye view." It's simple, but the approach fits the song quite well.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (123)

OK, to begin with, no, that's not the best album cover I've ever seen ("What exactly is she looking at?," you might be thinking). But parenting is about not judging things by their cover and expecting everything to be perfectly designed, because if you do, you'll be disappointed and miss out on some cool stuff.

So My Precious One, the third album from New Jersey-based Miss Amy does have some cool stuff. Unlike her first two CDs, which took a fairly uptempo approach, this CD, released last year, is a collection of quiet songs and lullabies. It's also my favorite of her three CDs. As lullaby albums go, it deftly sidesteps the traditional list of lullabies, only including "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Water Is Wide" as familiar melodies here. While some songs don't work so well (the whistling on the cowboy-inspired "Get Along" being a prime example), there are some sweet arrangements here, particularly the wordless vocals on "Soft As the Snow" and "Goodnight Sweetheart." I also like the sly humor of recording a lullaby called "Are You Ready To Rock?"

These are for the most part actual lullabies, so I'll peg the age range here at ages 0 through 5. You can samples from the album (which also raises funds for the March of Dimes) at its CD Baby page or hear her rendition of "The Water Is Wide" at her Myspace page.

There's no reinventing the wheel here, Miss Amy's My Precious One is simply an album of lullabies that melds tasteful arrangements with a nice voice and sweet melodies. As lullaby albums go, this is a pretty good one.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)