OK, you have folks like Raffi and Ella Jenkins and Justin Roberts -- people who, once they started recording music for kids, showed little interest to breaking away from that and recording for adults. But there's a long history of "adult" artists dipping their toes into the world of kids' music -- Carole King, Johnny Cash, Harry Nilsson, Tony Bennett, all the way up through They Might Be Giants, Lisa Loeb, and Barenaked Ladies and every artist who's ever recorded a song for kids' music compilation. Some, like TMBG (or Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie long before them), spend a lot of time there, but usually the artists return to the world of checking for fake IDs and adult themes.

Which is what makes watching Chris Ballew, longtime Presidents of the United States of America member, so interesting to me. In less than four years, he's released four albums for families as Caspar Babypants, including this week's new release, Sing Along!. Over the course of that time period, Ballew has thrown himself into the project with energy and has tapped a rich vein of creativity. While all four of his albums are very good, this new one is my favorite and one of the best albums of the year.

It starts off with "Bad Blue Jay," with its "Yes, sirs" and "No, sirs" clearly inspired by the "Yes, ma'ams" and "No ma'ams" of the kids' classic "Mr. Rabbit." Next is "Wild Wild Time," which uses an old Beethoven melodic line. And on it goes, with Ballew pulling in influences from all over and creating new folk songs or in time-honored folk tradition, tweaking classics like "Ba Ba Black Sheep" or giving a hint of Beach Boys sound on "Long Long Dream." Also, I really dig Mike "Outtasite" Singleton's rap turn on the classic "Dem Bones." And while Ballew's always been willing to do very simple music for the very young, doing things like getting Frances England to duet with you on "Loud and Quiet" (or Rachel Loshak on the album-closer "Baby Cloud") makes those teachable songs listenable long after the concepts have been mastered.

The album's targeted at kids ages 1 through 5, though hopefully I've made clear that older kids will dig it, too. You can hear samples here.

I really, really like Sing Along! -- the Caspar Babypants disks have been favorites at our house for a long time, and I see no reason why this new album won't join its predecessors in heavy rotation. If he can keep it up, Chris Ballew might just create a body of work for preschoolers to rival Raffi's. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The annoyance some parents feel upon hearing the classics of kids' music isn't due to the melodies themselves. The melodies, in fact, because they've survived for centuries in some cases, are some of the best ever. Parents' anger, rather, is a result of repetition and, sometimes, poor execution. The littlest things, like providing the barest minimum of interesting accompaniment and slightly different (but real) instrumention, can push the date of the inevitable "I can't take this anymore!" way out into the future.

So it is with The Littlest Star, the debut album from Meadows. The band is a side project from musician and composer Keith Kenniff and his wife Hollie (who also perform together in their indie-rock band Mint Julep). Most of the tracks are renditions of standard wiggleworm-y classics like "Shoofly Don't Bother Me," "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O," and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." The arrangements are muted and tasteful, lots of acoustic guitar and piano. Hollie Kenniff gets the majority of vocals here; her relaxed voice induces calm and fits the simple tunes perfectly. Their banjo-assisted take on "You Are My Sunshine" is particularly lovely. The originals (e.g., "Flutter Like a Butterfly," "Three Kangaroos") are pleasant enough, but tend toward the cute end of the spectrum and I found myself preferring the standards to these.

The 33-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 5. You can hear samples at their homepage, but to listen to fill tracks, check out the Unseen Music YouTube channel. You'll probably find Meadows' sound as reminiscent of Elizabeth Mitchell's (minus the inspired cover song choices). I'd go with Mitchell's CDs over The Littlest Star, but the fact that I'm even bothering to compare the two speaks highly of the Meadows' ability to make childhood classics listenable for a long time. Recommended.

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

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time once again for another stroll -- a long, langurous stroll we might not actually complete because we're so tired -- down lullaby lane. The last couple times I did this, I reviewed seven lullaby albums, but maybe because I'm only doing this a year after my last list, I only have three to add. Let's get started... you're probably tired anyway.

First up is my favorite of the trio, New England singer-songwriter Mark Erelli's Innocent When You Dream, originally released in 2007 and back in print once again. Like many lullaby disks these days, it's not a collection of traditional (or even standard) lullabies; rather, the album includes songs by "some of [Erelli's] favorite writers that have a certain tenderness to them," and even subtitles the album "Lullabies and Love Songs." Which is why you get folks like Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Wilco, and Shawn Colvin getting covered here. (I already said how much I liked Erelli's cover of Wilco's "My Darling"; the song is originally from this album.) They are songs of comfort and reassurance, so, yes, lullabies, if not ones with easy-to-remember lyrics. Sonically, the album is perfectly pitched, as if Erelli were sitting in the corner of your nursery or around the campfire, singing to you and/or your child, accompanying himself on guitar. It avoids the common lullaby album mistake of being so overwrought that it'll keep everyone awake. Listen to a couple tracks from the 30-minute album here. Innocent When You Dream is a lovely little album and will soothe all but the most savage beast.

A couple more albums after the jump.

Continue reading "Review: A Trio of Sleepy Disks" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sight of Nicola Heindl's illustration immediately brands it as a Putumayo disk. But take off the animated cover of Acoustic Dreamland, the latest collection from Putumayo Kids, replace it with some tastefully sepia-tinged photograph of, I don't know, a moon rising over a barn, and you could totally sell this collection at Pottery Barn, perhaps.

Which is to say that this isn't so much a kids music album as it is just a kid-friendly album. But oh what a nicely curated album it is. I never would have pegged Wilco as a source for lullabies, but Mark Erelli's version of "My Darling" outshines the original, methinks. Ditto for Elizabeth Mitchell's cover of the Allman Brothers' "Blue Sky." Kids musicians aren't totally shut out here -- Frances England records a new song, "Here With Me," for the collection, and Kesang Marstrand lends a song from her excellent lullaby collection as well. As with many Putumayo disks, however, the value in the collection isn't so much the individual songs as much as it is the fact that someone has spent the time finding the tracks and saving the listener the effort.

The album is appropriate for all ages, though the lullaby nature of means that you're more likely to spin it with kids ages 5 and less. You can sample some of the tracks here. I can totally see Acoustic Dreamland being used at nap time or quiet time or during a nighttime feeding. And, buried on a hard drive and stripped of its album art, long past your kids nap, eat at night, or are ever quiet, listened by you and you alone. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If it's November, it must be time for another album from Chris Ballew's family-music alter ego, Caspar Babypants. Last November it was More Please!; this year he continues to confound Fids and Kamily voters and their Nov. 1-Oct. 31 voting year by releasing This Is Fun!, his third album for families.

The title suggests that Ballew is finally feeling comfortable in this his new skin of family entertainer. And while you never would've known that he was uncomfortable after listening to his first two tons-of-fun disks, it is a clue that Ballew has begun to figure out his calling. That calling? Focusing on preschool-aged kids and younger. It's a group that's tended to be overlooked by many of the artists in the kids music new wave, leaving Laurie Berkner to clean up. But songs like the zippy album opener "All You Pretty Babies" and the gentle punk-in-a-bouncer "Baby's Getting Up" are all about movement and music. Handclaps are big, too, such as on "Look at All These Elephants," which is just rhythm and words. The album is often little more guitar and small percussion (e.g., shakers), though it remains fresh for the most part throughout.

But lest you think the album is just a small music participation class for 2 year olds, This Is Fun! has more than its fair share of earwormy tunes for all ages. Ballew gives old songs new life -- his takes on "Shoo Fly," "The Cuckoo," and "Buckeye Jim" shake off the cobwebs and make them safe for tired parents. Of course his pure pop sensibility is still there on kid hits like the hyper (for this project anyway) "Googly Eyes" and the sweet "Little Ditty." And Ballew knows how to pick guest artists -- Elizabeth Mitchell and Charlie Hope lend their voices to "Dark of Night" and "Mister Rabbit" while the unmistakable bassline of Nirvana's "Sliver" is played by Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic.

The 47-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 1 through 5, though older kids will certainly enjoy the melodies and goofier tunes on the album. You can listen to the album at the Babypants homepage (or samples at its CDBaby page).

With This Is Fun!, Chris Ballew has now produced three Caspar Babypants albums and had three successes. Call it a hat trick, perhaps, but the optimistic album title his latest is indeed appropriately named. Highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was provided with a couple of the album for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Why such a tiny review for such a big superstar as Laurie Berkner? Because it's a greatest hits disk, the future of which is somewhat in doubt in the mp3 era. After all, if your family are superfans, you'll get it just for the three new-to-CD tracks, including rerecordings of "Pig on Her Head" and "Moon Moon Moon," both previously seen on video, and the new track "Open Your Heart." (There's a deluxe edition as well, featuring four videos, including a previously-unreleased one for "Mouse in My Toolbox," which is similar in scope to Berkner's other Nick videos. You superfans will probably want that version.) The rest of you? You might just download the extra tracks from the album you don't have (there are no more than four from any particular album).

But that obscures just how important a songwriter and performer Berkner is for the pre-K set. As a whole, it's a solidly constructed disk, with no major omissions -- I personally would've included more tracks from her debut Whaddaya Think of That?, but all the big tracks are here. And over the roughly 15 years or so Berkner's been performing for kids she's compiled a catalog of songs that would be the envy of just about any kids' musician. "We Are the Dinosaurs" is a stone-cold kids' classic, for example, one that works equally well performed live by a band and performed by your preschooler's teacher. "Moon Moon Moon" is the only lullaby written in the past hundred years that I actually sing to my kids. And "Victor Vito" is cheesy, dorky, and stuck in your brain for the next week now that I've mentioned it. And so on.

While other artists slowly slide up to the 4-to-8-year-old age range, Berkner's continued to make music -- darn good music -- for preschoolers. So while I'm not sure many regular readers actually need The Best of The Laure Berkner Band! given the relative lack of new songs, as a collection of some of the best original music for preschoolers of the past twenty years, it's highly recommended.

(Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the regular edition of the album for possible review.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple years ago, I put together a review of seven lullaby albums. It's time to do another review of lullaby albums that have crossed my desk in the past six to nine months and, what do you know?, there are seven more. Must be a lucky number.

The most striking lullaby album in this collection is Until the Light of Morning, the recently released album from New Yorker (via London) Essie Jain. As Jain notes in her liner notes, the 35-minute album is "designed to unwind itself as it goes along, as the music becomes softer and more relaxed, eventually becoming as instrumental as the heart beat." It's definitely the best-constructed lullaby album here, perfected for moving from evening play time to sleep time. The music and lovely packaging make it a good choice for gifting to the new parent... or maybe even your own family. (Listen to a couple songs here and 3 more from a live Daytrotter session.) Definitely recommended.

Sing Me To Sleep from American Laundromat Records is the latest in the time-honored tradition of getting indie rock artists to record music for kids. The For the Kids series can cross "lullaby disk" off their to-do list, because this fits the bill. The indie artists here such as Stars, Dean & Britta, and Tanya Donelly cover others' songs for the album. As you might expect given the compilation nature of the disk, the definition of "lullaby" gets stretched considerably. I love The Leisure Society's take on "Inchworm," but it gets far too peppy to be a lullaby, and I'm not sure "Little Boxes" is really a lullaby in any sense of the word. (Also, can we please put a five-year moratorium on covers of "Pure Imagination" and "Rainbow Connection," both covered here and a billion other kid-related comps?) Far better are Dala's take on "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and Telekinesis' version of "Can't Get It Out of My Head," along with a number of other tracks.

There's a limited edition with tracks from Julie Peel and the Coctails, and more -- the tracks from those artists in particular definitely aren't throwaway tracks and are probably worth the extra cash, along with a gorgeous instrumental version of "The Sound of Silence" from the Abbasi Brothers. Peter Broderick's "You Are My Sunshine" may induce nightmares, though, and count me among those wondering why Say Hi covered the Violent Femmes track "Kiss Off" (it does make for interesting listening, though, I'll give it that much). Proceeds from the album will go to The Valerie Fund, which provides support for the comprehensive health care of children with cancer and blood disorders. (Listen to songs from the album here.) It might not be a perfect album, but you can certainly find a good 30 minutes of excellent lullabies. Recommended.

I think these two albums are the cream of this particular crop of disks, but there are 5 more after the jump -- you're bound to find at least one of these that appeal to you...

Continue reading "Seven Sleepy Lullaby Albums (The Sequel)" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I sometimes get asked for baby shower gift suggestions from folks who don't have kids themselves but who know my gig. Because it'll be a little while before the kids are ready for the more raucous and diverse music targeted at the preschool crowd, I limit my suggestions to a handful of lullaby albums. I think I'm going to add Little Boots from Vermont's Brendan Taaffe to the list.

Conceived as a gift of sorts to Taaffe's nephew, it's a quiet collection of traditional folk songs, Irish tunes, and originals that blend instrumentation both traditional (guitar) and not so from a North American sense (mbira, used to particularly good effect on the leadoff track, Pete Seeger's "Well May the World Go"). Seeger is a big influence here -- he endorses Taaffe's effort and gets not only the leadoff track but the album closer, too. It's a little reminiscent of Dean Jones' Napper Delight disk in its instrumentation and that it's not afraid to step lively occasionally. If A Prairie Home Companion did a kids show, this would be the music they'd play throughout.

As a lullaby album (for the most part), it's clearly targeted at kids ages 0 through 3, but even more so at their parents, who could use a calming moment or two. You can hear (and download) four of the album's tracks here and sample the rest of the album here. (One other note in favor of its suitability for gifting -- the album's cover art was done by Dan Zanes' partner in artistic crime Donald Saaf.) Little Boots is a sweet little disk your family may find itself listening long after you've packed up the crib. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dan Bern might not be the first person you'd think to release a kids music album -- a discography filled with socially and politically charged songs (sample: "Bush Must Be Defeated") isn't necessarily the typical precursor to singing songs about binkies. But Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Ella Jenkins didn't exactly hide behind their political convictions, so why shouldn't politically-minded contemporary folk musicians be any less free to sing for the preschool set?

Having said that, if you're expecting you're expecting the just-released Two Feet Tall to be your toddler's introduction to progressive politics, you'll be disappointed. Instead, the album features amusing couplets like this in "Hen Party" -- "They'll be playing ball games / They'll be eating applesauce / One thing we know for sure is / They won't be playing an egg toss." The closest Bern really gets to being political is "Labor Day," and that's really just a celebration of walking outside with an infant.

Instead, Bern's more interested in turning a simple story of putting on pants ("Trousers") into a digression on how pants became trousers (Jack Trousers, 1751, apparently -- strange how Wikipedia is oddly silent on that issue). Or a manic telling via lyrical couplets of the people behind Listerine or Kleenex or Schwinn bicycles ("Mister Lister"). Or telling a child she's too young to do things she wants to do with lyrics that will thankfully go over the 18-month-old's head ("If you came to me and said / I want to hold a shiny red purse and / Hang on the corner of Hollywood and Vine / I'd say / You're too, too, too young / You're too young for that / Why don't you sit on my lap / And we'll drink cookies and milk...").

And occasionally Bern comes up with classic kid-folk songs, like "Shoes" ("I like that you don't have a mortgage / I like that you don't have a mortgage / That's OK when you're old and gray / But today you can run and play / I like that you don't have a mortgage...") "Only a Mouse" lists all the things only a mouse knows -- the migratory patterns of cats, certain qualities of cheese, and mixing a sloe gin fizz, apparently, among other things. There are plenty of other tracks here, such as "Donkey to Brunch," "Secrets," and "Monkey and the Kangaroo" that could easily have been recorded on a Folkways album of fifty years ago. Bern's clearly in love with his kid, and that tenderness comes through loud and clear. Well, at least clear.

Clocking in at 38 songs and about 70 minutes in length, the album could have been trimmed by at least a third, not because any of the songs are bad (OK, I'd be happy never to hear again the vibrating chair in "It Vibrates") but because there's relatively little variation in the arrangements, with whistling or bells occasionally offsetting Bern's sightly nasally voice and guitar (or ukulele) playing. (There's a reason I've been focusing on Bern's wordplay here.) The songs here are most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 4. You can purchase the album at Bern's store or hear samples through iTunes.

As if he were the child of Kimya Dawson, Barry Louis Polisar, and Woody Guthrie, Dan Bern's put together a collection of gentle and witty lo-fi songs that wear their hearts on their sleeves and occasionally achieve transcendance. Two Feet Tall isn't for everyone, but if you know a relatively new parent (or are one yourself) and are looking for an album celebrating infant- and toddlerhood with some roughness around the edges, you might just adore this album. For those folks, it's recommended.

Disclosure: I purchased this album. Is that a disclosure?

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unlike any other lullaby album you'll hear this year, Hello Night is the creation of New York-based singer-songwriter Kesang Marstrand. It's buoyed by Marstrand's simple songs, spare accompaniment, and her delicate, beautiful voice. Especially her voice, which is clear and just about perfect for an album like this.

Many of the songs -- all original -- on the album take inspiration from the natural world, from the opening tracks "Dandelion" and "Carry On Crickets" to songs like "Cocooned In My Blanket," in which the snuggled child thinks of becoming a butterfly. (I also particularly liked the placement of "All the Little Children," about all the adventures the not-yet-sleeping child could have with the singer, at the end of the album.)

If you listen to the 37-minute album repeatedly in the light of day (an occupational hazard of reviewing music), you may tire of the relatively narrow range of song styling and guitar accompaniment. (One of the most welcome tracks is "Rest," which unlike the other songs, features Marstrand accompanying herself on kalimba instead of guitar.) But that's not a huge concern with lullaby albums, designed as they are to be listened to in the background (or subconsciously after falling asleep), for which radical changes in style are not to be wished for.

The album is obviously most appropriate for kids age 0 through 4 and their weary caregivers. You can listen to samples here and here. Families who have found a spot in their record collection for the mellow music of Frances England and Renee & Jeremy should give Hello Night a spin. It's an album you could spend many nights with. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, really, if you're pressed for time, you don't have to read this review of Alphabutt, the first kids' album from Kimya Dawson.

You can just look over at that album cover to the left and decide for yourself.

If you (or your kids) think that cutesy hand-drawn animals pretending to talk letters out of their rear ends are funny or cute or whimsical, you're going to like this album. If you think it's incredibly stupid, you're not.

For those of you needing a little more detail, or if you're not sure where your family stands on the important issue of speech and the mammalian gluteus maximus, read on.

Prior to this year, Dawson was probably best known as half of the duo the Moldy Peaches. Her kids music bona fides were pretty slim, limited to singing on the book version of They Might Be Giants' "Bed Bed Bed." (Though that's more than a lot of people who go on to release a kids album.) She sold an EP of 9 kids songs at her shows in spring 2007 (it was also called Alphabutt), but it was after the stunning popular success of the Juno soundtrack earlier this year (to which she contributed many songs) that she decided to go back into the studio and record more songs with her friends and family. The resulting album (including songs released on the EP) comes out this Tuesday.

Dawson's music at times has been called anti-folk, eschewing the polished craft of a lot of folk music, and that approach certainly is heard here. Toy pianos, choruses with many voices, the occasional indifference to pitch -- if you're looking for the smooth, everything's perfect sound of some kids music, you won't find it here. But to ask Dawson to make everything sound pretty would be like asking Madonna to play acoustic. Sure, it might be a worthwhile musical experience, but it'd be taking away everything that made the artist special to begin with.

The songs here are geared more towards a younger crowd, say, not yet in kindergarten. (It's not surprising to find out that Dawson's daughter just turned 2.) The title track is a little too precious (if you ever wanted to hear the word "butt" and "fart" a dozen times in a kids' song in the span of about a minute, here's your chance), but there are other tracks worth repeated spins. "I Like Bears" is a goofy song with a chorus that goes "I like bears / I like bears / I like bears a lot." It's a lot more catchy than you'd think from reading that chorus, and there are a lot of songs on here that very much sound like Dawson wrote them for her own daughter and purposefully kept them simple on record, sounding a lot like they probably sound in her own household. "Seven Hungry Tigers" is a somewhat more elaborate kids song with fun lyrics ("There are seven hungry tigers in my underwear drawer...") while "Happy Home (Keep On Writing)" matches a dreamy sound to a great chorus ("If you're breathing / you're still living / and if you're living / you are learning... just make sure your life's exciting." And on "Sunbeams and Some Beans," Dawson gets ever-so-slightly political, encouraging a character to "share beans" with others that don't have beans.

As I said, I think the album -- just shy of 30 minutes in length -- is targeted mostly to kids ages 5 and under. You can hear song samples at many internet locations (like here), but it's also possible that Dawson's label, K Records, will post songs for streaming soon.

As you may have surmised, Alphabutt is likely to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it albums. You'll either get it, or you'll think that it's a mess. I personally found it most enjoyable when Dawson reined in the goofiness just a tad -- at times, it's a beautiful album. More importantly, when I gave up trying to listen at a distance and instead joined in with the ears of a 2- or 3-year-old, singing along, maybe even out of tune, I enjoyed it more. I'm recommending the album, but take a look at that album cover one more time before you decide...

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I get lots of CDs, of course, and just like sometimes you'll see a whole of TV shows suddenly appear with the same theme, earlier this year I got a raft of lullaby/sleeptime CDs. I've collected some of the more interesting ones from that rush, plus a few slightly older ones that got overlooked the first time around.

That's right, folks, seven CDs. At least one of them's gonna put you (or your kid) to sleep but in, like, a good way. The list starts after the jump.

Continue reading "Seven Sleepy CDs: A Whole Bunch of Lullaby Reviews" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maybe it's been a long and sleepy week, but I'm very taken by this CD.

Songs For Sleepy Beings is the creation of Michigan's Gretchen Eichberger-Kudlack, who put together Half Moon, an old-timey string band which here plays a set of quiet-time folk music on the first half of this CD. Traditional lullabyes ("Pretty Little Horses") mingle with ever-so-slightly more current lullabyes ("Goodnight Little Gwen," attributed to Woody Guthrie).

The musicianship here is first-rate, with the Half Moon musicians hitting just the right balance of technical expertise and tenderness, saving the album from the mushiness which afflicts many lullaby CDs. The band rightly plays second fiddle (if you'll pardon the pun) to Eichberger-Kudlack, who has a clear, bright voice. Initially her voice seems too bright for a quiet-time CD, but the secret genius behind the CD's appeal is the tracking, as the music and arrangements grow ever-so-slightly dimmer with each track. By the time the CD hits track 7, "Baby's Bed's A Silver Moon," 20 minutes in, her vocals are much more appropriate for a sleepy baby. Following that is another 15 minutes of Eichberger-Kudlack playing familiar lullabyes unaccompanied (mostly) on piano (there's a couple tracks with vocals). By this time your child (or you) will probably be fast asleep.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages birth through 6. You can hear clips at the album's CDBaby page, or listen to some complete songs at the Half Moon music page. The packaging (featuring artwork by Jamey Barnard), I should note, is simple but very pretty.

I hear few lullaby CDs I can recommend whole-heartedly. Songs for Sleepy Beings is the exception -- it meets that high standard. Besides being a lovely gift for new parents, you might want to consider it for your own family. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When you release as many albums on a regular basis as Putumayo Kids does, it makes it hard for the reviewer to come up with new things to say about the CDs. Celtic Dreamland, released in November 2007, continues Putumayo's run of artfully-produced disks. It's the third in its "Dreamland" series, and even the 4-year-old in your family could figure out that it's an album designed for sleepy-time. You may want to explain to your kids how Celtic music -- typically music with Irish or Scottish lineage -- is distinguished from other musical styles, but Putumayo's typically descriptive liner notes may help in that regard.

The music is definitely relaxing, although it may be a bit too sunny in parts for it to be a perfect lullaby album. (I actuallly prefer Ellipsis Arts' collections when it comes to pure lullaby CDs.) There are a number of traditional (Celtic) lullabies here, but as is the case with many Putumayo disks, the foreign language (in this case, Gaelic) in which a number of the songs are sung helps mask those cases where the song isn't really a lullaby. If I had to pick a favorite (or most lullaby-ish) song in the collection, it'd be Susan McKeown's rendition of the traditional Irish lullaby "A Phluirin Mhilis," McKeown's voice and acoustic guitar a lovely combination. (The last 3 tracks, led off by McKeown, are probably the best here.)

As a putative lullaby album, I'd put the age range here at ages 0 through 5, though as with most Putumayo Kids disks, there really isn't an age range. You can hear samples of the 32-minute disk at the album's webpage. Putumayo's still working its way toward an excellent album of pure lullabies, but Celtic Dreamland is a good collection that serves its purpose as a mellow-time introduction to the genre of Celtic music. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Beware the music of a new parent.

Clouded by the biologically necessary attachment to a newcomer to the family, a normally rational person and musician can be fooled into thinking that these feelings are somehow unique to them, that nobody has ever felt like this before about their child. Which leads to rambling output that doesn't really say anything new. (Wait a minute. I'm talking about child-centric blog writers. No, wait, I'm talking new parent/musicians.) If you're going to sing about it, you'd better bring something new to the table.

So it was with a sense of relief that as I listened to It's A Big World, released last week by the duo Renee and Jeremy, that I realized that the duo had generally avoided recording parental pablum (or, when necessary, put that pablum in tasty form). The duo consists of Jeremy Toback, who released a couple of major-label solo albums in the '90s and formed the band Brad with Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, and Renee Stahl, who has also released a solo CD of her own. When they recorded the album, Toback's son was a year old and Stahl was pregnant with her first child. They recorded quickly (the room was soon to become Stahl's daughter's nursery) and deliberately sought out a raw, lo-fi sound.

The promo materials name-check Jack Johnson as a reference, and it's an appropriate one. (For a more kid-centric reference point, think Elizabeth Mitchell, especially the slow songs off her earlier kids' CDs.) There's little more than an acoustic guitar accompanying Stahl's and Toback's vocals, and especially on tracks like "Welcome To This World" (on which Toback sings lead), you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a Johnson-penned (and played) piece. The lyrics on that track, which ostensibly are a welcome to the world for a new child, work just as well for new parents too. But new parents will probably respond to the rest of the album's lyrics, which focus on a child's sense of wonder with the world around them and a parent's sense of protection and care for their child.

There are some stellar tracks here, most notably "Night Mantra," a gorgeous song which sounds like a somewhat happier Aimee Mann track and features Stahl's and Toback's best vocals. "Powder Blue," an original lullaby written by Stahl which would have fit in perfectly on the Innocence Mission's Now the Day Is Over, is a great addition to the lullaby canon. Oddly enough, while many uptempo albums end with a slow song or three, this album, which is essentially a lullaby (or at least a quiet time) album, ends with its three most vigorous songs at the end. Bulked up with just a little more production, "Sleep My Love" and "Shoorahlaywho" could easily be hits on adult alternative radio.

Less successful are the time when the lyrics don't say very much. The leadoff track, "Miracle," begins with the wonderful lines "Are you the sun? / Are you the moon? / Are you the watermelon bug in June?" but ends up with the lines "You're a miracle / uh-huh / A little miracle / Oh yeah." If the song were two minutes long, that part would be tolerable, but dragged out over the song's 4-minute length, it's, well, not so much. And while I appreciated the overall mellow vibe of the CD, the exceedingly slow version of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" makes Mitchell's version sound positively raved-up in comparison.

I'm going to peg the age range for this 39-minute album at ages 0 through 5, picking up again at maybe age 30. You can hear three songs at the duo's website, plus an additional track at their myspace page. (At the moment, you can purchase the album at CDBaby.)

If the review sounds negative, it's only because there are enough stellar songs here that I could hear the stone-cold classic this CD could have been. (Frankly, I can't wait to hear what they come up with after another couple years of parenting.) But even if the album's not perfect, I guarantee you that this album would make a great new-parent or baby shower gift. While it's really targeted at the parents more than the kids, it'll make great quiet-time music for the whole family, even when (or especially when) your child has moved from giggling to throwing very verbal tantrums. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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)

Over the course of just a few years, San Francisco-based Enzo Garcia has released nine albums of original and occasionally quirky folk reworkings of traditional and original kids' songs.

The recently re-released Green is a good example of Garcia's work. One of the primary things I find so appealing about the series is the fact that electronic keyboards, which in many artists' hands is the great bane of children's music, are long absent. Instead, on tracks such as "What Do You Do?," Garcia employs a toy piano. I'm not necessarily a huge toy piano fan, but Garcia's fondness for using instruments you don't typically hear (on albums of any kind) means getting to hear familiar songs in unfamiliar ways. And so on "This Old Man," Garcia is joined by Tom Waits' occasional side man (and budding kids' musician in his own right) Ralph Carney on slide clarinet. Garcia and Carney also team up on a rousing "Drunken Sailor," which spares no lyrics in the tale of the punishments for the inebriated crewmate, Garcia's rolling of the "r's" on "rusty razor" echoing Carney's tenor sax.

There's no track on here that's quite as engrossing as "Hold My Hand" on his Pink CD, but the round on the traditional "My Paddle's Keen and Bright" comes close. (I also liked Garcia's "Dee Dee.") Even more than Pink, Green will be most enjoyed if you participate along with the music. The disks were created to accompany Garcia's weekly music classes, and so if you move around (or accompany with shakers and tambourines) the music here, you'll get the most out of the album.

The songs here are most appropriate for kids ages 1 through 6. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page.

Enzo Garcia is right in the middle of the great folk music tradition that encourages music-makers to take traditional tunes and make them their own. On Green, Garcia continues to help families hear old tunes in new ways (and maybe even start to make them their own). It's as good as any Garcia album to introduce you to his music. Recommended.

[Note: Bryan at The Pokey Pup notes that they're currently running a special offer where if you buy Green you can get LMNO (Red) for free. Easy-peasy. Click here for more...]

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's Alan Lomax for the kiddos.

Released last year by the Alabama Folklife Association and given a new release this upcoming Tuesday, Bullfrog Jumped is a collection of folksongs sung by mothers, grandmothers, and other women in the summer of 1947, when they were recorded on front porchaes and in kitchens by Byron Arnold, a Professor of Music at the University of Alabama. There are some standards -- "Frog Went A-Counrting" and "Skip To My Lou," for example -- but many of these folksongs were new to me, or at least the melody or lyrics were. There are, for example, three different versions of "All The Pretty Little Horses," none of which quite sound like the wistful lullaby has become more than 50 years later. "Skip To My Lou" has about 10 verses, only 3 or 4 of which I'd heard before.

There are some stellar voices on the disk. Vera Hall, whose recording of "Troubled So Hard" was sampled by Moby on Play (and who was definitely familiar to Alan Lomax), has a great song, "Little Lap Dog," here. The voice that made me snap to attention every time I heard it was that of 17-year-old Mozella Longmire, who has 4 tracks on the disk, including "Little Sally Walker" and "Two Little Gentlemen From the Spring." Sixty years later, Mrs. Longmire is still singing in the choir at Mt. Triumph Baptist Church, and it seems to me someone needs to record an album of her singing folksongs. I'd buy it.

The songs are most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 6. You can hear four tracks here, two more here, and samples of all the tracks here.

With 42 tracks in about 36 minutes, sometimes the snippets of songs are just to short to be of much listening interest heard straight through. The a cappella nature of the album can also become a bit repetitive for an entire disk. But as a sampler and recording of songs familiar and much less so, the recording (which sounds great for a recording 60 years old) and the liner notes (of Smithsonian Folkways quality), should be in every library and preschool.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With experience singing in Old Town School of Folk Music Wiggleworms classes, Chicago-based Ann Torralba would seem a logical choice for recording a CD targeted at the preschool set. And sure enough her debut kids' CD as "Little Miss Ann," Music For Tots, is geared for exactly those kids. A folk-poppy blend of traditional kids' songs, covers, and originals, the 22-minute disk is notable for its arrangements, which take out-of-the-ordinary approaches to familiar songs. Sometimes these arrangements sound great, such as on "You Are My Sunshine," which is given a different melody and jazzy percussion background, or "Pirate Ship," which employs a tin whistle to fun effect. Other tracks' arrangements aren't as endearing (the rhythm on the Pete Seeger-inspired "Edamame" was just, well, too angular, for example), but Torralba gets points for at least trying something different. (And I particularly enjoyed the Torralba originals.)

The disk is appropriate for kids ages 1 through 5. You can hear samples of all the tracks (and purchase the CD) here. With its reinterpretations of traditional songs, this disk would work really well in preschool programs. And while I don't think the CD will become the favorite of many families, Little Miss Ann's musical and lyrical re-interpretations on Music For Tots are good for the occasional sing-along for young families.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The first region-specific release in its Dreamland series, Putumayo's Asian Dreamland collection was released earlier this month with, yes, a collection of lullabies from Asia. Coincidence or not, it's one of the few areas of the world that Ellipsis Arts hasn't covered in its collections of world lullabies.

Although I keep an open set of ears when it comes to music, after more than three decades of listening to it, I've certainly developed some preferences, and one of those is a general indifference to music from Asia. I think it's perhaps the stringed instruments found in many Asian melodies, which may be relaxing to some, but not to me. So it came as little surprise to me that my favorite tracks on this 32-minute disk were those that downplayed the stringed instruments, such as "Cradle Song," from the Tatarstan artis Zulya, or "Aka Tonbo," a Japanese lullaby sung by Aiko Shimada and Elizabeth Falconer. Instrumentals like "Asadoya Yunta," which features a shamisen, a 3-stringed instrument similar to a banjo, were less pleasant to me. As slow as the instrumentals were, they would definitely keep me awak.

But one of the advantages of youth is that the ears of the young haven't developed their prejudices like their stick-in-the-mud dads, and so it's possible your kids will be incredibly relaxed by this collection. At the very least, it's a user-friendly collection of traditional Asian tracks supplemented by Putumayo's always helpful liner notes (you think I could identify a shamisen by myself?) A collection of lullabies, it's most appropriate for kids ages 0 through 6, though I'm sure older kids interested in traditional Asian music would find this a useful starter. Listen to Real Player samples here. Again, this collection is not for everyone, but if you're willing to try something new, Putumayo as usual offers you a good place to start.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Austin-based artist Sara Hickman has been making albums for well over 15 years now. I can remember owning a cassette with her self-produced debut Equal Scary People (who knows where that tape resides now?)

Several years ago, Hickman decided to record a kids CD inspired -- of course -- by the birth of her kids. And so in 1999, Hickman released Newborn, a collection of songs for "parents who have trepidation about singing to their newborns." Half collection of lullabies, half something more uptempo, the 40-minute album generally succeeds, usually in more the uptempo parts. A simple swinging version of "A-Tisket A-Tasket" or a gentle reading of Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" -- pleasant to listen to. And Hickman gives her own "A Slice of Heaven" a nifty a cappella treatment. Less successful are the lullabies. I'm a parent who has no trepidation about singing to my kids, and the lullabies here intimidate me, actually. "It's Alright" is a song Hickman created for her 4-month-old daughter, and while the lyrics are sweet and give great comfort, Hickman's strong voice is a bit overwhelming. Maybe I'm wrong here, but it doesn't sound at all like the way I would sing to a colicky baby -- it's that version that I want to hear. The lullabies are fine (I've heard much worse), but they don't always sound the way lullabies might actually be sung.

Now, if the first album occasionally suffers from a bit of preciousness, Hickman's 2001 follow-up Toddler suffers in no way whatsoever in that regard. In about 43 minutes, Hickman records 31 tracks of silly songs, playground rhymes, and a few stories that do a much better job of showing how simple it can be to just sing for your kids. In writing notes on the CD, I repeatedly used the word "fun" to describe the tracks. From the instant-classic playground chant "I Like My Boots" (co-written by Hickman and 8-year-old Kristen Nichols) to the zippy "Weenie Man" to the ear-wormy melody of Hebrew folk song "Hiney Rakevet," Hickman seems to be having a blast. It's multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and a blast of energy from start to end. Unlike Newborn, Hickman also uses a few more instruments (on both albums, the playing is great).

Sara's choice of album titles makes it remarkably easy for this reviewer to peg the age range, though I'd go a little on the older side, 0-4 for Newborn, and 1-6 for Toddler. You can hear samples and read lyrics for Newborn here and a few samples from Toddler here.

Sara Hickman has crafted a couple nice CDs here. With some sweet melodies, Newborn might make a nice gift for a parent-to-be and is recommended, if only because it's not totally lullaby-driven. But it's Toddler that's definitely recommended -- it's the stronger album and will get much more use owing to the fun evident on the disk.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Take away the cover art of a child sleeping next to their stuffed animal, and there's nothing about The Innocence Mission's 2004 album Now The Day Is Over that would compel its placement in a kids' music section. Having said that, the collection of standards and other songs done in lullaby style was performed with kids in mind. The cover art fits.

In a low-key jazz-influenced style, sparsely arranged and usually just with little more than guitar and bass to accompany her, singer-songwriter Karen Peris gives a hushed interpretation to the songs, lending to the dream-like quality of the recording. This semi-conscious quality is a good fit for many of the songs, such as "Stay Awake" or Henry Mancini's classic "Moon River" and extends to Don Peris' instrumental guitar work on Chopin's "Prelude in A" and Beethoven's "Sonata No. 8." The one original, Karen Peris' "My Love Goes With You," is a sweet lullaby, much closer to traditional lullabies than most of the songs on the 30-minute disk. One word of warning, though -- Peris' voice, though beautiful, has a distinct and somewhat nasal quality to it. I think most people will warm to it, but some might not. (Indeed, the songs I enjoyed less were the ones I'd heard hundreds of times before -- "Over the Rainbow" and "What A Wonderful World" -- and didn't think the Peris' distinct voice and rendition improved upon the original. The kids around you, of course, with no such baggage, won't care.)

As a lullaby album, it's targeted for kids ages 0 through 5, though there's no reason why you won't put it on yourself when the kids are nowhere around and you need some peaceful music. You can clips at the album's CDBaby page. Now The Day Is Over is filled with a sense of goodness that families can find respite in in the course of -- or at the end of -- a busy day. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Josephine Cameron's 2005 release Close Your Eyes isn't really a kids' music album, but at its core it's an album of lullabies both traditional and original, and that's enough to a merit a review here. Based in Maine, singer-songwriter Cameron has a winsome voice reminiscent of Susanna Hoffs -- it's not my perfect voice for lullabies, but Cameron's phrasing and the understated jazzy instrumentals (piano, a little guitar, occasional drums) serve the songs nicely. The CD starts out a bit too loud and emphatic for proper lullabying, though Cameron's duet with Anna Vodicka on a medley of All Night All Day/Swing Low (Sweet Chariot) is enjoyable nonetheless. Starting with track #5, "Dream a Little Dream," however, Cameron puts together a mellow set of melodies, concluding with a lovely wordless "Lullaby" (co-written by Cameron and her producer Anthony Walton). (You can here clips of most tracks here and of the title track here.) Close Your Eyes is a nice choice and recommended for listeners seeking a lullabies album that avoids the standard fare and arrangements.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Raffi generates such strong feelings in people, that it's almost impossible to review the April 2006 release of Quiet Time without addressing some knotty issues. I'm not going to tackle those knotty issues here, but here are 3 "nots."

1. This is not a new Raffi album.
2. This is not a Raffi greatest hits album.
3. This is not a bad album.

This is not a new Raffi album -- You know how you get excited about an episode of a TV show without an "R" behind it, thinking, "hey, this is a new episode!," then get disappointed to find out it's nothing but a "clip" show? That was what I felt on a small level when I realized that this wasn't an album of new Raffi songs; in fact, every single track on here is previously released.

This is not a Raffi greatest hits album -- As the title suggests, Quiet Time is laid-back and calming. So even though the 31-minute CD draws from just about every single album of new material Raffi has released over the past 30 years, it's hardly a "greatest hits" collection. (Which, Raffi's multi-CD collections and concert albums aside, he could sorely use.)

This is not a bad album -- Having outlined what this is not, let's talk briefly, then, about what it is. The album cover calls these "songs for a pause, a cuddle, or a nap," and I think that's a pretty accurate description. Although these are slow, relaxing songs, they are not, for the most part, lullabies. They're gentle songs, a good soundtrack for quiet times and activities. Raffi has a clear and wonderful voice, which serves these songs well. He is a great interpreter of traditional child's music. Your appreciation of the Raffi originals may vary. I found "Spring Flowers" to be a soothing song in which the vocals are almost as much of an instrument as the instruments themselves (it certainly doesn't sound like the music he recorded 20 years before). On the other hand, his "Blessed Be" is overly precious to me, and I find Raffi most appealing precisely when he's not being overly precious. Again, your mileage may vary.

I think the album will be most enjoyed by kids ages 1 through 5. Released by Rounder, the album's available at most online and the usual retail suspects.

This is not the first album I'd recommend for someone looking to start off with Raffi. But for someone looking for pleasant background music to a half-hour of downtime for their child, Quiet Time is a good choice.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the mid-80s, the writer/director John Hughes produced Pretty in Pink, in which the less-than-upper-middle-class main character (played by Molly Ringwald, natch) has to decide romantically between her best friend Ducky and a boy from the "right side of the tracks." To many viewers' great chagrin -- how could you not pick Ducky! -- she picks the golden boy. A few years later, Hughes basically rewrote Pink as Some Kind of Wonderful and reversed the ending, with the main character picking his from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks best friend as his romantic partner. It's a much more satisfying ending.

What does this have to do with Wiggleworms Love You, the 2005 album from the Old Town School of Folk Music. OK, aside from the fact that both Hughes and the Old Town School are associated with Chicago. Well, this new album is sort of like the "golden boy" character with all the advantages compared to the poor original, Songs For Wiggleworms. The first album sounded like it was recorded in an actual Old Town classroom, with time constraints reminiscent of parent-teacher conferences. ("I'm sorry, it's 6:45, it's time for the Sweeneys.") Very few of the songs had anything more than voice and acoustic guitar.

This new album is greatly expanded sonically. It sounds much better, and the instrumentation is, on some tracks, surprisingly full. Percussion, bass, stringed instruments of all kinds (banjo, mandolin, fiddle) -- heck, there's an accordion on seven tracks. It sounds much more like a "folk music" album. (All of this may be the result of the fact that an honest-to-goodness record company, Bloodshot Records, released the CD.)

So why wouldn't you want this CD? Well, you would... if you already had Songs For Wiggleworms. The problem is that they already got most of the great tunes on the first CD. There are fewer of the great "oh, I'm gonna sing that to my young'uns" songs. There are maybe 12-15 songs that meet that criteria on the CD, or about 1/3 of the 42 songs on the album. The other songs are obscure to varying degrees, usually dependent on how familiar you are with the early Raffi oeuvre. (I can't believe I just used the phrase "Raffi oeuvre.") That's not to say that there aren't some great tracks on the album -- "If I Was a Bird," the meta-rave-up "Mama Don't Allow," and the tailfeather-shaking "Looby Loo" are three standouts. But unlike the first CD, on which the listener could sing virtually every song, many without the CD, this CD may be great to listen to but isn't necessarily as user-friendly for taking that out into the daily world with your child.

This sounds like a mixed review, but it's really not. It's just that I think the first album's ragged charm is just so perfect for its intended use that this more polished sequel slightly disappoints. If you already have Songs, I recommend Wiggleworms Love You wholeheartedly. If you don't, I think the first album is the better starting point. The CD is for children aged 0 through 6 and is available through the links above, plus the usual online suspects.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most lullaby CDs are a little bit painful for the parents to listen to. Cheesy instrumentation and American Idol-style over-emoting. Not to mention the same ten songs on each CD. There's only so many ways you can sing "All the Pretty Little Horses." (Or at least there are only so many ways I've heard.)

Thankfully the purpose of most lullaby CDs is such that we parents will not listen to them. But there are times, especially early on in a baby's life, when a little lullaby background music is nice for nursings or bottle-feedings.

So the collection from New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled Lullabies: A Songbook Companion came as a welcome relief from the other poor lullaby CDs I avidly bought before our first child's arrival. The album is a family affair -- parents Richard Kapp (piano) and Madeline Kapp (vocals) and daughters Julianne Baird (vocals) and Mela Tenenbaum (violin and viola). So you have classically-trained musicians playing real instruments and knowing when that over-emoting goes so far. (It's on here, but it's kept mostly in check.)

And when you have 35 tracks on the CD, clearly there will be a few tracks that will be new to you. The selection reaches across the globe ("Fais Dodo," "Suo Gan") and includes some classical instrumental tracks (such as Schumann's "Traumerei") that may very well be the most relaxing and sleep-inducing on the album.

The CD is available either on its own or accompanying a book with assorted child-related art from the Museum's collection and the sheet music. The book also gives the briefest of backgrounds on each song; such descriptions are omitted from the CD's liner notes. Both are available through the Museum itself or online retailers. If you're looking for a lullaby-related gift for parents-to-be, you need look no further than this CD. They may even be listening to it themselves long after their little one is sleeping through the night.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The folksinger Woody Guthrie was a prolific songwriter. Best known as the composer of "This Land is Your Land," Guthrie wrote and wrote and wrote. (Billy Bragg and Wilco combined to make two enjoyable Mermaid Avenue CDs in which they took songs from his large store of unreleased lyrics and added new melodies.) In addition to writing many songs with a more political bent, he also released a couple kids’ albums in the mid-1950s. Both these albums have been released on CD by Smithsonian Folkways records.

Guthrie’s Songs to Grown on For Mother and Child is one of those CDs. It can be a fun CD for singing along with your child(ren). The titles (“Rattle My Rattle,” “I Want My Milk,” “I’ll Write and I’ll Draw”) are pretty indicative of the CD's topical concerns. (No, I could find no references to the labor movement.) The CD says the target audience is kids age 4-6, but I think kids as young as 1 or 2 would enjoy some of the songs.

A warning, though, the production is pretty simple, with many tracks only having Guthrie’s vocals accompanied by a guitar or a shaker. (There's a reason why I prefer Elizabeth Mitchell's or Wilco's versions of Guthrie's songs -- better vocals and/or better melodies.) If you like your productions polished or you dislike folksinging, this isn’t the CD for you. Over time, the CD has received less attention in our household for those reasons. But if you are more interested in folksinging, you may just find this to your taste.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Elvis of children's music would have to be Raffi. His own "Behind the Music" episode wouldn't be nearly as interesting as, say, Motley Crue's. But the category of "children’s music" didn’t exist in record stores before Raffi -- and this CD -- came along.

Singable Songs for the Very Young was recorded nearly 30 years ago. But it still sounds fresh today. Now, if you’re allergic to folk music, you may not like these CDs. The instrumentation is often simple -- a guitar, perhaps, or Raffi singing with no accompaniment at all. But sometimes there’s a full band playing, such as on "Willoughby Wallaby Woo" or "Old MacDonald Had A Band." The CD sounds great, and that may be due to the work of Daniel Lanois, who recorded the album. Lanois went on to do much more famous work creating a great sonic palette for U2's classic '80s era albums and, in the '90s, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan, among others. (So look at it this way -- even if you dislike Raffi, without him, maybe there's no "Where the Streets Have No Name," unless, of course, you also dislike U2, in which case I can't do anything for you.)

For the most part, Raffi sticks to classics and traditional songs. Raffi's own songs are split between "non-message" songs (e.g., "Going to the Zoo") and "message" songs ("I Wonder If I'm Growing"). With the exception of the "message" songs, kids 2 years old (or younger) through 5 years will enjoy the CD; some of the "message" songs are probably more appropriate for 3 year olds. If there's any drawback to the CD, it's that it's less than 30 minutes long. Then again, a little Raffi can go a long way.

One thing that is striking to me about Raffi's earliest albums is the utter lack of reference to the adult world. If you listen to children's artists recording today such as Ralph's World or Justin Roberts or Laurie Berkner (all very good), they will incorporate references to adult television shows or humorous lines targeted at the adults. No such thing in Raffi's work. It is all aimed at the kids' level. Not that it is ever condescending (the great error in bad kids' recordings). But Raffi is clearly not singing for the kids' parents.

I think there's a tendency to dismiss Raffi as an "annoying" children's artist. It's possible that his later work is the source of this frustration. But his earliest work, especially Singable Songs for the Very Young, are CDs your children will love and you will like a lot more than you expected. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With these Zooglobble reviews, I've focused on, for lack of a better word, "daytime" CDs. They're generally peppy, or a little bit folky, and definitely candidates for, well, the car. You know, you listen to the CD at home. You listen to it on the airplane. You listen to it in the car. If a CD can stand up to that repeated (ab)use, then there is definite merit to the album.

I've not talked about "lullaby" CDs because, by definition, neither parents nor kids should be actively listening to a lot of these CDs. The parents should be out of the room and the kids, well, they should be sleeping. They're probably not, of course, but it's nice to pretend, no? Whatever the case, kids are definitely not begging to "play that song again!" when referring to Brahms' "Lullaby."

But good music is good music, no matter when it's played. And my wife and I heard quite a few of these CDs when (she) nursed or (I) gave a bottle to our daughter.

The first thing you should know about lullabies on CD is that there are many CDs that have "lullaby" or "sleepytime" in the title that have no business being used during nap time or nighttime. Next to the "Mozart effect," it's probably the most-overused phrase in kids' music. (Next thing you know, they'll be advertising how these CDs have Bluetooth technology.) Just because the CD has music by Mozart doesn’t necessarily mean that it'll be calming and soothing during naps or feedings.

Naxos is a "budget classical" label and has a CD entitled Listen Learn and Grow Lullabies. The CD advertises that "each selection [on the CD] has been specifically chosen for its soothing and tranquil qualities," and while that sounds like a bit of marketing hoo-hah, this is a pretty "soothing and tranquil" CD. Because these are pulled from Naxos' other recordings, they avoid the saccharine nature of a lot of kids' CDs. You'll recognize the first couple selections ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the aforementioned "Lullaby") by name and some others by melody, but others will likely be completely new to you. They are, however, almost uniformly pleasing to the ear.

While marketed as a "lullaby" CD, nothing except the cultural knowledge of the first couple songs requires pigeonholing this CD as just for kids. Naxos' huge catalog means that it'll be hit or miss as to whether you can find it in your local music store; they're certainly available online.

If I had to pick just one lullaby CD that I would actually use for a child, Listen Learn and Grow Lullabies would be the one.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've talked before about Elizabeth Mitchell's first CD for kids, You Are My Flower. It's a great little CD. If there were any drawbacks to the CD, it was that it was too short (less than 25 minutes) and perhaps too "folk-y" for some tastes.

One her second CD, You Are My Sunshine, Mitchell says, "Hey, you, Mr. Daddy-Guy, I hear ya. I'm gonna make it longer and mix it up for you."

Uh, OK, she doesn't really say that. Or, at least, not that I'm aware of.

But her new CD is both longer and more diverse. And why wouldn't you want a longer CD when it includes great renditions of kids' songs traditional and un-? The alphabet song done in dub-reggae style. A Bo Diddley blues (sort of). Mitchell ups the young parent hipness quotient by covering both Sesame Street ("Ladybug Picnic") and Schoolhouse Rock ("3 Is The Magic Number"). And the covers of some traditional songs with religious backgrounds -- "So Glad I'm Here" and "Jubilee" -- make me happy every time I hear them. The first half of the CD is fairly varied in tempo; the second half is much more "folk" -- very mellow.

The CD is probably best for kids under age 6, but it's truly one of those albums you may find yourself putting on even when your kids aren't around. If you at all liked her first CD, you will like this one. If you've never heard Mitchell, I'd recommend this CD somewhat over the first one. If you hated her first CD, then I just don't know what to do with you. You probably shouldn't continue reading my reviews. The CD is available at the usual online suspects and at her website, You Are My Flower. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It doesn't take much to turn a tired old chestnut of a kids' song into one worth hearing. Usually a little bit of enthusiasm does the trick.

Songs For Wiggleworms, from Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, has 38 mostly classic kids' songs crammed into one 50-minute disc and has enthusiasm in spades. You've probably heard most of these songs ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat," "If You're Happy And You Know It...", etc.) but a few our family didn't know before hearing this CD. Regardless of whether the songs are new or old to you, your child (and you) will enjoy these lively renditions, sung by assorted musicians at the school (even Ralph Covert makes an appearance). The enjoyment of the musicians is evident in the renditions, whose occasionally ragged nature make it sound like you're sitting in an Old Town class. Thankfully, accompanied by little more than a guitar, if that, the musicians also stay away from "Star Search" vocal acrobatics.

There are some French-language and Spanish-language folk songs, too, along with a few non-kids songs ("Twist & Shout") to go along with the English-language classics. My favorite song on the album is "You Are My Sunshine," whose lyrics are modified slightly to eliminate the darker overtones of the original. And the songs I don't like? Well, as I said, there are 38 songs on a 50-minute CD -- just wait a minute, there'll be a new song coming up shortly. This CD is targeted at kids from birth to age 4 or 5.

The CD was out of print for a while, but is available once more here at CDBaby.com. Trust me, I've heard a number of nursery school song CD collections -- this is one you'll actually enjoy and the only one worth getting.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Elizabeth Mitchell helped found the rock band Ida with her husband Daniel Littleton. Unlike children's artists who have given up their "adult" careers or artists like They Might Be Giants, who are now doing both under the same name, Mitchell has kept her "adult" and "children's" careers separate. I have never heard Ida, so I have absolutely no idea what they're like, but You Are My Flower, the children's CD the two of them recorded together, is wonderful. If you like simple folk tunes polished up just a bit to take the roughest of edges off, you probably will enjoy this CD, which includes renditions of a couple Woody Guthrie children's songs. They also cover a song by the blues artist Leadbelly and two by the Carter Family, so you know it¹s not a typical kid's CD. (In fact, this was one of the first children's music CDs I would play even if there were no kids around. The entire album is pretty mellow, but lots of fun (my favorite songs are "This Little Light of Mine" and "Freight Train"). The CD is appropriate for kids from birth to 5 or so. My only complaint is that the CD is only about 25 minutes long (but, hey, it makes up for the kids' CDs that are way too long). You can find more information on Mitchell, this CD, and their follow-up at http://www.youaremyflower.org.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)