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Seriously, doesn't that look great? I'd think it was pretty cool even if my website's name wasn't on there.
Remember, the Family Music Meltdown will be Saturday, Sept. 15th, starting at 6 PM, at Ruta Maya in Austin, Texas. Great lineup (Deedle Deedle Dees, Joe McDermott, Laura Freeman, Telephone Company), cheap tickets, it will be lots of fun.
And many, many thanks to Jay from Lunch Money for designing the poster.
A brief note about an interesting-sounding show tonight in New Jersey. Danny Adlerman and Yosi are appearing at the same show tonight in Metuchen, New Jersey, opening up for Mr. Ray. That by itself wouldn't necessarily lead to a mention here, but what I love about it is that Danny and Yosi are going to play each other's songs. It's kind of like a kids' music hoot night except that it's two artists, not the more typical one, and the hooted artists are actually on stage together, and other people aren't singing. So, really, nothing like a hoot night at all. But still kinda cool.
Ella Jenkins is a legend.
There are rising stars, stars, and superstars in the kids' music world, but Ella Jenkins is a flat-out legend, even though she might demur at the use of such a word.
Three weeks ago, just after her birthday, I talked with her about her start in the field of kids' music, her approach, and her long career recording for Folkways Recordings (now Smithsonian Folkways). Read on for her thoughts on all those things, plus find out one of her nicknames, how she chose the ukelele as an instrument, and be amazed by exactly how many languages she can use in one conversation.
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Zooglobble: The first thing I wanted to say is Happy Belated Birthday.
Ella Jenkins: Oh, thank you! I feel honored. I never tire of people saying it.
So you had a concert on Monday?
Yes. One of the branch libraries were celebrating their tenth anniversary. The person who had introduced me to that library, his name is Scott Draw. I had worked with him at another library, and he knew my birthday was on August 6th and he said, "That's when we're having our anniversary party, it would be nice if we could coordinate it. The Friends of the Library said they'd be happy to engage you if you could do a mini-concert."
And everybody sang Happy Birthday to you, I hope?
Oh, yes, they did that. We were trying to save it for the end, but somebody jumped the gun, I think [Laughs].
This is the fiftieth anniversary of your first album's release on Smithsonian Folkways [in 1957]...
I went to New York City in 1956 and met Moses Asch, who had faith in me and felt there was a possibility [of releasing an album]. He said, send me some material. I had actually brought him a demo disk with about four different songs. He said, you can probably do a recording, but you need to expand a bit, add a little instrumentation, and maybe we can do an album with you. But in the meantime, let's sign a contract, which let me know he was really serious.
That was in 1956, but in 1957 is when he released the album. It was a 10-inch [LP] and it was called Call and Response: Rhythmic Group Singing. That was my focus on how I would teach music, the call and response approach.
How did you settle on call and response as the primary way you wanted to teach music and lead and sing music?
When I used to go to camp, listen to music, or go to vaudeville, I used to hear people like Cab Calloway and Danny Kaye. Many times, the way they used to have the audience join in was like that.
Before then, I used to listen to some early Folkways records. It was back when they had listening booths, where you bought the record and listened to it there, and I would go around the world in that booth. I would listen to a lot of songs from India and Africa, and lot of that was call and response.
And then I was thinking of the music here in my own community -- I grew up on the South Side of Chicago -- and the black churches. Whether you went into them or not, the churches would have speakers out there focused into the street, and there was always this communication between the choral leader or the pastor chanting out and the congregation with a response. When you listen to gospel or spiritual music, you get a lot of that.
So when I went to camp -- I was a camp counselor -- that's how I used to lead songs with the children. And if they wanted to learn real fast, whatever they heard, they would repeat. And if they really learned, they could lead it themselves, or get a different response.
I particularly liked the way Cab Calloway did it with his "Hei-di-ho," so I wrote a song so children of today would know who he is and was, and it went, "I know a man, and the man that I know / They call him the king of the hei-di-ho" and then the children sing "hei-di-hei-di-ho." It's very freestyle, which means you can change it all the time.
One of the things I noticed in listening to a number of your CDs is that you have recorded with a number of different children's groups. You haven't picked a certain preschool and just recorded with them. I'm wondering how you go about picking which school or preschool you're interested in making a recording with.
First of all, I'm always interested in when there is a wide variety of backgrounds and children have many different kinds of experiences. They don't have to be rich children or poor children. I might go somewhere and hear a group of children singing. I'll say, "Oh, I'd like to visit your school." There's a language academy in the community I live in, and the children, from the age of 5, they select a language they use for about seven years. So I thought these children would work because I try to employ a lot of different cultures.
I don't like to have too many polished groups. I like a group that's just in training, or just sing naturally, that's my best bet. So I just choose children that are pretty ordinary.
That comes out in the CDs. The kids are having fun...
They don't have to feel threatened, they don't have to feel like they have to compete. They don't have to feel like they have the best voice ever.
They're having fun. You're having fun singing to them and with them...
At the same time, they're learning a lot. They're learning cooperative skills. Working together. Learning about other children's backgrounds and sharing their own backgrounds. Some children don't have the same sense of rhythm, but they can express themselves. Nobody's going to get punished. If you have one beat that's not what everybody else is doing, maybe we can follow what this child is doing. So when we finish, it's something we've all collaborated on.
You'd mentioned the La Salle Academy, who sang with you on Sharing Cultures with Ella Jenkins... how did you come up with what songs you wanted to record?
I had certain ones, but the children had the opportunity to introduce songs, like the calypso song. Sharing Cultures... if you look at many of my albums over the year, almost all of them have some way of sharing cultures.
Yeah, you could probably subtitle all of your albums Sharing Cultures with Ella Jenkins...
I always try, because I'm always writing new material, and if you add new voices, you're going to get new approaches. There was one child who was studying the piano with Erwin Helfer, a blues piano who teaches kids and adults... [Helfer played on the CD.] We were exploring a lot.
The studio is my least favorite place to record, but that's about the only place you can do it. Sometimes you'll feel freer if you're in a classroom or outside or in a church. I don't enjoy going over and over it again, so sometimes there'll be a few mistakes here and there. It's kinda loose.
To shift topics a little bit, I recently bought a ukelele...
What kind? A baritone?
A soprano. Easier for the kids to use.
In Hawaii, a lot of people use them.
Now the big one you use, is that a baritone?
Yes. It's tuned like the first four strings of the guitar.
And how did you settle on the ukelele?
Well, I used to sing a cappella, and then I started beating on a tambourine, and from there a Chinese drum, and then a conga drum. I would always accompany myself on percussion. Then a friend of mine said, "Ella, you know, you would probably write more melodious songs and sing more melodious songs if you had a stringed instrument, like a guitar." I said, I don't have the time to learn the guitar. Well, this man played string bass, upright bass, guitar, banjo. He said, "I also have a baritone ukelele. It only has four strings. If you can just get the chord relationships, it'll be easy. Start out with the major chords." So I decided to see what I could do. When I finally began to understand the chord relationships, I was very excited. I was able to do more melodious songs. All of a sudden, I tapped on the minor chord. I loved the minor chords -- they used to call me "A-Minor Ella."
All I do is just strum. I just use this to enable me to get my song across. Sometimes there's one chord, sometimes two, sometimes three, I think "I'll Sing a Song, You'll Sing a Song" might have four or five. So many people have difficulties sometimes and ask me, "What chord were you using?" at a concert. One day maybe I'll do an album actually singing chords.
I've got some musical background, but the ukelele is pretty easy to learn...
Yeah, of course, if you're going to be singing and playing, you've got to coordinate that. If you just want to play the ukelele and that's it, that's fine. But if you want to sing... that's another thing.
I've been to Hawaii conducting workshops and I'll say, "Would anyone like to share any ideas?" And they'll play the soprano and be very, very good. In fact Arthur Godfrey was one of those. You're probably too young to remember him, but he played baritone and would play with symphony orchestras.
Getting back to the subject of sharing cultures... you did that from the get-go, on your first album. Did you view music as means to an end of sharing cultures, or was sharing cultures the hook you used to get kids interested in music, or was it just a lucky byproduct that here were two aspects of your life you were very interested in and they happened to dovetail nicely?
You know, when I grew up, I went to an all-black grade school and an all-black high school. Spanish was my first so-called "foreign" language beyond English. But I became interested when I met someone whose family was from Mexico and so I wanted to know more about not just the language but the people. And from there I wanted to know about the dances and hear more music.
When I got out of high school, I worked for a while and then when I went to junior college, that's when I really met students from different backgrounds. I joined a club called YOMP -- Youth on Minority Problems. So every time I would meet people from different background in schools... I met a lot of Jewish kids. When I would go to their house, they would have a different kind of food. Some of them weren't even speaking Hebrew, they were speaking Yiddish.
My background, we used to do a lot of chanting. You know, they have rap today. It was kind of like rap but there were a lot chants and songs that I could share with people at my school.
I then had to focus on what did I want to do with my life... When I was working part-time, I was working at the metallurgical laboratory at the University of Chicago. That's where I met a young woman named Ida Patinkin. She's related to the famous Patinkin family. I was delivering classified mail -- they were working on the bomb, I didn't know that -- all these famous names. Ida said, "You should be in college." I said, well, I can't afford it, I've got to help out at home, and she said that junior college is free, all you have to do is pay for your textbooks. So I said I'll talk to my mother. I talked to my mother and she said if you think you can work part-time and go to school, you can try it.
Going there was a shift, 'cause I knew I was no longer in high school. People spoke differently and I felt more grown up, so I became very, very keen on cultures of other people. So I thought I would like to be somewhere that I can really learn more. I had never traveled abroad -- I had never even flown.
I was always curious. I liked the Spanish, I liked the Puerto Rican culture, and then I was interested in Cuban [culture], so I thought Spanish was good. Then I wanted to find out more about Africa, that should be something related to my background, too. I thought, maybe one day I'll get a chance to go to a lot of these places. But now I've been to East Africa, just last February I went to Egypt...
When I was learning more, then I transferred it to children or if I had workshops for adults, I would share that with adults. Sometimes when I was conducting workshops (for adults who were either teachers in elementary schools or high school) with people taking their knowledge to their students, I thought just being able to know how to say "Hello" and "Goodbye" and "Thank you" in another language, that's an inroad into another language.
And another way that I helped children is by counting from 1 to 10 in a lot of different languages, showing the similarities and differences, like Spanish and Italian are very similar. Working and volunteering in agencies where there are a variety of backgrounds of children, this was one way I could present my culture but learn a great deal about them. So what I do is just gather a lot of this together, and this is how I write songs.
I've been to China a couple times, and when some of the little children came, they would clap their hands very quietly, so I came up with a song: "In the People's Republic of China / little children clap their hands / To welcome all the visitors / From many different lands." And in between you clap your hands. So when I travel, I carry my background growing up on the South Side of Chicago, and then I bring back, not only regular bags, but cultural baggage as well. More stories to share...
I travel around the world and take children along with me. Some of them are fortunate to have traveled before, others not. But you don't minimize it if a child has only been in their own neighborhood. There might be something distinctive of theirs -- the church the child goes to, some children go to private schools. I try to make use of wherever people are, whoever they are.
Sometimes I learn a lot about Africa by riding in taxi cabs. I think I put that on Sharing Cultures about getting in a taxi cab and the man said I'm from West Africa and specifies he's from Nigeria. So I said do you speak Howsa? "No." Yorubalena? "No." What do you speak? "I speak Ebo." That gave me another language, so I said, "How do you say 'How are you?' in Ebo?" And he said, "Que doo." It's very much like Chinese, they go up the scale and say "Chow ma?" But then I found somebody else who spoke Ebo and when I said "Que doo," he said "Azuma," and that was the answer, fine. I try to get pronunciations with sound and then I write out phonetics for the children.
Children love to explore, they like adventure, that's why I choose songs that have a different way of living, so that children can go along with me. Like going on safari, people say go slowly, "Pole Pole" -- they like saying that. Even 3- and 4-year-olds now are great imitators. You imitiate for so long and then you start creating, and that's what I try to stimulate.
You mentioned the dialogue with the cab driver -- how many languages do you know in which you know a couple phrases?
I think on this album (Sharing Cultures), I thanked all the people who were responsible for the album -- the children, the engineers, photographers -- I think I chose about 30 languages and then gave them a bonus language, [I said] "Anksthay." You know what that is?
No...
It's Pig Latin. [Laughs] Just being able to say "thank you"... in Japanese, "Arigatoo gozaiimas" is a big thing.
Or around here where I live there's a senior center where many Russian people live. I say "Good morning," "good afternoon," and "good evening." And if you say the wrong thing, they'll tell you... When I toured India, our guide was Hindu and also a vegetarian, so I ate what he ate and every day he'd say "Namaste" to us and clap his hands together. When you do this often enough, it becomes very, very natural...
I was doing a program on Monday and... we'd let the children come up and count from 1 to 10 in whatever language they wanted to. We'd let the child be the leader and do call and response. When they were done, I'd say thank you in their language. This little boy came up, he didn't speak Hindi, he spoke Urdu. When he was done, I said "shukriya," which is very similar to Arabic, which is "shukra." They were very happy and the mother was happy they could share. Other children are glad that they can count in another language, which is very important because even if they haven't traveled there, they can count.
Oh, yeah. My daughter is very excited that she can count to ten in Spanish.
How old is she?
I have a six-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.
Oh, that's very nice. Those are my kind of people.
Every now and then she'll be somewhere and say "I can count to ten in Spanish," and then count to ten in Spanish.
And they're proud of it. Children like to explore numbers and colors. They like adventure... I'm doing a program in Yakima, Washington in October. I'll do a keynote presentation and then two other little workshops. One is exploring number concepts and the other is call and response. I try to do a lot of these call and responses as questions and answers so that you remember what the answer is -- "What's the matter with the team? The team's all right. What's the matter with the team? The team's all right. Who said so? Everybody. Who said so? Everybody. Who's everybody? Children. Who's everybody? Children. Yay, team." You go through it two or three times. And then pretty soon, when you say, "What's the matter with the team?," they'll all say, "The team's all right." I tell them that when I was in high school I used to go to football games and basketball games and all the track meets, and they'd always have cheerleaders. I'd give them the cheerleading chants.
I'm sure the kids learn it more than if you're saying a word and they're merely repeating it. It keeps it fresher for the kids and for you because don't have to say the same thing every time and they're not saying the same thing every time. You're doing it in such a way that they're picking up the pattern.
Children nowadays are pretty sophisticated. They've heard about people in space, they know about people going to the moon -- I can never get used to that because the moon seems like it should be so mysterious and now it's hard to believe somebody can actually walk around on that moon up there.
Do you think kids sing more or less than they used to? It seems to me perhaps that there are fewer opportunities for structured singing --
Children go to day care, children's camp in the summertime... if you have some family where's there music in the house, you'll find singing. Some people [think] if you cut out music in the schools, you'll have less. But children like popular music today, and you'll find children singing with the current rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues...
But it sounds like you don't think kids are singing less than they used to...
No... before the program started on Monday, I had my harmonica and while these children were sitting on the floor, I went along and was playing. I said, when you guess one, I'll move on to the next song. I started playing "London Bridge," and they were eager to see if they could recognize the songs, so they immediately started listening to the harmonica. I played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Mary Had A Little Lamb," all of them, and when I was done, I said "Test is done" and they said, "OK, give us something more difficult." If I sing this [doo-doo-doos "This Old Man"], most of the children, whatever age, they know that's "This Old Man."
Are there musical ideas you pick from other musicians or other music you hear, or is it mostly folk-based...
I like to go and hear other people entertain. I enjoy what they do and how they do it. I'm not a copier. It's like when rock-and-roll became popular, and people said let's record some rock-and-roll for children... I like what other people do. I love to go and hear all kinds of material -- jazz, rock-and-roll, those I care for more, I will attend more. I appreciate what the people are creating are doing. I like to hear real cabaret people, real sophisticated. As for incorporating, I like Latin music and I try to, not imitate, but capture some of the spirit of the Afro-Cuban music, but copying, no...
A lot of people use my approach because they're doing a lot of teaching, but I tell them you don't have to copy, because when you share your songs, the children are going to relate to you and your personality.
I remember reading one of your past interviews where you said Moses Asch never came to you and said, well, can you record a kids' rock-and-roll record... I can't picture what an Ella Jenkins rock-and-roll record would sound like. Your records are very much you -- just talking for three-quarters of an hour, you're no different in person, so to speak, than you are on your records.
There's a lot of good talent around, and if you have something to offer and share, then share it the best way you can... But I don't like people playing too loudly for children or sing songs that are in bad taste. That's why it's very important when you're sharing a program -- I don't politick on stage. I have my own feelings about things, but I try to encourage children to have respect for themselves, respect for others and to understand there are other people besides themselves... [I say] I'm not the only one who makes up this show, all of us -- audience, light, sound -- are a part.
One last question. I'm wondering if you are working in any way on a new CD or DVD.
Every day I'm writing something. Sometimes I have random thoughts and I think I would really like to put those down I might either speak them myself or have a variety of voices... but there are some things I've needed to say and have wanted to say for awhile.
One of the focuses I've had lately is people overusing their cell phones when they're pushing those little strollers down the street. A song from the child's vantage point: "I'm sitting in my stroller / And I feel so all alone / 'Cause Mom used to talk to me / And now all she does is talk to the cell phone."
Ella, you've been more than generous with your time with me and I wanted to say thank you very much. It's been a privilege talking with you.
As they say in Spanish, "Du el mente."
Gracias. Guten Tag, as they would say in German.
"Guten Tag!" Your German is good. Bye-bye.
Photos courtesy of Adventures in Rhythm
I play the violin and not the fiddle, so my bluegrass bona fides are slim. But I'm familiar with Del McCoury, who's been making bluegrass music for a long time, and making music with his sons for a couple decades or more.
No, Del does not have a son named "Little Mo'" -- that's just a fancy moniker for one of his sons, Ronnie McCoury, who essentially leads the Del McCoury Band through a kid-friendly bluegrass album. They're billing this self-titled Little Mo' McCoury album, released this week, as the first all-bluegrass album for kids, which it pretty much is, though there are other albums that come close to the mark (Phil Rosenthal's Folksongs & Bluegrass For Children collection, Grisman and Garcia's Not For Kids Only, which McCoury cites as an inspiration).
The album could have been an excuse to run through traditional kids' songs in a bluegrass style -- think something like Pickin' On Raffi -- but thankfully McCoury and his band avoid the cliches and provide a nice introduction to bluegrass. In fact, the strongest tracks here are the ones most kids and many listeners, including this one, will be unfamiliar with. "Barefoot Nellie" is an instrumental showpiece, guaranteed to get all but the most somnolent kids hopping. "Mama's Blues" features some great banjo picking from Ronnie's brother Rob in which the instrument takes the place -- and the voice -- of a young child.
Most of the rest of the album also works well. There are solid renditions of old standbys "The Fox" and "Teddy Bears' Picnic," which will be familiar to a number of listeners, and McCoury's original "My Friend, My Guitar," co-written with his wife Allison, is a decent song which also illustrates how to play a G-run guitar lick. I can't say that their takes on Randy Newman's Toy Story song "You've Got a Friend in Me" or the traditional "Big Rock Candy Newman" were revelatory -- I'm too used to other versions, perhaps -- and a few other songs left me with a similar "that's nice, what's next" feeling, but the playing throughout is expert.
Given the songs covered here, kids ages 2 through 7 are most likely to enjoy the CD, though this is more of an all-ages set than many. You can hear clips from the 49-minute CD all over the internet, but you might want to check out their Myspace page for four cuts, or my most recent NPR appearance to play the energetic "Barefoot Nellie."
There is nothing revolutionary about Little Mo' McCoury, it's simply a nice mixture of well-played kid-focused and kid-friendly bluegrass tunes that will serve as a decent introduction to the bluegrass genre. It's another sign that hopefully the kids music genre is maturing a little bit and expanding beyond the folk and pop-rock that has been its bread and butter up to now. Recommended.
I'm at home this week, doing some spring cleaning (yes, it's a summer thing), finishing the last Harry Potter book, and spending some quality time with my family.
Oh, I'm also going to Texas for the first-annual Austin Kid's Day.
Yes, on Sunday, Sept. 2nd, I'll be at the event, which features a fun kids and family music lineup, with Joe McDermott, the Biscuit Brothers, Trout Fishing in America, and headlining the show, Aunty E. There will also be a bouncy castle, which I may or may not be allowed to jump in.
I'll be at the show thanks to Aunty E. (Thanks, Aunty E!) I'm looking forward to hearing her live, along with the rest of the lineup. Look for pictures of, interviews from, and other thoughts about the show next week. (Also, I promise to reduce my prepositions.)
The show will take place at the Glenn at the Backyard. Doors will open at 1 PM on the 2nd, with music starting at 1:30 PM. Tickets are $17 for adults, $12 for kids, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than Schlitterbahn. (More details at the website.)
If any readers out there are planning on going, drop me a line -- I'd love to say hey.
Well, I can't explain it, because it's been out-of-print due to contract disputes (see director Cory Edwards' explanation here). It's certainly not cheap on Amazon ($30+) or eBay ($50+).
But I ordered (and received) this week a brand-new, sealed copy of the awesome Hoodwinked soundtrack (Top 10 of 2006 for me, here's my review) for about $15 delivered.
I don't know how long this will last, but my guess is, not long. Where is it?
Go here.
While you're at it, go ahead and listen to Zooglobble Radio. It's still a work in progress, but fun nonetheless.
Plenty of YAKMAs every week, but fewer that mention your (occasionally) humble writer as this one does. Call this a YAKMAQM -- Yet Another Kids Music Article Quoting Me. (OK, that's a silly acronym.) For the second time this summer, it's in a paper I used to receive on a daily basis, this time the News & Observer. The article is a nice little run-through of the Triangle's nascent kids' music scene.
If you found your way here from that article, kids' music fans of all stripes -- Tar Heels, Blue Devils, the Wolfpack, or whatever -- are welcome here. Thanks for stopping by.
It's been a little while since I checked in with the coolest dude from the hottest thing in our solar system -- that's right, Mr. "I'm From the Sun" himself, Gustafer Yellowgold. Well, not literally, mind you, since he's an animated character, the creation of New York artist-musician Morgan Taylor.. What I mean is, it's been awhile since I paid close attention to their Myspace page, and lo and behold, a new song is up.
"The Mustard Slugs" starts out with a cheesy Casio keyboard $80 full-sized Lowrey Genie family organ from 1979 (that's Rachel's description, not mine) that never really goes away, but is joined by other supporting instrumentation (including an irresistible bout of hand-clapping) and a fun story about some multiplying mustard slugs.
"The Mustard Slugs" is one of the tunes on Gustafer's second DVD/CD set, Gustafer Yellowgold's 'Have You Never Been Yellow?' (hah!), which will be released on October 16 (with pre-ordering available at the Gustafer website starting September 10. I have no reason to believe that this new album will be any different from the first (Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World), in which the Nick Drake/Matthew Sweet-esque retro-poppy tunes mixed with the slightly odd "musical moving book" style of animation makes for a hypnotic viewing experience, and even separated from the visuals, the songs stand up on their own.
A long-awaited Land of Nod Nodcast Podcast with Elizabeth Mitchell and Ella Jenkins is finally available. Daniel Littleton and daughter Storey join in on the fun. Elizabeth sounds pretty much in awe of Ella (a not uncommon condition when in the presence of Ella Jenkins, I assure you), but the four friends have fun. My favorite part? When Storey takes the "lead role" in "John the Rabbit," though Ella's and Elizabeth's duet on "Who's Gonna Be Your Man" that follows is very good too.
Amy Winehouse won't be there, the Paul Green School of Rock will. The schedule was always set before, but the Austin City Limits Festival (Sept. 14-16) has added some more details regarding its 2007 Austin Kiddie Limits activities. Instruments to noodle on, tattoos, dance lessons, hip-hop lessons -- lots of stuff to do.
See the complete schedule here.
Let the rumors for the "Special Guest" each day from 3:15 to 3:30 begin!
(My suggestion? The Del McCoury Band finishes their set 2:30 Friday. I think they could do a little Little Mo McCoury stuff at 3:15, no? Jack White on Saturday? Jeff Tweedy Sunday?)
Yes, Bill, I'm excited. Very excited (and thanks for the heads-up). They Might Be Giants' next album, Here Come the 123s, will be released by Disney Sound on October 2. You can preorder the DVD/CD set from Amazon here. This Might Be a Wiki has the tracklisting here, but since it got pulled from the Disney Sound pre-order, let me list it after the jump...
It's not entirely clear if the list of tracks is in CD order. I don't know whether I like the "numerical" order of things. Looks like the number 11 got screwed, though... I mean, 7 gets two songs, and no love for 11. You think "7," and you think "11," too, right?
Here Come the 123s
Zeroes
One Everything
Number Two
Triops Has Three Eyes
Apartment Four
High Five!
The Secret Life of Six
Seven
Seven Days of the Week (I Never Go To Work)
Figure Eight
Pirate Girls Nine
Nine Bowls of Soup
Ten Mississippi
One Dozen Monkeys
Eight Hundred and Thirteen Mile Car Trip
I Can Add
Nonagon
Even Numbers
One Two Three Four
Oooo Laaa Oooo Laaa
Heart of the Band
Hot Dog!
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Theme
I've written before about the slight conflict I feel when hearing new stuff -- keep it secret until it's ready to be unleashed upon the world or let everybody know, right away? I almost always err on the side of sharing (it's in my mission, duh) and so that's what I'm doing here.
Go forth right now and listen to the 4 songs posted on the Myspace page of Brooklyn's Rowland's Ramblin' Family Band. It's a very rootsy/folk blend of original and traditional songs, some written for kids, others merely kid-friendly. The songs come from a home-recorded EP that guitarist Chris Mills admits sounds a little rough around the edges, but the songwriting and solid musicianship come through. (A couple band members are also in Bloodshot Records' The Silos.)
The song you're mostly likely to hear when you get to the page is the raggedy and sprightly "The Lemon Drop," but make sure you also listen to the lullaby "Little Dreamer." It's the last track that gave me the most Band-like vibe. Which makes it not-too-surprising to hear that they're playing this Saturday's Kid's Ramble with Levon Helm. Heady company for a band who only just posted songs to their Myspace page yesterday.
Fans of Dan Zanes, Dog on Fleas, the Hollow Trees, and Session Americana should especially check them out...
There is no other way to say this, so I'll state it up front -- I am going to be unfair to Mae Robertson in this review.
I could blame this on Robertson herself, but, really, it's me. Or our family. You see, her debut CD, 1995's All Through the Night, recorded with Don Jackson, still gets regular rotation at our house. We first heard it when our daughter was still an infant, and it was the soundtrack to many a bedtime routine or midnight feedings. (Here's my original review.) It was one of the first good kids and family CDs I heard and it is, without hesitation, my favorite lullaby CD.
Robertson recorded three albums of lullabies before moving back to Alabama from the New York City area in 2000 and recording 2 albums for adults and a Christmas album. Earlier this year, she released Dream, in which she returned to the lullaby world.
In some ways, little has changed since that first album of lullabies, now 12 years old. To start out with, Robertson's voice has lost none of its smooth luminosity. It is one of my favorite voices in all of music, and to hear it is to feel the warmth of a towel just out of the dryer. Robertson also has a broad-ranging view of the definition of lullaby. Her debut featured two songs made famous by Elvis, and on subsequent CDs she covered Van Morrison and the Talking Heads, among others. On Dream artists such as Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Tom Waits get her cover treatment. She certainly picks some familiar songs (Radney Foster's "Godspeed," which the Dixie Chicks sang, and Bob Dylan's "Forever Young," perhaps best known in Rod Stewart's cover) but also covers some less familiar territory.
In spite of these similarities to her debut, this album left me uninspired. I think the reason has to do with its production. Make no mistake, the backing musicianship here is first-rate. But it's just way too much for an album of lullabies. "The One Who Knows," a Dar Williams track which Robertson cites as an inspiration for the CD, leads off the album, but is way too uptempo and, well, loud for such an album. It's not like the drummer goes all Keith Moon on us, but the mere presence of the drums is such a change from that debut, which was all hushed and didn't have a drum to be found. Other musical flourishes (the guitar on Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes" or the piano on Waits' "Midnight Lullaby") would sound great on an album of mellow adult pop, but were hard for me appreciate in the context of a lullaby CD.
Like most lullaby albums, it's most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 5 and their parents. You can hear samples from the 47-minute CD at the album's CD Baby page, or you can hear a couple full tracks at Robertson's Myspace page.
So I'm probably being too harsh on Robertson here, not because Dream is bad musically (because it's not), but mostly because Robertson hit the ball so far out of the park and probably hard-wired the lullaby part of my brain to forever set my preferences for quieter, simpler songs. This album has some lovely renditions, but it's not an album I envision I playing at nighttime. If you have different preferences, you may like this for its intended purpose. And if you're like me, then get All Through the Night.
Remember I told you that Bill and I would be hosting a really cool kids' and family music show on Saturday, Sept. 15th in Austin?
Really, with the Deedle Deedle Dees, Joe McDermott, the Telephone Company, and Laura Freeman? How could you forget?
Anyway, we have a name for the evening of music, seeing as how "Austin Kiddie Limits" and "Kidzapalooza" were already taken: the Family Music Meltdown. The title comes courtesy of Austin-area musician Mr. Leebot. (Thanks!)
And if you're gonna be in Austin that weekend, you need to join us. Well, not "need" as in you "need" air to breathe, but, y'know, it'll be lots of fun.
He doesn't have a lot of friends, though you can change that. Or check out Harold or Penelope, perhaps.
(Really, it's nothing that hasn't been done before -- if a Wendy's hamburger patty can do it, why can't these guys? Too bad it'll only be the parents and not the kids who get to join the viral party.)
News from Josephine Cameron that she'll be releasing one track a week for free from her upcoming September release American Songs Vol. 2 at Cameron's Myspace page. First up, "Oh Sister," which is actually a Cameron original, a slow track about friendship and support. There's nothing particularly kid-focused about the track (and it's probably too slow to keep younger kids engaged, at least on CD), but it sounds like it'll be at home among a host of other much more traditional songs. Fans of Cameron's last CD, Close Your Eyes (review) and other traditional music should make sure to stop by the Myspace page weekly as tracks are added...
I tend not to report on single-artist tours, but a note from Gwendolyn of Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang made me realize that we're starting to see more cross-country tours here. I mean, sure, Dan Zanes is like the Bob Dylan of kids' music, playing anywhere they'll have him, and Ralph's World and Justin Roberts are racking up the frequent flyer miles, too. (Laurie Berkner would as well, but she's not touring much, period.)
But now we're seeing slightly less familiar artists making the trek across the country. Brooklyn-based The Deedle Deedle Dees are heading out to Texas, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Melissa and Ellen & Matt, both LA artists, recently trekked out to the New York area (they popped up on Spare the Rock last week. (The The Sippy Cups are playing everywhere in between, too.)
And now Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang are putting together an honest-to-goodness East Coast tour. If you're in the neighborhood of the following venues at the following times, do stop by...
Sat/Sun Oct 21 & 22
Children’s Museum of the East End - Bridgehampton, NY
Sat Oct 27
11am: PB & Jams at World Café – Philadelphia, PA
Sun Oct 28
10am: Citibabes Annual Halloween Bash - Manhattan, NY
2pm: Brooklyn Botanic Garden – Brooklyn, NY (“Ghouls and Gourds” festival)
Mon Oct 29
4 pm: Brooklyn Central Library, Dweck Center - Brooklyn, NY
Tue Oct 30
4 pm: Bay Ridge Library - Brooklyn, NY
Wed Oct 31
6:30pm: Mamalu – Brooklyn, NY (Halloween show)
Thu Nov 1
10 am: Williamsburgh Library - Brooklyn, NY
Fri Nov 2
9:30am: Elephant Steps - Norwalk, CT
6 pm: Borders Books - Simbsbury, CT
Sat Nov 3
2pm: The Children’s Art Museum – Shelburne Falls, MA
Sun Nov 4
11am: First Act – Boston, MA
3:30pm: Brookline Music School – Boston, MA
The other day, I posted a video of the Jellydots performing a new cut, "San Diego," as part of the Tricycle Music Fest in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Well, the finished version of The Jellydots' "San Diego" is now available as a free download from their Myspace page. It'll be on their upcoming release Changing Skies, which is, according to the page, "almost done!" (Interjection Doug's.)
I think you'll find it a valuable addition to our modern lifestyle. Or, at the very least, your family's mp3 collection.
BURBANK, CA -- Executives with the Disney Channel today notified the Consumer Products Safety Commission that it was instituting a voluntary recall for nearly 2 million copies of its highly-anticipated soundtrack to the High School Musical 2 movie, scheduled to be aired on the Disney Channel this Friday.
"We know that many families were planning on listening to this CD over and over and over and over and over and over...... and over" this week, said Phyllis Bronwick, Assistant Vice President for Public Relations with the Channel. "It comes as a tremendous disappointment to us that we discovered that the Chinese manufacturer of our CDs was also using the plant to produce lead-flavored chocolate bunnies."
"Although the likelihood that the amount of lead in each CD will produce an adverse health effect in the standard 8-year-old listener is small -- c'mon, people, it's not like they're eating the things -- we have decided in the interest of safety to issue a voluntary recall," Bronwick said.
Jonathan Sanderwhite, a Tampa, Florida parent of three kids, said he wasn't entirely surprised by the recall, adding, "Have you seen the acting? I mean, talk about leaden!"
Disney executive Bronwick refused to comment on whether the radition emitted by iTunes downloads or the televised movie could also be harmful to listeners or viewers.
But many families are saying they don't plan to take any chances. "I don't care -- it's Metallica for our iPods and Superbad for our Friday night movie," says Sanderwhite.
In other news, Disney Channel executives also denied that their popular show Hannah Montana had been pinpointed by the Federal Aviation Administration as one of the main causes of significant air travel delays this summer...
OK, admit it, a small part of you (maybe a large part of you) wishes this whole High School Musical thing would go away. It's overly hyped and relentlessly peppy.
But it's Not. About. You.
Your kids are going to buy this regardless of what you've said about it. Or haven't said about it. Cursing the soundtrack or saying how bad it is (regardless of whether or not it's true) won't have a single bit of influence on your kids in this regard. Complaining that it's not good enough music is for people who have never once taken the easy road in cultural, culinary, or any other contexts.
I've avoided talking about High School Musical 2 or its predecessor for a number of reasons, the primary reason being I've never seen the original. We don't have cable and, more importantly, our daughter isn't quite yet in the HSM demographic.
I've heard the soundtrack and it's just OK. It's not horrible, but there are some nuggets in there. In particular, I've heard "Breaking Free" done by more 8-year-olds than I can count at city music recitals, and it's a song that holds up under the shakiest of renditions.
But that song, like the others, or like the new song in the video below, is little different from songs considered "adult." There's little distinguishing it from what you'd hear on "Magic 96.7," or whatever it is in your neck of the woods.
It might be music for kids, but it's not really children's music...
Remember I told you about new music from the Shins? Yeah, well Nick Jr. has now posted a sneak peek music video from the band here, no, here.
Great, right?
Yeah, unless you're using a Mac, in which you're screwed because apparently the "technology... to support Parents TV on a Macintosh" is not available.
"So, uh, what do you think?," says this MacBook user.
Despite the fact that everybody and their drummer is recording kids music these days, it still takes a certain amount of courage for an artist to release a kids' CD as their very first album.
So kudos to Nashville-based Steve Lee, who chose the "release the kids' CD" page in the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book of his life and ended up producing something quite worthwhile. What Did You Do Today, Stephen Scott Lee?, released at the tail-end of 2006, weaves together some top-notch songwriting and playing around a story of an eventful day in Steve Lee's childhood.
The 61-minute starts with a New Age-y "Good Morning," with Lee's voice gently urging the listener to wake up over some gentle piano. From there, Lee alternates between skits in which he plays a young Stephen Scott Lee and songs which provide some moral commentary on the action. Lee gets bullied around, rides the bus to the zoo, gets knocked out, goes to the doctor, watches a movie, and gets ready for bed. I don't think anybody would listen to the CD for the skits (except for those hooked into the Nashville music scene as some of the skits feature cameos by local artists), but they do provide a context for the songs.
Make no mistake, it's the songs that make this CD so worthwhile. The dozen or so music tracks are solid. Some of the tracks ("Wake Up," "Sharing is Caring") sound a little bit like early Wilco. Lee's voice will remind you of one of the singers from Barenaked Ladies and the music does somewhat, too. Many of the tracks give off a very Polyphonic Spree vibe. My favorite track -- definitely on the album, and quite possibly of the year -- is "Grab A Balloon." It takes a minute or so for the track to pick up speed, but when it does, it's accompanied by a heart so big ("Life is your book, it's being written as we speak / But you should know no matter where you go, your heart is your home") that it's impossible to listen without smiling.
Many of the songs have a definite lesson-teaching component -- share stuff ("Sharing is Caring"), be responsible ("Responsibility Song"), take a breath when you're mad ("Count 2 10"). Normally I tend to discount songs that take that sort of approach, but in this case, Lee and his fellow musicians (a whole bunch of Nashville-area artists) are having so much fun with the infectious melodies that my reservations were wiped out. (Besides, Lee isn't above having a little fun undercutting the moral tone, telling people in one of the zoo-related tracks to "watch out for the doo-doo.")
Kids ages 5 through 9 will be most receptive to the lyrics here. You can listen to the entire album at Lee's Virb page. (You're gonna have to go to his Myspace page to buy the album, though.)
With What Did You Do Today, Stephen Scott Lee?, Steve Lee has captured the highs and lows of being a kid, not only from the child's perspective, but also with some adult 20/20 hindsight. All that, and a tasty musical package, too. Definitely recommended.
Can sequels upstage the original?
The Chicago institution Old Town School of Folk Music released its Songbook Volume 1 last year (review), and the title implied that more was on its way. But could what followed surpass that solid collection?
Yes.
Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Volume 2 & 3, released last week by Bloodshot Records, is its predecessor's equal in every way, and betters it. Over the 2 hours and 20 minutes on the 2-CD set, the School's instructors and friends breathe fresh life into 42 mostly traditional folk songs. These aren't really kids' songs -- they're folk songs (of many sources, from gospel to sailing to bluegrass), written for general audiences. But with few exceptions they're totally OK for kids and families.
In many cases, the artists take a mostly traditional approach, with a healthy dose of banjo, fiddle, and and/or guitar instrumentation. But others take some risks -- the Zincs turn in a spare, quasi-electronica version of the traditional Shaker tune "Simple Gifts," while Scott Besaw engages in some multi-tracking to make his solo recording of "Nine Pound Hammer" sound very full. As sung by Mary Peterson, "Sportin' Life" could easily be a long-lost track from Patsy Cline.
And some of the tracks are just luminous. Laura Doherty's rendition of Donovan Leitch's "Colours" is simple and sweet. "Lonesome Road," as performed by Back Off the Hammer, would fit right in on a Gillian Welch/David Rawlings disk. Cat Edgerton's "Water is Wide" should find its way onto many a lullaby mixtape. If I had to pick a single track from the bounty here, though, it'd be Jacob Sweet's take on Stephen Foster's "Hard Times." The timeless melody and lyrics, combined with Sweet's voice and the harmonies, are enough to give the listener goosebumps. There are a few tracks I'll skip over because I don't like the vocal style, but those are definitely the exception, not the rule.
Even more so than the original, this collection is appropriate for kids, with very little in the way of subject material parents might object to. Call it appropriate for kids ages 4 on up. You can download Nora O'Connor's excellent recording of "Home on the Range" here, and listen to samples elsewhere on this fabulous thing called the Internet, about which you won't hear a single song here. I'd also note that you can get this album for less than $15 in most places. It's a great deal.
Songbook Vol. 2 & 3 is chock-full of renditions of classic songs that are part of the American song DNA that will please many an ear. If this is how good the sequel is, then Volumes 4 & 5 had darn well better be in the works. Highly recommended.
When I posted that song from Lunch Money the other day, I knew that there was more good stuff on its way, and now it's here, courtesy of the Tricycle Music Fest's blog. Y'know, for a first year of a music festival, the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County done good.
The first track is another great uptempo track in the vein of "Cookie As Big As My Head," except this one features dinosaurs, so it's bound to be a massive hit.
Lunch Money - "Tiny Dinosaurs"
The other new track posted is a slower song featuring a "ribbit, ribbit" singalong chorus. It's more of a story song than I'm used to hearing from the band, but it's still a sweet listen.
Lunch Money - "Somehow a Frog Finds a Pond"
OK, you already know how great I think the DeSoto kids' comp Play is.
But Pitchfork reports today that Nettwerk, headquartered in Canada, and who've already released a couple decent kids music comps in their For The Kids series, is compiling a third installment, to be released October 2nd. The original Billboard.com article has the track listing, which would have to put it in competition with Play on the basis of the artist listing alone: Blitzen Trapper, Mates of State, Hem, Jolie Holland, and others. Of Montreal strikes me as either an inspired or an insane choice -- we shall see. The album nicks the Great Lake Swimmers' awesome "See You On the Moon," from the 2006 Paper Bag Records kids comp of the same name (that would be last year's Canadian kids comp).
These compilations have never really depended heavily on artists working primarily in the kids' music genre for material, and this edition is no exception. The sole kids' music group? The Sippy Cups, who lend their version of "I'm A Believer" off of their Kids Rock For Peas! for the CD.
Tracklisting after the jump. (Yeah, I'm gonna make you click. I'm so mean.)
Of Montreal: "I Want to Have Fun"
Great Lake Swimmers: "See You on the Moon"
Over the Rhine: "The Poopsmith Song"
Rogue Wave: "My Little Bird"
O.A.R.: "Itsy Bitsy Spider"
Barenaked Ladies: "The Other Day I Met a Bear"
Dar Williams: "The Babysitter Song"
The Sippy Cups: "I'm a Believer"
Anathallo: "If You're Happy and You Know It"
The Format: "Does Your Cat Have a Mustache"
Moby: "Very Long"
The Submarines: "My Darling Clementine"
Kyle Andrews: "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round"
Blitzen Trapper: "New Shows"
P:ano: "Sunny"
Mates of State: "Jellyman Kelly"
Hem: "No Hiding"
MC Lars: "The Lint Song"
Jolie Holland: "Pure Imagination"
Rosie Thomas and Damien Jurado: "As Small as Me"
Another week, another piece of mine on Education.com. This time it's "Five Great Kids' CDs You've Probably Never Heard." Regular readers probably have heard all of these CDs (heck, a couple of the bands listed have been discussed here in the past couple weeks), but if your kids' music diet has been limited to intakes of Jack (the music show, not the bourbon), Disney, or NPR, or assorted award-giving sites, here are five CDs you should get to know ASAP. Go forth and enjoy.
I receive a lot of CDs every week, some good, some bad, but not so many DVDs. I expect DVDs to become a much bigger deal in the world of kids' music here in the next couple years as artists look to connect with their audience in multiple ways, beyond just recorded music and concerts. It's also a way to help artists develop more of an identity nationally. (It's also a way to generate additional revenue, but that would be a rather crass way of putting it, I suppose.)
For the moment, however, the number of DVDs is still more accurately a trickle rather than a flood. Musicians Jim Cosgrove and Eric Ode each released a DVD relatively recently, and it's worth a glance to see the results of some of the early settlers of the kids' music DVD field.
Missouri-based musician Jim Cosgrove has a fanbase of some sort, as a few of his fans have written me over the past couple years asking me to check out his music. Cosgrove has released six kids' CDs and this DVD, Mr. Stinky Feet's Road Trip Live, was released earlier this year. It was distributed by Jack Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers and the same label releasing comedy records by Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy.
I wish I could say that I understood what draws people to Cosgrove, but this 30-minute DVD, which is a filmed "live" performance (it appears to be specifically for the DVD), does him no favors. Only a few of the songs, such as "Little Red Wagon," generate any interest on repeated hearings. Perhaps kids might enjoy shouting "P.U.!" over and over in "Stinky Feet," but it gets tiring quickly. And Cosgrove's lengthy banter is mostly limited to explaining what people should be doing to interact with their songs. I'm not opposed to between-song banter, but it just seemed labored compared to, say, Trout Fishing in America, who could probably release a whole album of quality between-song banter.
Songs are targeted at kids ages 2 through 6. If you need to see for yourself, you can watch "Put Down the Binky" here. But I've just completely missed the Jim Cosgrove boat. I'm sure those of you who think I'm wrong will tell me exactly why...
Washington-based Eric Ode also has a number of kids' CDs (five) to his credit, plus a bunch of poetry anthologies. He released Welcome to the Workshop late last year.
I don't think this DVD works great, either, though I like it more than the Cosgrove DVD. It misses the mark not so much because the songs aren't good -- some of the songs, like "This Song Has No Elephants" and the rocking "Trash Can," are quite good. In this case, the quality of the 35-minute DVD itself doesn't always reflect quality of the songs. The video is a combination of interlude bits with a cat puppet named Scratch and videos of varying quality. The sound on the interlude bits sometimes drops way out, while the videos range from decent ("Trash Can" and "Worms," for example, could be in-show bits on some PBS show) to not very good ("Corner of a Cloud" is pretty boring).
This is one of the better videos and songs, the very meta "This Song Has No Elephants." If you don't like this, then you're definitely not going to like the rest of the DVD.
If you think Eric Ode smiles a lot in that video, you're right. The entire DVD is like that -- Ode is nothing if not genial. It's a completely safe DVD and songwriting approach, and so parents and kids looking for a bit of an edge, any edge, will probably find this too safe. It's probably most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8.
Watch a trailer here, the bluesy pop-rocker "I Love My Shoes" here, or the kid-poppy "At the Library" here.
Even though I can't really recommend Welcome to the Workshop, I think it shows promise for future DVD releases by Ode and his compatriots. And fans of Ode's CD output will probably find it a pleasant visual accompaniment.
But I think the bar for kids' music DVD releases, if not high now, probably will be considerably higher the next time both Cosgrove and Ode release a DVD.
There are a number of releases in the works for the rest of 2007, but none I am anticipating more than the second album of South Carolina-based trio Lunch Money. It's approaching three years since the release of their debut CD, the small gem Silly Reflection (review), and that's just way too long, y'know? Their lo-fi songs, slightly remiscent of Yo La Tengo or Spoon at its most minimalist, have stayed fresh after repeated listening...
So thanks to Gwyneth, who caught the band's set at Chicago's Summer on Southport Festival a couple weeks ago, and preserved this new track for the world (or at least the world with access to YouTube) to see. "Cookie As Big As My Head" is another instantly catchy melody (though the bass seems particularly high in this mix) married to sharp lyrics ("By the way, my cookie policy is / I'm a chocolate chip girl / We can [something] Pecans and walnuts / [something else] Is winter coming? / Are you trying to tell me that I look like a squirrel? / I want a cookie as big as my head...") OK, I'm sure the lyrics will be sharper on disk. [Note: Thanks to Lunch Money songwriter extraordinaire Molly Ledford for setting things straight in the comments.]
Thank goodness for the internet. Without it, there'd be no way for me to show you Jim James' kinda-accurate impersonation of Kermit the Frog at this weekend's Kidzapalooza. Here he does "Rainbow Connection," accompanying himself on banjo:
And if that wasn't enough, James, the front man front from the excellent My Morning Jacket, turns Alvin and the Chipmunks' novelty hit "Christmas Don't Be Late" into something almost haunting. Yeah, it's August, but it's worth a couple minutes of your time...
It's not clear how many kids were actually in that crowd of what looked to be primarily people over 5' 6", though...