The Muppet Movie is a hard act to follow. Released in 1979, there have been a number of Muppet attempts to duplicate the first film's magic, none of which quite succeeded. I think that's due primarily to the first film's soundtrack, written by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, which was nominated for an Oscar, and remains today a source of inspiration and cover songs. Now comes the latest attempt, the Disney-produced movie The Muppets, which is released on Wednesday, Nov. 23rd, starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, and, yes, a whole bunch of Muppets.

Let's get this out of the way up front -- The Muppets Original Soundtrack isn't as good as the soundtrack to The Muppet Movie. It's too closely tied to the movie for the most part to provide the universality that the Williams-Ascher tunes did.

But.

Once you drop the notion that this is going to be as timeless as songs like "Rainbow Connection," you (and your kids) can enjoy the music from The Muppets on its own terms -- as a very good movie musical, fitting well into Disney's storied movie-musical history. It's not like you need to see the movie in order to understand what you're getting into (and I couldn't make the pre-release press screenings so I lack the context for the songs), but the soundtrack lays it out pretty clearly, even adding about 15 dialogue interstitials from the movie.

So that means you have familiar tropes like the character-introducing opening number (the excellent "Life's a Happy Song"), Act 2 conflict songs ("Me Party," featuring a duet between Amy Adams and Miss Piggy), and the-song-where-the-villain-gets-to-shine ("Let's Talk About Me," which features couplets like "I got more cheddar than super-size nachos / I got cashflow like Robert has DeNiros"). Those songs and one more were written by Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords), who was music supervisor for the soundtrack and who, therefore, can be blamed for the inclusion of Starship's "We Built This City" on it as well. (Seriously, I don't care how funny the scene is in the movie -- was there no other song that would have worked?)

There are a lot of nods in the direction of longtime fans, such as Kermit's "Pictures in My Head" or Fozzie's cover band The Moopets "covering" "Rainbow Connection." The parents who'll be watching the movie will also be entertained -- the barbershop quartet version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sent the internet into spasms of (totally appropriate) apoplexy, and the Camilla and the Chickens version of "Forget You" (which I like to think of as "Cluck You") is a nifty way to satisfy the mixed audience for the PG movie. You can ignore the mostly superfluous cameos (I would not advise Joanna Newsom and Feist superfans to buy this soundtrack solely for their blink-and-you'll-miss-'em appearances), though Andrew Bird's performance on the "The Whistling Caruso" is cool and actually plot-relevant.

You can hear samples from the soundtrack here. It's totally appropriate for kids of all ages, though I don't expect kids under the age of 5 to be that interested. In the end, is The Muppets an album you'd listen to from start to finish solely for the music? Probably not. But as a complement to what appears to be (sight unseen) a solid entry in the Muppet canon, it works very well. It's recommended for any family who enjoyed the movie and wants to relive the musical high points.

Disclosure: I was provided with an electronic copy of the album for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kids' music often resides in the realm of the real -- the concrete here and now. Music from Southern California's Todd McHatton doesn't follow that formula, especially on his latest disk, Galactic Champions of Joy.

Sure, there's a song about going to the pool -- "Tommy Had a Super Towel," which kicks off the album -- but it's much more about the towel and Tommy's imaginative (and perhaps literal) flights of fancy with it. One "Little Money Man" and "Say Hello to My Hippo," McHatton sings consecutive songs about flatulence; in the former, money appears when the title character "cuts the cheese." And on the final track, the surreal and genius (and totally justified hit) "I Think I'm a Bunny," McHatton takes the role of a monster who thinks he's, well, a bunny, while the young girl he duets with has to convince him that he is, yes, indeed, a purple monster. (I would be disappointed if the song doesn't turn into a picture book at some point.)

The music here is mostly swirling psychedelic power-pop that could have been released at any point in the past 35 years (say hello to the Beatles, or McHatton's hero Harry Nilsson, or Matthew Sweet). It can be gorgeous at times, and it's rarely simple. (This is Exhibit A in the argument against the notion that music for kids need only be bland.) Kids ages 5 through 9 will most appreciate the music (and lyrics) here. You can stream the 47-minute album here.

If parts of Galactic Champions of Joy feel a little bit like a daydream, that's entirely appropriate. The imaginative life of a child can be every bit as important as the concrete day-to-day details, maybe more so, so an album that dives deep into those ideas should be valued. Most families will enjoy at least part of it, but some families will probably find this to be one of their most beloved albums. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Folks like Justin Roberts or Recess Monkey aren't the only kids' musicians who can write a musical earworm that will get stuck in your kid's (and, by extension, your) head. Here are a couple albums by lesser-known artists with their own fair share of hooks.

Florida's Mr. Richard (Richard Peeples) has released his fourth album, Backyard Astronauts, which continues his lo-fi indie-pop work often filtered through the perspective of the wisecracking older brother (Sample lyric from "5-Second Rule": "A pizza slice landed right-side up / If I can just grab it fast enough / I count out loud one two three four / And hope it doesn't taste like floor"). And while he'll write a song making fun of not using "The Good Towels," he's occasionally sweet (on "Birthday Wish," the narrator wishes it was his "birthday everyday," in part so his best friend won't have to move). Peeples' music will remind listeners of R.E.M. and Jonathan Richman, which are not bad musicians to echo. (I also particularly enjoy the bass work on tracks like "Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl").

You can sample the music from the 31-minute album here (and download "Garbage Man" here). The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. It's his best album yet.

If Mr. Richard takes a jangly-pop approach from the '70s to his songs, on his second album Holy Cow!, Gerry Stanek AKA Roy Handy and the Moonshot draws from the rawk of the '60s, with a lot of British Invason influence. Like Mr. Richard, however, Stanek has a bit of a sarcastic streak that will enamor him to the young wiseacres (and perhaps their wiseacre parents). The title track is the most bracing opening song of the year (and my favorite on the album), but if you're looking for a gentler, almost wistful tune, I'd suggest "Tilt-A-Whirl," about going to the local fair and going on the titular ride.

You can listen to "Holy Cow" and the '50s harmonizing on "When It's Time to Go" here (or listen to samples at Amazon or iTunes). The 16-minute EP is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7 and shows continued growth from his enjoyable debut I'm Gonna Be (Your Best Friend).

Neither album is without flaws -- Backyard Astronauts could use a little more polish and lyrical tightening, while the songs Holy Cow! could probably be fleshed out just a little more (he's not the Ramones). But those are concerns more for the middle-aged parent who might have to listen to the disks repeatedly at the request of their kids who'll want to play them a lot. If anything, these albums prove that if you can't find kids music with a bunch of catchy melodies, you're not looking hard at all. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weird, weird, weird, weird, weird.

But in a good way.

I can't imagine anybody would ever call Brooklyn's The Deedle Deedle Dees a typical kids music band. The band's always been content to follow its muse -- chief songwriter Lloyd Miller drawing inspiration from biographies and folklore in writing the songs and the rest of the band providing a wild musical counterpoint. While some of the band's songs (e.g., "Major Deegan" from Freedom in a Box and "Little Red Airplane" from American History + Rock'n'Roll = The Deedle Deedle Dees) are very catchy, they've never been shy about wearing their curiosity (musically and lyrically) on their sleeves. In so many ways, the Wiggles they are not.

Those albums prepare the listener -- sort of -- for Strange Dees, Indeed, which is all over the map, musically. From the very first track, "Ah Ahimsa," in which the Dees talk about Gandhi's non-violent approach to music I would describe as "Bollywood-meets-The-Band," the band lets their many musical freak flags fly. Aided and abetted by producer Dean Jones, the album goes on to feature: dreamy atmospherics on "a song for Abigail Adams," klezmer on "The Golem," the sounds of '40s France on "Marie Curie," and what Miller describes as his attempt to channel Queen's Freddie Mercury on "Sacagawea." That's only halfway through the album, before the spoken-word piece with jazzy accompaniment featuring one of the band member's grandmother recalling the time she (literally) bumped into Mayor LaGuardia ("Mayor LaGuardia's Stomach").

On their earlier albums (particularly Freedom in a Box), the Dees' albums could be an awkward mix of the historical songs and more toddler-focused songs Miller hones in his weekly sing-alongs. But now that Miller's found a separate outlet for some of those simpler songs, what's left over are, with a few exceptions, songs written with older kids in mind -- most appropriate for kids ages 7 and up. You can listen to five of the songs from the album here (or at the player below).

My favorite song on the album is the penultimate track, "Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?," which "Sacagawea" notwithstanding, is the album's stadium sing-along (with bonus hand claps). It's appropriate to me because lyrically, the Dees' songs usually focus on a small facet of a historical personage's life, rather than trying to teach the listener everything they need to know about, say, Sojourner Truth. It encourages further exploration, Henry Hudson-style. With Strange Dees, Indeed, the Deedle Deedle Dees have done their part -- will your family do yours? Definitely recommended.

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

Strange Dees, Indeed (sampler) by Bethbcpr

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking to take a bit of a break after a long tour and giving birth to her son, Portland-based singer-songwriter Laura Veirs decided to do a kids album. But instead of writing a dozen or more songs with kid-friendly themes, she decided to research kid-appropriate folk songs. The result is titled Tumble Bee: Laura Veirs Sings Folk Songs for Children -- a simple, direct title reflecting the simple, direct music inside.

Many of the dozen songs (plus an instrumental reprise) on Tumble Bee will sound familiar to a long-term listener of music for kids or anyone who has more than a couple Smithsonian Folkways albums. (There is but one wholly original track, the title cut.) "All the Pretty Little Horses," "The Fox," "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O" -- these aren't songs that Veirs rescues from obscurity -- they're part of the (American) folk canon. Nor is "Jump Down Spin Around," which Raffi nicked from Leadbelly (and recorded it as "Pick a Bale o' Cotton"). But that latter track -- which Veirs credits to Harry Belafonte (she was struck by his version of the track) -- is given an extra boost of energy on the new album, with a chorus of friends singing along in response to Veirs' words and adding a few stomps for emphasis.

I'd call Tucker Martine's production of his wife's music as unfussy, designed to highlight Veirs' voice and the classic melodies -- why get in the way? Bela Fleck provides lovely (but not showy) banjo work on on "King Kong Kitchie." Colin Meloy duets with Veirs on "Soldier's Joy," making it sound a little bit like a track from some Bizarro Decemberists album where all the song have happy endings. And perhaps my favorite vocal turn is from Veirs herself, yodeling on "Prairie Lullaby."

Given the timeless nature of many of these songs, my typical suggestion of an age range is somewhat foolish, but it'll probably be more appreciated by kids ages 3 and up. (Though perhaps if you start younger, by the time they hit preschool they'll have all the lyrics to "The Fox" memorized.) You can sample the disk anywhere, but for a little while longer, go here to stream the album.

Tumble Bee is a lovely album through and through. Fans of Elizabeth Mitchell's and Dan Zanes' family albums should be especially drawn to it, though this trawls narrower, folkier waters. But it also compares well to albums of Mitchell's Smithsonian Folkways predecessors like Pete Seeger and Leadbelly. Methinks Ruth Crawford Seeger, another one of Veirs' inspirations for the album, would be proud of it. It's a small gem, and while it's not actually a Folkways album, it's a kindred spirit to that tradition. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chip Taylor is a name that might not be immediately familiar to you, but some of the songs he wrote -- "Wild Thing," "Angel of the Morning" -- probably are. On his new Smithsonian Folkways album Golden Kids Rules, Taylor is joined by 3 granddaughters -- the "Grandkids" -- to sing some songs which trade in the urgency of "Wild Thing" for the experienced perspective of a grandparent.

Which, yeah, I know sounds dull, but it's really not. On "I'm Just Thinkin' About What I'm Thinkin' About," Taylor sounds like John Prine channeling a daydreaming kid. "Quarter Moon Shining" might be the most beautiful song I've heard all year, filled with questions all kids ask -- "what's beyond the sky?," "how high do birds fly?," "when old dogs die, where do they go?" -- and (some) answers from Taylor, in a soaring chorus. The grandkids are not an afterthought -- they sing on every track. I don't think you'll tire of their voices -- they sound like real kids singing (in tune), rather than KidzBop shouters.

The project started when Taylor wrote some songs for the wedding of his son Kristian. He wrote three songs for he and his grandkids to perform the wedding, included here at the end of the album. Despite the very personal nature of the project, it's to Taylor's credit that the three songs have enough universality to them to make me, someone who's never met Kristian and his wife Anna, understand the songs anyway. (With just a little bit of lyrical tweaking, "Happy Wedding" could easily become a joyful reception staple for any wedding.) With the exception of "Kids to Save the Planet," which is the only overt "do this!" song and therefore the least interesting one on the album, Taylor's guidance is offered gently and obliquely.

The 38-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. You can download the title track and listen to samples from the rest here. As with all Smithsonian Folkways disks, the liner notes are excellent. Golden Kids Rules would be a perfect "from the grandparents" gift to your kids, but even if you're not receiving the AARP magazine just yet, you (and your kids), you'll probably enjoy the warmth and good humor in these folk-rock melodies. Recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this album for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What do I have to do, people? I tell you -- repeatedly -- about Austin's Biscuit Brothers, and yet they're still not internationally-loved kids music stars.

I suppose I could tell you how Get Up and Go, their fifth and latest album, continues what the Biscuit Brothers have done from the beginning of their TV show (now entering their sixth season on a variety of PBS stations) -- seamlessly blend top-notch musical performances with entry-level musical education. It's always been liking hiding the shredded carrots in the mac-and-cheese, and a song like "Tempo Tongue Twister," featuring the always hysterical Tiny Scarecrow singing a tongue twister that gradually increases in speed (aka tempo) is a perfect example of that. [Note: Tiny Scarecrow doesn't play quite as large a role on this album as he does on others, so those of you who are fans -- e.g., me -- should take note.]

But really, why bother? Why tell you that the Biscuit Brothers band, though Americana country and folk is its home territory, covers the genre ground from zydeco ("The Crawdad Song," of course) to jazz ("Bill Bailey") to surf-rock ("Dance Party") to funk (the title track) with aplomb just as they've always done if you're not going to buy the albums or watch clips from the shows. There's no point in telling you that there is more pure joy on a Biscuit Brothers album than almost any other kids music album (which is already a fairly high-joy genre) -- their version of "Little Red Caboose" may be the most fun track I've heard all year.

So go ahead. Ignore me. Your kids aged 3 through 8 who would get the most out of this album can ignore me, too. Get Up and Go is yet another solid album of traditional favorites done fresh and with good humor, mixed in with a few originals, an album which would be a good entry point for non-fans into the Biscuit Brothers show. It's definitely recommended, not that you care.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While the concept of Richard Perlmutter's Beethoven's Wig is kinda genius -- take famous classical melodies and attach often-funny lyrics to them -- I'd kinda found the past couple entries a little lacking, at least compared to the first couple albums. It was the Die Hard of kids music -- starting out strong, but no longer essential.

Well, John McClane won't head back to theatres for a fifth time until February 2013, but Perlmutter is bringing back his own creation for a fifth time in the recently-released Sing Along Piano Classics. If this new album is any indication, you may want to keep that weekend free for moviegoing because Bruce Willis Richard Perlmutter brings back his "A" game.

As the title suggests, Perlmutter uses famous piano melodies as the basis for his "Weird Al"-like parodies, and many of them hit the mark. "A Piano Is Stuck in the Door" reworks Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" to amusing effect, while "Poor Uncle Joe" appropriately talks about death in Frederic Chopin's Funeral March. A death of a car, but still. Most of the melodies are very familiar, and Perlmutter tweaks that familiarity on that in some cases -- lots of nonsense syllables in his version of W.A. Mozart's Sonata in C Major, or a clucking chicken in "My Little Chicken." And his take on Mozart's "Alla Turca" (unfamiliar name, but a familiar melody), which he calls "Mozart Makes Kids Smart," is slyly sarcastic ("Instantly / kids can be / the Little Einsteins we expect now / Did you know / with more Mozart / there'd be no child left behind?").

Given the occasionally tricky wordplay, the album is most appropriate for kids ages 6 and up. The 45-minute album features both versions with and without the lyrics; you can hear samples here. Ironically, given his gentle mocking of the "Mozart Effect," Sing Along Piano Classics is actually a pretty good introduction to some famous classical melodies, pairing some well-loved (and in some cases, centuries-old) melodies with smart and silly lyrics. It's a lot of fun. Yippee-ki-yay, Mozart-lover. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While DC-area heroes Rocknoceros have the chops to write nothing but hook-filled pop-rock tunes, they've always been interested in taking detours musically -- think back to the meta-song "Trying to Write a Song" from their debut.

On Colonel Purple Turtle, their fourth album, the detours become the journey -- few songs here could be recognized as pure pop-rock candy. Which isn't to say there aren't several catchy hooks -- the hilariously cliche-tastic "Early Worm" is a bit of southern alt-country, while the repeating, driving melody of the title track will stick in your head (repeatedly). It's just that the band would rather explore a wide range of genres (sea shanty, babershop quartet, disco, and jazz, to name a few more) or channel, say, Wilco at its mellowest ("Sprouted") or mid-period Beatles ("Echolocation"). The songs tell the stories of the animals of Soggy Bog, where Colonel Purple Turtle lives. Yes, it's a concept album, but for the most part the concept is loose -- the record's mostly a collection of occasionally fanciful character sketches about animals with personalities. (I've not seen the accompanying book, which may or may not provide your kids with additional context behind the songs.) If this all sounds a bit... weird and disjointed, well, it is. I've listened to it several times, and every time I do I'm struck by how odd the overall impression is. It's a fun -- and continually surprising -- album.

The 47-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. (You can hear samples at your favorite internet retailers, or try YouTube for some live versions.) Colonel Purple Turtle is a big ol' grab-bag of styles and as a result might not be everyone's cup of tea, but Rocknoceros fans should enjoy it (they probably have it already) and I'm pretty sure that everyone will find at least a couple songs that appeal to them. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've already reviewed Dan Zanes' latest album for NPR. But there's a lot I can't say in a sub-4-minute review with sound clips, so I thought I'd add a few comments on Little Nut Tree, Zanes' sixth "proper" family album.

First, it's been a long time since Zanes released a "family" album, more than five years. And while Nueva York!, The Welcome Table, and 76 Trombones weren't bad albums -- even the least-satisfying Zanes album is better than 85-90% of family music released in a given year -- they lacked the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink variety of songs that is an important part of Zanes' appeal. It's not the scattershot approach of many kids' albums -- one reggae tune, one hip-hop, one glossy pop -- but rather songs from many traditions, filtered through Zanes' garage-folk lens, which lends his family albums some continuity but keeps the music fresh.

Continue reading "Review: Little Nut Tree - Dan Zanes and Friends" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Somebody just go ahead and give Ashley Albert her own TV show already. In fact, she has indeed been looking for a show, and why anyone as talented as Albert (and as willing to send photos of her wearing a fake mustache as her press shot) isn't yet somewhere on live-action TV is a little mystifying to me. But for now Albert -- kindie's Lucille Ball -- is content to rock out with The Jimmies. On the Jimmies' long-in-the-recording second album, the recently-released Practically Ridiculous, Albert continues the formula for success that made their debut CD Make Your Own Someday so winning: channeling one's inner eight-year-old attitude while marshaling top-notch pop-rock music production as backup for said thoughts.

Stylistically, sartorially, and practically (she's the one constant Jimmie at this point and the songs are all hers), Albert is kindie rock's Gwen Stefani, and on Practically Ridiculous, she polishes most songs to a glitzy pop-rock shine. You can practically smell the hairspray through the iPod on some of the songs, like the blitzing "Birthday," whereas songs like "Minivan Hotrod" or "Career Day" sound like the beats and the AutoTune were stolen from another, much less funny track.

And, really, it's bringing the funny that separates the Jimmies from a lot of other kids' acts. It's one thing to be excited about getting a pet ("Gonna Get a Hamster"), it's another thing entirely to really sell the enthusiasm when Albert as the song's narrator finds out that the hamster won't necessarily do everything she thought ("I'M... STILL... gonna get a hamster..."). This is where her years of experience doing voiceover work comes in handy. "The Hook" is a meta-song, the spiritual sequel to "What's That Sound?" from the first album, that explains pop song construction. (And while I'm emphasizing the humor here, the best track is probably the mostly serious "Bonfire," which mixes a little country-rock with a little self-empowerment.)

The album's most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9; you can hear clips of the album wherever it's (electronically) sold. Practically Ridiculous doesn't veer much from the formula from the Jimmies' debut, but why should it when that one worked out so well? This one does, too, TV's (temporary?) loss is kindie's (continued) gain. Definitely recommended.

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

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you would probably expect, I get many more disks than I could possibly have time to review (unless somebody decides that they want to nominate me for a MacArthur Fellowship). Given my time constraints, there are many reasons why I don't review an album, including it stinks or I can't figure out what to say about it. But there are a number of decent albums with a particular point of view that don't get reviewed in a timely manner just because life goes on. Here, then, are four albums, each with a different approach to the genre -- your family is likely to dig at least one of them.

San Diego-area musician Steve Denyes is a prolific songwriter (see here for a side project of mine he originated), cranking out a Hullabaloo album at least once a year. His latest record Road Trip tackles the theme of, well, car travel (natch), with thirteen tracks covering the experience (truckers' horns, traffic jams, the unfortunate demise of bugs on the windshield). The opening title track is a fun country-rocker, while the rest of songs take a slightly mellower, folkier, Johnny Cash-ier approach. (You can stream the album here.) The album is most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 7. In one sitting, the songs begin to run together, but there are a lot of songs here that would work well in a mixtape for your next trip. Recommended for: your next trip to Grandma's house, your afternoon errand-run.

Moving up the coast to Portland we find The Alphabeticians, a duo consisting of Eric Levine and Jeff Inlay, AKA Mr. E. and Mr. Hoo, which gives you a little sense of the goofiness that this duo trades in on their formal debut Rock. A little bit of the Pixies and R.E.M. (literally, in the case of the song "Eric Saw Peter Buck's Girlfriend and Then He Saw Peter Buck"), with a healthy dose of They Might Be Giants, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and Schoolhouse Rock mixed in. It could use a little more polish production-wise in spots, but there are some great songs in there (I recommend giving "Metaphor" and "Monkey on my Shirt" a spin at the album's streaming page.) The album's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. Recommended for: the sassy younger kids on TV sitcoms, families who have at least one TMBG album (kids' or adult's) around the house, kids who want lots of alphabet practice.

Continue reading "Review Four-fer: Hullabaloo, Alphabeticians, Mister G, Monty Harper" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've always thought of punk music as being pretty anti-authoritarian, which is why I've been surprised to see a lot of kids punk bands be, well, not anti-authoritarian in their music. I suppose it's not that surprising -- how could you sell your music to the very authoritarians (the parents) you're singing against? But I wonder how many parents see the punk outfits and hear the crunchy guitars and think, "not for my family." Pity.

The Seattle band The Not-Its! have always been on the "pop" end of the pop-punk spectrum. Rather than take a full-on punk approach, they sneak themselves into homes and audiences with snazzy color-coordinated tutus and ties and cartoon-friendly album covers. This summer they released their third album Tag, You're It! filled with songs about such dangerous topics as freeze tag ("Freeze Tag"), favorite subjects in school ("Mathematics"), and playing air guitar ("I Love Food"). I'm beginning to suspect that the Kindiependent bands have access to some eternal fountain of hooks that they parcel out to themselves, because this album's filled with catchy choruses and nifty melodic lines. (Lead singer Sarah Shannon's voice and the tight musical backup don't hurt in delivering the hooks.)

If there's a downside to the album, it's that it plays it too safe at points -- saying "Gotta Keep on Tryin'" is a lot better than most songs that tackle the topic of perserverance, for example, isn't saying much. I tended to prefer the slightly off-kilter tracks: the parent-child argument of "Carry Me," for example, will ring a bell with many parents who've gone, well, anywhere, ever with their kids. (And "Puppy Dog" nicks the bassline from Blondie's "Heart of Glass" to call out a poorly trained canine.)

The 31-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear some of the tracks from the album at the band's music page. Tag, You're It! is a short, sharp blast of pop-punk goodness through and through. Safe enough for the kiddoes and the grandparents, regardless of whether they're into Joey Ramone or Vic Damone. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Caring whether your kids have "good" (read: "your") taste in music, books, and movies is a foolish thing to do, so it means something that the day that my daughter said she really didn't like The Muppet Movie was one of the very few times when I actually, well, cared. It's a great movie, a little cheesy at points maybe, but funny and tender, one of the great movie musicals of the past half-century. (Seriously -- there are very few post-1960s musical on the AFI list of the Greatest Movie Musicals, and even fewer created specifically for the screen.)

Why do I relate the story? Well, more so than most albums reviewed here, it's my opinion, not that of kids, which matters here, because Muppets: The Green Album isn't really a kids music album. The album is a collection of 12 Muppet-related songs, drawn mostly heavily from The Muppet Movie or from songs heard on The Muppet Show. Much like Disney's collections of covers from their own stable of American tunes, Disneymania, Disney's approach here is to get popular (critically or otherwise) artists to tackle the Jim Henson-related songs. The fact that some of these artists weren't yet born when The Muppet Show went off network television doesn't seem to have hurt their recruiting efforts. (The fact that the rest of 'em were kids when the show was still on probably helped tremendously.)

And as is the case with any such collection, Disney or otherwise, this album succeeds or fails based on how good the songs are and whether the artists bring anything new to them (or, if they ruin their charm). As to the former issue, I think I've made clear my admiration for the Paul Williams-Kenny Ascher-penned songs for The Muppet Movie, but in addition to those classics, you also have songs like the Joe Raposo-penned Sesame Street song "Bein' Green."

What do the artists do with them? Well, some combinations work really, really well -- punk group the Alkaline Trio give "Movin' Right Along" a fun kick in the pants it didn't know it needed, and Sondre Lerche resurrect "Mr. Bassman," a song from a Muppet Show episode. I liked The Fray's take on "Mahna Mahna" more than I expected to, though it's probably the most faithful cover here. OK Go put their own spin on the theme song, and even though I could do without the tacked-on guitar solo, they do manage to keep the listeners' attention during what is, well, a theme song. And Andrew Bird's take on "Bein' Green" nails Kermit's wistfulness without making his cover a carbon copy.

But following Kermit is a tough act, and while many attempt to cover "Rainbow Connection," very few succeed, and I can't say that Weezer and Hayley Williams from Paramore do, either. As for "Night Life" from The Great Muppet Caper, covered here by Brandon Saller of Atreyu and Billy Martin, I'll just quote my wife after hearing it for the first time: "I never need to hear that ever again."

So, is this a kids' album? Not really. I'll put the age range for the album at ages 8 and up, not because any of it is inappropriate for younger kids, but because unless they've seen lots of Muppets on TV/DVD, they won't have the context for the music. (Older kids can enjoy the music on their own terms, or perhaps even recognize a few of the bands.) For a little while longer, you can stream the album here.

In the end, Muppets: The Green Album has a number of very good recordings from an underrated American songbook. Is it a great kids' album? No. Is it a lot of fun for those of us of a certain age who are still able to tap the kid inside? For the most part, yeah. For those Muppet fans, it's recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this album for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kids music genre these days does a great job with music for the under-8 set, but for the most part abandons the tweens to the vagaries of older siblings and Radio Disney. Where are the albums for kids too old for Laurie Berkner but not ready for Lady Gaga?

This year's best album for that age group is the latest record from the Bay Area band The Hipwaders. It's called The Golden State, and as you might guess from the title, it's a big, sunny power-pop embrace of their homestate, from the Beach Boys-like melodies on several tracks to paeans to life in California (see: "Come To California," "Slow Children at Play"). There are enough hooks here to outfit a pirate convention -- the driving "Hey, Josie!" might just be even more catchy than "Educated Kid" (and my fealty to that song is long-established), while "My Dog Steve" features an insanely catchy chorus that gets even catchier once the "na-na-nas" are thrown in. The trio sounds as good as they ever have.

As for the part about the album being for tweens, that's more of a lyrical thing (though the power chords may also have something to do with it). On the angular "The Wrong Thing," the song's narrator is trying to make better choices: "They say you can’t grow without mistakes / Do they have to count every one I make? / I want to fly I want to soar / I don’t want to keep messing up anymore." "The Ramble," although it's about Central Park's Ramble, celebrates exploring the outdoors and could easily be about the California coast. The band also reworks one of their older tunes, "Stand Up to the Bully" with a ska beat. And while I've always thought the band focused more on boy protagonists (heck, there's a song called "So, You're a Boy") on here, "Go Go Girl" gives a "single-digit" aged girl just as much enthusiasm as any of guitarist/songwriter Tito Uquillas' other protagonists.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 6 through 11. You can listen to samples from the album here. A special shout-out to the album art from Brian Clarke -- simple packaging, but elegantly done.

The back cover of The Golden State features a boy in profile, skateboard in hand, overlooking a verdant valley and lake. It's the portrait of a kid on the verge of exploring the outside world, just like some of the characters in and many of the listeners to the album. It's the same kid who might just be inspired to pick up a guitar after listening to the album. The Hipwaders' best album to date, Golden State isn't just a great album for the tweens in your life, it's a great album, period. Highly recommended.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review.]

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are pitfalls in trying to be objective in reviewing music, especially in the close-knit world of kindie music, where if everybody doesn't know everybody (yet), the degrees of separation are small enough that it makes Kevin Bacon look like a loner. And while I deal with that constantly here, adding a layer of "good works" on top of it all, well, consider this then your grain of salt for the two albums discussed here.

First off is Austin's Mr. Leebot, whose latest album Erratic Schematic is fundraiser for an orphanage in Ethiopia from which Mr. Leebot (AKA Lee Davila) and his wife recently adopted two babies. As I've previously mentioned, the idea of adoption is important to me, so I was predisposed to like this album from the get-go. While Mr. Leebot's sound -- think of him as DEVO's kids music side project -- may not be for everyone, he's started to ever-so-slightly fill out his sound (I like the New Wave sound of "Cleaning Theme"). As a whole, it's Leebot's best album yet. And the track at the heart of the album -- "Our Family" -- should be heard far and wide. (Listen to it here -- just scroll down the page.)

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7. You can listen to samples here.

As for an album geared toward a slightly older crowd, how about Hamlet? That's for high schoolers, right? Well ,The Deedle Deedle Dees' Lloyd Miller would beg to differ, having helped his wife's second grade class to write a musical based on the play. Miller recruited Dog on Fleas' Dean Jones and a couple of the Dees to record the music along with kids in the class. The result, Hamlet: The Album, is alternately rockin' ("Something's Rotten!") and pensive ("Tush, Tush") -- a little bit like the play itself, no? In best Fleas/Dees fashion, the album is ragged around the edges, the Band or the Stones mixed with a Shakespeare and Sesame Street. I'd much rather listen to these kids sing than any number of auto-tuned KidzBoppers.

The album will be most appreciated by kids ages 6 to 11. And if the story behind the album isn't appealing enough, perhaps you'll be heartened to hear that all profits from the album will go to Japan earthquake relief. Listen (or order the album) below.

While neither Erratic Schematic nor Hamlet: The Musical have a broad enough appeal for me to endorse the albums unreservedly for all listeners, both are solid enough albums to merit a listen even without the totally worthy backstories. I think a lot of readers will find a lot to like here. Give 'em a spin, maybe even your ducats. Recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of Erratic Schematic for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. There once was a band from Seattle
For whom writing reviews was a battle
So consistently good
That even though I should
Provide insight, my same-ness would prattle.

2. So instead of writing a review
The way that I normally do
I took a new tack
Went down a new track
To talk about this distinguished crew.

3. The band, of course, is Recess Monkey
A trio, a band made up of three
Guys named Jack, Drew and Daron
On this album they're tearin'
Through more songs both peppy and funny.

4. They've released their album called FLYING!
Effortless, like they're not even trying
This album's their seventh
It's still free of bad synth
And features laughter and (appropriate) crying.

5. In time these three fine young fellows
Have matured, though they've not yet quite mellowed
They write short, sharp pop ditties
For elementary kiddies
With lyrics that quite easily flow [Ed.: Better than this, to be sure.]

6. At this point the band writes succinctly
And perhaps a little distinctly
There's almost no fluff
Or extraneous stuff
The melodies simply just hit me.

7. Tor Hyams produced this new disk
And sonically the sound is quite brisk.
Played piano, too
Acting as the glue
That kept the band sounding their best.

8. Beyond that, there are other guest stars
Like Chris Wiser from Sugar Free Allstars [Ed.: "stars"? "Allstars"? that's stretching it.]
Dean Jones, Chris Ballew,
Justin Lansing and Tom Baisden, too
A duet with Molly Ledford, and Johnny Bregar.

9. Most all of their lyrics are great
Heroes big and small predominate.
A kid's life is his "Day Job,"
"Toolbox"'s tender but odd,
And "Flapjacks" spells out what's on your plate.

10. My favorite songs this time around
Are "Toolbox," with lots of quaint tool sounds.
"Super Stuffies" is epic
"Your Favorite Book" ranks to me second
"Bunk Bed" is a Phil Spector track re-found. [Ed.: "Re-found?" Really? Sigh.]

12. The ages of kids who'll think it's most great
Would be between that of four and of eight.
To listen to songs
You won't be steered wrong
By going here, don't hesitate.

13. As always I would be remiss,
If the artwork I did not address.
Jarrett Krosoczka's
Comics make the most of
The theme the album does possess.

14. So I hope that you're not too offended
By how rhyming this review I've amended
But Recess Monkey is fab
and you prob'ly should grab
FLYING!, highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Freed from his devotion to the alphabet (see: A-H, I-Q, and R-Z), Colorado's Steve Weeks is back with Dandelion, an album lacking an obvious organizational hook.

But what hasn't changed with this new album is Weeks' affinity for tall tales rooted in decency. Songs like the rock-folk "Bartelby Finkleton Will Not Take a Bath," the gentle "My Dog Ate My House," and "The Blizzard of '78" are a blend of Shel Silverstein and Keller Williams. (There is a reason Weeks also a song titled "I Might Be Lying" on this album.) While these songs will sound familiar to fans of Weeks' earlier work, he branches out a bit -- "Birdsong" is a list of well over a hundred different birds over a driving beat, while "Why" features kids asking a bunch of legitimate questions over Weeks' nifty acoustic guitar playing. And the title track is Weeks' finest song yet, a subtly metaphorical look at the usefulness of a dandelion, reminiscent of and as good as Justin Roberts' best work.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can hear samples from the album here. Dandelion is a good album for a sunny day, and for a history-making snowy day, too. There are tall tales here, but some truths, too. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's taken a little while, but the second kids album from North Carolina's Tray Batson, AKA Baron von Rumblebuss, Agreeably Loud, was released this spring and... wait? IS THAT A LOLCAT ON THE ALBUM COVER?

OK, I suppose I could probably simply write that, yes, this is the album that has the wildly popular "Did You See (Where the Cat Threw Up, Cuz the Cat Threw Up Again)?," the best song about cat vomit ever recorded. (Yes, wildly popular -- not many kids' songs get fan videos.) It's three minutes of jangle-pop perfection with a hint (OK, a lot) of juvenile attitude. But you probably want a little more in a review, so I'll comply... While it's the best song on the album, if you like that formula, there are some other tracks that might be up your 6-year-old's alley, particularly the power-poppy "(It Wuzza) Boo Boo." I can do without the skits, but that's just me, your kids may appreciate the dorky humor. As for the album as a whole, there probably isn't a more power-poppy kids album out right now -- fans of Matthew Sweet or Big Star who want to share those types of sounds with their kids will find songs like "Skywriter" or "Ooh La La (Play Me That Song)" very much up their alley.

The album's going to resonate most with kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear a number of songs from the new album at BVR's Reverbnation page. On Agreeably Loud!!, Baron von Rumblebuss is not just agreeable and loud (if you want him to be), but also catchy and funny. That's plenty for a single album. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This review sort of felt like a Krzysztof Kieślowski movie in miniature, with randomness and chance affecting my life (albeit in a small way). I recently received a CD from Portland-based artist Lori Henriques which, while the packaging looked lovely on the outside, had a 2008 copyright date on it. Given my stack of CDs, a 3-year-old CD would not normally be placed at the front of the line. But in a random e-mail, I happened to mention that fact to Henriques, who pointed out that the copyright just applied to the songs themselves, not to the recording, which was, in fact, new.

So: yay for chance! Because it meant I listened to this a lot sooner than I would have otherwise, which means I can tell you about it much sooner than I would have otherwise. Outside My Door: Songs for Children of All Ages is unlike any kids' CD I've heard in a long time. It's a throwback to 1970s piano jazz, nothing but Henriques' voice and nimble piano work. It's inspired by Sesame Street, though the lyrics especially are a bit advanced for the preschoolers who are that show's target audience. (Henriques also cites Dave Frishberg as an influence -- he wrote some songs for Schoolhouse Rock!.) It's a Broadway (or perhaps off-Broadway) musical waiting to be made, or perhaps the subject of the first kids' music-themed episode of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, or a Randy Newman album consisting of pleasant narrators.

On a slightly more kid-music-related tip, the songs are a little reminiscent of David Tobocman and lyrically it reminds me a bit of Molly Ledford's lyrics for Lunch Money, with words like "ennui" (in "Something You Learn"), "plapable" ("It's Hard To Wait for Your Birthday"), and "Odysseus" ("Mean People"). Heck, it features the phrase "T.O.," which Henriques helpfully provides a Wikipedia reference for.

All this eruditeness -- the fact that I'm using "eruditeness" in a review of the disk -- might make it seem very hoity-toity, but it's not. (And not just because she rhymes "goat turd" with "awkward.") The 29 minute album isn't going to cause a lot of dancing; in fact, it's got more melancholy in it than at least 95% of all kids' albums. But kids, if they sit down and really listen, will hear words that do indeed speak to them -- the difficulty of waiting for your birthday ("It's Hard To Wait for Your Birthday") or a secret desire to be a twin ("If I Had a Twin").

The 29-minute album is appropriate for kids ages 4 through 10. You can hear the whole thing here. Also of note: gorgeous packaging courtesy of Henriques' brother Joel Henriques, proprietor of my new favorite website Made By Joel. Another chance discovery.

So there you have it -- an album that I said was unlike any kids' CD I'd heard for a long time is compared to maybe a half-dozen other artists. But Outside My Door is something quite remarkable -- an album of "piano jazz for kids" that isn't limited by any of the words in that phrase. A refreshing sound, and an absolute pleasure to listen to. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I could take a lot of time talking specifically about Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock, the fourth Gustafer Yellowgold DVD/CD set from musician/illustrator Morgan Taylor -- how it's another collection of mellow pop-rock tunes, alternately humorous and wistful, accompanying the slightly surreal adventures of our yellow friend from the sun, Gustafer Yellowgold. Or maybe how it features an honest-to-goodness narrative from start to finish.

But what I'd rather do is spend a few words about what Taylor has done with Gustafer, and that's nothing less than create a totally immersive world of characters that Taylor could easily spend another ten, twenty, or thirty years exploring. Just as Dan Zanes has crafted his own niche of family music that never really delves into the specific lives of kids, with Gustafer Yellowgold Taylor has written "kids music" that has (seemingly) nothing to do with the specific lives of kids. After all, on this adventure (featuring Gustafer trying to find the toe-end of the titular sock), Gustafer visits a beehive to see an amazing bee-band ("Beehive") or visits an all-cheese clothing store (the very funny "Wisconsin Poncho"). These are not concerns of your typical 5-year-old.

What this story and all the Gustafer Yellowgold stories are is Children's Literature, Fanciful and Fantastic Division. Gustafer is just as much the descendent of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are as it is the descendent of Harry Nilsson's The Point. Which isn't to say that kids might not learn lessons here (the interconnectivity of life, inherent value of all beings, the need to explore), but they're born out of Taylor's basic philosophy, not forced upon the watcher or listener, and they assume that kids are smarter than we often give them credit for. (Which is a pretty good assumption.)

This DVD/CD set is appropriate for kids ages 4 through 10. You can watch video clips from the half-hour story here. Visually the DVD, as always, looks great -- minimally animated but distinctive. (The bonus features, including a mockumentary and guitar and drawing lessons, aren't essential but nice to watch at least once.) Current Gustafer Yellowgold fans will enjoy Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock no less than the previous DVDs, and for the rest of you, this is as good a place as any to start. Like the best kids' lit, your kids could still be buying new Gustafer Yellowgold DVDs when they become parents themselves. Definitely recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of the DVD/CD set for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just in time for Earth Day, Billy Kelly releases The Family Garden, an album of gardening-related songs designed to help kids better understand the impact they have on their planet...

Just kidding. I mean, about part of it. It's the other part that, uh, isn't quite so true. But Kelly, whose line in song between truth and un-truth has never been very clear, probably wouldn't want me to tell you which is which.

On this, his third album, Kelly eschews some of the production wizardry and elaborate wordplay of his first two disks for a rootsier sound. It's a deliberate choice sonically -- Kelly specifically mentions recording the songs live with his band, the Blahblahblahs. On songs like the title track, or "That Old American Flag," or his cover of "Coney Island Washboard," the roots/country sound matches up well with the songs' earnest nature. Those songs (as well as "We Could Be Pen Pals," his duet with Lunch Money's Molly Ledford) are songs you might find in a gigantic American songbook.

Kelly's always had an earnest streak in his songwriting, but he hasn't forgotten the more surreal components, either. "It's Close Enough" continues Kelly's streak of writing songs about the songs he's writing about. "I'm Thinking of an Animal" is as close as he'll get to writing a standard "name the animal" song (which is to say, only about 80% of the way there). "The Invention of the Straw" doesn't reach the heights of "The Legend of Johnny Box" from Is This Some Kind of Joke?, but "Why Is the Moon Following Me?" is way better than Harold and the Purple Crayon.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can listen to clips from the 37-minute album here. If I had to recommend just one Billy Kelly album for someone's collection, I'd probably start with Is This Some Kind of Joke? -- I think his intricate wordplay and savviness fills an underserved niche for older-kids' kids music. But The Family Garden is a neat expansion of his sound. To some extent, this is a kindler, gentler Kelly. Whether or not we wanted a kindler, gentler Kelly you'll have to decide, but he's not bad to have around. That's all true, I promise. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is hard to make an "Earth Day"-themed album.

Well, it's hard to make a good one, anyway, one whose musical enjoyment outweighs any "life lessons" the album hopes to teach (the teaching of which usually fails because the music fails.)

I'm happy to report, then, that Maria Sangiolo's new album Planting Seeds is one of the few earth-themed albums families will want to listen to in April or even the rest of the year. This is partially the result of choosing good songs that happen to be about the planet we live on, and the plants and animals (including us) who reside upon it. It's only in that broader sense that putting Mark Erelli's version of the traditional folk song "The Fox" on an album "celebrat[ing] agriculture and sustainability" (to quote the back cover) fits. (Or the frustration with the bug world on Sangiolo's bluesy "Flashlights and Flyswatters" and Anand Nayak and Sienna Jessurun's "Noisy Cricket.") But it thankfully keeps the album from sounding like a lecture.

The other thing that keeps it from sounding like a lecture is that the music is quite good. Sangiolo pulled in Nayak, who's part of Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, as producer, and like daisy mayhem's music, this album has a loose and relaxed feel, like a well-worn pair of jeans. Maybe the duet between Sangiolo and Nayak compatrior Steve Roslonek (aka SteveSongs) on Les Julian's participation song "Plant a Seed" took several tracks to record, but the genuinely humorous interplay between the two makes it sound like it was recorded live-to-tape in just one take. Sangiolo also is generous in sharing the album with many other artists beyond those already mentioned, include Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem on a couple tracks, Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen doing their best Pete Seeger on "Maple Sweet," and Alastair Moock and Lori McKenna on my favorite track on the album, "Didn't Know What I Was Missing." (Moock also co-wrote a number of the songs here.) The album is credited to "Maria and Friends," and the billing is apt.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. You can listen to samples here. Planting Seeds is a celebration of the earth on which we live, but it's also a celebration of community. Sangiolo's community of friends have put together a collection of songs worth listening to (and maybe, eventually, learning from). Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not easy to review Ella Jenkins albums for a couple reasons. First, she is a legend. I know that people throw around the word "legend" too easily, but if you don't use that word for Jenkins, then you may as well not use the word at all, at least in the kids music genre. And it's hard to review a legend because their outsized reputation, no matter how well deserved (and it totally is in Jenkins' case), provides an odd context.

The second - and trickier - reason is that her albums are not designed for listening idly to while zipping off to T-ball practice. Her albums generally feature Jenkins along with a group of kids -- Jenkins singing to the kids, the kids singing to Jenkins. It's like dropping in on a kindergarten music class with the recorder running. These sorts of albums are not the kinds of albums that a lot of casual listeners necessarily respond to.

Jenkins' just-released album A Life of Song is her first album of new material in eight years. Over the course of almost 45 years and nearly 30 albums, Jenkins has been a mainstay of Folkways/Smithsonian Folkways recordings, and the new album is, in some ways, a retrospective of her career. Not in the sense of a greatest hits collection, because all the tracks here are new, recorded with elementary students enrolled in an after-school program.

The album starts off with "Pick a Bale of Cotton," first popularized by another Folkways artist, Leadbelly. Ella tells a story in her gentle voice, and the kids trade off verses. You can hear Jenkins say, near the end, conducting the group, "A little softer," getting the kids' chorus to sing quieter as the song ends. Jenkins is a master of leading the kids, showing how sometimes it's better to talk quietly than loudly if you want to get kids' attention. And the kids enthusiastically respond in their call-and-response (they're kinda adorable singing out the names of various people in "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"). Your family will enjoy the album more if you sing along, or even more so if you take the songs here and lead your own song circle.

Jenkins moves on from playground songs to spirituals to songs made popular in the civil rights era, even onward through the blues and Gershwin. It's a nifty, albeit brief, survey of songs important to African American (and frankly, American, no qualifier needed) culture. This is to be expected since the album is part of the African American Legacy Recordings series, co-produced with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. (This focus means that another important part of Jenkins' oeuvre -- bringing songs of diverse global cultures back to the States -- plays no part in this recording.)

As the album progresses, the children's chorus makes fewer appearances, which gives Jenkins more of a chance to shine. Jenkins' voice is soft but effectively displayed on tracks like "I Want to Be Ready" and "Somebody's Talking about Freedom." And tracks like "Summertime" and "The Cuckoo," where she lends a little more expressiveness to her voice, are simply wonderful. Praise must also go to her fellow musician Rita Ruby, who accompanies Jenkins on guitar on many tracks and has a lovely voice of her own (she even gets an a capella turn on "Amazing Grace").

The 36-minute album will be most appreciated by kids aged 3 through 8. You can listen to samples from all the tracks this video if you want to understand how much other musicians and educators revere her.)

On A Life of Song, Ella Jenkins shows that, even at 86, she can capture audiences spanning generations. This is an album hat encourages you to turn off the CD player and sing with others. Luckily, it's good enough to listen to that doing so might prove difficult. Essentially mandated for early childhood music specialists and definitely recommended for everyone else.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As someone who listens to a lot of music and reviews it on occasion, there's nothing quite like discovering a new artist with their first CD. Don't get me wrong, it's lots of fun to hear an artist you like a lot clicking on all cylinders, but the pleasure in listening to someone like, say, Justin Roberts, is that of hearing a sound you and your family have sort of come to expect performed wonderfully. Putting a CD into the CD drive and hearing a new, unfamiliar sound and voice -- that can be thrilling when that sound and voice click.

Cat and a Bird is fairly new to the scene -- the band's website isn't even set up as of this writing. But their self-titled debut bristles with an energy and self-assurance that pays dividends. Their sound -- mixing elements of folk, rock, electronic beats, and gypsy violin -- sometimes sounds both 100 years old and from 100 years in the future. It is impossible not to smile and bop your head while listening to these songs about the animal kingdom. From the album opener "Bee Jive," featuring some nice steel guitar work, to "Surfer Turtle," all sunny and filled with "la"s, to "Kangaroo," which (appropriately) bounces along carried by Emily Chimiak's vocals -- there's something to discover in each track. Chimiak's musical partner in the band Vasily Taranov ably handles most of the instruments (the violin is Chimiak's), throwing in ukulele and upright bass and more. I actually think many of the best tracks are at the end of the album -- I'm thinking of the dance tracks "Lion and the Challengers" and "Night Owl."

I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the lyrics as well. I hear a lot of "educational" music that is easily forgotten, but on songs like "Platypus," with its Tin Pan Alley, it memorably sings about the title character by mentioning what it's not ("He's got a beak, neither a cat nor bird / he's got mystique, although he looks absurd."). Nobody will pass their preschool zoology class as a result to listening to these songs, but the songs give some character and personality to the animals they sing about, and matched with the melodies and rhythms, they'll get enough spins to perhaps remember what they're dancing to.

I think kids ages 4 through 9 will most appreciate the animal/lyrical themes here. You can hear samples of the 37-minute album at CD Baby, emusic, and iTunes.

I can't take credit for discovering Cat and a Bird (that distinction, I believe, goes to Kathy O'Connell and subsequently Bill Childs). But I get just as big a kick out of hearing a new sound as anyone, especially a sound with as much style as this band's. It's a new sound, and one that clearly will gain a much wider audience than it has right now. Without a doubt, this is one of the year's best debuts, but more than that, it's one of the year's best albums, period. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The music of the South Carolina band Lunch Money may be demure at times, but it's never been shy about wearing its anthropomorphized heart on its anthropomorphized sleeve. Which is one of its strengths -- a trio of thirty-somethings singing why they love their library might fail in the hands of lesser artists, but Lunch Money's giddy enthusiasm equal to that of kids thirty years younger makes the song work.

Original Friend is every bit as "open book" as its predecessor Dizzy, but this time around songwriter Molly Ledford's subject is friendship. Friendship temporarily lost and then regained (the strings-assisted 1-minute opener "Friends Again"); friends who are awesome (the title track, and a prototypical Lunch Money indie-pop song); friends willing to imagine with you (the pop-by-way-of-circus-music "Getaway Car"). This album isn't quite as extroverted as Dizzy was, but it features Ledford's strongest batch of songs yet. And while the dedication to Jennifer Jean Day, "who had the original friend donut" (and who Ledford is presumably singing about in the title track "What’s up today, Jennifer? / You say you’re writing a song? / Maybe I’ll try my hand at that for my whole life long.") might hint at some sadness, it's really a rather joyful record. Even songs about the possible interruption of friendship (the rocking "Please Don't Move (to Another Time Zone)") beat with a heart and with good humor.

That joy is due in no small measure to the large number of musicians who share the record with Molly, J.P., and Jay. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo turns in a great rap on "Welcome To My Dollhouse," Frances England offers her voice to "You and Me and a Bottle of Bubbles," and Dean Jones pitches in on "Getaway Car." And that's in addition to all the strings and horns, not to mention keys from producer Tor Hyams, who doesn't really tweak the Lunch Money sound, but just shares it with a few more folks.

The 34-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can listen to samples here or pick up the mp3 of the title track here. Also: the illustrations by Brandon Reese -- the whole design really -- along with the off-kilter album credits (e.g., on "Picking Teams" -- "harmonica, forlorn yet upbeat - J.P. Stephens") make this an album that is so totally worth picking up in its physical format.

Because, of course, you do need to get Original Friend. Lunch Money offer up a tasty musical donut filled with lyrics that capture friendship, and, by extension, childhood in a way that is relatable to kids and recognizable to adults. Can I wear my heart on my sleeve? I love this band. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is it uncharitable of me to say I don't understand why Dog on Fleas hasn't had greater popular success? I mean, that statement implies a) that Dog on Fleas hasn't achieved tremendous success, and b) the American family-music-buying public is clueless (or, alternately, c) that I'm clueless). All the things that are part of the family-music success of, say, Dan Zanes or Elizabeth Mitchell -- the organic musical arrangements, the rescuing of lost parts of the American and world songbook, the hooks -- are right there. And certainly fellow musicians such as Mitchell and Uncle Rock know the Fleas and its chief songwriter Dean Jones and hold 'em in high esteem.

I'm hoping that The Bestest of the Best, the perfectly-titled greatest hits compilation of the New York band will help rectify the situation with the general public. It's a 20-song collection of tunes stretching all the way back to the first Fleas' album, Fairly Good Songs for Fairly Good Kids, and a fine introduction to the band's happy blend of folk, pop, and other funkier styles. I gravitated towards the selections from my favorite Fleas' album, When I Get Little, but there are other excellent tracks from other albums there, too -- the jazz-hipster "Dig" from Fairly Good Songs, for example, or the sweet, lazy, indie-pop of "Clouds" from Hoi Polloi. The album also includes 3 newly re-recorded versions of old songs plus their great rendition of "Buffalo Gals" with Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton from the overlooked High Meadow Songs release.

In best Dan Zanes fashion, the Fleas' music is most appropriate for kids ages 3 to 93. You can hear samples of the tracks here or full versions of some of the songs here. Depending on how many Dog on Fleas albums you own, The Bestest of the Best, may merely be, well, fairly good. But if you don't have any Dog on Fleas, please get this album and find out what some lucky others already know -- listening to this band is a very pleasurable and joyful experience. Recommended.

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

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing that's been striking to me is the relative absence of an independent Australian family music scene, at least viewed from the American vantage point. One might think that the tremendous success of four nice blokes in bright t-shirts might have spurred a lot of imitators and counter-revolutionaries, but that doesn't seem to have been the case. In fact, you can argue that the Wiggles have had a lot more influence on the American kids music scene, either through imitators (the Fresh Beat Band), people headed in the opposite direction (many of the artists on this site), and folks with their feet firmly planted in both camps (Yo Gabba Gabba!).

So I'm glad to see that Australian indie-folk musician Holly Throsby has peeked her head into the relatively small Australian scene and offered up See!, which is one of most captivating family music albums I've heard this year. Recorded at an old church south of Sydney, the album kicks off with the sound of a horn heard off the coast as the intro to "Putt Putt," a gentle tune about going out into the ocean with a small motor boat. From there, the album moves to "Fish and Mice," which starts out with what sounds like a Casio drum keyboard and eventually leads to an infectious sing-along chorus with a bunch of kids singing interjections ("Fish!"... "Bike!"). This looseness in musical production is carried on throughout the album.

It's all very impressionistic -- moods and feelings and lyrics that aren't totally straightforward narratively, as on the winning Americana-by-way-of-New-South-Wales "Diamonds Are So Shiny" ("I have a deck of cards / And I'm in love with the two of hearts / I dug a hole with the ace of spades / I found a bone and some clay / And an old golf ball / That I hit around with my four of clubs.") She even includes an 11-second "Drum Lesson" that simply introduces a handful of drum sounds. (Also, I'm happy that on "What Turns?," Throsby finally writes a second song for a kookaburra, who, frankly, was probably getting tired of sitting that that old gum tree.)

The 28-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 8. Right now it's only available as an import or from here -- either way, it'll cost ya about $30 Stateside, so I'd definitely recommend checking out 3 of the tracks here, as well as "The Seasons" here.

But See! might very well be worth the $30. It's a combination of Frances England's dreamy songwriting and Elizabeth Mitchell's appropriation of sounds and melodies from everyday life (with a little bit of Stephen Cohen's Here Comes the Band atmospheric tone thrown in). It is described as "experimental," though to American kindie ears it won't sound experimental at all. It is merely delightful in big ways and small. Definitely recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this album for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not quite sure how I've managed to write this website and not review a disk from Bill Harley. Well, that ends now.

Harley's latest disk The Best Candy in the Whole World and Other Stories, out this week, is a disk of four stories (with a song mixed in for good measure). It features Harley's typical sense of impish humor, vocal stylings, and, most of all, humanity. In a couple different stories, Harley uses the phrase, "his/her heart went out to her/him," a lovely phrase that underscores Harley's approach to telling stories. When he's getting at the heart (pun intended) of familial or larger rivalries, Harley always sees the person underneath. There may be heroes and there may be villains in his stories, but they're almost never entirely so.

All of which makes the collection sound a little dull, which it's not. The stories (some original, some borrowed) are funny and imaginative. You can see the ending of the title track coming perhaps a minute or two before the actual ending, which is both neatly wrapped up and open-ended. You think you see the ending of the "Jack and the Singing Leaves," about ten minutes into the 25-minute story, but then Harley acknowledges what you're thinking (in the context of the story) and then takes it in a somewhat different direction.

The stories will be most enjoyed by kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear samples here. Bill Harley's albums of stories are usually good an hour's worth of silent attention broken by the occasional giggle or guffaw, and The Best Candy in the Whole World is no exception. Recommended.

Disclosure: I received a copy of the album for possible review from Harley's PR folks.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'll go ahead and say straight out that since I wrote some liner notes for Take It Outside, the second family album from Minnesota's Okee Dokee Brothers, I think you can guess that I like the album. I do, indeed.

It's a big step forward for Justin Lansing and Joe Mailander, who are neither brothers nor from Oklahoma, but who do share a big ol' grin behind their band's genial name. Their first album Kids With Beards was pretty good, but this one is stronger in every way -- musically, lyrically, and sonically. "Neighbors" sounds like they've packed everybody in their neighborhood into the studio for parts of the chorus. "Hero" features a soaring chorus and guitar work from the Honeydogs'/Bunny Clogs' Adam Levy. And midway through the bouncy "Antidisestablishmentarianism," they decide that "now we're going to spell for you / 'Cause that's what kids musicians do" and proceed to do just that. (Their joy mounts as they continue to sing as they provide a frequency distribution, for example, of the letters in the word, capped by the definition and a gleeful "what's that supposed to mean?" followed by "Who caaaaares".) They do reflective OK, as on "What We Got" and "Sweet Dreams," but their strength is silly and/or goofy.

Kids ages 5 through 10 will most appreciate the lyrical themes and humor, while their Americana/bluegrass take on pop-rock, polished to a nice sheen by producer Tor Hyams will have a fairly broad appeal. You can listen to samples at the album's CD Baby page. Take It Outside has an outdoorsy theme, but even more so it speaks to an engagement with the rest of the world. With good humor and heart, the Okee Dokee Brothers have produced a CD for even the most curmudgeonly recluse and the kids who just want them to play a little bit. Definitely recommended.

[Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review. Though that's pretty obvious, I think, given this particular album.]

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Billy Kelly is the whoopee cushion of kids music. Last year he stormed (politely) onto the kids music scene with Thank You For Joining the Happy Club, featuring the instant classic "People Really Like Milk" and other songs that usually brought smiles and occasionally laughs to listeners nationwide. For his just-released follow-up Is This Some Kind of Joke?, a self-described musical comedy album, he dials the funny up to 11.

The album starts off with poppy Is This a Joke?, which in just 2 minutes and 45 seconds, exhibits most of the Billy Kelly style -- nifty rhymes, fancy words, and a song you actually have to think about and listen to carefully if you're going to catch every reference. (I've listened to the album at least a half-dozen times, and I still think I've only caught 90% of the humor.) I say "most" of the style, because that song avoids the self-aware humor Kelly employs often. It's OK -- he uses it elsewhere, such as on "Me and My Brand New Haircut," on which Davy Jones sounds like he totally gets the joke. The chorus on the dance tune (natch) "The Dance From Outer Space" is like the best Greek chorus ever. Kelly hits more musical styles than he does on his debut (I especially liked the funk-sampled "Everybody's Got Their Underwear On"), but it's all in service to the lyrics. If you've heard the album, the lyrics "I already told you I can see you," "Thank you for saying you're welcome," "What's wrong with that guy over there," and "Where is the turtle wax?" will bring big smiles to your face. It's a bit darker than Happy Club -- instead of a song called "Springtime: It's My Favorite" there are songs about an alien dance taking over the world and swamp creatures threatening to take over the world -- but nothing too dark.

And "The Legend of Johnny Box," which owes a big debt, unsurprisingly, to the Man in Black. Wow -- it's one of those songs that starts out unassumingly, builds up to something big, then somewhere east of Poughkeepsie takes a turn into something silly, then epically silly, then beyond silly into that realm few people are willing to go. Let's put it this way... it's more than seven and a half minutes long, and it's worth every second.

As with his debut, it's going to be older kids who most appreciate the dense wordplay and humor Kelly packs in here, say ages 7 on up. You can hear some of the songs at his Myspace page or samples of all the tracks here. I should note that the first 1,000 copies of the album in physical format come hand-signed and packaged with an erasable marker and an incredibly dense maze in poster format that might take your kids the better part of an afternoon to work through.

Like some mutant offspring of the Holland-Dozier-Holland Motown songwriting team and Spike Jones (or possibly "Weird Al" Yankovic's cousin), Billy Kelly has written the album that precocious third graders have wanted all their life and just didn't know it. Their parents didn't know it, either, but now they do. No joke -- this is a seriously fun album. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you have any tie to the family music genre, then you are undoubtedly aware of Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti, the compilation put together by Dean Jones and Bill Childs to benefit a variety of Haiti efforts. So there are really two components worth discussing here -- the music itself and What It All Means.

Oddly enough, I'm going to dispose of the big picture question first. The biggest worthwhile component of the project is that it'll benefit the Haitian People's Support Project, which supports nutritional and educational programs in orphanages, schools, and temporary shelters throughout Haiti. It's an especially important task in the wake of the devastating earthquakes there early this year. Beyond that, the album is pretty much the first family-music-by-family-musicians benefit album ever. Sure you have the For the Kids series, for example, but those consist primarily of songs recorded by "adult" musicians dabbling in the family music field. The fact that so many "new school" family musicians (and a few "old school" musicians) came together so quickly on this project speaks to the supportive nature of the genre, which bodes well for the future.

All of which I ignore when it comes to reviewing albums. My view tends to be, if you want to support a cause, support it directly with your money, time, and other talents, rather than doing so indirectly. (Or be forced to support a cause you disagree with because you support that indirect thing.) Luckily you don't need to compromise with Many Hands -- while I imagine the Venn intersection between families who like the new family music scene and families unaware that there was even an earthquake in Haiti would be small, you could give this album to those families, and they'd very much enjoy it.

Because it's a compilation, there isn't the coherency of theme you might get from a single artist (or a compilation focused on, say, the songs of a single artist). Essentially it's a really good mixtape, and the list of good songs here far outweighs the list of duds. Rather than list all of the really good songs, here are 3 that I think are particularly noteworthy:
1) Lunch Money's "You Are Here" is, as I've noted already, one of my favorite tracks, both for its album-appropriate theme of connection as well for its mostly-sweet, a little bittersweet melody.
2) Jones' duet with Hudson Valley poet Jerrice Baptiste is another sweet and thematically appropriate tune, with Jones' falsetto and Baptiste's more spoken-word vocals about building a nest underlaid with a folk-electronica melody.
3) Jonathan Coulton's "The Princess Who Saved Herself" is neither sweet nor thematically appropriate. It does, however, if I'm allowed to use this phrase on a family music website, kick ass. It's everything a parent of a daughter would want said daughter to hear in formative music-listening years. (Except for the reference to math rock. Really, who likes that?)

There are more good songs -- how could I review an album with songs from They Might Be Giants, Pete Seeger, Dan Zanes, and Elizabeth Mitchell and other luminaries and not even touch on their tracks? -- and, as I said they definitely outnumber the so-so ones. The album's probably most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. You can get the album in a lot of places, including Amazon, iTunes, and, starting in September, Whole Foods.

Simply put, Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti is the year's best family music compilation and one of the year's best kids music CDs, period. Buy two: one for your friend and one for your own family. Many families will thank you. Definitely recommended.

[Disclosure: I was provided with a copy for possible review. I also premiered a stream of an album track. And Bill's a friend. The kindie music world is a close-knit one. That's why you have this album here.]

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's not much secret to the appeal of Seattle's Not-Its -- take standard kid-friendly subjects like kindergarten friends, boo-boos, and fanciful trips to outer space, mix in crunchy alternative rock, and add a dash of visual style. Voila! The band had the formula down pretty much right out of the gate on their debut and on their follow-up Time Out To Rock they don't tinker with it much.

There are hooks galore for the kids and parents to latch onto -- "Welcome To Our School" features a killer guitar riff, bouncy drums, sweet harmonies, and life lessons. It's a template the band duplicates through most of the album. It's proof, perhaps, that it's not so much the message of average kids music that drives parents bonkers as much as it is the often-poor delivery. I mean, being friendly to the new kid at school is at its heart obvious and a little preachy. But it's a song that stands up to repeated listening, which is more than can be said of a lot of other songs imparting life lessons. See also, for example, "Say It Loudly," which says as clearly (and loudly) as possible that people should speak up against bullies, or the mellow alt-rock of "Change My Luck." That last track is one of the album's last 3 songs, in which the band dials the rock back a bit, but for the most part this is an uptempo, bop-your-head-and-toes disk. As always, lead singer Sarah Shannon's clear and direct voice is a big asset to the band, not only on the rock tunes (the missing Heart kids song "Green Light, Go!") but also the gentler ones such as album closer "Hollow Tree."

Kids ages 4 through 8 are most likely to appreciate the songs here. You can listen to a number of songs from the album here. (And I'd just like to say that I appreciate the high quality packaging, which makes it easy and appealing to give the album to others.

While there's nothing particularly revolutionary about the Not-Its formula, they're still among the first that have successfully applied the '90s alt-rock musical template to kids music without going over the heads of the kids who are their primary audience. They rock, and that's enough for us. Definitely recommended.

Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review and also premiered one of the album tracks here on the website.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah, Putumayo Kids, you compiler and purveyor of music from around the world, you must be running out of themes, right? Rock & Roll Playground? Isn't there another region of the world you need to unearth some musical treasures from? What's next - Pop Playground? Hip-Hop Playground? (Actually, please get on that, stat.)

Most regular readers have heard many of these tracks (or at least the artists), but credit Putumayo for having the sense to string 'em together in a happy-happy pop-rock mixtape with few if any duds. For example, Taj Mahal -> Dan Zanes -> Charity and the JAMband = win. (Or, Rhythm Child -> Rosie Flores -> Uncle Rock = win.) Best for kids ages 3 through 8 (samples here), you could probably put together your own 34-minute playlist, but why bother when they've already done the work for you? Recommended.

Having said all that, Jazz Playground is my favorite of all the Putumayo "Playground" series disks, and that's saying something. The nature of jazz is such that it covers lots of styles and permits fresh interpretations of songs we've heard dozens if not hundreds of times before, and as a result, there's a nice mix of new and old, providing new perspectives -- and isn't that one of the major points of the Putumayo concept anyway? The album deftly navigates the line between over-reliance on English language voices (which you can get anywhere) and non-English language songs (which can be hard for English speakers to fully appreciate, no matter how funky the liner notes are).

Beyond that, it's just plain fun through and through, from Zooglobble favorite Lewis Franco & the Missing Cats doing his swing original "Stomp, Stomp" to Chris McKhool's fiddle-based take on "Spider-Man" to the Latin jazz of Jose Conde's "Cumbamba." And on down the line. Best for kids ages 2 through 8, the 31-minute album (again, samples here) goes onto my shortlist of essential jazz-for-kids albums. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you go over the 3 1/2-year archival history regarding Seattle trio Recess Monkey on this website, you'll see a gradual progression from "hey, these guys put out a fun album" to, well, "the heart of kids music today."

I said that because the band has worked its way into national exposure through talent, hard work, and a recognition that working together will get them further than going it alone. But it's also because over the past 4+ years, they've released 5 solid albums, the latest of which, The Final Funktier, was released this week.

The guys all seem too nice to have sold their soul to the devil for the ability to write and record catchy, danceable, and just plain fun songs, but whatever they've done, they haven't lost their touch one bit on the new record. As you might guess from the title, it's a more danceable album than previous efforts -- "Moon Boots" and "Booster Seat" are just a couple of the songs that will probably get your kids and you up off the floor shaking your, er, boots. The band once drew their inspiration from the Beatles, but now their pop-rock confections are more diverse, source-wise. "The Galax Sea" throws in some strings, "Constellation Conga" is, well, a gentle little conga, and several songs sound like they were recorded by the secret love children of the Go-Go's and Devo. (I'd also note that the band's commitment to the kids music scene is pretty big, with no less than 7 different kids musicians or bands making appearances on the disk.)

The album is also -- loosely -- space-based, though the album is less likely to inspire your kid to beg you for a telescope than it will to have them ask you for a stand-up microphone to practice their jokes. The lyric matter is right down the early elementary school alley -- little brothers ("My Brother is a Satellite"), robots ("How Do You Build a Robot?"), and aliens ("Ukulalien"). And everywhere it's leavened by a second-grade sense of humor that will make the kids giggle. (OK, maybe not "One Tiny Light," the sweet album closer.)

The 34-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page, or full tracks at the band's website.

So, yeah, at this point Recess Monkey is a machine. A finely-tuned kids-music-hit-making machine. The Final Funktier is as good as anything they've done, maybe the best. They may not inspire the next generation of astronauts, but they may have a better chance than anyone else to inspire the next generation of kids musicians. Which I think is just as important. Highly recommended.

Disclosure: The band provided me a copy of the album for possible review. And I streamed "Constellation Conga" as a world premiere.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I know already did a review of Jungle Gym, the latest album from Justin Roberts on NPR's All Things Considered. That is my review of the album and if you haven't heard it, I encourage you to do so. (It was written with the musical interludes in mind -- it's much better on the air than on the page.)

But.... with these NPR reviews, the time is limited and I can't go into as much detail as I would on the written page. So consider these the deleted scenes, perhaps. Just as good, just doesn't fit into 4 1/2 minutes.

-- The first three tracks are as strong an opening set of songs as you'll hear on any kids pop/rock record anywhere. They're also probably as strong an opening set of songs as you'll hear on any pop/rock record anywhere.
-- I can't quite express how much I love "Trick or Treat." I'm not the first person, but the ten or so seconds of music involved with the line "My brother stands on a chair 'cause he's shorter / Put every piece in alphabetical order" is so perfectly constructed that it is, without a doubt, my favorite musical bit this year.
-- While Roberts has written some classic slower songs, I don't think they're quite as strong here. "2 x 4" is a sweet little album closer about a treehouse, and "Never Getting Lost" has a dramatic arc for both the child and adult listener, but "Sign My Cast" doesn't do a lot. They're not bad songs, they just don't quite have the power of the uptempo tracks.
-- I would like Liam Davis to produce the next New Pornographers record. Thanks in advance, universe, for making this happen.
-- The album will appeal thematically the most to kids agest 5 through 9.
-- I go back and forth as to whether Jungle Gym or Meltdown! is my favorite Justin Roberts album. Which is sort of like trying to decide whether Exile on Main Street or Let It Bleed is your favorite Rolling Stones album. They're both classics...
-- Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's taken me a little time to fully appreciate Randy Kaplan for what he is -- one of family music's most inventive storytellers. There were times at which I thought songs like "Shampoo Me" were, though amusing, a little silly and not quite the Dan Zanes-like music I thought Kaplan could -- or maybe should -- make.

I was wrong. It's songs like "Shampoo Me" that are what make Randy, Randy. The fanciful stories sprung from the conjoined heads of Shel Silverstein and Bob Dylan are Kaplan's calling card, and he's very, very good at them. His third album for kids, The Kids Are All Id, is to my mind, his most story-intensive collection yet. From the get-go, Kaplan tells inventive stories in folk songs about characters you haven't heard from -- "The Hebrew-Speaking Bear," an Elizabeth II-aping queen bee on "Little Bee," or his monkey Kqxhc, who makes a return appearance on "Is She a Girl or Is She a Monkey." Kaplan doesn't dig too deep into lessons -- his cover of "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" and his original "My Little Laugh," about laughing at situations that might otherwise make him cry are about as deep as he gets.

The album is titled The Kids Are All Id on purpose -- there are lots of characters here who are somewhat exasperating -- Joe, of course, the title character in the folk-punk "The Kid Is All Id," Kaplan's younger self in his rreworking of "Don't You Leave Me Here," or the toddler who responds to every joke setup line with "This Guy." The first ten or so songs are, if not frenzied, at least active. As a result, the trio of Ezra Jack Keats-based songs about two-thirds of the way through the disk come like a soothing balm. "I Like Cacti" is a sweet, sweet song -- I can't get over the line "What attracts us / About a cactus?" Indeed, while I've been focusing on the words here, Kaplan writes some great musical bits (there's a part in "The Kid Is All Id," in which the adult supervisor breaks free with a plaintive, soaring chorus) and he and his producer Mike West give the album a natural, expansive sound.

The 54-minute album will be most appreciated by kids aged 4 through 8. You can listen to 3 of the tracks at Randy's Myspace page. The Kids Are All Id is Randy Kaplan's best album yet, and shows Kaplan's greatest strength -- his ability to listen to and interact with the kids who are his audience and to turn that into stories in song. Instead of suggesting that Randy could be the next Dan Zanes, perhaps I should've suggested Bill Harley. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

New York's Robert Burke Warren, AKA Uncle Rock, has always worn his heart upon his embroidered sleeve, and that's certainly apparent on his latest album The Big Picture. The title is deliberate, as many of the songs here deal with environmental concerns (the duet with Elizabeth Mitchell on the waltz "There Is No Away", for example, or "Garbage Barge"), or the "shop local" movement (which "Stop at a Mom n' Pop" thankfully doesn't actually use that phrase).

"Leave the Bees Be," which from the title sounds like it might be in that camp, is sillier than that -- it features a "buzzing" solo, after all. It's reflective of the general approach that Warren with his producer Dean Jones takes -- very loose roots-rock with some nice touches (the cello on "There Is No Away," or the bells and horns on "Leave the Bees Be"). My favorite track from the album, the full-on rocker "Shake It Off!," features an energetic vocal turn Ralph & Ralph's KT Legnini. It's all about recovering from injury or mistakes, even aping Billy Joel's similarly-themed "You're Only Human" by leaving in the final mix laughter that couldn't have been planned.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8; listen to clips here. Even at 38 minutes in length, the album still feels stuffed full (and probably would have been OK without the last 2 tracks). The Big Picture has things to say and opinions to share, and that probably isn't for every family, some of whom like their kids music... fluffier. But it says those things and shares those opinions with verve and good humor, and that's enough for a lot of us. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ralph's World has done a lot of traveling, going from small label (Mini Fresh, an offshoot of Chicago's Minty Fresh) to big label (Disney) back to small label (Bar/None, who failed to come up with a cutesy kid-division name for Ralph).

So perhaps it's not so surprising that his new album All Around Ralph's World takes the word "world" from Ralph Covert's band name seriously, producing a loosely travel-themed album. But "loosely" is the key adverb, because it's not a concept album. It's just an album that has a number of songs that happen to be about travel. I prefer to think of the album as another collection of solid pop-rock songs for the big wheel set (see "Easy Ryders," which also works in a gratuitous Beatles reference) from an artist who's already turned out such songs by the suitcase. There aren't many clunkers (such as "All Around the World," where Covert sings about learning stories from around the world rather than singing those stories), but they're more than outweighed by the nuggets, such as the poppy "All About Bob," the funny "Black Hole Boy" (who loses everything, including, eventually, words to his song), and the sweet "Blue Airplane." And although the album drags a bit around the 2/3rds-point, the last four tracks, starting with "The Funniest Joke in the World" on through the album closer "I'm Not Tired," are excellent.

The album's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can listen to the album at Ralph's website (just click on the "Playlist" in the upper right-hand corner).

I found Covert's last album, The Rhyming Circus, a little underwhelming compared to his previous body of work -- not bad by any means, but not memorable either. All Around Ralph's World is a return to form for one of the best songwriters in the kids music genre. As you're picking out music for your family's summer road trip (or even planning it), All Around Ralph's World would be a fine addition to the playlist. Definitely recommended.

I was provided a copy of the disk for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a disk that's been sitting on my desk for awhile, and I've actually listened to it a fair amount since receiving it a few months back. I feel slightly bad about this, some sort of cognitive dissonance between the desire to tell folks about a good CD and my inability to, you know, tell folks about a good CD.

The Connecticut-based band Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem has been making music stringband music for a good decade now, but Ranky Tanky is their first album specifically targeted at families. It's a big stew of songs familiar and not, "traditional" and "un." The first 4 songs -- Cat Stevens' "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out," traditional tune "The Green Grass Grows All Around," the Meters' "They All Ask'd For You," and the pop novelty hit "Purple People Eater" -- illustrate the band's omniverous, genre-disregarding approach to music. They just find good songs and give them new life.

In essence, while lots of artists talk about making music for families, relatively few of them have taken the Dan Zanes approach of making "age-desgregated" music truly expected to be listened to without irony filters. This album takes this path less-traveled. In the end, I think Arbo falls just a little short of Zanes, which is an admittedly high bar to reach. While the album maintains a genial vibe infused with warmth, there are times on the album where the jolt of a Father Goose or an out-of-left-field guest artist would have helped a bit.

In true Zanes-ian fashion, the idea of an appropriate age range is a little odd with this disk, but think of it as being best for kids ages 3 and up. You can spin five of the tracks here and listen to clips at its CD Baby page.

Ranky Tanky is one of those disks destined to be listened to long after the kids have grown out of their size 1 shoes. Fans of Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell will find the eclectic song choices and cozy arrangements to their families' liking. Though you were always sort of part of this family music world, we'll wish you a formal welcome, Rani -- hope you stick around for awhile. (It won't take me this long next time to tell folks.) Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think the world of Brooklyn's Deedle Deedle Dees for many reasons. Some of them are obvious -- catchy tunes, they RAWK -- and some are less so. One of those "less-so" reasons is that the band is so clearly following their muse, writing and playing songs that interest them.

I mean, I can't think of any other kids musician or band who would record a song about, say, Eleanor Roosevelt, as the Dees have done on their latest album American History + Rock 'N' Roll = Deedle Deedle Dees. But there it is, a dreamy song about Eleanor Roosevelt, getting advice about what to do as she was becoming First Lady -- it's a nice character sketch.

"Nice character sketch" is a good description for the Dees' history-based music -- rather than trying to sing about the big, important historical events, they're more apt to sing about the smaller historical moments or non-Presidents -- the saucy, horn-assisted strut of "Bring 'Em In" (a possibly true story about the pitcher Satchel Paige) or the party of "Tres Muralistas" (about the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, and David Siqueiros). And when they do hit the people you're more likely to read about in a fifth grade history book, it's more about just trying to give the audience a little hook to remember the person by; in "Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga," it's remembering that Harriet Tubman led people by walking, rather than trying to explain (in song) what the Underground Railroad was.

Musically, the album moves from shuffling rock ("Little Red Airplane") to horn-aided Mexican-tinged folk ("Tres Muralistas") to punk ("Put on the Dress," based on a true story of -- and featuring on the record -- Bill Childs). The musicianship is solid throughout and I especially enjoyed some of instrumental flourishes (the guitar on "John Muir" or the piano on "Si Se Puede!")

Though the Dees have songs for younger kids (primarily from chief Dee songwriter Lloyd Miller/Ulysses Dee), this album is entirely history-based. As a result, while younger kids will probably enjoy dancing around to the music, kids ages 7 and up will most appreciate the songs and stories told here. You can hear some samples here and I highly recommend the song notes the band's been posting here.

These are not the catchy, big-picture pop tunes of Schoolhouse Rock; instead, this album is more interested in the nooks and crannies of history. I hope the Dees continue to follow their personal muses -- their music isn't necessarily for every listener, but it's vibrant. The fact that it's an excellent historical survey is just a bonus. Definitely recommended.

[Disclosure notice: The band provided a copy for possible review.]

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are not "gamers" by any stretch of the imagination -- somehow, being the sole kid without an Atari 2600 on my block growing up did not lead me to overcompensate by buying every single gaming console ever made.

So when I was offered a copy of Lego Rock Band for Wii for possible review (it came out right around Thanksgiving), my first task was to, well, find a Wii. Which probably gives you a pretty good indication of my gaming experience. (Previous total Wii experience = about 1 hour.) But, having secured a Wii and assorted equipment for a couple hours and my friend Larry (along with his kid) to enjoy the game with, I dove right in.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the whole Rock Band concept, in brief it lets players "play" console instruments (e.g., guitar, bass, drums) and/or sing-along karaoke-style along with popular songs in front of animated singers. The more accurate your "playing" (i.e., press the correct colored button at the proper time) is on these fake, simplified instruments (or the closer your vocals are to actual notes), the higher your score. Basically, it's karaoke without the crowds and with points.

And, in this, the latest version of the Rock Band concept, animated Lego characters.

Continue reading "Video Game Review: Lego Rock Band (Wii)" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the noisiest kids' CD you'll hear all year. Dean Jones, musician with a dozen hats (including one as the ringleader of the wonderful folk/pop/jazz/whatever band Dog on Fleas), turns to a bunch of friends, primarily the Felice Brothers and Earmight, for his latest album Rock Paper Scissors. Unlike his first solo kids' disk, the lullaby(-ish) Napper's Delight, this new album is loud and sloppy and all over the place. (If the two albums are in the same place at the same time, they will explode, just as if you put matter and anti-matter together.)

The opening track, "Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here!" outdoes Dan Zanes and anybody else who's ever attempted to put a party group jam on record. You will not hear a better album-opener all year, and the album almost suffers from being unable to match that level of energy and raucous joy the rest of the disk, as if anything could. As the album proceeds, Jones and his pals move from the jazzy title track, the Jazz Age novelty track (in spirit, anyway) "Butterflies" to the sing-it-loud-and-proud midtempo "Sing Like a Sparrow." Jones pal Uncle Rock shows up to mug his way through the loudest song about snoring you'll ever hear "Roncando," while the band channels a little bit of the great band Morphine on "Poison Ivy." It moves through many emotions and many instruments (haven't seen "car-horn-o-phone" on an instrument list lately). While this isn't quite the folk/pop that Dog on Fleas mastered on When I Get Little, people who adored that album and didn't have quite the attachment to its follow-up Beautiful World will probably find this a worthy successor.

Kids ages 4 through 8 may dig the album more so than kids of other ages, though kids ages 34 through 38 will enjoy it just as much. You can hear clips from the approximately 34-minute album here.

So, yeah, Dean Jones throws in everything but the kitchen sink on Rock Paper Scissors, and then goes ahead and throws in the sink for good measure. Lots of kids albums describe themselves as a good party, but this album is the real deal. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's so much holiday music in the kids music genre that just listening to it all this year was a daunting task. I've got eight albums that grabbed my attention in one way or another; one of them is bound to please your family (unless you're looking for a solstice, Kwanzaa, or Festivus album).

Let's start out with my 3 favorite albums of this particular season...

The most ambitious kids music holiday album of the year comes courtesy of The Hipwaders, whose A Kindie Christmas isn't so much an album of Christmas music as much as it is a Christmas concept album, covering the emotions and anticipation of the season. It's a collection of all-original tunes, done in the Hipwaders power-pop/rock style. "It's Wintertime" is a great dance tune, and "Santa's Train" sounds like an outtake to a Johnny Cash Christmas album, but my favorite track here, maybe of the season, is "There's Too Much Good," a very affirming sentiment at this time of year.

To say that the collaboration of Danny Adlerman, Kevin Kameraad, and Yosi finally bridges the divide between Christian and Jewish holiday traditions makes ...And a Happy New Year sound a lot duller than it really is. In reality, the three kids rockers mostly take turns in providing songs, alternately deeply sincere ("Starlight" and "Two Sets of Footprints") and goofy (the "12 Days of Christmas" reworking "A Pickle for my Christmas Tree" and a cover of Tom Lehrer's "I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica"). Featuring the season's hardest-rocking tune, the trio's cover of "Frosty the Snowman," it's an interfaith collection worth exploring regardless of whether you light menorah or advent candles.

Robert Burke Warren, AKA Uncle Rock, spent time in London's West End performing a Broadway show but also rocked in far earthier terms. On Express Your Elf, Warren taps into both of those performing personalities. On the one hand, he offers a crooning take on "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and a peaceful "My Favorite Things" (a perfect holiday song, when you think about it). Those tracks share space with the rootsy original long-lost nugget "Santa's Coming in a Whirlybird" and a cover of "Feliz Navidad" that neatly weaves "La Bamba" into the mix. It's a tough (and close) call, but it's my favorite kids music holiday disk of the year.

There are others for your listening pleasure. Read on for more...

Continue reading "A Sleigh-Load of Christmas/Holiday CD Reviews" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Let's stop for a moment to appreciate Dan Zanes' output over the past ten years -- 10 albums, 2 DVDs, a couple books, a ukulele, a Grammy, and the eternal gratitude of tens of thousands of families (not to mention dozens of musicians and reporters, who could always count on him for advice or a good quote). That's right -- in 1999, only a few folks around New York City had heard Zanes' "age-desegregated" music passed around on a home-recorded tape, but ten years later, his music's been heard Australia, the Middle East, off-Broadway, and, no doubt, a number of Starbucks locations.

Well, now with 76 Trombones, his tenth album for families, he's finally made it to Broadway, covering a wide variety of Broadway tunes owned by Sir Paul McCartney's music publishing company. He and his friends (both his regular band and a bunch of Broadway stars such as Carol Channing, Matthew Broderick, and Brian Stokes Mitchell) have given melodies from the Great White Way the house party treatment, sounding less like a formal musical and more like a local parade (a noun that Zanes himself uses to describe the album in the liner notes).

A key to any successful cover album is to find a kernel of truth in the song that the artist can then apply to their own style. Several songs here achieve that success -- the soulful rock of "I Won't Grow Up" from Annie Peter Pan, the parade of the title track (from The Music Man), or the jubilantly defiant "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles. And at other points, Zanes doesn't mess much with what's worked in the past, such as giving Frank Loesser's beautiful "The Inch Worm" a relatively untouched treatment.

It's all here, the elements from every other fine Dan Zanes album -- the guest stars in abundance, the song in Spanish (Zanes' and Sonia de los Santos' bilingual take on "Tomorrow" from Annie), the skit and duet with Father Goose. And, yet, the album didn't move me like Zanes' other albums have. I've been thinking about why for a long time, and I'm not sure I have a great answer. Some songs don't work great (the duet on "Tomorrow," Peter Pan's "I'm Flying"), and perhaps it's because although Zanes has some great singers with him, and while Zanes has many strengths as a performer, his vocals don't necessarily carry songs which were written to be sung by singers whose voices can be belted across a stage.

The best answer I could come up with relates to Zanes' own career and approach. When he released Sea Music and his Carl Sandburg cover album, those thematically and stylistically focused albums were interspersed between his five more standard "family" albums which culminated in the Grammy-winning Catch That Train!, which has to be on the short list for best kids music album of the decade. His concerts have been giant parties, melding cultures (musical and otherwise) and building communities. But his past three albums have been more narrowly focused -- a Spanish-language disk, a disk of ecunmenical religious tunes, and now this one. None of them have been bad, they're all worth just checking out. But it's been more than 3 1/2 years since the release of Catch That Train!, and I miss that potpourri.

Like with all Zanes disks, the idea of an age range is a little silly, but I think kids ages 5 and up will most appreciate the themes and lyrical sophistication here. You can hear the title track here or samples at all your favorite digital e-tailers.

I don't blame Dan Zanes for recording the album -- if Sir Paul McCartney's people asked me to narrate the phone book for an audiobook, it'd take me about 2 seconds before grabbing for the Yellow Pages. And I'm afraid that the tone of this review is more negative than the album merits, because it's filled with a number of really good songs, few duds, and is still better than 90% of the music being made for families today. I'm just used to Dan Zanes being better than 98% of the music being made for families today. 76 Trombones is recommended, though, and I expect Zanes' second decade recording music for families to be as joyful as the first.

Disclosure: Dan Zanes' Festival Five Records provided me with a copy of the album for possible review.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are 3 operative points of comparison when discussing Readeez, the creation of Atlanta-based Michael Rachap -- Baby Einstein, Schoolhouse Rock, and Sesame Street. Or, at least, those were the three I thought of as I listened to the latest Readeez products, the Readeez Volume Two DVD and the Songeez CD.

Let's start with Schoolhouse Rock, famously created to try to educate kids via advertising techniques. Rachap used to work in the advertising industry, but rather than deliver educational nuggets via 3-minute pop songs, he typically does it in about 60 seconds. Which means his educational scope, such as it is, is a little circumscribed -- it's hard enough to describe conjunctions in 3 minutes and essentially impossible in 60 seconds. So the songs that have some educational content, such as "A Special Name for Twelve" or "Circle and Square" (from the first DVD, but also on the Songeez disk), cover much narrower ground, which is fine. But if you're expecting "learning" from these two items, it's much more on the level of TMBG's Here Come the 123s (with some Dial-A-Song mixed in) than Here Comes Science.

Let's move, then, to TMBG's Disney label mates, Baby Einstein. I know that it's easy to slag on the series, but if you set aside their overhyped claims for the product, their later stuff is competently produced and offers a wide variety of visual stimulation for young'uns. For an independently produced DVD, Volume 2 looks great. (It's what made this headline -- Readeez Company Acquired by Disney" -- so great. Yes, it's on both disks.) The attention to detail at times even surpasses Einstein's (note the timing of the placement of periods at the end of "The Land of I Don't Know"). The comparison does, however, highlight one of Readeez' ("Readeez's"?) few shortcomings, and that's the relative monotony of the visuals on the DVD. I like the concept of displaying the words as you hear them, and the crisp, clean look of the background and text is balm for a "Dear Teacher"-font world gone awry. But I long for more visual variety, as the Einstein videos employ. The occasional use of pictures or non-white backgrounds to offset the charmingly illustrated Julian and Isabel Waters (or live-action Rachap) would go a long way.

Which brings us to Sesame Street. Forty years down the line, they've had some great songs written for the show. The best songs don't feel like they were written with education in mind. And while the Volume One DVD often felt like the "education" aspect played a more important role, Volume Two has much less of that feel, and, as a result is a more enjoyable experience sonically. (Though Volume One is not without considerable charm.)

Continue reading "DVD/CD Review: "Readeez Volume Two" / "Songeez" - Readeez" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As a reviewer, I tend to dislike absolute statements because you never know what you'll hear or read or see afterwards that will cause you to regret your previous absolute. So with that in mind, let me say this with no "possibly"s or "maybe"s to get in the way:

Nobody makes better kids music videos than the Jimmies. Nobody.

Don't get me wrong, They Might Be Giants draw a lot of talent to their videos, Recess Monkey does a lot with a little, and folks like Gustafer Yellowgold and Readeez crank out a lot of great music via their primarily video-based format. And various artists might crank out an excellent video or two. But when it comes to creating those 3-minute videos we used to watch MTV for, the Jimmies consistently are the cream of the crop.

It's no surprise, therefore, that the chief draw of Trying Funny Stuff, the new DVD from the New York band The Jimmies are the six videos on the set. "Do The Elephant," "Spanimals," "Cool To Be Uncool," "Bedhead," and "Taddy" are here (all available on their YouTube channel or here), along with the new-to-you video for "What's That Sound?," which is every bit as eye-popping as the other three (love the cloud dress).

The production values Jimmies mastermind Ashley Albert and director Michael Slavens bring to the videos are pretty stunning -- they impress (and the songs they back up are pretty decent, too). They try lots of stuff, some funny and some just cool. The "behind-the-scenes" documentary starts out goofy, and I thought it was going to be one of those throwaway EPK documentaries, but maybe about five minutes in, you realize, hey, this is interesting, and not in a "interesting-for-the-parents, deathly-dull-for-the-kids" sort of way, but Slavens and Albert actually walk through how they created the effects for the videos and talk to kids rather than the adults. (Oh, and they run through a good dozen chicken-related puns in the span of about a minute, but they're not perfect.)

The rest of the package is gravy. The karaoke setting for the videos, is cool, though I don't expect it'll get much use. And the concert video is fun, with the band rocking out in a New York auditorium, complete with guest banjo artists, gratuitous egg shaker solo, and Soaper the Scaredybot (you just have to see it). If you've seen the band in concert, then you know what to expect from the concert. They play songs both from Make Your Own Someday and the upcoming (at some point) Everyday's a Holiday. The DVD also comes packaged with a CD of the concert -- in other words, there's a lot of video and audio to enjoy.

Kids ages 4 through 8 will most enjoy the DVD, which features nearly 90 minutes of video (besides the karaoke). You can buy the DVD here or at Barnes & Noble.

To watch the Jimmies is to become a fan of the Jimmies. And sometimes you want to watch videos with your kids on something larger than a 3-inch YouTube screen. For those reasons alone, Trying Funny Stuff is worth your time. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Is it poetry set to music, or music made of poetry? That's the question posed by these two albums.

The first, Underwater Land, consists of poems set to music written by the well-known poet and occasional songwriter Shel Silverstein. Originally released in 2002 and re-released this fall, the nautically-themed music was recorded in 1997 by Silverstein's friend Pat Dailey, with Silverstein making vocal appearances on a few tracks. The tracks here are a mix of poems that seem to have been written without music particularly in mind, along with some songs that seem to be more like songs. The title track has enough fish-related puns to last a good year, while "Fish Guts" (which at 4 minutes long is about twice as long as it needs to be) tackles the ickier side of eating fish. "Cuttlefish" is a cute little folk song, too. But a lot of the songs are basically spoken-word poems with minimal musical accompaniment.

The album comes with some nice Silverstein illustrations, and the subject matter itself includes the typical Silverstein mixture of comforting jokes and more upfront discussions of danger and mortality than you'd see in a lot of kids material. That's not a bad thing -- it's one of the reasons why I think Silverstein resonates with a lot of kids, for dealing in material that they didn't ordinarily read. (Anyway, it's probably best for kids ages 5 and up.) The 46-minute album is available here, along with sound clips from some of the tracks. The music isn't the big selling point here; I'd recommend the album for families who are fans of Silverstein's work, and poetry fans in general.

The debut album from Twin Cities band Clementown, Polkabats and Octopus Slacks - The Music, takes a slightly different approach to poetry. They used a couple books of poetry from the author/illustrator Calef Brown (the book giving the album its title and its sequel Dutch Sneakers and Flea Keepers) and crafted 28 distinct songs for its 28 distinct poems. (The somewhat askew viewpoints of the poems' subjects owe a small debt in some way to Silverstein.) These aren't long poems and the band doesn't attempt to craft choruses or extend the text in anyway, so the songs are rarely more than 2 minutes long. As a result, you're forced to move onto the next song -- like "Kansas City Octopus" 1 minute and 39 seconds into the funky groove or the indie-pop-tastic "Gum Bubble Monday" just 83 seconds into the song -- no matter how much you're enjoying it. It's like listening to a poetry-centric version of TMBG's Dial-A-Song service. I also dug the southern rock of "The Bathtub Driver" and the slow, off-kilter sound of "Ed," among other tracks.

What's most impressive about the set of songs is how much attention is paid to painting a picture with the songs. Clementown's Kate Lynch and Chris Beaty work to create distinct worlds for each of the songs -- the funkiness of "Funky Snowman," the slightly seedy sound of "Fleakeepers," the Chris-Isaak-on-kids-music sound of "Desert Surfer" -- and for the most part they succeed in creating those worlds.

The songs will be of most interest to kids ages 4 through 9. You can listen to several tracks from the 46-minute album at the band's Myspace page or watch some videos at its main page (be sure to check out the video page as well). You can also purchase the disk (in mp3 format and listen to more clips at the album's CDBaby page.) I'd also note that while you can enjoy the album without the two books which inspired the band, the books are worth reading both for the text and Brown's vivid drawings. (So, hey, Houghton Mifflin, get a 2-book/CD combo out pronto, OK?) In any case, these, too, are a fun set of poems and a unique set of songs that will entertain quite a few families regardless of their poetry proficiency. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Although the Baltimore band Milkshake has always claimed to have a bit of an edge, I've never really heard it in their music. Maybe their music, shiny guitars and all, retained a bit of alternative rock, but their lyrics have been safe, safe, safe. Which is fine for some families, but I know others would find the band too sentimental for their tastes.

With that context, when I say that on their latest album Great Day the band roughs things up a bit, I mean that as a compliment. Some of the roughing up comes courtesy of the sound. It's still got a gleaming pop sound, but there's more depth this go-round. From the funky piano on "Statue of Me" to Cathy Fink guesting on banjo on "When I'm Old" (Marcy Marxer pops up on "Travel Far") to the "Day in the Life"-aping title track which ends the disk and everywhere in better, there's a bit of scruffiness to the sound and a little more stylistic diversity. Is that the doing of producer Tor Hyams? Who knows, but the band's got six members, and they're beginning to use that to their advantage.

More significantly, I think, the band's now tackling some more difficult territory. The album's best track, "Enemies," one of my favorite kids songs of the year, captures the weird feeling of occasionally getting really mad at your best friend while sounding a bit like a cover of some lost kids song from the Police. "Happy Place" talks about days that are anything but happy. There are still points where I think Milkshake retreats to safety lyrically ("Happy Place" includes the couplet "Reach out and hit somebody / But I can't cause that would be naughty") and your opinion (and that of your kids) will depend on whether you (and they) find comfort in that safety or dismiss it. But I'm glad that Lisa Mathews (who writes or co-writes every song here) is willing to explore emotions and situations that kids who might actually be in double-digits would find familiar.

The 37-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 10. You can hear 5 of the songs (including "Happy Place" and "Enemies") here. Great Day has some of the band's strongest songwriting and the band sounds better than ever. While I think some families may still find the band too earnest, I think this album shrinks that population considerably. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been watching a lot of kids music DVDs lately, and I've found that my appreciation of the individual DVDs is roughly commensurate with my appreciation of the artist. Or, to be all math-like, E(d) = E(a) * PQ. (Enjoyment of DVD equals enjoyment of artist multiplied by the production quality of the DVD.)

So it's probably a safe assumption that I'll enjoy a Dan Zanes DVD, not just because it's, well, Dan Zanes, but also because he has the friends (and, frankly, the resources) to make sure it's a high-quality product. Unsurprisingly, then, I'm here to tell you that I like The Fine Friends Are Here, the brand new DVD from Dan Zanes and Friends.

We can start out with the Dan Zanes portion of the equation. Zanes puts together a fairly eclectic setlist for the live show recorded at Brooklyn's Jalopy Theatre, drawing from all across his decades' worth of family music, playing both popular and more unfamiliar songs. There's a fair number of tunes from CDs released after the All Around the Kitchen DVD was released in 2005, but old chestnuts (but live staples) like "Water for the Elephants" and "Jump Up" get their turn, too.

I will confess to missing Zanes' old band -- I still love hearing Barbara Brousal's and Cynthia Hopkins' voices on record. Father Goose brought a jolt to the stage whenever he went on. But that's a personal thing, I suppose, and there's no doubt his current band provides a much broader sound on stage than the old band did. Violin, harmonica, horns -- Zanes is able to energize old favorites without removing their essential core. (Colin Brooks, the only non-DZ holdover, continues to provide excellent percussive support.) "Cape Cod Girls," horns and all, is just about the rockingest track Zanes has ever recorded for families. "Colas" has even more propulsive energy than on record. (You may even prefer to get the album in mp3 rather than video format -- a possibility at Amazon and iTunes.)

As for the production quality, it, too, is pretty high. Zanes got a couple guest artists (Caridad de la Luz AKA La Bruja, who sings, and David Alan AKA Cyclone, who dances) to join in and the concert features some nifty art design (the world's largest papier mache canary's head, for example). Throw in some costumes for the kids and adults to try on midway through the show, and while I'm not sure I completely felt the party watching at home, it does make for something more intriguing than a standard 3-camera concert video. The choice to mix the videos for "Pollito Chicken," "Wonder Wheel," and (my personal favorite) "Night Owl" in between the concert songs is a wise one, as it further mixes it up.

As for the bonus audio CD, I think it'll be a popular addition for listeners, even though it's essentially Dan Zanes sans Friends. Zanes' duet with his daughter Anna on the Beatles' "I've Just Seen a Face" is sweet, and the rest of the songs ("Hush, Little Baby," "The Bells of Ireland," "Goodnight, Goodnight," or, on an Amazon mp3 exclusive "Summer Wind") are mellow tracks, mostly Zanes unaccompanied. I particularly liked "Hush, Little Baby," which sounds like Zanes channeling John Prine.

As with just about all Dan Zanes albums, this one, too, is essentially all-ages. (OK, 3 on up.) You can listen to samples at the usual places.

Dan Zanes can buy The Fine Friends Are Here assured in the fact that it delivers in conveying not a small amount of the energy of his live show with fine audio and video. In both song performance and presentation, it's a very good document of exactly why Zanes has been winning friends across the country and world with his all ages brand of music for more than a decade. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A small delight.

I've been a big fan of Rhode Island storyteller and songwriter Keith Munslow for awhile now. His last album of songs, Accidentally (on purpose) (review) was a well-crafted collection of children's pop, and his Dressed Up for the Party -- two stories, two songs -- is a popular request in our house. His new album Homemade Fun is even better. As you might expect from a storyteller and improv performer, Munslow spends a lot of time thinking about kids' lives and the importance of imagination in those lives. So on the funky horn-tinged "Every Day Is A Summer Day," he sings about picturing summer in the midst of winter (and sounds like a bit like Stan Ridgway on "Mexican Radio"). The silly "The Leftovers" describes an army of left-too-much-overs marching through the house. And on the '80s pop homage "Watchin' All the Cars Go By," the narrator sees freeway traffic and sings "Every one has a place to be / every one has a story for me / They just keep comin' / and I wonder why..."

The humor in a lot of the songs is definitely not subtle (you neither expect nor receive any subtlety on a song title "Code Id By Doze"), which is fine -- kids'll eat it up. But parents (and kids paying close attention) will probably howl most at the denouement of "Dust Bunny," about a kid who chooses a dust bunny to be his pet. And the near-instrumental surf-rock of "Spork," featuring awesome tenor saxophone work by Gordon Beadle, is the best dance song of the year.

The 34-minute album is most likely going to be appreciated by kids ages 5 through 9. You can read lyrics to the album and hear a few samples here. Homemade Fun is a sweet nugget of an album and what a lot of kids' music should be -- great music well-played and with lyrics that touch upon kids' experiences. Parents will like; kids will love. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Where would kids music be without Belinda Miller and Hova Najarian, the hosts of the Greasy Kid Stuff radio show? Oh, sure, the greater arc of kids music would be unchanged -- Laurie Berkner, Ralph's World, Justin Roberts, Dan Zanes -- those folks would still be popular had Greasy Kid Stuff not aired starting in 1995. Belinda and Hova were never against mainstream "kids music" -- they just didn't have as much interest in it. By not making those artists the focus of their show, what they've done is expand (or re-expand) the notion of what music for kids might mean.

Greasy Kid Stuff 3: Even More Songs From Inside the Radio, just like its predecessor volumes 1 and 2 (review here) successfully mixes the rock with the silly, the (semi-)famous with the obscure, and produces another near-perfect mixtape. Just take the first three songs -- a theme song from fans They Might Be Giants to the incredible (and incredibly wordy) track from the late Logan Whitehurst "Happy Noodle vs. Sad Noodle" to Bubble's slightly off-kilter cover of "Pure Imagination." And so on. I hesitate to recommend specific songs because then you'll just go and download the best ones, and to appreciate what they're doing here you should listen to the whole thing. Really, I never would have thought that a cover (with new lyrics) of Burt Bacharach's theme for The Blob would make a good kids song, and I would've been totally wrong, because Guy Klucevsek's accordion-fueled version is perfect.

Kids ages 4 through 10 (and really, a lot older) will appreciate the songs here. You can listen to samples from the 32-minute album here. If anything has changed in the five years since the last compilation came out it's that a lot more people are making more idiosyncratic kids music. So while you have a repeat appearance from TMBG, you also have Captain Bogg & Salty and Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke making appearances as do John Upchurch and Mark Greenberg, creators of the great John and Mark's Children's Album, albeit in their format guise as members of The Coctails. If Belinda and Hova are playing more "kids music" on their radio show these days, it's in part because kids music has moved in their direction. Greasy Kid Stuff 3 is a small sliver of this vibrant genre with a lot of other fun songs mixed in. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

They Might Be Giants dispense with the pleasantries right away on their fourth full-length album for kids, Here Comes Science. "I like those stories / about angels, unicorns, and elves / Now, I like those stories / As much as anybody else / But when I'm seeking knowledge / Either simple or abstract / The facts are with science / Science is real." That's from the leadoff track "Science Is Real," and once the band has set down its marker down like that, they've clearly made the decision that the album isn't going to feature songs like those about a letter D who likes to watch the sports or a whole bunch of number sevens who crash a birthday party.

Instead, the album is, well, educational in a way that mainstream kids music hasn't seen since Schoolhouse Rock. Luckily for the band, nobody remembers the Science Rock set of songs (except "Interplanet Janet"), so anything they do that's halfway tuneful will be a massive improvement. And that cup is definitely more than half full. "Meet the Elements" has an undeniably catchy chorus and mixes just enough science (all of us are mostly made of four elements) and whimsy (the song takes a detour confusing elements with elephants) that it is impossible to not like the song. "I Am A Paleontologist" is a bouncy rocker featuring Danny Weinkauf's vocals which conveys more the excitement of discovery rather than many dinosaur details, but will make your dinosaur-loving child even more interested in dinosaurs, if that's somehow possible. "My Brother the Ape" attempts to explain evolution to your 8-year-old in 3 minutes of synthesizer-tinged rock and pretty much succeeds. And what could be more scientific than the band re-recording their old cover "Why Does the Sun Shine?," finding out that some of the 50-year-old science about the sun's basic composition in that song had been disproven, and recording a new song, "Why Does the Sun Really Shine?," that puts it context?

If it's not obvious yet, the band has left the preschool set behind with these songs. Preschoolers may grasp a few of the concepts and bounce around a bit, but the world of "Clap Your Hands" is in the rear-view mirror here. I'll admit to missing the goofiness. The songs are good, some excellent, but I think the best songs here are the ones that still have a little goofiness to leaven the learning or don't push too much subject knowledge. "Meet the Elements," "My Brother the Ape," "Put It To The Test" -- these all meet that test quite well. (Some of the songs at the end, like "Computer Assisted Design," don't.) This album is the first TMBG kids' album that feels like they're trying to teach something and while they do it better and more tunefully than just about anyone -- imagine if you'd been able to watch these instead of those Thursday afternoon filmstrips -- you're probably less likely to steal this CD away from your kid to listen on a bright spring day than its predecessors.

Of course, even if you do steal the CD away, they'll still have the DVD to watch. And the DVD is brilliant, my friends. The amount of detail elegantly packed into "Meet the Elements" is absolutely amazing -- 3 minutes and 19 seconds of knowledge wrapped with a neat little bow on top. Put It To The Test" is hands down the funniest video of the year -- even if you don't have fond memories of your Atari 2600, you'll still be amused by the 8-bit graphics. And videos for songs like "How Many Planets?" and "Solid Liquid Gas" (which already conveyed a good sense of their subjects by sound description) neatly complement the audio. The videos as a whole have top-notch video quality all-around, better than Here Come the 123s, which was already pretty darn good.

The songs and videos here will be of most interest to kids ages 5 through 10. Samples of the songs are all over your favorite online retailers, with full versions of "I Am A Paleontologist" and "Electric Car" available through links in this link.

Kids who've grown up with They Might Be Giants dating all the way back to 2002's No! will take a strong interest in Here Comes Science, and if they have any curiosity they'll be completely taken by the songs and videos here. I'd look to one of the band's earlier kids' albums as the entryway to the band if you've got a preschooler, but I'm sure that soon enough they'll want to hear and see these songs, too. And, yeah, the parents will happily watch, too. I realize that taste is subjective, and I can't literally prove that this is another excellent album, but I'm working on it; I'll let you know when the test is complete. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

There's this ice cream shop in San Francisco called Humphry Slocombe. I've never been there, but I'm definitely intrigued. “There’s a whole world beyond chocolate, strawberry, vanilla," the owner says. "Why can’t you make peanut butter–curry ice cream?” Indeed, take a look at the flavor list -- OK, they do have chocolate and vanilla, but foie gras? Pistachio-bacon? Strawberry.... candied jalapeno? But even if the flavors sound odd, they seem to be doing excellent business...

Duplex is not for people who, to coin a phrase, are looking for vanilla kids music. It's for the families who'd like to try salt and pepper ice cream. The band is the brainchild of Vancouver musician Veda Hille, who amidst her many other musical projects put together the delightfully askew album Ablum (review) in 2005 with a crew of kids and adults. Four years later, Hille and her gang are back with Worser, which is, well, quite possibly odder than its predecessor.

I don't want to suggest that Duplex makes deliberately obscure and unlistenable music. Because at its heart these are mostly pop songs that are, in fact, quite listenable. "That's How We Make a Sandwich" features horns, sha-la-las, and sings about, well, the various ways people make sandwiches. "Orange Popsicle" (listen here is a sweet cut of Beach Boys-esque pop about friendship.

But much of the album sounds like nothing else you will hear in the kids music genre this year. Worser features not one, but two, science-related songs (take that!, They Might Be Giants) -- the over-the-top rocker "Noble Gases" (about, yes, the seven noble gases) and the gorgeous "Alive," about evolution (listen here). Heck, throw in "September Is My Favourite" and the British-Invasion-aping "Hibernation," and that's four science-related songs. There's also an ode to laziness (or possibly subtle criticism) in the zippy "That Sounds Like Work To Me." And the opening track "Salvador" features one of my favorite lines in kids music for a long time -- "Some people come to the party early / Some people never show up at all / Some stay late and they help clean up the dishes / Salvador stayed all night long" -- I could spend days unpacking all the meaning in those lines.

Not all of it works, of course. Songs about divorce are rare in kids music and songs about divorce between couples who just happen to be the same sex are rarer still. While I appreciate the sentiment in the heartfelt "Daddy and I," the song doesn't have quite the verve of most of the rest of the tracks. And "Dog With A Sweater On" moves from funny to odd to annoying to very annoying to so bad it's good to something approaching head-shaking amazement.

The 30-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. For the moment it's available here. You can listen to additional tracks at the band's Myspace page. (The physical copy is silk-screened by band member Annie Wilkinson and is lovely to boot.)

Since it doesn't sound like a lot of kids music, Worser probably isn't for everyone. But just like there are enough people who like pistachio-bacon ice cream, there are enough people who like their kids music a bit off-kilter. And even those folks like me who for whom the more chocolate associated with their ice cream, the better, want to try really good salt and pepper ice cream every once in a while. Definitely recommended.

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

I originally reviewed Easy, the debut from Secret Agent 23 Skidoo last spring. As much as I liked it then, I think I still underestimated its ongoing appeal. With its re-mastered rerelease on Happiness Records and the addition of 3 new tracks, I thought I'd update the review...

I know that the kids' music genre is flowering when less popular subgenres such as kids' hip-hop or kids' country are starting to bubble up. I especially know that that's the case when those genres start producing albums that aren't just "kids songs done in a [fill-in-genre-name] style," but fully realized albums on their own.

Case in point: Easy, the debut kids' CD from Asheville, North Carolina's Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. He spends a lot of time rapping and playing with the music collective GFE as Agent 23, but who adopts the cool-kids name Secret Agent 23 Skidoo. From start to finish, the album is totally geared at kids in its subject matter but is not dumbed down one bit in the creativity of its beats and melody. On its strongest tracks (and there are a number of them), Skidoo blends smooth rapping with occasionally eclectic instrumentation ("Luck" features nice banjo work) and an all-positive message.

Sometimes that message is a little more overt -- "Luck" raps about how we make our own luck by knowing what it is we want; "Gotta Be Me" is about how everyone should have their own style, and that's OK. If the message is a bit direct, it's delivered with precision and flowing words. (Even his 5-year-old daughter Saki (AKA MC Fireworks) gets in on the act, very smoothly trading lines with her dad on "Family Tree.")

Perhaps even better are his songs that take a more imaginary bent. "Hot Lava" so completely nails the 7-year-old feeling of pretending on the fly (don't touch the floor! -- it's hot lava! -- jump from couch to couch!) that I'm not sure there is a better kids' song about the power of imagination. Songs about dragons, mermaids, and robots feature in the mix, too. It's very much story-telling with a compelling musical background.

I'm going to peg the messages and stories here as geared primarily for kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear samples of a number of the songs at the album's CDBaby page or "Gotta Be Me" and "Luck" and "The Last Dragon" here.

As for the re-release, it's been remastered with some new beats and tweaked artwork, but the chief reason to get the new album (or at least hit up iTunes) if you already have the original release are the new tracks. "Robots Can't Cry" is about the experience of being human in words that 6-year-olds will understand. "I Like Fruit" is so catchy it renders everyone within earshot incapable of not shouting "I like fruit" along with the chorus. (MC Fireworks and DJ Bootysattva fill in for Egg's Jeff Fuller on this version.) "Boogie Man," about mastering fears, might be my least favorite of the three new tracks, but that just means it's merely good.

The list of really good kids' hip-hop albums is very short. Not only does Easy go to the top of that list, it deserves to find a lot of fans among people who don't consider themselves big hip-hop fans. It's a really good CD, period -- lots of fun and certainly worthy of repeated spins. A year later, the album still holds up, and the new songs just make it that much better. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kids music resurgence has been relatively brief, and so we haven't necessarily had the time to watch too many bands mature and change their sounds over time. An exception is the Bay Area band The Sippy Cups. They started out doing nothing but covers, primarily of '60s and '70s psychedelic tunes. They then moved to mostly original '60s and '70s-sounding psychedelic tunes. It's only been on their last couple albums that they've developed a fuller sound (and added some skits to the mix).

All of which has been to the good. Their latest album The Time Machine is at times both their most conventional-sounding and also their most adventurous. Although it's not quite a concept album, there a number of songs about about growing up (hence the title). As a result, based on subject matter alone, this definitely their most typical "kids album." Of course, I happen to like some of those songs the best. The power-poppy "My Angry Voice" describes anger in easily accessible phrases ("Breathing fast / My heart is racing / I won't look you in the eyes / What's that sound? / It's someone shouting / That sounds like me / What a surprise") while "Don't Remove the Groove" ameliorates whatever preachiness a song about environmental warming might contain by being, well, groovy and turning it into a "freeze dance" song. "Seven Is The New 14" will likely go over heads of the 14-, er, 7-year-olds the song is targeted at, but its amusing spin on "age is nothing but a number" will draw chuckles from the parents.

For those of you originally drawn to the band for its original more psychedelic sounds won't be disappointed -- the title track and concluding track "Awake" (the latter clocking in at 6 minutes) are definitely could've been recorded 35 or 40 years ago, while "One Day Soon" is an excellent pastiche of Sgt. Pepper's-era Beatles. If there's a downside to the songwriting here it's that at times I felt like they were relying too heavily on the metaphorical imagery to the detriment of more sharply describing the experience of growing up. The worst tracks here are still better than 60% of the songs in the genre, but their excellent songs make the just adequate ones stand out. (As for the skits, I like 'em, and I typically haaaate skits, but I realize that your mileage may vary.)

The 44-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can listen to some tracks here or samples at the album's CDBaby page.

The Sippy Cups have developed into one of the most adventurous kids bands on today's scene. With a strong catalog of songs and an energetic live show, they seem set to be around making music for years to come. The Time Machine is, appropriately enough, evidence of their continuing evolution, and shows that growing up is usually a pretty good thing. Definitely recommended.

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

It's hard to write a review about Field Trip, the recently-released fifth album from Seattle's Recess Monkey. Not because it's bad, mind you, just the opposite -- it's just that the band's run of great albums and songs has been going on for so long now that it's getting more difficult to find new and interesting ways of saying "these guys are really good -- your family should listen to 'em."

From the two-minute simple Beatles-esque "Fort" to the fanciful power-pop of "Marshmallow Farm" to the sweet "Sack Lunch" the album starts off with great pop tunes and doesn't really ever stop. "Sack Lunch" manages the odd trick of not only writing a song from the perspective of a kid's sack lunch but also making it stand as some sort of metaphor for a really powerful love. (It also does so with the Northwest Boychoir singing the phrase "sack lunch" chorally, which makes me smile every time.) On the album goes, through '80s dance of "Haven't Got a Pet Yet" and the funk of "Hot Chocolate."

Recess Monkey has always been willing to approach the "novelty song" line much more than a lot of bands, and I can't say it always pays off -- the spaghetti western of "Ice Pack" is just OK and did the world need a song (no matter how catchy) about lice ("L.I.C.E.")? (The answer is no.) But that song is sandwiched between a tender love song ("Tiny Telephone") and the best kids song Elvis Costello never wrote -- "The Teens," which is ostensibly about difficulties in counting past ten but will get parents nodding about their kids' forthcoming teenaged years. The most exciting thing to the long-term listener of the band is that expansion of world view -- figuring out how to encompass more experiences of older listeners without sacrificing their core audience of young school-aged kids.

The album is still primarily targeted at kids aged 4 through 9. You can listen to samples from the 41-minutes album here.

So, yeah, Field Trip is another excellent string of songs from Recess Monkey. If you're a fan, you'll love it. If you're not a fan, though you'll probably be a bit mystified by the John Vanderslice bit at the very end, this is as good a place to start as any, as it's their best album yet. In the end, all I can say is that these guys are really good -- your family should listen to 'em. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I hesitate to call the DC-area-based duo Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer elder statesmen of the kids music genre because they're neither, you know, elderly nor male. But they've been doing the family music thing for about 25 years now. Which is why it's pretty great that their collaborator on their latest album Banjo to Beatbox is, well, not even 25 years old. Christylez Bacon is a DC-area hip hop artist; here, he adds his beatboxing and rhyming skills to Cathy & Marcy's banjo and folk stylings. On the album's best tracks, like the resetting of the traditional "Soup, Soup," the combination thrills, pointing the way to a 21st century folk music sound. That song, along with with "Hip Hop Humpty Dumpty," takes full advantage of the collaborators' strengths. The other songs here are enjoyable (I also quite like their take on "New River Train"), but those two are the standouts.

You can listen to clips of the album (best probably for kids ages 4 through 9) here. (They're calling it an EP, but at 30 minutes, who knows what "EP" means any more.)

I've always liked Fink and Marxer's wilingness to collaborate outside what somebody else might perceive to be their genre -- their collaboration with Texas polka group Brave Combo All Wound Up! is an excellent album. I don't think Banjo to Beatbox reaches those heights -- it seems a little more stylistically limited to me -- but I hope that Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer continue to make music every now and then with Christylez Bacon because there are parts of this album that are pretty exhilerating. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Giving Family Photograph, the first album from the bi-coastal Dreyer Family Band, a brief review is hard, because you're not likely to hear a kids music album more stuffed with so many feelings this year. The product of the families of Matt and Craig Dreyer, the album gives voice to all of the good times and bad times most families go through.

In many ways, it's completely typical family music territory -- lots of songs about love and creativity and animals playing music ("Totem Party," the closest thing the album has to a traditional folk song on its collection of 17 originals). But a few other songs serve as counterweight to the lovey-dovey stuff, and make those songs' emotions feel earned. When was the last time you heard a song (from a kids' point of view) talk about wanting to hit someone, especially a sibling or a friend, but that's exactly what the Johnny Cash-styled "Mad" covers. Or the '60s soul of "You Get What You Get," which adds music to all those things parents say (or want to say) to their child on those highly-stressed days ("It's a get what I got hope you like it day / If you don't just keep it to yourself today"). The music covers a wide range of styles, but has its locus in funky soul music. It's like a long-lost kids album from 35 years ago. It felt a little long for my tastes, though if you asked me exactly which 4 songs I'd drop to make it a trim 33 minutes rather than the 43 minutes it actually is, I'd be at a loss to do so.

The album will probably be most appreciated by kids ages 3 through 8, though the real target audience is those kids' parents -- if the kids like it, that's a bonus. You can hear some tracks at the band's website (click on "listen") or samples at the album's CD Baby page. Listening to Family Photograph feels a little bit like looking through a family album of highly personal photos; sometimes the photos are fuzzy or seem to have meaning that escapes the casual listener, but at times these snapshots have captured something magical. Recommended.

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

Here's a sign of how oddball a CD is: when you cover a Talking Heads song on your kids' album, and it might just be the least weird song on there.

Thank You For Joining the Happy Club is an oddball CD, and I mean that as a high form of praise. It's the debut kids' CD from central Pennsylvania's Billy Kelly, and it's totally winning in its goofiness. How goofy? Try this, a snippet of animation for "People Really Like Milk":

And it goes on like that ("People really like drinking / From a really big thing that goes moo"), getting sillier all the while. It is a novelty song, perhaps, but it is a perfectly-constructed and produced one, possibly my favorite song of the year. The rest of the CD follows that pop-rock template, if not quite reaching those giddy heights. The title track invites you to "tell your dog the join the happy club" (with a perfectly timed woof) while having the background singers provide the "doo-doo-doos" after Kelly sings that "there aren't any dues." While the hyper (and genre-jumping) "I Don't Know!" sounds like early They Might Be Giants, most have the tracks have a warmer, usually joyous Barenaked Ladies vibe, particularly on songs like "Springtime: It's My Favorite" and "(Let Me Tell You) What I Like About You." And, yes, there's a Talking Heads chestnut, "Don't Worry About the Government," which in its straightforward reading is OK for kids, if a bit mystifying for them. (Hey, at least it's not "Stay Up Late.") Kelly and his band, the Blah Blah Blahs, make an appealing sound together; I particularly enjoyed the guitar work, which reminded me a bit of Adrian Belew in spots.

Now, there's no good reason to have two self-referential songs about song construction -- one is plenty for a kids' album (one is probably plenty for any album). And Kelly has a tendency to resort to spelling in his lyrics. (I'll admit, though, that the song title "S-N-O-W-M-A-N (Snowman!)" is pretty funny.) You take the good with the overdone good, I suppose.

The album will be most appreciated by kids ages 6 through 10. You can hear several songs from the 32-minute album at Kelly's Myspace page. For now you can purchase the album here.

Thank You for Joining the Happy Club is an album for slightly older kids, those who enjoy snappy wordplay and goofy imagery. I could see younger kids being puzzled by the hullabaloo and it's a bit too cute by half at points, but I think there are going to be some families who absolutely love love love this disk. Join the Happy Club? Sure, I did -- I might even run for president. Definitely recommended.

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

With about 30 years of recording behind them, Trout Fishing in America have a back catalog that is plenty large enough with which to start doing some interesting things. To wit, My Name Is Chicken Joe, the first book collaboration the duo of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet have done with The Secret Mountain publishing company.

The collection is out this week and it essentially is a "best of" collection of some of Trout's wordier, folkier tracks. The "star," so to speak, of the 11-track collection is "Chicken Joe," which gets its lyrics (about animals with non-sensical names like the cat named "Chicken Joe") illustrated over a couple dozen pages. The illustrations by Stephane Jorisch remind me of gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman with about 90% less gonzo. (There is no other way to describe them than "cute.") Lyrics to the other ten tracks each get a couple pages of illustration as well.

But we're mostly about the music here. The 11 tracks -- all previously-released -- include a number of excellent Trout Fishing tracks, not just the title track, but also "My Best Day," "It's A Puzzle," and "Fill It Up." For the most part, the selections tend toward the folkier (notwithstanding the rocking "I Can Dance" and the klezmer-touched "Boiled Okra and Spinach"). It's a fine collection, but it by no means is a complete Trout Fishing "Best Of." The collection lacks Trout classics such as "18 Wheels on a Big Rig," "Three Little Ducks," and "The Window," but those are songs that depend upon interaction between Grimwood and Idlet and not so much on the lyrics. Written down on paper, those latter songs wouldn't be so interesting -- it's Trout's classic live stage banter that makes those songs favorites to many listeners. The songs here are songs on which the lyrics themselves take center stage.

The songs will be of most interest to kids ages 5 through 9. (The book, maybe a little younger.) You can hear clips of the 33-minute album wherever books/CDs are sold online (or watch this video of the title track). If you're interested, you can also buy the CD just by itself, but with the book barely costing more than the CD, I say go for the book. (I should note that book itself is of high quality -- typically the books in these book/CD arrangements have a pretty cheap feel to them, but not this one.)

Longtime Trout Fishing in America fans will likely appreciate the book My Name Is Chicken Joe because it marries some delightful illustrations to a sweet Trout song, though may be disappointed by the lack of even a single new track. I'd recommend it more to newcomers to the band, who may appreciate the book more for that "best of" quality. Here's hoping, though, it leads to a couple more books (and, by extension, a couple more greatest hits volumes).

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rather than record a full-length follow-up to their fine 2007 collection Educated Kid, the Bay Area band The Hipwaders decided to save a little money and record just an EP, Goodie Bag, released last week. The band packs in quite a bit of music into the 16-minute EP and while there's nothing as completely amazing as the title track to their Educated Kid disk, there's a lot here to enjoy. From the crunchy power-pop snippet "Birthday Ruckus" to the jazzy punk "Field Trip" to the XTC-punk of "Things You Want," the band covers a lot of musical territory and chords you don't hear so much of in the genre. They're not recording "Jazz Odyssey" by any means, but songwriter and guitarist Tito Uquillas likes to write songs celebrating the imagination or creativity -- "My New Camera" or "What's That Noise?," for example -- and the trio's music never fits a cookie-cutter pop mold. Fellow Bay Area musician Gunnar Madsen also makes an appearance on the title track, the goofiest track here.

The album will appeal most to kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear clips at the album's CDBaby page or hear full clips plus lead Hipwader Tito's thoughts on the EP here. As far as goodie bags go, this particular one would be an excellent stuffer at your kids' next party. A tiny but recommended collection of songs.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been listening a lot to Pink, the third album from the DC-area band Rocknoceros, set to be released this week, and it's probably probably appropriate that I've been doing so while giving the upcoming Recess Monkey album a few spins. I've said before that the two bands share similarities in my mind -- besides the obvious fact that they're both trios, they also share a sense of humor, earnestness that isn't cloying, and rabid fanbases in their hometowns.

Like Recess Monkey, Rocknoceros also writes some excellent songs, and that continues to be true on this latest release. The album starts with the exuberant title track, perhaps the most hyper song in the band's oeuvre. You're plunged right into the album, kids are shouting the chorus, and you're wondering if maybe the band should cut back to a couple espresso shots a day. But rest assured that sanity returns -- "The Train Song" could've been written 60 years ago in its gentle swing and explanation of the different parts of the train. The fabulous "Playground" is a missing Byrds kids song, and "Big Wheel" is a crunchy Southern rocker with the irresistible refrain "How far can a Big Wheel ride?" Some songs, like "Lucky Lindy" downright take their time getting to where they want to go. (I can do without "Virginia," the song, if not the state, but given how big the band's fanbase is, I'm just waiting for "DC" or "Maryland" on the next album.)

Like the previous two Rocknoceros albums, Pink! is geared at primarily a preschool, early-elementary crowd. There is no small amount of advice-giving as on "Put Your Hat On," "Nappin' Time," and (for the parents) "Don't Give Up" but it's put over with such tunefulness that it will stand up to repeated parental listens. The band sounds remarkably full-bodied for being just a trio, and the album sounds great sonically. You can hear that sonic quality throughout the whole album, but especially on the final track "Always Tell Your Grandma," which is every bit as reserved as "Pink" is exuberant. The a capella harmonizing on the 2-minute track of advice-telling (tell you grandma you love her -- tell your parents you love 'em) ends up sounding almost like a hymn. That sounds ponderous and awful, but it's one of my favorite tracks of the year thus far.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can hear samples from the 39-minute album at its CDBaby page (as well as a few live cuts at Rocknoceros' main page).

While there isn't an absolute classic song like "Big Head" or "Pluto" and the band's humor is a little more muted on this offering, Pink! is definitely the band's most consistent and fullest-sounding album yet. It's only a matter of time before the band starts conquering other states besides Virginia -- there are many other states who could use a new state song. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's a sign, I think, of how popular Gustafer Yellowgold has become that I don't feel the need to spend much time explaining the character or the whole concept in this review. A lot of readers will probably be familiar with Gustafer and his fellow characters and the "moving picture book" style of animation developed by the songwriter and illustrator behind Gustafer, Morgan Taylor.

It's actually that familiarity that Taylor uses to his advantage in Gustafer Yellowgold's Mellow Fever, his third collection of Gustafer tunes and animated videos. Instead of focusing mostly on Gustafer, some of the songs/videos here focus on other characters, almost to the exclusion of Gustafer. "Sugar Boat" (which features Wilco's John Stirratt and Pat Sansone and a soaring chorus) revolves around Gustafer's biggest fan, Wincey the ferret. Sisson the blue worm is the focus of "Quite Easily Lost," animated to a gentle pop duet between Taylor and Lisa Loeb. It's no longer necessary to have Gustafer be the protagonist all the time. Indeed, the funniest track on the collection, "Panther Stamps Pants" features the pterodactyl Forrest Applecrombie and some excellent whistling.

There's also more backstory to Gustafer than we've had before, which provides some of the more moving moments on the disk. "Butter Pond Lake" should've been a hit on AM radio 35 years ago, telling the story of summer family vacations back on the sun. "Sunpod" obliquely tells the story of Gustafer leaving his home on the sun to live on earth, and while it's not depressing, you can't tell a story like that using humor. (And, hey, the tinge of sadness that runs through some of the Gustafer songs is one of the things that sets it apart.) The story of his arrival is carried on in a later video for "Underwater Stars," and it's that unity in the disk (shown also in "Constellation Pies," which is essentially an instrumental recap of the songs that have come before) that make it the most solid disk yet. If there's a downside, it's that I didn't like the songs overall quite as much as I did on Have You Never Been Yellow?. The songs are good, they just had slightly less "oomph" for me overall compared to its predecessor.

The disk is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can watch videos at the Gustafer website or on YouTube. The package includes both a DVD and a music-only CD, so you can whistle along to "Panther Stamps Pants" at work or in the car. The DVD also includes a mockumentary "Looking For... Gustafer Yellowgold" which will completely mystify your kids but bring a chuckle or two to the adults.

Three albums in, I think Morgan Taylor is just now scratching the surface of what he can do with Gustafer Yellowgold. Gustafer Yellowgold's Mellow Fever is another collection of strong indie-pop songwriting from an increasingly confident storyteller and illustrator. Can't wait for the fourth set. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

However you feel about Dan Zanes' music, it's hard to say that he hasn't managed to follow his muse in his career as family troubadour. Interspersed with excellent albums designed for the whole family, he recorded excellent albums covering songs from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag and sea tunes. And then he recorded an entire album in Spanish.

Really, the fact that Zanes' latest album is a bunch of gospel and gospel-inspired tunes with the slightly ponderous title The Welcome Table: Songs of Inspiration, Mystery, and Good Times should come as no surprise to any long-term listener of Zanes' music. The biggest risk Zanes takes in recording this album is alienating a portion of his audience who will be disinterested in the Christian worldview.

Or, rather, that's how it might appear to someone who hasn't heard the album. Because if there's one constant thread running through all of Zanes' albums it's a sense of tolerance and equality, and this album is no different. Yes, it's an album that mentions big-G God several repeatedly. And just as Nueva York! may not have been as easy for a listener to "get" if they didn't speak Spanish, if a listener doesn't speak the particular language of the gospel songs, they may find this album more difficult to grasp. (I personally had that problem with Nueva but don't really with this album.) But it's also an album that includes a Jewish song, readings of biblical passages in foreign languages, and several songs that don't mention a higher power at all. It is, in short, a Dan Zanes gospel album in every sense of the phrase.

There are, as best I can tell, 5 previously-released songs here including the title track with the Blind Boys of Alabama, leaving 10 new songs for your listening pleasure. Lots of traditional gospel tunes reworked in Zanes' Americana/folk/rock style, with particular highlights being "Jesus on the Mainline," "Up Above My Head," and "Home In That Rock." I also really liked the Spanish hymn "Himno Guadalupano." They're all lots of fun -- mostly "good times" with only a little bit of "mystery" thrown in. But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my favorite track here, the album closer "We've Been Down This Road Before," a song about working together through tough times that Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger would be proud to have written.

Once again, a Dan Zanes album makes a mockery of my insistence of putting age ranges on album reviews, but I think kids ages 5 and up will more easily grasp the social justice (or spiritual) messages here. You can listen to the songs at Zanes' page here. I should also note that the album is a benefit for the New Sanctuary Movement, an organization which "protects immigration workers and families from unjust deportation."

Zanes' passion in his music has always been community -- our "common welfare as human beings," as Zanes puts it in his liner notes. The Welcome Table is another solid album in his musical argument in favor of community and equality. Even if you're not sure the album is for you, if you're a Dan Zanes fan, you're going to find it worth your time. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems like kids music is the new "side project" for an increasing number of musicians. What better way to deflate expectations and clear out a little creative room than by deciding to create music for the elementary school set? I don't mean that negatively at all -- in fact, it's that "anything goes" approach that helps to make the genre vibrant.

It's in that spirit that I'm calling Bunny Clogs, the kids music project from the Honeydogs' Adam Levy, a "side project" in the best sense. Now, Levy already has a side project -- the I-never-thought-I'd-be-typing-this-name-in-this-blog band "Hookers $ Blow" -- but Bunny Clogs' first album More! More! More! has been 5 years in the making, recorded with Levy's two daughters and a host of guests (and featuring some pretty cool album art from his son). So it reflects a fair amount of thought and craft.

At its best, the album recalls the family-friendly community-celebrating vibe of Dan Zanes, such as on the midtempo "Midtown Greenway," which extols riding a bike through town and features Semisonic's John Munson on bass. "Song For Powderhorn" celebrates another part of Minneapolis (and benefits the local V.O.I.C.E. Music Saves Lives program doing work in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood). There are a lot of songs about food, with very little in the way of lessons (though there are some snuck in there). Sometimes the album is plain silly -- "Velveeta Girl and Squatsy" is a bunch of (danceable) nonsense while "3 Dogs and a Pancake" is a bunch of (not-entirely-danceable) nonsense. And sometimes the album marries the old (Woody Guthrie's "Car Car") into a new, strutting hand-clappable classic -- "Are We There Yet?," the best song on the album.

Not every track is perfect -- I can't say that I ever need to hear the drum machine-aided "Butter" more than once a year at the most -- but Levy's use of a whole bunch of different styles and instrumentation (check out the middle eastern touches on "Pharaoh Pharouk's Phyrst Phood Phyramid") makes even less compelling songs more fun to listen than most kids songs.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 10. You can hear tracks at Bunny Clogs' Myspace page, or also pick it up at eMusic or Lala.

More! More! More! is clearly a labor of love for Adam Levy. It wasn't recorded to cash in on the kids music scene, it was created for the fun of it. Families who listen to the album with the same sense of joy that went into making it will get a kick out of this. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, there's certainly no flies on New York's Dog on Fleas. Flies on fleas? Huh? What I mean by that is that their last album, When I Get Little, was a fabulous little piece of sun-kissed Dan Zanes-ian roots-pop, and it would have been very easy for the band to turn out another collection of free-range music.

But for whatever reason (including the departure of a couple band members to other things), the band has taken a somewhat different approach on this new CD. There's a lot of experimentation here, even more than you'd expect from a Dog on Fleas disk. Some of it sounds great -- "I Love Your Accent" is little more than the song title sung in falsetto and people reciting where they're from (from around the world), but it's lots of fun and very global in its worldview, obviously. "Unbirthday" is a raucous, occasionally distorted celebration of each person's other 364 days of the year. I was much less enthused by "Star Tonight" and "Do You Wanna Know My New Dance Step?," two funky tunes that didn't have that dancing spark Fleas tunes often have. My general feeling is that the second half of the album is less "experimental" and will be more familiar to long-time listeners.

There are a number of guest musicians on the album. Lorette Velvette takes lead vocals on the storytelling "Lima Bean," with Uncle Rock providing backup assistance. Frances England joins with Pia Ruissi-Besates on the gorgeous and mellow album-closer "Babies." (The song would have fit perfectly on the band's Dean Jones' lullaby(-ish) album Napper's Delight.)

As with most Dog on Fleas tunes, the 35-minute album doesn't quite have an age range, but let's say it's most appropriate for ages 3 through 9. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page.

Beautiful World isn't as fun as their last album, When I Get Little, and if you're new to the band, I'd recommend starting there first. And if you're a huge fan of that CD, it may take a while to get used to the new sounds here. But there are a lot of good songs and the lyrics are filled with love for the world and its inhabitants. There are many worse ways to spend 35 minutes dancing with your kids. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Let's think about the kids music artists who have released three easy-to-recommend CDs in the past five years. Hmmm.... Dan Zanes, Recess Monkey, Justin Roberts, Ralph's World, and... who? I mean, if you expand that time frame out a bit, you could add They Might Be Giants, Elizabeth Mitchell, maybe Laurie Berkner. But to be that consistent over that amount of time says something -- that's an all-star list of kids musicians right there.

So it means something to me when I say that with the release of his third album Dragonfly, I'd add Seattle's Johnny Bregar to that list.

On his first album Stomp Yer Feet!, Bregar was basically a slightly funkier and rootsier Raffi (a compliment in my book), giving old toddler standards a new spin. Bregar is still funky and rootsy, but with his second album Hootenanny and now with Dragonfly he's been gradually moving up in age and away from standards and towards originals. He's now given a song about feelings ("What Do You Do?") a funky spin with an infectious horn and piano line (and even a gratuitous They Might Be Giants reference). "Two Thumbs Up" is a rootsy song about, well, feeling good (and opening a roadside art stand). And sometimes, as on "Shoo Fly Pie" or his cover of the boogie-woogie "Ice Cream Man," he still recalls the traditional standards with which he started his kids' music career.

If there are perhaps a few less-than-perfect tracks -- I can't say I have much love for the reggae tune "Salt and Pepper" -- they're few and far between. Bregar tends toward the sweet (the midtempo "Dragonfly" and the wonderful and tender ukulele-laced "Blue Canoe") and a little towards the gently instructional ("Fireman With a Rocket Ship" or "Honey Bees"), so there's little "edge," if that's your style. But the musical arrangements and melodies are once more top-notch. Kids are used as leavener to the production, lending a slightly ragged (and appealing) chorus to some of the songs (or, on the album closer, "Una Sardina," the sole voice).

The songs here are targeted mostly at kids ages 4 through 9. The album's for sale right now only at Bregar's website, but will be available more broadly starting next week. You can hear samples of the tracks here.

Johnny Bregar hasn't made a bad kids' album yet, and Dragonfly is another fine outing, filled with songs whose lyrics will capture kids and melodies will capture parents. (And possibly vice versa.) Bregar might not be as well-known as those other artists who are turning out a high number of quality albums, but he should be. Here's hoping Dragonfly helps things along in that regard. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is releasing a kids' music album in November like releasing a movie in January? Because December 31st is the deadline for having your movie considered for the upcoming Oscars, it's implied that studios dump all their really bad movies in January. So, if you just miss the October 31st deadline for Fids & Kamily, does that mean it's a bad kids music album?

Well, no, not at all, but curse Chicago's ScribbleMonster for making Fids & Kamily voters struggle over their ballots. Their new album, Songs With No Character, was officially released this week on November 4, but has been available informally since late October. Is it a 2008 album or a 2009 album? And, yes, people have been asking that question, which is one indication of this disk's quality.

I've mentioned in the past my mixed feelings about the cartoon voices that have appeared on past ScribbleMonster albums, and so from my perspective, the (almost-entirely) cartoon-free voices on this disk ("Songs with no character," get it?) already served as a selling point. And, really, a lot of the songs work just as well (though perhaps not necessarily any better) sung in a regular voice. ScribbleMonster and its chief songwriter Jim Dague has always been willing to impart wisdom via song -- the difference between them and a lot of artists who do similar things is that these songs are so insanely catchy that you don't mind the directness of message. I mean, "Doing The Right Thing Isn't Always Easy, Doing The Easy Thing Isn't Always Right" is about as straightforward as the title itself. It's also a groovy song, graced with horns. "It Could Have Been Worse," co-written with Monty Harper, has a silly, breezy tone that will capture both the young and old. And "With A Smile" can make even the most grizzled parent appreciate the value of smiling more.

Which isn't too say it's all sweetness and light and kindergartners only. "I'm A Utility Pole" is a totally dorky (and, therefore, winning) song about a totally dorky dance move. "Spare The Rock, Spoil The Child" is, hands-down, the best theme song for a kids radio show ever, though it rocks harder than your 4-year-old will. There's even a little weary cynicism in "No Good Can Ever Come Of A Sleepover" ("empty promises" isn't a lyrical turn of phrase you often hear in this genre). That's offset, though, by "The Song of LIFE," which, though going over the heads of the kids ("what's this 'LIFE' game?") will appeal sentimentally to their parents who remember the classic board game.

It's really a "family" album, which means that different songs will appeal to different family members, but I think kids ages 4 through 10 will most appreciate the songs here. You can hear some of the tunes at the band's Radio page, Myspace page, or CD Baby album page.

So, yeah, I liked this album. Whether it's the first really good album of 2009, or the last really good album of 2008 isn't really the point. It's a really good album. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You've probably noticed that I don't review a lot of "educational" CDs. There are a couple reasons for that -- first, I don't have much of a clue as to their pedagogical soundness. Second, and perhaps more importantly for the purposes of this site, the music usually just doesn't move me. We are about entertainment and community around here -- if your kids happen to learn something found in a textbook, too, well, that's just a bonus.

So let me describe Musiplication With Kat Vellos this way -- I don't envision myself listening to this on my own or after my kids have mastered the times table. But that doesn't mean it isn't good listening. Kat Vellos is a former teacher as well as a spoken word poet and with her first CD Musiplication has put together a sweet little collection of times tables set to music.

Yeah, you heard me -- "times tables set to music." Vellos breaks through the pedagogical boredom barrier that phrase implies in two ways. One, each times table (especially as you make your way into the higher digits) is presented as a story of sorts -- giving each multiple of 6, for example, a distinct family personality type in "6 Family Reunion" or crazy stories in "7's Tall Tales." You're still hearing the same basic repetition of the tables, but at least it's presented with verve; Vellos' spoken word poetry experience gives the stories shape. Second, Vellos' words are underlaid with some laid-back beats courtesy of the producer Batsauce. Layered with old-school funk and soul, it gives the whole CD a deliciously organic feel.

While younger kids might enjoy the stories here, the target audience is clearly slightly older kids, ages 7 through 10. You can listen to samples at the album's CDBaby page. Because it's trying hard to teach times tables, it doesn't quite reach the "listen anytime" nature of something like TMBG's Here Come the 123s -- if you know the times tables, you probably won't spin this too much. But it does its job with as musically pleasant a background as you'll care to hear. It's about as good an "educational" CD as they come.

Posted by SAShepherd at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the release today of their One Day Soon EP, San Francisco's The Sippy Cups have followed the lead of other, more adult-oriented bands, who consider EPs an integral part of their musical release pattern. The five songs here were recorded as part of the band's sessions for their upcoming 2009 release, and is the first new album from the band since October 2006.

So are the songs worth the wait? Well, mostly yes. "One Day Soon" kicks off the album, a mid-tempo number about growing up (or at least older) that would have fit perfectly on the generally more rocking Electric Storyland. So would have "Ladybug Beat," at least if it had been plugged in (it's acoustic here). I've already talked a little bit about "The Day After Halloween,", which is a bit of departure from the Sippys' normal metaphor-filled and fanciful songwriting. Its melancholy nature is a perfect fit for fall -- it's a Halloween song that isn't just for Halloween, and is my favorite track here. "Listen With Your Eyes" is a sweet lullaby (though there's a bit too much going on for it to be effectively used an actual lullaby). The only false step is "Effervescing Elephant." Ironically for a band which started out primarily playing covers of '60s era psychedelic songs, this Syd Barrett cover falls flat. It's supposedly a live staple of the band, but this off-the-cuff version just doesn't have any oomph.

The album will appeal mostly to kids ages 4 through 10. The album is about 14 minutes long and, perhaps most interestingly, is available only as an iTunes download. At $3.99 for the whole album, it's pretty cheap. It's a small but decent collection of tracks which can only serve to heighten anticipation for their upcoming full-length. Newcomers to the band can probably wait (or go back to Electric Storyland forthwith), but fans will definitely enjoy this, too. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With several albums for adults under their belts, you would be forgiven for thinking the New York band The Mighty Weaklings was just cashing in on the kids music trend with the recent release of their first kids album You Can't Rock Sittin' Down. That wouldn't be entirely fair, seeing as singer/bassplayer Matt Vogel's been a Sesame Street puppeteer for a dozen years and they've already had a video on Jack's Big Music Show.

This album will seriously appeal to families with a powerpop weakness. "The Monster Under My Bed" tells about a kid who's best friend is a monster, and rocks in doing so. The album's best song, "The Grumpy Song," features a banjo-inflected bluegrass tune, vocals Sesame Street/Muppet Show/Fraggle Rock puppeteer Jerry Nelson, and a chorus of kids (and adults) shouting "I'm Grumpy" in such a way that is guaranteed to put a dorky grin on the listener's face.

The album as whole has a very strong Muppet Show vibe -- interspersed among the 9 songs are 5 skits. At times I thought the skits were pitched squarely at me the thirty-something parent and wouldn't entertain the younger listeners at all. The knowing humor didn't really match the earnestness of the rest of the songs like "It's Sunny When You Share" (get it?), the imaginzative "Rocket Ship" (from Jack's, and the try-try-again theme of "Fallin' Down." You could easily find the materials for an episode or three of The Mighty Weaklings Show inside the album -- it's not hard to picture a TV show, even without puppets.

The 33-minute album's pitched mostly at kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear samples here or listen via the player embedded past the jump. Despite some awkwardness from the skits themselves, the songs here are solid kid-friendly power-pop. Your kids will find that You Can't Rock Sittin' Down ranks high on the "rock" scale and low on the "sittin' down" scale. Recommended.

Continue reading "Review in Brief: You Can't Rock Sittin' Down - The Mighty Weaklings" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With their latest album, Massachusetts' The Nields joins the company of the Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam.

Really.

That's right, because on their new 2-CD family album, Rock All Day, Rock All Night, the Nields sisters join those two alternative rock heavyweights in putting out an album with both an uptempo and a downtempo disk. (Those two albums, in case you're wondering -- the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor and Pearl Jam's best-of rearviewmirror.) Now, I can't say that the Nields rock quite as hard as those bands do, but I'm also not sure there's anything quite as giddy on those disks as on the sisters' banter on the brass-band-accented "Muffin Man." (Did you know there was a whole neighborhood on Drury Lane? Well, you do now.)

The first disk is a mixture of folk songs and originals (some old, some new). The sisters have run a HooteNanny program for families with young kids, and many of the songs sound like they are come from that program. Unlike a lot of CD collections from kids and family music programs, however, the collection actually holds together as a decent listening experience even if you've never taken a class with them. It's probably mostly due to the fact that there are some really good songs here. The traditional "Going To Boston" kicks off the disk, and like many of the tracks, there's a life to the recording that encourages you to sing along. The brass band sounds great on "When The Saints Go Marching In," as it does on "Muffin Man" (as noted above). The new tracks are no slouches either, with "Who Are You Not To Shine" -- a shimmery folk-rock song and worthy successor to "Anna Kick A Hole in the Sky" from the last disk -- and "Superhero Soup," actually one of the oldest songs in the Nields' songbook, but re-purposed here. Not all of the tracks are great, but, like I said, as a whole, it holds together well.

The second, slower disk is, unsurprisingly, less focused on singalongs and more focused on great, slower songs. I hesitate to call it a classic lullaby disk as there isn't quite a hush-ness that I associate with lullaby disks. Instead, it's more like a warm nook on a cold day, encouraging you to stay put and contemplate the day and maybe drift off for a tiny nap. (Or, if you're a kid, play with your Legos or read a book.) One of my all-time favorite ballads, "Wild Mountain Thyme," makes an appearance, with the Nields' dad, John Nields singing along (as on the first album, he sings on several tracks). The Nields also engage in some re-purposing here, as "Easy People," one of their most famous songs, gets a simple treatment. I think I like this disk slightly better than the "day" disk, but that's just a personal preference for the more classic songs.

The first disk is probably most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 7; the second disk is essentially all-ages. Right now, the disk only available through the Nields themselves (go here to order), though national distribution will start shortly). For samples, you're best off checking out the YouTube clips I've compiled here.

The Nields continue to make vital family folk music with humor and tenderness. Rock All Day, Rock All Night is an all-purpose collection of songs that will serve your family well in times both of play and rest. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like many people, I first became interested in kids music when I first had kids. Which meant that my first exposure to the genre (as a parent) was to lullaby CDs, or to rendition of classics sung by families for years and years.

It was not to songs about the produce aisle's remarkable similarity to junior high, the inventor of concrete, or elbows.

So I guess what I'm saying is that the first kids album from Central Services and their not-so-mild-mannered alter ego The Board of Education isn't for those parents whose kids are just learning to walk. Heck, it's really not even for those parents whose kids are just learning to read.

But if your family's got one of those kids who've blown past those learning-to-read barrier with flying colors a long time ago, Central Services Presents... The Board of Education might be their new favorite CD.

From the pop bliss of the opening track, "Rise and Shine," the album is pitched right at that 9- to 12-year-old kid who's probably the smartest kid in class. School is the central part of their life, learning something so freakin' cool, even if the rest of the day doesn't quite measure up. (Unsurprisingly, one of the band's main songwriters, Kevin Emerson, used to teach elementary school science, and now has a book series, Oliver Nocturne, for kids ages 9-12.) The second track, "Beverly the Village Misfit," about a young girl who looks up at the skies and realizes the planet is in grave danger even though nobody believes her, includes the lines "Maybe you've had occasion to feel like this / When something you're so sure of / Is dismissed by all your friends / Despite the overwhelming facts you have to prove that / You are very right."

I mean, if that isn't a description of a brainy but perhaps socially awkward tween, I'm not sure what is. And that's not the only song that captures that feeling. "It's awkward in the produce aisle / The salad bags they don't smile / Anymore / The mushroom looks the other way / The cucumber bristles," goes one of the lines in "The Lonely Tomato," which has been one of my favorite songs period for the 18 months I've been listening to it. In telling the story of a tomato, which is unsure of his position in the grocery store -- "Oh, where do I fit in?," as the chorus goes -- the song not only captures perfectly life as a tween, it loads every bit of production into it, with horns, pop hooks, and silly voices (yes, the cucumber has a speaking part).

On it goes, combining great pop hooks (or pop pastiches) with obscure subjects like the invention of pavement ("Know Your Inventors"), punctuation ("The Many Uses, and Dangers, of Commas"), and volcanoes ("Volcanoes and You"). If this all sounds like a modern Schoolhouse Rock, you'd be right. There's even a song called "8 Is A Number." If there's any difference between that classic series and the songs here it's that Schoolhouse Rock would often take a more minimalist approach, while the band piles everything on here. It's unlikely the dripping-with-sarcasm-but-totally-peppy "Ice Ages Are Fun!" would ever make the cut on Schoolhouse Rock. Humor is common in kids entertainment; sarcasm, however, isn't, but if you're 12 years old, yeah, you're OK with it.

Sometimes it's too much, actually, "Volcanoes and You," for example, mixes funk with a faux educational film, and while it sounds kinda cool, it's too baroque to actually to be more than a trifle. And lest you think the band can't show some restraint, the last track (save for the hidden track) is a gorgeous lullaby "August Lullaby" that's lovely and sweet. Another simpler track or two like that interspersed among the wilder, goofier parts would have served it well.

While younger kids might bop along to the hooks, kids are really going to have to be at minimum 7 years old to get into the lyrics. You can hear songs at the band's Myspace page or samples at its CDBaby page. For the moment, it's only available as a digital download (at CDBaby, Amazon and iTunes, but will be released in physical format later this year. Update: Those of you living in the physical world can now enjoy the album...

Long-time readers of this website won't find my enthusiasm for this album too surprising, because I've been talking about a number of these songs for a long time. After settling down with Central Services Presents... The Board of Education for many listens, I can hear why it's not an absolutely perfect album -- there are going to be some families it doesn't move. But for some families, this is gonna be one of those albums they listen to over and over, and, like Beverly the Village Misfit, they'll tell everyone who'll listen about it. That this album rocks. And they'd be right. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Though there are many charms of kids music, subtlety is usually not one of them. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, but most kids' music is direct and to the point, especially lyrically.

Which is what makes the music of the Kansas-based band The Terrible Twos not like most kids music. The band, which is the kids' alter ego of the Matt Pryor's band The New Amsterdams, has never been interested in making simple kids music. (Pryor once famously -- for the kids' world, anyway -- branded the music of Barney and the Wiggles as "incredibly annoying crap." There are a legion of kids who would disagree, though the parental vote may be much more evenly split.) For some kids in the age range suggested by Pryor's band's name, the music will fly right over their heads, though they may bop along to the often uptempo melodies.

Older kids (and their parents), however, may find the more indirect lyrical approach of the band pretty appealing. On their second album, Jerzy the Giant, the Terrible Twos tell tales of people and emotions. On a few songs, such as the winning, near-perfectly constructed album opener, "Old Man Miller," the band tells a direct story (this one about the growing friendship between the song's narrator and an elderly neighbor) while using metaphor and simile to embellish ("Old Man Miller was a porcupine," Pryor sings, a line that will cause confusion in the toddler-aged set). Other songs are much more impressionistic in nature, such as the oooohing "Elliott Oooh" or the sweet "Amelia Minor."

The songs here range from the folky end of the pop spectrum (the shuffling "Archibald McAllister," about a particularly stinky boy) to the rocking end (the latter part of "Lily Names Everything Sandy," the title of which is pretty much self-explanatory and describes a very real -- for Pryor, anyway -- parental frustration). "Jerzy the Giant" (the song) is a breezy pop-rocker, while "Olly Olly Oxen Free" has a soaring chorus. The only song that set my ears on end was "Great Big Poop," which I place in the category of songs that break up otherwise outstanding albums -- file it alongside "Fitter, Happier" or "Underneath the Bunker." (Having said that, it's the most direct song on the album, and may be the one that your youngest kids may most relate to here. And, Pryor's daughter Lily, who co-wrote the song, also helped out on "Elliott Oooh," so perhaps she gets a pass.)

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. At 29 minutes in length, the 16 songs here zip by, none more than 2 1/2 minutes in length. You can preview the whole album here.

The Terrible Twos continue to write great family-friendly songs. Jerzy the Giant is a fabulous album, thirty-feet-tall with sweet melodies and kid-appropriate lyrics. Even if your kids love the Wiggles, one day they'll outgrow them, and when they do, there are many far worse albums to graduate to than this one. Highly recommended.

[Note: Just to reiterate the possible conflict of interest, I was asked by Vagrant Records, which released the album, to premiere the album stream. I wouldn't have done so if I hadn't wanted to have a lot of people listen to the CD, based on my feelings above. But now you know, in case you hadn't before.]

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got the following e-mail a few days back...

Hello from a Maine homeschooling Mom... My 8-year-old son has the incredible opportunity to drive from Maine to Mississippi next month with his grandparents. I'm putting together some 'on the road' school for him including short studies of each state he will go through. I'm wondering if there are albums that feature different regional music in the USA? Or, if you could recommend at good blues album for kids so that they can celebrate properly once they are in Mississippi.

Continue reading "Readers Who Need Readers: Road Trip (Eastern U.S. Edition)" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When you receive as much kids music for review as I do, you have to guard against certain biases. Given the glut of material, what tends to get reviewed is either stuff that's in the traditional folk/pop/rock vein, but very good (see: Justin Roberts, Ralph's World, Laurie Berkner, Recess Monkey, etc.); not in that folk/pop/rock vein (see: hip-hop, country, jazz); and stuff that's just so out there that you have to tell someone about it if only to show what risks people are taking these days. (And then you have Dan Zanes, who in the Venn diagram of those 3 categories is the only one who intersects all three.) With the last category especially, there's some risk that the uniqueness of the material is outweighing, you know, the actual interest to the kids.

So let me be clear, The Thin King, the debut CD from the San Francisco band Me 3 falls squarely in that 3 category. I mean, sure, it's got songs that would definitely be considered rock ("I Don't Know," perhaps, or "Apple," which is an appealingly crunchy and lo-fi mid-tempo rocker). But the more familiar-sounding styles are melded with subjects very focused on the natural world (hence "Apple," or "Tulip," and "Cows"), not in an educational way (which would be pretty conventional), but pretty much in an observational manner. (In this case it sounds a lot like Mr. David, or maybe a little bit like if World Party did a kids CD.) There are lots and lots of questions on the album -- "I Don't Know," for example, or "Cows." What is the album title, after all, if not a play on the word "thinking."

Beyond that, you have odd little spoken-word interludes; the goofy trilogy of "Short Song," "Shorter Song," and "Shortest Song" (which, yes, is pretty much what the titles promise); and Pachelbel's Canon borrowed for "When It All Began." Oh, and just as you begin to think that band mastermind Jason Kleinberg is maybe a little self-serious, "Next Song" interrupts some mock serious banter with a request to "play the next song!," which results in Kleinberg mis-hearing and not playing the "necks song." In other words, the goofy 7-year-old humor fits in nicely among the more serious "thinking" songs.

So, yeah, the 41-minute album's geared mostly for kids ages 6 through 10. You can hear some songs both at the band's website and their Myspace page, and samples of all the songs at the album's CDBaby page.

The Thin King is one of the more unusual-sounding kids music albums of the year. It also happens to be a lot of fun. While it's not the most conventional of CDs, with its imagery and musical melding of styles, it'll certainly capture the imagination of some families. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over the course of four albums, the Seattle trio Recess Monkey have gone from nice little side project to full-fledged rock stars to the Seattle-area kid-set. Take three guys with elementary education experience, mix in a healthy dose of songwriting chops, and add a bit of humor, and it's not too surprising they've built up such a devoted fanbase.

Their latest CD Tabby Road, officially released this week, gives no indication that their star will wane anytime soon. As you might expect from the album title, the band are big fans of the Beatles. (Longtime fans will not be surprised, given that Aminal House featured a Sgt. Pepper's homage cover, and the 2-CD set Wonderstuff was nicknamed the "Yellow Album" for its all-yellow cover.) There's definitely a '60s-era vibe throughout the CD, especially on tracks like "Robin (Sugar Goblin)" and "Kitty Sister" -- the former is probably an unrecorded Beatles track the band found and decided to pass off as its own, the latter also recalls the Beatles in a melody with some harmonizing and a gymnastic vocal line that's completely infectious.

Unlike Wonderstuff, which moved into the '80s even with its influences, Tabby Road stays much more in '60s-inspired sounds, hewing more closely to a pure pop sound. A totally engrossing pure pop sound, to be sure, but there's less power-poppy crunch here. Topically, the band continues its fascination with pets (including the tender "KC in the Clouds," about a pet that's passed away), friendship ("S-L-Double-E-P-Over"), and kids' rites of passage ("Birthday Bite"). They also mimic the second side of Abbey Road with a whole "Monster Medley" that's, well, insanely catchy (check out the album's "Boogie Monster" with its "whoop-whoop" singalong -- you and your kids will find it impossible to put your hands in the air or move side to side) and totally not scary. The medley doesn't blend quite as well as the Beatles' version, but I did like the repetition of the bridge line from the medley's start in "Under My Bed" in "Monster Truck," the last song (before the quiet "Wolfman," which isn't quite as short as "Her Majesty," but oh well).

If you're wondering what's changed from the prior albums, well, it's probably the tightest of the band's albums and, because it wasn't recorded as part of the "camp weeks" that the two prior versions grew out of, with slightly fewer kids' voices (though they still show up). Those of you who thought Wonderstuff was all a bit too much at 80 minutes long or who thought Aminal House was just a bit too all over the place will appreciate the 40-minute brevity. I missed some of the goofiness that marked those earlier albums (more Mayor Monkey, please!), but what's sacrificed here is replaced by a focus that serves the band well. Every track is solid. (And, yes, there's a John Vanderslice reference. I will be disappointed if the next album doesn't feature John Vanderslice himself as the John Vanderslice reference.)

Kids ages 3 through 8 will most appreciate the songs here -- you can listen to four full tracks (including "Boogie Monster") at the band's Myspace page or sample all tracks at the album's CDBaby page.

Over the course of four albums, Recess Monkey has slowly staked its claim to being the best kids music band in the business. Tabby Road is jam-packed with first-rate songwriting, matched by strong musicianship and kid-focused subject matter. These guys are great, and so's the album. If you're not familiar with the band yet, you should be and you may as well start here. Highly recommended.

[Ed. note: Just to get the potential-conflict-of-interest statements out there, I'll note here that I'm presenting them in concert next month here in Phoenix (which means that my take is, uh, $0). I wouldn't present 'em if I didn't think they were really good. But just so you know.]

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me start this review by suggesting that, for all its sins real or imagined, Disney Music purveys more original music for kids and families than any other label. It is possible to avoid a fair amount of that if you don't actually watch cable TV on a regular basis, but they put out a lot of music on a regular basis, and for all age ranges. Not to mention a back catalog the envy of just about anybody. How much you actually enjoy it all depends in part on your age, but I've got three recent Disney releases here, and at least one of them is worth your time.

I admit it. I'm old. Not, like, Social Security old, but old enough that if I use the phrase "OMG" I mean it ironically. I am old enough, however, to have a kid who, though she isn't quite out of the "kids music" phase yet, will start listening to music I haven't introduced her to.

So I understand quite clearly that the soundtrack to Camp Rock, the latest Disney Channel original movie, premiering on a gazillion different channels this week, is Not For Me. It is for kids just a little older than my daughter. They'll spend their own allowances on it, or maybe their parents will get it for them. And what they'll get is an attempt to duplicate the High School Musical magic, except this time in a slightly more rock-oriented retelling of Cinderella. The album features some tracks with Joe Jonas solo (he's got a leading role in the movie) as well as a Jonas Brothers track. There are some songs by 16-year-old Demi Lovato, who has the lead female role and seems to be Disney's leading contender for a Miley Cyrus with a less pop and more rock edge.

The songs are fine enough, and most of the songs won't drive you to change the station if you hear them on Radio Disney (OK, maybe "Hasta La Vista," ugh), but you're not going to remember them 15 minutes after they're over. There's nothing as memorable as "Breaking Free" or "Fabulous" or "You Are the Music In Me," all of which are decent pop songs. In the end, it's not really for me, but it never really was.

Continue reading "Review: OMG or LOL? Three Disney Disks" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not like we weren't prepared for the possibility of a Lisa Loeb kids' music album -- after all, she (relatively) famously joined with her old Brown University singing partner Elizabeth Mitchell to produce Catch the Moon in 2004. But it certainly took Loeb a while to get around to a kids' album of her own, and it's not quite what we might have expected.

Loeb released her new album, Camp Lisa, last week, and it's a considerably different album from Catch the Moon. Whereas that album was definitely targeted to the preschool set (it was packaged with a small picture book, after all), Loeb's album is a concept album that celebrates summer camps.

I mean this in the best possible way -- Camp Lisa is an winningly dorky album. By that I mean it expertly blends earnest and original "camp life" songs with earnestly sung renditions of traditional songs and chants. I mean, the album leads off with the cheeky "Ready For The Summer," the theme from the movie Meatballs. While perhaps there's a small wink and nudge in Loeb's and Letters to Cleo's Kay Hanley's vocals, the group of kids singing along do so with gusto and without any irony. It's summer camp -- the more you through yourself into it, the more fun you'll have.

The original tunes here, including "Best Friend," "When It Rains," and "It's Not Goodbye" (which features a nifty segue into the camp chestnut "Make New Friends"), have an appealingly laid-back, '70s AM-radio vibe whose sounds will appeal to the parents of kids going off to summer camp and whose lyrics, should the kids settle down long enough to pay attention, might actually frame their camp experience. (The whole album is well-sequenced, working from heading off to camp to leaving it.) The traditionals -- "Woodchuck," "Peanut Butter & Jelly," and "Father Abraham" -- wouldn't be strong enough to merit a whole album on their own, but integrated into the other songs, they provide a nice contrast.

Loeb pulls in a whole bunch of help here, from Jill Sobule (on the dreamy "Cookie Jar Song") to Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon on the ukulele-accompanied "Linger." Kudos, too, to Loeb for a) getting Steve Martin to appear on her album, and b) asking him just to play banjo (which he does well on "The Disappointing Pancake").

Given that these are songs about going to camp, I'll put the age range here at ages 7 and up, though certainly a lot of the traditional tunes will appeal to the younger set, too. For the moment, the 39-minute album is only available at Barnes & Noble -- you can hear samples and buy the album here. (I should also note that in conjunction with the album's release, Loeb has also launched the Camp Lisa Foundation, a non-profit that will raise funds to help send underprivileged kids to summer camp.)

Camp Lisa does a very good job of evoking -- both prosaically as well as emotionally -- the summer camp experience, and I think that any family who's gone through that (or is going to go through that) will find this a very worthy album. But even if you're doing the summer camp thing, there are enough good songs here that you'll probably linger a little while with it. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Imagine if Kanye West decided his next album would be a bluegrass album. Or if Metallica felt they had a polka album in them. How would their fans react? How would the bluegrass or polka purists react? Most importantly, would the music be any good?

I'm thinking about those questions after having listened to Nueva York!, the latest album from Dan Zanes. The album, released yesterday, is Zanes' eighth "age-desgregated" album, the follow-up to his 2006 Grammy-winning album Catch That Train!. And, after slowly building up his rep as the godfather of family-friendly music for American families, Zanes has chosen to release an album songs from Latin America and Mexico recorded 99% in Spanish.

Zanes has released less obviously kid-oriented albums in the past -- an album of seafaring songs (Sea Songs) and an album of songs from Carl Sandburg's Songbag -- but those were released when Zanes had a little lower profile than he does now. So while Zanes probably couldn't act like Beck did early in his career, and release his higher-profile stuff with Geffen while releasing other, more challenging albums on small labels, he should still get credit of some sort for embracing this new album as the full-fledged follow-up to Catch That Train!

But back to the original question -- is the music any good? Yeah, it's good. The album starts out with insistent drums and the driving "El Pescador," which rocks as hard anything in Zanes' kid-ography, helped out by Marc Ribot on guitar. "Colas" mixes tuba into a a Mexican son joracho recorded with the Villa-Lobos brothers. "Pollito Chicken" is the closest thing to a "kids' song" here, with a kids' chorus helping out the children's rhyme.

On it goes -- through Daphne Rubin-Vega's turn on the beautiful la-la-las of "Alba Mananera," the Villa-Lobos brothers' forceful string playing on "El Pijul," and long-time DZ compatriots Rubi Theatre Company on the multilingual "El Canario." I certainly can't speak with any knowledge of how "authentic" the renditions are, but these mostly traditional songs probably don't sound like this today in their "home" countries, either. These renditions here are vibrant, full of life, with solid musical performances. More so on perhaps his other CDs, Zanes takes a little bit more of a backseat to his fellow musicians -- it's a more collaborative album than any of his previous efforts, which befits the learning and immersive nature of this project.

As good as the music is here, I can't say this is the perfect DZ album. At over an hour in length, it goes on for too long. Kids who have grown up on Zanes' albums may miss the absence of Father Goose and his silliness especially. And it's going to be hard for a lot of English-speaking families to fully "get into" the album when it's virtually entirely in Spanish. None of which the album bad as an entity unto itself, but for those families who stumbled recently onto Zanes via a Playhouse Disney video and haven't been listening for five years, it's likely to be a little bit confusing, at least.

While the album is another all-ages experience, it doesn't have quite the early-years hook some of Zanes' other albums have, so I'm going to put the target age range here at ages 5 and up. You can hear samples of the tracks just about everywhere online, or you can listen to "Colas," "La Piragua," and "El Botellon" right now at Zanes' Myspace page.

With Nueva York!, Zanes has crafted another album of fun, family-friendly community music. Going back to the question I posed earlier -- does it really matter who does a bluegrass album so long as the album is good? While the album is a less-than-perfect introduction to his music, longtime Zanes families will embrace this CD as just another part of his wide-ranging musical explorations. And hopefully it'll introduce Dan Zanes to a whole new set of fans. You'll listen, you'll dance, and -- Zanes hopes -- you just might even sing along. Definitely recommended.

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

It's Memorial Day here in the United States, so I thought this review might be appropriate.

Maine's Josephine Cameron is not an artist that typically would get much coverage on a kids' music website. That's because even though Cameron spends some of her time teaching songwriting to kids, she doesn't spend her time recording songs for kids.

But just as her last album, Close Your Eyes (review) was a mellow CD that could pull double-duty as a lullaby album, so too her latest album, American Songs Vol. 2, could be a good folk song primer for slightly older kids. The album, released in late 2007 and a sequel to the first volume, released in 2002, consists of a number of traditional American folk songs mixed in with a few originals. Cameron puts just enough of her own spin on the more familiar songs to make them fresh without depriving them of the strengths that have made them classics. "Oh Susanna" is dialed-down a notch, emphasizing more of the sadness of the distance between the returning soldier and his love. "This Land Is Your Land" gets all the verses, with Cameron's ebullience at the end showing through.

There is pleasure in the discovery of less-familiar songs, such as the waltz of "Gum Tree Canoe." And on "Evangeline" (co-written by Cameron and co-producer Anthony Walton), Cameron retells Longfellow's tale of Evangeline and Gabriel. I also really liked Cameron's, Walton's and arranger Carter Little's bluesy setting of Sterling A. Brown's poem "Long Track Blues." Cameron's slightly high-pitched voice (think Susanna Hoffs) is set off nicely against the understated guitar and mandolin work.

I would be surprised if young kids enjoy this album much, but older kids, say those 8 and older, might enjoy listening to these songs. You can hear samples and download tracks here or at the 42-minute album's CDBaby page. Also, I highly recommend Cameron's notes on the songs, which are incredibly detailed. It's always nice to hear musicians thinking about how to record traditional folk music in a way that preserves what makes the song a classic but also brings the musician's own sensibilities to the song, thereby making it new once more. With American Songs Vol. 2, Cameron's done that. It's not necessarily a kids' album, but it's a good album.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ralph Covert has few peers when it comes to kids' music songwriting -- Justin Roberts?, the guys from Recess Monkey?, Molly Ledford from Lunch Money? -- the list is short. Over the course of six original albums in his guise as Ralph's World, the Chicago-based Covert created a body of work that holds up against any other kids' musician, work that helped convince Disney to sign Covert to its label.

The Rhyming Circus, Covert's first collection of new material since signing to Disney, does not give any indication that his skill in putting together of kid-friendly pop tunes has waned at all. The leadoff title track is filled with a nifty little series of rhymes, of course ("Bats in hats wearing suits and spats / And cats on mats what do you think of that / Fats the rat juggling some gnats / They’re all stars in the Rhyming Circus"). "Gotta Be Good" is a sunny pop-rocker, "Edward the Tap-Dancing Elephant" has a 21st century Tin Pan Alley feel, and so on down the line. Beatles references are woven throughout ("Happy Not My Birthday," "Abby's Alphabet Soup" and the funky "Do The Math" among them, the latter closing with an emphatic final "Day in the Life" piano chord). Oddly enough, "Folsom Daycare Blues," with Covert reworking the Johnny Cash classic, is the weakest track on the album; it's sort of a cheap joke that the kids won't get at all.

For those of you more familiar with the Ralph's World oeuvre, I'd say The Rhyming Circus more in the Peggy's Pie Parlor camp than his two subsequent albums, which had a more rocking feel. I consider Green Gorilla, Monster & Me to be in the vicinity of the top 10 kids' albums of the past 10 years, so if I'm not as enthusiastic about this new album, it's not a reflection of the album's quality as much as it is a reflection of my personal musical taste. (And I know that there's a strong segment of Ralph's fanbase that adores Peggy's Pie Parlor, which I like, just not as much as the two albums that followed.)

One other comment, this directed at Disney. I know they know what they're doing, but there are few kids' artists that create as fanciful a story through song as Covert (especially on this album -- just listen to "Rodeo Peg" or "King of the Alphabet" for two examples). Why, then, do the videos for the new album (the title track is available as a bonus on the disk, and the first two can be seen here) just feature Covert in a live setting with bouncing kids? It's mostly forgettable, or at least undistinguishable from countless other kids' videos, albeit with higher production values. Disney is missing a major opportunity to create something memorable by not recruiting former Covert cover illustrator Giselle Potter to design a few videos.

The CD will be of most interest to kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear samples across the internet, while Covert's Myspace page has a few tracks available for streaming.

The Rhyming Circus is another collection of top-quality (in every way) kids' pop-rock. Ralph's World fans will not be disappointed with the release, and those who aren't fans already should certainly give Covert a shot in the stereo. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know that the kids' music genre is flowering when less popular subgenres such as kids' hip-hop or kids' country are starting to bubble up. I especially know that that's the case when those genres start producing albums that aren't just "kids songs done in a [fill-in-genre-name] style," but fully realized albums on their own.

Case in point: Easy, the debut kids' CD from Asheville, North Carolina's Cactus. He spends a lot of time rapping and playing with the music collective GFE as Agent 23, but who adopts the cool-kids name Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.. From start to finish, the album is totally geared at kids in its subject matter but is not dumbed down one bit in the creativity of its beats and melody. On its strongest tracks (and there are a number of them), Cactus blends smooth rapping with occasionally eclectic instrumentation ("Luck" features nice banjo work) and an all-positive message.

Sometimes that message is a little more overt -- "Luck" raps about how we make our own luck by knowing what it is we want; "Gotta Be Me" is about how everyone should have their own style, and that's OK. If the message is a bit direct, it's delivered with precision and flowing words. (Even his 5-year-old daughter Saki gets in on the act, very smoothly trading lines with her dad on "Family Tree.")

Perhaps even better are his songs that take a more imaginary bent. "Hot Lava" so completely nails the 7-year-old feeling of pretending on the fly (don't touch the floor! -- it's hot lava! -- jump from couch to couch!) that I'm not sure there is a better kids' song about the power of imagination. Songs about dragons, mermaids, and robots feature in the mix, too. It's very much story-telling with a compelling musical background.

I'm going to peg the messages and stories here as geared primarily for kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear samples of a number of the songs at the album's CDBaby page.

The list of really good kids' hip-hop albums is very short. Not only does Easy go to the top of that list, it should find a lot of fans among people who don't consider themselves big hip-hop fans. It's a really good CD, period -- lots of fun and certainly worthy of repeated spins. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'd like to think that my offhand comment 7 months ago ("Why has this band not recorded a kids' CD?") was the genesis of Snacktime, the first kids' music album from Canada's Barenaked Ladies. The band, after all, recorded the album in November and December of last year, a good month after my comment. I gotta tell you, if I was somehow responsible in some tiny way for the album, released tomorrow, that would justify a lot of my work here at Zooglobble -- this is one fun set of songs. (Note: I'm not delusionary enough to suggest that I actually am. But it's nice to dream, eh?)

Barenaked Ladies always seemed to me a little bit the yin to They Might Be Giants' yang when it came to geek rock -- while TMBG focused on absurdly catchy melodies, BNL's strength was more lyrical. From the goofiness of "If I Had a $1000000" to the wistfulness of "Brian Wilson" to the, er, I-have-no-idea-iness of "One Week" (which I will proudly admit to still adoring), the band always had a good narrative line and a fascination with words.

A fascination with words is a good thing to have for certain kids' albums, and it pays off well here. From the very first song -- "7 8 9," which takes the old kids' pun of a hungry #8 and #9's sad demise and turns it into a Western stomp that touches on Gordie Howe, Pluto, and canine (teeth) -- lovers of wordplay will rejoice here. There are several wordy classics here. On the soundplay of "Food Party" the band perfectly anthropomorphizes (sonically) tastes such as "sweet," "sour," and "bland." "Crazy ABCs" pretty much writes the final ABC song ever (sample line "G is for gnarly"). "Vegetable Town" is a slow, dreamy song about a place "Where we can ride the zucchini subway / Or watch the carrot planes land on the runway." "I Can Sing," on the other hand, is a zippy bluegrass tune which features lines like "I can dance I can dance I can dance faster / I tried to keep up but it was a disaster. / One more move and I'm gonna be the master! / So crank it up loud on the ghetto blaster."

Not every song works -- the title track, for example, mostly consists of musicians and actors (Geddy Lee, Lyle Lovett, Sarah McLachlan, Jason Priestly) phoning in their favorite snack foods, and after the first listen you're likely to skip forward (and probably once more, past "Popcorn"). But that's what happens when you put 24 tracks on a 54-minute album -- some are bound to be duds. And some songs aren't going to be of much interest to your kindergartner, but just means that songs like the awesomely rocking "Allergies" will make them convulse with laughter 3 years from now and make you hope that Dr. Demento is still recording his radio show, because it deserves to be there. (He is.)

The nice thing with all the silliness is it makes the more serious songs stand out more. "My Big Sister" encapsulates in just under a minute the woes of a younger brother and hand-me-downs. "Bad Day" is an "everything will be better" song that avoids sappiness.

The album will be of most interest to kids ages 5 through 9 and adults who got rid of their copies of Stunt a while back. [Raises hand.] You can hear some songs at their Myspace page or "Crazy ABCs" here.

By the way, you can also order the CD with a book from the band's own website. The book isn't absolutely essential -- it's just the lyrics to the songs with drawings from band member Kevin Hearn interspersed with the text -- but it's a solidly-bound hardcover, and I can't think of too many other kids' CDs where I would be more likely to read along to the lyrics with my kids than this one. It may be worth the extra $4 or $5 to you...

Snacktime is too long by half, kids will be bored by some of the songs, and "Humungous Tree" should probably be written as "Humongous Tree." And even with all that, it's still a great CD. It's not perfect, but the joy and spontaneity in its creation shines through. The Barenaked Ladies have crafted a CDs that will appeal to just about every family member, at least most of the time. It's a classic Barenaked Ladies album, just a little bit... smaller. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New York's Hayes Greenfield is the most vital person in the kids' music jazz subgenre. Through his Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz program, he brings his saxophones and a love of jazz to kids in concert. (And his 1998 CD of the same name which inspired that program is, with the possible exception of the new Medeski Martin & Wood disk, the best kids' jazz album out there, period.)

So clearly Greenfield's latest project, Music For A Green Planet, released yesterday, Earth Day, had the possibility of being another excellent album. Certainly many of the characteristics of his Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz disk appear here -- the never-dumbed down playing of Greenfield and his fellow instrumentalists, the broad range of jazz styles (a New Orleans strut on "This Little World of Ours," the South American jazz of "This Little World of Ours"). And once again, Greenfield brings aboard a bunch of fine vocalists, with Joe Lee Wilson and Melissa Stylianou getting the most lead vocal time. The kids' chorus is fun and never cloying (the hopping "The Sun" is a particular high point.) In sum, the jazz is first-rate.

What keeps this from being an absolutely necessary CD are the lyrics, which are set to familiar kids' tunes (e.g., "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" becomes "We'll Be a PArt of the Solution"). Please don't misunderstand me -- the lyrics are generally witty and it's hard to argue with the need to reduce, reuse, recycle. The difficult part is that it's 53 minutes of the same thing -- it's all a bit too much, frankly. And while there isn't much talking down or straight lecturing, I'm not sure the concept of the carbon footprint is going to make much headway with the target audience. While not dull, the album isn't as fun as it could have been. I think the album would've been served better by a few more instrumental tracks or lyrics that just celebrated nature or being outside rather than stressing the message all the time. Less would have been more in this case.

I think kids ages 5 through 9 will most appreciate the messages here. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page or here. I do think Music for a Green Planet will be popular with (and I would recommend it to) any ecologically-minded class or family, plus jazz fans. While I'd recommend Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz over this album for an introduction to Greenfield's work, I do certainly hope it'll be less than 10 years before he makes another album for kids and families.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's unfair, but I'll start this review of Pop Fly, the sixth solo kids' music album from Chicago's Justin Roberts, by saying I think Meltdown, Roberts' fifth solo kids' CD is easily on the shortlist of best kids' music CDs of the decade. Clearly, I had high expectations for the new CD, which is being released today.

Never fear, Pop Fly is a hit. (OK, I promise -- that's the only baseball-related phrase I'll use here. Read on fearlessly, folks.)

If Roberts isn't the best songwriter in the rock/pop/folk heart of kids' music, he certainly doesn't have many peers. The new album has a number of outstanding tracks that again showcase his songwriting strengths -- nifty lyrics that flow effortlessly ("Pop Fly," "Kickboard, Baby, Yeah"), carefully crafted portraits of life at home ("From Scratch", "The Backyard Super Kid"), and an affinity for singalong choruses ("Stay-at-Home Dad", "Field Trip"). If some of the lyrics don't quite work -- a stay-at-home dad who kids' clothes don't match very well seems a bit cliched -- it's forgivable because so much else does.

Roberts' melodic and musical sense is once again ably abetted by fellow musician Liam Davis, who again produces Roberts' CD. The album sounds great, from the faux Dylan (and loose chorus) of "Henrietta's Hair" to the strings on "The Backyard Super Kid" to the mellow surf sounds of "Kickboard, Baby, Yeah." And, yeah, there are a bunch of horns, a Roberts habit from almost the very beginning. The alterna-pop sound mixes in hints of Fountains of Wayne and ELO, and every great forgotten '80s alternative hitmaker, along with Burt Bacharach. It's a heady mix.

The overall mood of the album is somewhat more reflective than Meltdown, and maybe for that reason I liked Pop Fly a little bit less. It's maybe a little bit more in the Not Naptime camp -- another fine album, but more downtempo than Roberts' best-known songs. The irrepressible protagonists of "Meltdown" or "Ten Little Cookies" don't make an appearance here. Again, the songs are excellent, they're just a little more mellow. And I think Roberts' best songs are the less mellow ones.

Having said that, my favorite song on the CD -- my favorite song of the year thus far, kids or adult -- is the tender "Fruit Jar". It's a stone-cold folk classic, with lines like "Life ain't no fruit jar / Stuck in a cellar / Sometimes you've just got to / Spin that old propeller / Watch it rise up / Way past the moon / And if love don't find you / You know it's going to be there soon." The song itself is beautifully constructed -- add the duetting voice of Nora O'Connor (who also appeared on Yellow Bus) and Davis' nifty guitar work, and it's one of those songs that should carry on far beyond this album. It's a tremendously affecting tune, and consdering how much some of Roberts' other songs have affected me ("Cartwheels and Somersaults," for example), that's high praise.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can find Roberts' CDs in an increasing number of physical stores, but if you want to hear songs from the 37-minute album, you can hear "Pop Fly" by checking out Roberts' Radio or his (new) Myspace page (or check out snippets at your favorite online retailer).

Pop Fly is another masterfully crafted collection of songs which will have broad appeal just like the best in kids' literature. If Roberts has taken a slightly more mellow approach to his songs this time around, they're no less appealing. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's nothing terribly fancy about Ditties for Kiddies, a benefit CD for the Little Kids Rock organization, which brings free musical instruments and music instruction to public schools. The CD comes in a small slipcase with nothing but the cover art on the front and song titles and artists on the back.

But, you know, so long as the music's good, I'm OK, and the music's good here. There's a wide variety of songs here, but a lot of them would fall in the "jamband" category. Compilation producers Deep Fried Pickle Project contribute their jug-band original "Picklejuice," while Hot Buttered Rum turn in a sprightly and bluegrass-y "Firefly." Other tracks, such as Greensky Bluegrass' take on "Boom Boom" (which Raffi's done) and ALO's "Mashed Potatoes" mine similar veins. Deadwood Revival's "Daisy" is a sweet Americana tune.

It's not entirely on the Americana side of roots music -- one of the most fun tracks is "Who Stole the Hot Sauce" by Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, a rollicking zydeco-influnced tune. And there's the electronica dance tune "Milk Man" by Zilla. But if you're not keen on roots music, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. (And if you're looking for a CD with a sound more directly targeted at kids, look elsewhere, too. It by no means is kid-unfriendly, but aside from a Melanie Dill track and a couple other tracks, it's really kid-friendly, not focused.)

The songs may be most interesting to kids ages 3 through 8, but, as noted above, the appeal is probably pretty broad. You can listen to track at the album's CDBaby page. In Ditties for Kiddies, the Deep Fried Pickle Project have put together a sweet little compilation CD that will appeal to a number of listeners, particularly those families who like the jamband/roots music sound. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the things I like most about the kids' music genre is the feeling that artists are following their own muse, no matter how skewed, when they jump in. Oh, sure, with everybody thinking that kids music is the Next Big Thing, there are more than enough CDs that scream opportunism. But there are still plenty of musicians making their music, their way.

Which brings me to Gunnar Madsen, the Bay Area artist who many years ago helped found the well-known a capella group The Bobs, and who last week released his third album for kids and families, I'm Growing. On his previous two kids' albums, Madsen tapped into the humorous vein he sometimes mined for the Bobs, such as on "Tuna Fish," all about a guy whose parents named him, er, "Tuna Fish." That occasional silliness continues here on I'm Growing, such as on "I Feel a Waltz Coming On," from a musical Madsen worked on nearly 15 years ago, about a person with a fear of waltzing. Or "Mozart's At the Window," which is the best "Beethoven's Wig" piece never written, as multiple Madsens tell the story of a very naughty Mozart to the tune of his 40th Symphony.

But on many songs, Madsen plays it reasonably straight, or at least as straight as one can on a song about somebody walking from San Francisco to Texas (the Randy Newman-esque "Walkin' Back to Texas"). "Always on the Bottom" name-checks Hilary Rodham Clinton while, er, singing the praises of not being too ambitious. And "There's A Bowl of Milk in the Moonlight" sounded about 80 years old to me, but Madsen puts it about 70 years, describing his composition as "an old English Pub song for cats." Madsen's voice is usually front-and-center, and rightfully so, but the musical arrangements are well-suited to these stories, either a capella, or accompanied by piano, or even a fuller set of pop-based instruments.

The songs here really aren't "kids' songs" -- there's nary a song here about the first day of school or learning the alphabet -- but I think kids ages 4 through 8 will be in the best frame of mind to hear the songs. You can listen to every track from the 43-minute album at Madsen's page for the album.

Gunnar Madsen reminds me a bit of Peter Himmelman, another singer-songwriter whose released albums for families along with albums for adults for many years now and who shares with him a somewhat idiosyncratic view of the world. He's a story-teller, though Madsen tells his story not so much via folk-rock but rather through a wide gamut of musical styles. There's no pop-rock goldmine at the end of the rainbow here on I'm Growing, but if your family isn't looking for that and can appreciate the well-played (and sung) stories here, you'll enjoy the disk. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is possible that Brooklyn-based Randy Kaplan could become, if he wanted to, the next Dan Zanes, playing for the moms and dads a mixture of blues and rock that works well for both the kids and adults.

But on Loquat Rooftop, his second album for kids, Kaplan continues to follow his own idiosyncratic path that might not generate a deal with the Disney Channel next week, but shows off both his musical and storytelling chops.

Those musical chops are certainly there, as Kaplan's voice, ever-so-slightly nasally and raspy, blends in perfectly with his song choices. A couple songs, such as producer Mike West's amusing "Clothes Dryer" (on which Kaplan dryly notes that he used to love doing laundry so much, he went to "laundry camp") and "The Ladybug Without Spots," employ a strolling New Orleans-jazz-style approach. "Mazal Mazal" is a punkish song about a little kid, while the title track is a gentle folk song. Kids are used as chorus and occasional counterpoint (and a kid named Joe does a great "Boogie Woogie Washer Woman") to good effect.

Kaplan's choices of covers are well-selected -- Huddie Ledbetter's "Good Morning Blues" is a gentle blues which, as you might expect from the title, is more blues in 12-bar structure only. Hank Williams ("Move It On Over"), Lieber and Stoller ("Charlie Brown"), and the musical Annie ("Tomorrow") also make and appearance here, and one of Kaplan's strengths is making those songs sound fresh (and appropriate for kids).

Finally, Kaplan comes from the stories-and-(and-in-)song wing of kids' music, as heard on the silly story about monkeys and ducks "No Nothing" or the sweet "(Don't Say) Anything At All," a message song about not using words as violence. It's the kind of song that, strung together a dozen times, would make most parents' eyes roll, but, as a single song interspersed all the other goofiness and gladness sounds just about perfect.

With the exception of the "The Fire Engine," whose chorus "It's big / It's red / It's metal with water" is now unfortunately lodged in my brain, the 42-minute album is mostly targeted at kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear some tracks from the album (and its predecessor Five Cent Piece) at Kaplan's Myspace page for his kids stuff or at the album's CDBaby page.

Perhaps Randy Kaplan won't be the next Dan Zanes -- his love of storytelling puts him more in the camp of Pete Seeger or Trout Fishing in America perhaps (not bad company there, either). But it would be nice to see a bit of Zanes' popularity rub off on Kaplan, because Loquat Rooftop's mixture of blues and folk-rock, laced with good humor and heart, will appeal to many kids and their adults. Definitely recommended.

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

They Might Be Giants are probably an inspiration for a number of musicians, having not only figured out how to make music for more than 25 years now, but also managing to open up new audiences for their music -- fans both 34 years old and 4 years old.

So it's not surprising that some kids musicians even sound a little bit like TMBG, or at least embrace their wide-ranging sound, and it's a couple of those musicians I'm going to talk about here.

The first, and most TMBG-like in sound, is Austin's Mr. Leebot, whose recently released debut Activate! sounds like all the tracks that were left off of TMBG's debut CD (or were heard on Dial-A-Song). Mr. Leebot (aka Lee Davila) has, as you might expect given the name, a very synthesized sound. "Good Bot" could have been part of Devo's kids' album, while "Brock Brock Chicky" is pretty much what I would expect a song about animals as created by a robot would sound like. But it's not totally synthesizer driven -- "I Want A Car" is early Green Day and "Dig Up the Roots" has an earthy, sun-tinged vibe. (Oh, and there's some Bob Wills-ian western swing in there, too.)

The 25-minute album improves as it goes along, with "Power Up!" and "Come On Along" a couple of highlights -- fun tracks that will get kids bouncing along. You can listen to samples of all the tracks here or full tracks for a few songs at his Myspace page.

Now if Mr. Leebot sounds like TMBG from 20+ years ago, on his debut Playground Fortune Teller, the Bay Area's Hank Hooper (aka Dren McDonald) sounds a little bit like the band maybe 15 or 10 years ago, a little more adventurous. The soulful cry/yodel of the chorus "That's My Chicken," the rap-for-wordplay's sake of "Raptor Cracker Rap," the country-tinged "Fly Away Pie" -- they don't really sound alike. Sometimes it al coalesces, such as on one of the better kids' baseball songs you'll ever hear, "Hey! Batter!," with its litany of different baseball phrases. Other tracks, like "How Lucky Can You Get" or "Robot Man," have more of a synthesizer, early TMBG-pop sound. (And still other tracks, like "Look Ridiculous" sound like Dial-A-Song experimentation that could have been left off the album.)

By comparing Hooper to TMBG, I'm emphasizing his willingness to try new styles of music, not in terms of, "OK, now I'm going to craft a perfect reggae song about brushing my teeth," but simply as avoiding being pigeonholed. The 41-minute album comes packaged with a short paperback picture book whose drawings and text can be seen here, or you can hear samples here or here, along with a few full tracks here.

I don't think either album is the type of album that will appeal to every family. I've tried to give a sense, though, of who I think would appreciate these disks, both of which have a number of strong tracks and are often fun, rarely boring. (The targeted age range, by the way, is probably ages 3 through 8.) Beyond the sense of fun on both Activate! and Playground Fortune Teller, the albums are recommended to listeners who, even if they don't like They Might Be Giants, are looking for disks that don't sound much like a lot of other kids' music out right now.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A while back, I wondered, "why are there not more great jazz albums for kids?" I could have substituted the word "good" for "great" and it still would have been a legitimate question. Still, the kids music jazz subgenre has picked up some steam since I wrote those words and with the recent appearance of a definitely great jazz album for kids, I thought it worthwhile to highlight some other new disks worth further exploration if you're looking to broaden the jazz section on your family's CD shelf (or whatever the iPod equivalent of that is).

Thirty Tigers' Jazz and Swing For Kids applies a big band (or at least one that approaches double digits) to 10 familiar kids' tunes. A glance at some of the titles, however, shows that they're mixing things up a little bit -- "Diddle Diddle Swing," for example, or the "Old MacDonald Jazz Remix" (a boogie-woogie which throws in a snippet of "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" for good measure). Strong vocals ("Here Comes the Rain Itsy" gets turned into a Little Richard rave-up) and a sense of playfulness are the strong points on this 33-minute CD.

The Doug Beavers Rovira Jazz Orchestra's Jazz, Baby! is, in many ways, a similar album. All 10 songs here are traditional ("Twinkle Twinkle," "Shortnin' Bread," "Working' On the Railroad"), and the vocals take center stage. If there is any difference it's that the arrangements are stronger, with strong versions of "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" that take full-advantage of a 20+ member big band being two highlights. "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" is done in a fun cha-cha style. It's a polished recording, and while it's not targeted at adult listeners, those listeners who listen with their kids certainly won't begrudge time spent in its company. (Listen to several tracks from the 33-minute album here.)

While those two CDs certainly have much to recommend them, by sticking to traditional and familiar early childhood songs, they don't necessarily lend themselves to repeated listening over a long period of time -- they're CDs you might dip into occasionally.

Are there CDs worth more than an occasional dip? Well...

Continue reading "Review Four-Fer: Jazz Albums For Kids and Families" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Despite the fact that jazz is one of the great American art forms, its current popularity among the population is not exactly mass-market. As a result, I'm hesitant to call Let's Go Everywhere, the first kids music CD from the popular modern jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood, a good kids' jazz CD. Because if I did so, I'm afraid that a lot of people that would otherwise enjoy the CD would just tune me out.

Take the insanely catchy title track, which, unlike MMW's previous discography, features vocals (by Tim Ingham) and lyrics that beg for singalongs. The track, which echoes Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere," features throwaway lines like "Tijuana, Grand Bahama, don't forget to call your mama." It's propulsive, hand-clappy, and a poppy hit -- it certainly won't sound like jazz to most people. Or one of the better songs begging for kid-interaction I've heard, "Where's the Music?," a funky jam that breaks down every now and then only to be started up by gleeful kids begging, nay, shouting, "Where's the music?!?"

That's not all. "Pat a Cake," a punky rap featuring a number of kids -- a quick track which, judging by the number of e-mails about it I received after my recent NPR chat, will be heard in a lot of households this spring. John Lurie's spoken-word piece "The Squalb" features gentle musical accompaniment and manages to be mysterious and reassuring all at once -- if you need 3 minutes and 17 seconds of silence via rapt attention in the car, play this track.

I don't mean to give the tracks which do sound more jazzy short shrift, because those are excellent, too. "The Cat Creeps" has a funky, slinky bass line and tinkly piano that absolutely sounds like a cat creeping. "Let's Go" sounds like it could've been recorded 45 years ago in some West Coast studio (except for the kids occasionally shouting "Let's go!" in the background). And for those of you looking for a little deconstruction of classic tunes, "Old Paint" (on which the trio channels the Vince Guaraldi Trio) and a nearly unrecognizable (but fun in its own way) "All Around the Kitchen" will fit the bill.

Out tomorrow, the 40-minute album will appeal mostly to kids ages 4 through 9, but if you're not listening to this and having fun, I don't know what to say. You can listen to four tracks at the album's Myspace page and a couple here.

In the liner notes, both the band and Tim Ingham sound almost surprised at how well the album turned out. The band says "the best part was collaborating, improvising and making new friends. Who this was going to be one of our favorite records." Mine too. That sense of fun and wonder comes through loud and clear on every track. So rather than calling Let's Go Everywhere a good kids' jazz CD, let's call it what it really is -- a great CD. Period. Saying this when the year is barely a week old sounds like damning with faint praise, but it's true -- Let's Go Everywhere is the first great kids' CD of 2008. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I can't say that I've been the biggest Mr. Richard fan in the past. On his first couple CDs, while they were enjoyable enough, I just couldn't quite hear what it was that attracted Florida-based Richard Peeples one of the most devoted fanbases in the genre. It might have been me, but more likely it was that Peeples' live show didn't translate perfectly to disk.

But with his most recent disk, Polka Dot Puzzle, I think Mr. Richard finally has a CD that will play well with those who won't get to hear his live show. Musically, the album covers a broad stylistic range, from the sunny pop-rock of "Treehouse" to the lo-fi "Woo Woo Truck" to the Italian pastiche of the jokey "Cheese." Such stylistic diversity is not rare anymore in the genre (if it ever was), but at least it's well-done. Check out the horns on "Bubble Bath" -- it's little well-thought-out additions such as those that elevate songs from pedestrian to something kinda special. I also need to commend "Butterfly Day," on which Lunch Money's Molly Ledford sweet voice harmonizes nicely with Peeples' gruff one.

Lyrically, Mr. Richard is definitely in tune with his inner 7-year-old, such as on "Treehouse." "Sorry, there's no girls allowed / But it's OK since you brought your dog / It's way cooler than the Honeycomb Hideout." (OK, perhaps that last line really shows he's in tune with his own inner 7-year-old.) I can hear how, even without his backing musicians, the songs here (even the ones I didn't enjoy as much) would really communicate kids ages 3 through 8. Right now you can hear "Treehouse" at his Myspace page or sample all the tracks at the album's CDBaby page.

At barely 24 minutes in length (with 2 1/2 minutes of that a "hello" song and a "goodbye" song), Polka Dot Puzzle is barely more than an EP. But it's a fun EP, and one showcases Mr. Richard's strengths, even to those who probably won't be hearing him live any time soon. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

High Meadow Songs is a collection of tracks from artists in New York's Hudson Valley to benefit High Meadow Arts, a local non-profit providing arts education for children and families.

When getting a bunch of local musicians together for a benefit album, it doesn't hurt if your definition of "local musicians" includes Elizabeth Mitchell, Dog on Fleas, and Medeski, Martin & Wood. And if the CD just consisted of the tracks from those artists or collaborators, you'd have a pretty nifty 9-track album. Dog on Fleas turn in a very Fleas-ian (and local) "Buffalo Gals" and sound a bit like The Band on "Jenny Jenkins." Mitchell covers Jane Siberry's sweet "When Spring Comes," while MMW offer their reworking of "All Around the Kitchen" (accented with kids' voices) from their upcoming Let's Go Everywhere CD.

Luckily there are a number of other tracks worth it for someone who's not from the area -- for example, Rebecca Coupe Franks & Her Groovemobile offer an original jazzy instrumental, "Ella Skye," and Abby Hollander and a whole bunch of High Meadow students perform Mark Morgenstern's story-in-song "Hudson River Girl." The album isn't so much an album of "kids music" as much as it is an album of kid-friendly folk music, "folk" defined rather broadly, as the album also includes a song from a musical comedy based on Beowulf ("True True Friend") and a couple of tracks from drummers Fode Sissoko and Toby Stover. As with any benefit album, especially a 65-minute one such as this one, the quality (or interest) of the tracks is not uniformly high, but the high points outweigh the rest.

You can hear the first three tracks in their entirety here or listen to samples at the album's CDBaby page. It's probably most appropriate for kids ages 5 and up. High Meadow Songs will appeal most to fans of Dog on Fleas and Elizabeth Mitchell, but I think any listener (or family) who's a fan of folk music will find many pleasures here. It's a testament to one particular community's creative vibrancy. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Austin's Biscuit Brothers are best seen on TV or live. There's a definite theatrical sensibility in the episodes you can watch on selected PBS stations or on DVD, and they've been performing live even longer. (The live shows were the inspiration for the TV show, in fact.)

As good as those shows are, though, trying to capture the essential Biscuit nature on CD is a little tougher. Their previous disk, Old MacDonald's EIEI Radio, sounded a little bit like a (long) TV episode, with a little emphasis on the educational component of the TV show. It usually worked OK, but there were points where it seemed like there were some visuals missing and it wasn't as entertaining as watching the show.

Now, with their just-released Family Favorites, they're taking a slightly different approach, essentially forgoing attempts at direct education and an episodic structure, and putting together an album of fun songs, some of which were originally recorded for the TV show, some of which are new for this album. While the result is definitely not like the show in its overall structure, the album does a fine job of capturing the Biscuit Brothers spirit, energy, and humor.

The album starts off with a great version of the "Wabash Cannonball" -- its soaring chorus is a high point of the album -- and proceeds to wander through some time-tested tunes. Irving Berlin ("Alexander's Ragtime Band) and George M. Cohan ("Grand Old Flag" and "Yankee Doodle Scarecrow" -- OK, that last one has been modified a bit from the original) help the 20th century make an appearance, while "Old Dan Tucker" gets a smooth, polished performance from the band. Indeed, one of the pleasures of the CD is listening to the Brothers' fine voices and Allen Robertson's musical arrangements in song after song. And while the Biscuit Brothers' primary musical approach is renditions of folk songs, they're talented enough to make the alphabet song sound a bit like the Fifth Dimension on "Alphabet!"

And, yeah, Tiny Scarecrow, one of my favorite kids' show characters of all time (and one who gets high marks from my kids, too), gets his share of air time -- he's appropriately goofy on the "World's Shortest Dance Break," he negotiates the rapid-fire lyrics on "Tiger Rag" -- so that pleased me. In the let's-make-a-silly-rhyme "Schnitzelbank," he makes a Rene Magritte reference about floating apples -- high and low in the same song.

These songs are really an all-ages setlist, but given a couple of the titles, let's put the target range at kids ages 2 through 9. You can hear clips from the 34-minute album at its CDBaby page.

If you're already a Biscuit Brothers fan, you've probably picked up Family Favorites by now -- and if you haven't, you should. For those of you who aren't sure about the Brothers, I think this is a fun album you can enjoy even if you've never seen the show -- it's the best audio introduction to the Biscuit Brothers. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've read this website over the past five or six months, you know how big a fan I (and the rest of my family) have become of Austin's Biscuit Brothers. They've recorded four CDs and make the not-infrequent concert appearance in the Austin area with their top-notch, often rootsy versions of American classics and originals, packed with not a small amount of wit for both kids and parents.

But it's their PBS TV show in which they really shine. Each episode of the show typically tackles a different musical concept -- tempo, harmony, folk songs, emotion in music -- and illustrates that concept through a variety of ways. The two brothers Dusty (Jerome Schoolar, the executive producer) and Buford (Allen Robertson, the musical director) are the genial guides; sister Buttermilk (Jill Leberknight, jack-of-all-trades) reads from "The Big Book of Music" (it's a really big book); and Tiny Scarecrow (a puppet voiced by Damon Brown, the director) often plays the fool, demonstrating a concept via exaggeration or general silliness.

It sounds dry on paper (or, er, the screen), but it's anything but. Just watch Go Make Music! Volume 2, a collection of 4 episodes from the show's second season (2006-2007) released this summer, and tell me you and your family members a) don't learn something, and b) don't enjoy it. It's explicitly educational, to be sure, but there's such joy and fun on the screen that you don't mind learning (or re-learning) even the most basic of concepts. In the episode titled "Dynamics," all about how loud and soft music is, Tiny Scarecrow and Buttermilk share a duet where Tiny doesn't quite get the concept of loud and soft at first. It's funny to hear Tiny singing "I am singing softly, softly, softly" at the top of his nasally voice, but it gets the point across to the young'uns quite clearly. Or in "Conduct Yourself," the Brothers go on a "Conducting Adventure" illustrating exactly how important conductors are to drawing good or bad musical performances out of people (or how confusing it can be to having two conductors). If there's a base musical style used for illustrating concepts, it might classical music, but the show employs a whole host of styles, particularly folk and roots music when just playing music.

By this, the second season, the show has certainly settled into its routines for each episode, and so the favorite segments -- "Instrument of the Day," Crazy Classics," the end-of-show song in Symphony Barn -- all make their appearances here. The production is, once again, first-class. To artists who think they can just put together a DVD without much effort, I encourage you to watch these shows and look at how many people it takes (or how much effort it takes) to put one of these disks together.

A few technical notes -- the disk contains four 27-minute episodes from the season's second (13-episode) season. It also includes all 12 "Instrument of the Day" segments from Season 2. Strung together, I found listening to the segment theme a dozen times in about 24 minutes a little tiring, but individually (either option is available), I think they're great little 2-minute lessons about, say, the clarinet. There's also a brief DVD "Easter egg" that's worth finding.

The shows are going to be of most interest to kids 3 through 8. Unfortunately, there's nothing showing the Biscuit Brothers in action on Youtube or anywhere else on the web (a segment or three from "The Best of Symphony Barn" episode would be perfect uploaded there, hint hint, guys). But trust me. You can buy all sorts of Biscuit Brothers stuff here.

We watch the two DVDs from the show quite a bit. I watch Go Make Music! Volume 2 and can't help but think that this show a) could be huge, and b) should be huge. They have just the right mix of educational goodness, entertaining productions, and musical talent that make the show a real treasure. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Buck Howdy is the most-polished-sounding of the small but growing kids' country music subgenre. Howdy has a twangy but appealingly melodic voice and his tracks bear the sound of stellar production you'd hear on the best of Nashville's releases.

Buck Howdy's latest album, Chickens, showcases these strengths and adds another one -- BB, Howdy's co-singer at many live shows, just about gets co-billing. BB's sweet voice, which appears on almost every track, blends quite nicely with Howdy's. The old nugget "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" is a great example of his approach, melding western swing with a bit of big band. Nice vocals from Howdy and his co-singer BB, a couple horns, and a sweet fiddle solo, all making for a fun and nifty three minutes. "You Are My Sunshine" doesn't have the horns, but the rendition has pep and swing.

There really aren't any bad tracks here -- either the Buck Howdy originals (7 of which are co-written with BB) or the 6 covers. I should note that Howdy is sort of a country-fied version of Dan Zanes, sometimes not so interested in making music for kids as much as making family-friendly music (or even just music that interests him). While the album is stronger as a whole than its predecessor, Giddyup!, there's nothing as immediately appealing for the kids as "Baked Beans" off that album. "Are You Havin' Any Fun?" is a great little chestnut (once recorded by Tony Bennett and Count Basie and ably covered here), but its theme of avoiding overwork will probably (hopefully) be over the heads of your kindergartner. As a result, if you're looking for an album that is laser-focused on kids' interests, this won't be your best bet.

Kids ages from 4 through 8 will most enjoy the specifically kid-focused songs here (though as I've noted, it's not kid-focused all the time). You can hear samples of the 41-minute album at Howdy's music page or the album's CDBaby page.

While Chickens might not be an album that speaks directly to kids at all times, it never underestimates them -- the production is top-notch and whoever isn't the main lyrical target of each song (be it the parents or the kids) will find enough other things going on musically that they'll enjoy the track. It's a fun little album -- recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes people hear kids' music and think, "Hey, I could do that!" Sometimes those people decide they'll try their hand at writing and recording kids music of their own. At which point they find out it's lot harder than it looks. (No, I'm not speaking from personal recording experience, just lots of personal listening experience.)

Occasionally, though, somebody makes it look, well, if not easy, at least not incredibly difficult, either.

Case in point: Bakersfield, California's Mr. Oscat and their debut CD, Mr. Oscat Says.... Inspired by watching Noggin and thinking "I can write songs like that," and by kiddie new wave artists like Dan Zanes and Farmer Jason, Olen Taylor went ahead and did just that. The resulting is a pleasing new CD by a family band in the best sense of the word. The name of the band reflects the initials of the first names of the Taylor family (Olen, his wife Susan, and kids Caitlin and Alison) plus "T" for Taylor, and all four contribute to the disk. Olen does the lion's share of the work, writing or co-writing all but one track, but Susan co-wrote some tracks, and the kids lend their vocals.

Olen Taylor used to lead a roots-rock band called the Wichitas, and that roots-rock sound certainly makes an appearance on the disk ("Ducks in a Row," the vaguely Key Wilde-esque "Big Dog," and the Bakersfieldian country swing of "All You Wanna Do Is Play"), but the best tracks have a more pop-rock sound. "Mama Wants You To Dress Up (But You Don't Want To)" has a great singalong chorus ("'Cuz everybody knooooowwwws / what mama says, goes!"). "What's That Smell?" is Postal Service-style techno for kids ("Maybe Daddy's cooking chicken / Maybe he'll let us sample some...") And the best track, "Mr. Oscat Says," melds power-pop, techno, and Americana. The 9 originals here are all well-written songs.

The downside of a home-produced CD, though, can be a less-than-fully-realized sound, and there are points here where I was left wishing that Taylor had left the midi samples and Garageband tinkering by the wayside and instead called in some of his old bandmates. In particular, the album's songs reminded me a little bit of Turn It Up, Mommy! from the DC-based band the RTTs, and I was left longing for how that album took a bunch of solidly-crafted songs and added the RTTs bar-band sound to great effect. The album sounds OK, and the vocals are good all around (really, this is one of the better albums out there for effective use of kids and friends), but could have sounded great with a few more instruments in the mix.

The songs here are going to be most pleasing to kids ages 3 through 8. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page or at the band's website.

For an album whose genesis, according to the liner notes, was that "two people challenged us to do this recording," Mr. Oscat Says... is going to be a pretty hard to top. ("We did it. And now we challenge back. Your turn. Make family music.") And while I wish the home-produced aspect of the recording hadn't been so apparent, that's just because the songs here are lots of fun and I think the CD could've approached something near awesome territory. Oh, well, there's always next time. I sure hope there's a next time, in any case, because this first time was pretty good. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been a fan of Rhode Island-based Keith Munslow since hearing his fun 2005 album Accidentally (on purpose) (review here). But I hadn't heard any of his storytelling until giving his recently-released Dressed Up For the Party a spin.

I should have known his storytelling would be every bit as fun (and funny) as his music. There are just 4 tracks here stretching out over the album's 47-minute runtime, nicely sequenced. The opener, "Five Second Rule," is storytelling with some strutting blues bookending Munslow's observations on the eternal food/floor conundrum. It's an amusing appetizer to the main two stories here. The 18-minute "No Token, No Milk" tells the story of a school-aged Munslow losing the token he needs to get his carton of milk. It's the funniest story here.

It's followed up by "Marfa the Barfa," a more dramatic story (though not without funny points) with no music about a 13-year-old girl whose fondest wish of going out to sea with her fisherman father is thwarted by her throwing up over the side of her father's boat (repeatedly). At nearly 20 minutes long, you might think that it would drag or fail to keep the kids attention, but my kids (especially the 6-year-old) hang on to every word. I could see where both stories were going (or at least the major plot points), but in storytelling it's the details and the execution (listen to the squeak of Martha's brother's tricycle and its use), and Munslow's got those down pat.

The disk wraps up with the title track, an amusing musical number about a kid who doesn't want to, uh, get dressed up for the party. It's a light dessert to the disk. It shows off Munslow's musical chops, along with that of his co-producer, Bill Harley (a talented singer/storyteller in his own right, and a Grammy-winner to boot). With the exception of "Marfa," music is important to the tracks, and even in the comparatively non-musical "No Token," Munslow's use of the African box drum the cajon made my two-year-old dance like crazy.

The stories will be of most interest to kids ages 4 through 10. You can read the liner notes and lyrics at Munslow's page for the album or listen to samples at its CDBaby page.

Dressed Up For the Party is a solid album of storytelling with some sweet musical accompaniment. In pajamas at home, or in school clothes in the car, your kids will enjoy the disk and you will, too. Recommended.

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

A hazard in reviewing kids' music is the need to be conversant with a broad range of musical styles. For "adult" music, editors generally wouldn't have the same person reviewing classical music and metal, but in this field, well, anything goes.

So when the press release for It's A Bam Bam Diddly!, the first CD for Rankin' Don aka Wayne Rhoden aka Father Goose on Dan Zanes' Festival Five Records, lists a whole bunch of special guests, they are names that don't mean anything to me. Unless you're an expert in Caribbean or dancehall music, they probably won't mean anything to you, either.

And you know what? You won't care -- you'll think the album's great.

In essence, this album is exactly what a Dan Zanes album might sound like if Zanes made a Caribbean album. Zanes is like the Jon Stewart of the kids music field -- he's helped invigorate the genre and has surrounded himself with a bunch of talented musicians who get his approach. And so just as Stephen Colbert has branched out on his own, Father Goose has created his own world here.

In fact, just like Zanes on his kids' CDs, Father Goose often stays in the background on this disk, content to be the ringleader and letting the other artists shine. Father Goose introduces the winsome "Panama," but it's guests Gaston "Bonga" Jean-Baptiste and longtime Zanes artist Barbara Brousal who carry the vocals. Two of my favorite tracks -- "Long Time Gal" and "Nah Eat No Fish," which both sound very much like they could appear on a Zanes CD -- feature Judith Murray and Aggie.

It's not to say he's not around -- Father Goose adds humorous counterpoint to the Dan Zanes / Sheryl Crow duet on "Flying Machine" and has spoken-word interludes on Zanes' rendition of Harry Belafonte's moving "Island in the Sun." But he's content to blend in on songs like the lovely waltz "Jane and Louisa" or "Chi Chi Buddo," with the title phrase getting stuck in your head.

In fact, these aren't really downsides to the CD, but you should be aware that it's definitely not the "Father Goose Show," in case your kids are huge Father Goose fans from the Zanes CDs. Nor is it really as uptempo and high-energy as the role he plays on Zanes' CDs and (especially) in concert. It's really for slightly older kids, and while it's not sleepy-time music, it's not bounce-around music either.

I think the songs here are best for kids ages 4 through 9, though perfectly OK for younger kids, and, frankly, this really is an all-ages album in the best Zanes-ian tradition. You can listen to some samples from the 53-minute album here or elsewhere around the web.

I feel bad about mentioning Dan Zanes' name so much, because It's A Bam Bam Diddly! is a strong album, and Father Goose really deserves credit for being such a great ringleader. I think in part it's because I know a lot of people might be interested in this CD because of their previous enjoyment of Zanes' CDs and to those fans I say, "get this album -- you won't be disappointed." But just as Stephen Colbert has created his own career outside of Jon Stewart, with this CD Father Goose shows he's a force to be reckoned with, too. Great stuff and hopefully the start of a great run of CDs -- definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When the Seattle band Recess Monkey aped (pun somewhat intended) the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover on their 2nd CD, Aminal House, it wasn't a random reference -- they really did sound a bit like the Beatles on that fine CD. So with their Sgt. Pepper's under their belt (and maybe their fun but a little rough-around-the-edges debut Welcome to Monkey Town standing in for Please Please Me), all that's left is to release a double album, right?

Uh, right.

Set to be officially released this weekend, Wonderstuff is the year's most ambitious kids' music album. A double-CD set (a first for the genre as far as I'm aware) telling the story of Everett the Wonderbee, who along with some friends, travel far and face danger as they seek the mysterious Gray which threatens the meadows where Everett and his friends all live. Oh, and the songs and the stories were created (and performed) by the band with the help of a bunch of elementary-school-aged summer campers. (Really. I sat in on the tail-end of one the days of camp as an invited guest of one of the campers.) So, yeah. Ambitious.

Although the band joked this summer that they were making their "Yellow Album," as I listened I thought more of another late '60s double-CD set from another English band -- the Who's Tommy. Though miles away from Pete Townshend's somewhat dark and disturbing storyline, Wonderstuff is, at its heart, also a rock-pop opera. It intersperses its songs with narration and dialogue from the characters which move the story along. These snippets, usually a minute or so in length, are often quite amusing (for both parents and kids, though not always at the same time). The story itself -- a hero quest worthy of Joseph Campbell -- will be of interest to kids. (I must say, though, I actually missed "Mayor Monkey" from the previous CDs, which is one of the first times I've ever actually missed a skit character.)

Of course, the heart of the album are the 20 songs here. There are a fair number of songs that one would describe as Beatlesque ("My Pet Rock" is one such song, featuring the album's best melody), but other styles get their day -- the later Beach Boys sound of "The Pool," the Byrds-ian jangle-pop of "Down Down Down," even the Who get a cut ("Round and Round"). Which isn't to say newer artists get ignored. Some of the tracks on the 2nd CD have to me a more minimalist Spoon vibe, the dour "The Gray" could be a cut from Stephin Merritt's Gothic Archies side project, and the boys give another shout-out to John Vanderslice in the power-pop of "Backpack." Lyrically, the songs are split between those that hew closely to the narrative (e.g., "Magical Meadows") and those whose relationship to the story is tenuous ("Down Down Down" is really about a roller-coaster ride). In other words, take out the overarching story and you'd have a completely different album.

It would also be probably 30 minutes shorter, and when you're talking about 81 minutes worth of entertainment that's currently on the two disks, that's a big difference. In fact, if there's one drawback to the CD, it's the length. It would sound great on a long car ride (the story is interesting enough to keep the attention of the listener), but it may be too long for many listeners.

The album will be most appropriate for listeners ages 5 through 10. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page. I also think you'll be able to listen at the album's website, but that function doesn't seem to be up and running just yet.

With Wonderstuff, Recess Monkey have recorded another album bursting with energy and good spirits. Even if you're not interested in the rock-pop opera, there are a bunch of fabulous songs at the heart of this album worth your time. Definitely recommended.

Note: The album's release party is this Saturday, Oct. 20, at the Experience Music Project in Seattle Center. If you can make it, go. I think it'll be ten tons of fun.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The "For the Kids" series was kids' music before kids' music was cool. Or at least really cool. Its first two compilations, released in 2002 and 2004, were earnest and enjoyable collections of, for the most part, adult artists tackling kid-friendly tunes. The first disk had a few more heavy hitters (Sarah McLachlan, Tom Waits), while the second had a bit more of an underdog feeling (Robyn Hitchcock, Nada Surf).

How, then, to describe this third installment, which will be released by Nettwerk tomorrow?

Well, let me put it this way -- it's the first kids' music compilation where I almost feel too old. Now, you might be thinking, "Ummm.... it's a CD of music for kids... you're supposed to feel too old." True, but in this case I'm talking about the bands -- some of them aren't in my core demographic.

For example, Of Montreal, who leads off the disk with "I Want To Have Fun," is a darling of the Pitchfork crowd, and while I don't say that pejoratively -- I'm a member of the Pitchfork crowd -- I also realize that the sub-crowd of parents who are members of the Pitchfork crowd is a small crowd indeed. So it matters little that, against my expectations, the song is pretty good, because I'm not sure the people in my child-rearing crowd (a considerably larger one) would care. Same goes for the Format, who turn in a slightly odd and operatic "Does Your Car Have a Mustache?" or Blitzen Trapper, who add the zippy "New Shoes" to the mix. Good bands, not quite in the my demographic.

One of the hallmarks of the series has been its relative lack of interest in musicians who make their living playing for kids, and that holds true even more here. Only one band, the Sippy Cups, get a slot here, and that's with a cover of a non-kids' song, "I'm a Believer." There are a few traditional songs on the CD -- O.A.R. do a brief reggae-tinged "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and while Steve Lee-compatriot Kyle Andrews and the Submariens turn in a peppy "Wheels on the Bus" and trip-hoppy "My Darling Clementine," respectively.

There are some other good tracks here (the awesome "See You on the Moon," from another compilation, by the Great Lake Swimmers; "James Taylor's "Jellyman Kelly," done appealingly raggedly by Mates of States), but there are three tracks here that are key for me. The first two are songs that are decent enough and will probably have everyone talking. Over the Rhine's "The Poopsmith Song" is a song that illustrates, in repeated detail, where one should and should not poop ("Not on your arm / not on your leg / not on your toast / not on the eggs"). The transgressionary nature of the Seussian tale (yes, I just used the phrase "transgressionary nature" in talking about kids music) might be too cute by half if I didn't hear kids (probably the bands' own kids) singing -- it probably was a song written to help them use the toilet. MC Lars' "The Lint Song" is another one of those "too cute by half" songs that's probably more amusing to the parents than the kids, but there will probably be some 8-year-old older siblings who find the rap about, well, lint the funniest thing ever.

And then, finally, there's the Barenaked Ladies. A band which, if I'm any indication, has probably almost fallen off the radar screens of many of the purchasers of this CD. Cassettes of Gordon lost, the CDs of Stunt simply disappeared as the band pursued other, more serious songs. After a listen to their previously-released (though new to me) rendition of the traditional "The Other Day I Met a Bear," I wondered aloud, "Why has this band not recorded a kids' CD?" The track is my favorite on the CD, which is saying something, considering "See You on the Moon" is on here, too. The tune (originally released on a Simple Life-branded collection, for goodness' sake!) is energetic and with the band sounding like they're having a ton of fun -- listen to them chant "Ten Feet!" with ever-increasing loudness. It may no longer be cool to listen or like the Barenaked Ladies, but this track is just too much fun to let those silly notions carry.

The songs here are most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 9. The 56-minute album, like its predecessors, will serve as a benefit in the US for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. (In Canada it'll benefit the Sarah McLachlan Outreach Project.) You can check out the tracks at various internet retailers, and Blitzen Trapper's "New Shoes" here.

For the Kids Three! is a solid collection of songs for kids, songs for parents, and, well, songs for those somewhere in between. It doesn't always hit all the sweet spots at the same time, but everyone will find something to like here, especially given the collection's broad range of indie-rock styles. And for those of you who loved the first two compilations, but are wondering just who these bands are scattered amongst Moby and the Barenaked Ladies, I encourage you to take the plunge -- your kids might find a new favorite song, while you might find a new favorite band. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Though this is the best kids music album title (or at least most amusing to parents) since the Sippy Cups' "Electric Storyland," people who expect Dean Jones' Napper's Delight to be a traditional lullaby album or a goofy riff on a traditional lullaby album will be disappointed.

Surprise and, not infrequently, delight are more likely feelings here.

Jones is one of the ringleaders of the fabulous New York band Dog on Fleas. While it sells both this album and the band short, to call Napper's Delight a Dog on Fleas lullaby album is a good place to start in describing the CD. One of the chief attributes of a Dog on Fleas CD is its spirit of adventurousness, of lack of calculation in song selection and instrumentation. Such is the case here as well. There probably aren't many CDs that include both drum machines and traditional African instruments such as mbiras or the balafon, but they all appear here and neither of them really sound out of place.

I think it takes a few tracks to get into the CD -- the drum machine on the third track "Wheelin' and Dealin'" might not be everyone's cup of tea -- but by the time fellow New York musician Elizabeth Mitchell takes over the vocals on the fifth track, "Grow Little Flower," the CD has really started to establish a relaxed but not sleepy mood. The next track, "Bygones," struck me as a long-lost Vince Guaraldi Trio track, while the reworked 18th century folk song "Turtle Dove" gets a nice assist from fellow Dog on Fleas bandmate Debbie Lan and a couple fiddlers. By the time you get to "Hush Little Baby," which sounds like it's got a tiny calliope helping to provide musical accompaniment, you're sold. (I also adore "Filly and Dilly," a duet with Amy Poux which is a reworking of the traditional "Lavender's Blue.") The overall effect is definitely not one of a lullaby album, if only because many of the songs don't deal with unconditional love as many lullabies do. Rather, the CD creates a mellow mood that will work well as the soundtrack to many a lazy afternoon reading with the kids.

The 42-minute CD is fine for all ages, of course, but I think kids ages 2 through 8 will respond to it more. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page.

Napper's Delight isn't a traditional lullaby album -- it sounds nothing like it. Although it has echoes of Dog on Fleas, Elizabeth Mitchell, and the Innocence Mission, it doesn't really sound much like those, either. It is, as I said above, filled with surprises and delights. I'm not sure kids will necessarily run to pull this off the shelves. But I think a lot of parents (especially those who are regular readers here) will find this a soothing balm for family listening and, given five or six spins, will find this working its way into their brain. It did mine. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

How to describe Jump in the Jumpy House, the recently-released third CD for kids from San Jose, California-based artist Mr. David?....

How about... "this album sounds like nothing else you've heard all year."

Well, yes, but that's what I said about his last album, The Great Adventures of Mr. David, so perhaps I need to find different words, because it doesn't sound like that CD, either.

Whereas the previous album had a strong folk and folk-rock influence, the new album has more diversity of sound -- the garage rock of the title track, aided by the propulsive guitar work of Greg Lisher from Camper Van Beethoven; the gentle Spanish guitar on "Miss Pila"; the early New Wave sounds of "Hey! It's Lunchtime!" Mr. David (real name: David Alexandrou) does a passable Johnny Cash impression on "Them Devils," or at least is obviously inspired by him there. I also love the brief "Ragtime Honey," a sweet little ragtime instrumental that's a nice palate-cleansing (or aural-cleansing) at the center of this 31-minute album before plunging into the second side.

In an interview here last year, Mr. David said he was proud of "putting out a kind of children’s music that really is different." There's no doubt he's doing that. There are times on this CD when I wonder if it really isn't a little too different. "Cabin Blues" is pretty abstract for a kids' song, about passing the days in a (vacation) cabin. The leadoff "Crocodiles Are Hungry" is almost stream-of-consciousness, barely touching on crocodiles and ending with a tribute to "John, Paul, George, and Ringo." (Favorite line: "People always ask me, 'How can you spend so much time up in your hammock?' / I say, 'Because man, I got pink lemonade!'") I think this is one of those albums that will probably divide listeners. Some families will absolutely adore this album for its adventurousness while others might think that "Jump in the Jumpy House" rocks and "Little Girl" is a sweet little song and the rest is just a little too weird.

The album is probably most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear (and download) "Hey! It's Lunchtime" and "Jump in the Jumpy House" at Mr. David's Myspace page or hear samples of all the tracks here.

Jump in the Jumpy House is another wildly imaginative album from Mr. David. It's got some fun beats and lyrical pictures. Even if the album isn't quite your family's cup of lemonade, though, you have to hand it to Mr. David for indeed stretching the boundaries of what kids music can be. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Spend 2 minutes and 16 seconds, listening to "Educated Kid," the title track and leadoff single from the Bay Area trio The Hipwaders' latest CD, Educated Kid, and try not to move or sing along in some way. Go ahead, try.

See, can't do it.

It's a great example of a pure power-pop song retrofitted just enough to allow the kids to groove to it, even get something out of it lyrically ("pursue your passion / do what you love / perservere / you'll rise above"), while retaining enough musical flourishes (the "uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" of the chorus, the handclaps) to make the older power-pop fan smile broadly.

While the rest of the disk doesn't quite reach the sugary heights of the title track, there are a number of other good songs on the CD, which was released this week. "Little Baby Brother" has a snappy "ba-ba-bas," "whooooos" and a dead-on kids-eye view of a child's response to a little brother ("Please don't break my toys / And I'll love you forever"). "Aidan's Train" is a sweet Beatle-esque melody. A lot of the tracks have a very XTC vibe -- "The History of Declan Rae" sounds like something from XTC's later period while the angluar "Art Car" and "Speed of Love" have early XTC influences -- in other words, it sounds like a Futureheads kids CD. Guitarist and songwriter Tito Uquillas continues his fascination with sharing educational facts in some songs. It could drag the disk down but it usually doesn't -- the facts typically come off as "hey, here's this really cool fact!" rather than overly didactic and some songs ("History of Declan Rae," in particular) pull it off rather well.

Kids ages 5 through 10 will most likely appreciate the songs and subject matter on the 39-minute CD. You can hear (and download) four of the tracks at the band's Myspace page or samples of all tracks at the album's CDBaby page.

Educated Kid marks a big step forward for the band. In reviewing their previous, self-titled CD, I said "they're not at a Ralph's World level of polish and songcraft yet, but give The Hipwaders time. They may just get there. " Folks, they're getting pretty close. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Mary Had A Little Amp was originally released waaaaaaay back in, er, October 2004. OK, it really wasn't that long ago in the cosmic scheme of things. But if it's not quite the paleozoic era to the current mesozoic era, it does seem like it comes from a different time.

The big thing about the current wave of kid-comps (kids' music compilations) is that the CDs tend to be composed of songs recorded specifically for the CD. It's not a hard-and-fast rule, mind you, and some of the songs on those CDs aren't specifically "kids music," but, more often than not, when the artist or band went into the studio, they had a pretty good idea of who their audience was going to be. Or, at the very least, the track listing makes some sense.

Not so with Mary Had A Little Amp. The songs here seem to have been compiled as much by the artists' affinity for for the album's benefactors (proceeds go to support preschool education projects) as by the appropriateness of the songs. "We Walk," for example, is a perfectly kid-safe song from R.E.M. (or at least as far one can tell in Michael Stipe's earlier, mumblier phase), but its appropriateness for a kids-music album is somewhat remote. You can count Moby's "Anchovie" and "Sing Along" (the Blue Man Group along with Dave Matthews) as songs whose lyrics are reasonably kid-safe, but probably not of much interest to kids.

Which isn't to say there aren't some stellar tracks on here, they just tend to be the ones that are more suitable for a kids-comp. The Dixie Chicks' cover of "The Rainbow Connection" is almost worth the price of the CD by itself -- sweet, with sufficient banjo to make fans remember the original. Jack Johnson turns in an early, laid-back version of "The 3 R's," revved up later on the Curious George soundtrack. Madonna's "Little Star" is surprisingly good and Rosanne Cash's "How To Be Strong" is by far the best original.

The album is probably best-suited for kids ages 3 through 9, though I doubt any kid will really get into the whole CD, there's such diversity in age-range here. You can hear snippets all over the internet and here.

With an overall mellow mood and a collection of slightly older stars, this collection might make a good gift for your older sibling who had a child of their own a little after you did. While it's a decent lineup of artists, compared to some of the more kid-centered (and rockin') compliations that followed it, Mary Had A Little Amp is, well, a little unplugged.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Continue reading "DVD Review Two-Fer: Jim Cosgrove / Eric Ode" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In reviewing this CD, let me be clear from the start that ours is not, for the most part, a television-watching household. It's not really a principled stand as much as it is a reflection of our busy lives. We just don't have much time to watch TV if we want to do other things like, you know, bathe and eat.

Having said that, I do wish we had a little more time, because if we did, we might find time to watch Class of 3000, a Cartoon Network show co-created by, executive produced by, and starring Andre 3000 of the hip-hop duo Outkast as musician/teacher Sunny Bridges. Even if the animation was lousy, we'd still have the music to enjoy.

Released earlier this month, Class of 3000: Music Volume 1 features one song from each of the first season's thirteen episodes, plus the show's theme song. That theme song by itself is more adventurous than most kids' music, going from funk to jazz and even picking up a nursery rhyme along the way. (You can download a copy here, courtesy of Sony, or listen to a Windows stream here or a RealPlayer stream here.)

Luckily the rest of the CD is just as creative and funky. "Throwdown" could be a hip-hop hit. "Cool Kitty" sounds like it was written 40 or 50 years ago, with a snappy surfer/girl-group vibe. "Oh Peanut" is a slower track that shows off some more classical instrumental grooves (listen to a Windows stream here and a RealPlayer stream here.) "Life Without Music" is one of the better "educational songs" of recent years. And, hey, how often on a major-label kids' music release do you get the pure instrumental bebop jazz of "My Mentor?" Rarely, oh so rarely.

If there's a drawback to the album as an album, it's that some songs are clearly tied to the visuals. In some cases it's not much of a drawback -- while I might like to see the visuals associated with "Fight the Blob," the drumline march of the tune is so strong, it works fine a song told in music. In other cases, such as "UFO Ninja," I'm clearly missing something. I'm not saying you need to have seen the series, just that I think those who have might enjoy it (and understand the story-driven songs) slightly more. For those of you don't like cartoony voices, well, I'm usually right in that camp, but the vocal characterizations here are pretty strong, and I think you'll enjoy 'em. (I did.)

The songs are probably most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 10, though with the exception perhaps of the darker "We Want Your Soul," everything here is A-OK for youngsters, too. You can hear samples at your standard internet retailers, but I'd also recommend checking out the videos from the show, available at the show's website. You can hear many of the album's tracks there.

In the end, what I find so wonderful about Class of 3000: Music Volume 1 is that a major label gave an exceedingly talented musician the freedom to create an album that takes so many risks. In the jazz interlude of the theme song, one character says, "But, Sunny, radio doesn't play songs without words anymore," and Sunny says wearily, "I know..." It'd be a shame if the public doesn't hear these tunes, be it by radio or some other way. The album is a smartly crafted collection of kid-friendly funk, hip-hop and jazz. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Would I be here on the web without Greasy Kid Stuff? Yeah, probably. Would anybody care? Well, I'm not so sure.

Way back in 1995, when Belinda Miller and Hova Najarian started their weekly Saturday-morning "Greasy Kid Stuff" broadcast on WFMU in the New York area, there may have been a number of kids' music shows on the radio, but none were doing what Belinda and Hova did. Sure, they played "kids' music" (cartoon theme songs, the Chipmunks, and a Sesame Street song made their appearance on a randomly-selected playlist from November 1997). But they also re-appropriated kids' songs played byadult artists (Elvis Presley, the Mr. T Experience and Tanya Donnelly/Juliana Hatfield on that same broadcast) and, even more subversively, artists and songs that had never been anywhere near a kids' show. It wasn't just Jonathan Richman -- it was the Phantom Surfers, the Go-Nuts, and Yo La Tengo.

In 2002, Belinda and Hova compiled their first Greasy Kid Stuff collection, filled with their broadcast's most popular songs from 7 years of Saturday-morning radio shows. This collection has a very goofy vibe to it that owes as much of its energy to Dr. Demento as it does 120 Minutes. Finding out from the liner notes that the very odd "There's a New Sound (The Sound of Worms)" was "without a doubt the most-requested song" on the show in the mid-'90s is a bracing tonic in thinking about what kids actually like to hear. Although I think the silly outweighs the rock, even the silly has a lot of rock to it (check out the surf "Ants in My Pants"), and the rock -- exemplified by the Mr. T Experience's cover of "Up and Down" from Schoolhouse Rock and the by-now-immortal "Jockey Monkey" from James Kochalka Superstar.

The sequel, released a couple years later, is more at the 120 Minutes-end of the GKS spectrum. With tracks from Cub, Supernova, and They Might Be Giants, the album has much more of an indie-rock feel. "Dictionary" is another great indie-rock track, done by Muckafurgason (two-thirds of which would later become the kids' band The Quiet Two. But the less-familiar names also turn in enjoyable tracks, most notably the surprisingly sweet (with pointed commentary near the end) "The Dinosaur Song," from Drew Farmer.

Both albums are appropriate for kids of all ages (unless you think kids shouldn't hear the "Mission: Impossible" theme as performed by chickens, then stay away from the original). But I think kids ages 4 through 10 will probably get the most out of the CDs. Samples are available at many fine internet superstores.

It's hard to choose between the two CDs (if, indeed, you have to choose between them), but I think my rough stereotyping above -- Dr. Demento or 120 Minutes is a reasonably fair one. There are some awesome tracks on both CDs and your family will like both, if for perhaps slightly different reasons. With news that a third collection is in the works, Belinda and Hova will get to share their many discoveries with a music world that's, well, finally, sort of, caught up with them. Recommended.

Obligatory conflict-of-interest note, which I forgot to include when originally posting this last night: Belinda and Hova have just started a new Greasy Kid Stuff blog at Offsprung, which is where I post, too. I could've written this review many months ago, long before they even joined the fold, but thought you should know.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two is better than one. Or, in this particular case, fifty-one is better than two.

Fifty-one is, as best as I can tell, the total number of people singing or playing on Campfire Sing-Along, the recently-released fourth album by the Bay Area duo Orange Sherbet. You might be thinking, last time I checked, "duo" meant, well, two people. And, yes, Jill Pierce and Tamsen Fynn are indeed a duo. But they've pulled in a whole host of family and friends to sing a collection of campfire sing-along favorites. Sometimes the friends are older (such as Charity Kahn from Charity and the JAMband, who makes an appearance on "Sippin' Cider"), sometimes they're younger (the chorus of kids who appear on old chestnuts like "Make New Friends" or "Down by the Bay"). Most are fun, or at least an excellent reminder of songs you can sing at your own campfire.

What turns this album into more than a very enjoyable version of a "Wee Sing" CD is the presence of the Northern California roots/bluegrass band Hot Buttered Rum, who join forces with Orange Sherbet and, occasionally, the rest of the 51 for great versions of traditional sing-alongs -- "Down By the Riverside," "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain," "Frog Went A Courtin'," among others. Making the CD stand out, however, are the originals, contributed by members of both bands -- "Bit By Bit" is an awesome song about how little things make a difference, while "Marshmallow" is a fun sing-along that could've been written 70 years ago. It's in the originals most especially that the combination sounds very much like a West Coast version of Dog on Fleas. It's a wholly winning sound.

(Oh, and I almost forgot. All this plus Dan Zanes. Yep -- Zanes makes an appearance on an original called "One Man Band," revealing a heretofore unknown skill in humorous spoken-word poetry. It's hardly a Zanes-ian essential, but it's amusing listening.)

The 48-minute album is appropriate for all ages, though kids able to sing along, ages 3 through 9, are probably more likely to enjoy the CD. You can listen to samples or at the album's CDBaby page (at which you can hear some of "Bit By Bit").

The best parts of Campfire Sing-Along are where Orange Sherbet and Hot Buttered Rum combine to make timeless songs sound fresh and new songs sound like they've been part of the canon forever. (Who would've thought orange sherbet and hot buttered rum would taste so good together?) There are enough such moments here to make this recommended, even if you don't plan to get any closer to the great outdoors than your local park.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

In reviewing music here, I've tried not only to cover the latest releases from musicians familiar and not, but also filling in gaps from albums released - gasp! - more than a couple years ago, especially from significant artists. Consider this the missing pieces of my Peter Himmelman coverage, the other two albums for families I've not yet reviewed here.

My Best Friend is a Salamander, released in 1997, was Himmelman's first album for kids and families, and the first thing you might be struck by in listening to it is how it could have been released this year. Ten years later, and Himmelman's still taking socially exciting trips. What is different is just how... odd those first songs were. While on his excellent 2007 release My Green Kite he's singing about kites or feet --fairly recognizable subjects treated in mostly recognizable ways -- early on he had a much more skewed, Shel Silverstein-esque approach. He sings about his best friend... who's a salamander. In "Larry's a Sunflower Now," a dreamy adult-sounding pop tune, the narrator (who poured water all around the subject to help him grow) tells Larry's worried mom," Look at the bright side / There's nothing you can do / Larry's gettin' lots of fresh air / The sun is on his faces and / Birds are in his hair today." Himmelman's fascination with rhyming wordplay -- which continues today -- is most evident here on the gentle "An Ant Named Jane," though a number of other songs have the touch of spoken-word.

Seven years later and one album in the meantime...

Continue reading "Review Two-Fer: My Best Friend is a Salamander / My Lemonade Stand - Peter Himmelman" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Like many people my age, I grew up on PBS shows. Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood -- all of them great. (And so was Scooby-Doo, but that's not relevant here.) So it's been a little weird to me that the great TV kids' music show of this generation -- Jack's Big Music Show -- has never been anywhere near PBS.

Which isn't to say that PBS doesn't have a show worthy of adulation right in its own backyard, if only it would share it with the world.

My friends, meet the Biscuit Brothers. Produced in the musical city of Austin, Texas (and appearing on a few PBS stations, mostly in Texas), this show centers around the titular brothers, Buford and Dusty Biscuit, who live on, yes, Old McDonald's farm. Along with their sister Buttermilk Biscuit and Tiny Scarecrow, the funniest muppet this side of Kermit, they explore different components of music -- tempo, melody, or emotion, for example.

Want to listen for yourself? Then try their second kids album, Old McDonald's EIEI Radio, released this spring.

Lest this sound somewhat dry, let me assure you that it's not. It's rarely didactic, and the show would much rather make its point through humor, as in the classic "Chickens Playing Bongos," which features many different instruments (ferrets playing french horns, for example). The skit "Traffic Report" demonstrates the importance of conducting by illustrating what can sometimes happen without a conductor helping to orchestrate musicians' entrances and exits.

The music is pretty darn good, too. Buford and Dusty (better known to friends in Austin as Allen Robertson and Jerome Schoolar) have some fabulous Americana roots arrangements of children's classics -- "Oh, Susanna!" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" are particularly sharp. But they don't limit themselves to Americana. Their revisionist lyrics to Jacques Offenbach's classical "Can Can" (as a how-to entitled "The Can, Can!") are a hoot and a half, while The 'All Coming 'Round the Mountain' Music Block," shows how the same song can be arranged in many different ways (one of which is, apparently, lovingly ripping off the guitar riff from the Beatles' "Daytripper"). Some of the originals are classics (the aforementiond "Chickens Playing Bongos," the snappy "Make Your Shoes Move!," which includes Tiny Scarecow's classic, "Help! I'm being chased by bees... No, that's OK, they were just bees of the mind"), while I don't think the slow songs near the end worked quite as well. Maybe if there were visuals...

Continue reading "CD Review: Old McDonald's EIEI Radio - The Biscuit Brothers" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's get the negative out of the way right from the get-go: "Turn Off the TV" might just be the worst kids' song you'll hear this year. Not only is it very "you should do this," it's also done in a faux-rap style. The combination may just make your kids want to turn off the CD player and turn on the TV for several hours watching Spike TV or something.

OK. I've gotten that out of my system. It's not really the worst kids' song you'll hear this year -- certainly not the worst one I've heard this year. But it sticks out like a big ol' sore thumb on what is otherwise a pretty strong collection of kids' pop from Tennessee-based Roger Day on his third and just-released CD, Dream Big!.

Day can craft decent kid-friendly pop tunes, and there are a number worth enjoying here. "I Like Yaks!" is a goofy little ditty which uses the percussive stylings of master percussionist Billy Jonas. Day also does a good job with character studies or studies. One of the best tracks is "Happy Hippos Hopping," a lilting mid-tempo story song about hippos playing (while the parents watch out for crocodiles). "Zachary Hated Bumblebees" is a simple tune of sorts relating the tale of poor Zachary which uses a string quartet to good effect.

On one song after another, Day puts together well-sung lyrics and catchy melodies. For those of you looking for grit in your CDs, Day is not your man -- the lyrics are uplifting through and through (save for the snotty -- literally -- bonus track). The title track is almost too vague in its exhortation to "dream big!," but there are certainly way more vapid things to shout along in a catchy chorus. Day generally avoids the saccharine pits that musicians making overtly positive music sometimes fall into. Even though Day is very good at what he does, as with artists and bands like Joe McDermott and Milkshake, what he does won't resonate with every family, while others find him an essential component of their library.

The music here will be most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page as well as at Day's music page.

So, "Turn Off the TV" aside, Dream Big! is a nice collection of kid-friendly pop tunes with positive messages. Unless that description makes you run away with your fingers in your ears, then you'll want to give the CD a spin. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm already tired of PTA fundraisers, and our daughter has just cleared kindergarten.

I'd be less tired, perhaps, if our PTA helped put together something like The Cougar of Haycock Woods, the 2007 debut CD from the DC-area trio The Harley String Band.

Cougar Woods is a nature-based learning curriculum for Haycock Elementary in McLean, Virginia. The album was conceived as a fundraiser for the PTA, but it also took its inspiration from the curriculum itself, as the songs all have a strong nature and ecological focus. A number of the songs, like the leadoff track "Running in the Poison Ivy," take a mostly jocular approach ("Point your finger and wag your tongue / Bossin' me around till the bell is rung / Well don’t go getting all high and mighty /Look, you’s standing in poison ivy"). Others take a more serious approach, as in the title track, which sings about a centuries of human-cougar interaction -- from the cougar's perspective.

Not all the songs are quite so ecologically direct. "Cloud Shape Animals" packs its message punch not from emphasizing the fragility of animals on the planet but instead from emphasizing the difficulty of imagination as one ages. And the best track on the CD, "Drifting Away," a gorgeous tune with gentle string accompaniment, has no obvious natural connection except for the title metaphor. Over the 50-minute runtime, there are a few songs that aren't as compelling as the rest (I could do without the silliness of "Ode to Milkweed," for example), but for a narrowly-focused thematic album, it maintains its general interest remarkably well.

Musically, this is straight-up folk and Americana, with a little bit of pop thrown in. The instrumentals are well-done, with what must be a good dozen folk instruments (cittern, banjo, pennywhistle, and jaw harp among them) employed. Vocally, I prefered the sweeter voice of Jim Johnson and Jim Clark to the somewhat nasally voice of Steve Coffee (who wrote and sings the majority of the tracks here), but as I always say, that's a personal thing. Kids from Haycock Elementary make a few appearances, too. The whole sound has a ragged feeling, though in a good way.

Kids ages 4 through 9 will most appreciate the album. You can hear a few tracks and read lyrics to the album here or at the band's CD Baby page.

In the annals of kids' CDs born out of school fundraisers, Frances England's Fascinating Creatures might be the gold standard. But The Cougar of Haycock Woods is a solid collection of nature-based songs, a highly recommended choice for a nature-based curriculum in schools or Earth Day. But it's got enough charm that it's worth a spin at other times and in other places. And maybe it'll even inspire a few more PTAs to give up their chocolate bar sales for something more fulfilling. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another week, another collection of kids' songs from artists whose regular gigs usually occur well after the target audience for these compilations have gone to bed.

It's easy to believe that some of these compilations are rushed to cash in on the current fad for kids' rock'n'roll, but in the case of the recently-released Rock 'N' Roll Coochicoo Revue, that's not the case. Four years in the planning by Tanya Donnelly (Breeders, Belly) and Chris Toppin (Fuzzy), it's filled with original tracks from Boston-area musicians and friends, some of whom might be familiar if you listened to your local alternative rock station in the '90s (you know, before it went all nu-metal).

With the title of the CD, you might expect the CD to rock hard, but the heavy rockers are more the exception than the rule. The outstanding track here is the power-poppy "What Do You Like More?," which provides the listener with a bunch of kid-friendly choices ("lions... or tigers?... sneakers... or shoes?") set to a great hook and layered sounds. Toppin turns in a slightly-fuzzed-out "Ball, Ball, Ball, Ball" that's fun, too.

Most of the tracks are gentler in nature. Donnelly lends her distinctive voice to the dreamlike (literally) "Laluna the Loon" while Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz turns in a very goofy "The Farm Where Everyone Does What They Want To Do." Kay Hanley, who once sang for Letters to Cleo, turns in the slightly nonsensical "Baby, Baby." In fact, I kept writing "silly" or "goofy" in my notes for many of these songs. They're gently goofy, not "Weird Al" goofy, but their tone prevails as opposed slightly more serious songs (the happy-yet-a-little-bit-sad "Funny Face," about a kid who hasn't smiled so much lately). Most of the songs are targeted at the kids, though Warren Zanes (part of a family who knows a thing or two about the kids and family music genre) sings very much from the parent's point of view in "In Need You, Knock! Knock!" There aren't any bad songs here, but some of them just sort of pass by in a way that makes me think kids would be less than enthused.

Some of the songs skew a little younger, but it's most for kids ages four through eight. You can hear four of the tracks at the album's Myspace page, or samples from all of the tracks at its CDBaby page. Some of the album's proceeds will go towards Mark Sandman’s (the late Morphine singer-songwriter) Music Education Fund.

One interesting thing for listeners of my generation is how a number of the alt-rock artists from our college days have settled down and are trying to fit their rock peg into the kids' music hole, if only on a one-time basis. The Rock 'N' Roll Coochicoo Revue isn't the first album that does so, but it's the one that puts the trend in sharpest relief. If it doesn't quite reach the kids-comp goldmine of the DeSoto Play! compilation or Bloodshot Records' The Bottle Let Me Down, no matter, there's enough good stuff here to please a whole host of families. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I will be upfront and say that although pirate mania seems to be taking over the world, I, thus far, have been immune. No eyepatches, no using pirate lingo, and only on the rarest of occasions do I drop an "Aaarrrrrrgggghhh." (Though that does give me tremendous satisfaction.)

I do, however, make an exception for the charms -- yes, charms -- of Captain Bogg & Salty, which for nearly 10 years has been performing kids and families in their home port of Portland, Oregon and in other parts of the world. They are a pirate band, though I think it's probably more truthful to call them a pop/rock/theatrical band with a very piratical attitude.

This is definitely noticeable on their third album Prelude to Mutiny, which was released in 2006. The album starts out with a more traditional vibe, led off by a rousing version of "Drunken Sailor." The next track, "Bosun Whistle," has a traditional sound, but also sounds a little bit like trip-hop -- call it "ship-hop." And its unsettled lyrics about an uneasy sky lead nicely into the third track, "Mutiny of the Hispaniola," which, as you might expect from the title, is an elaborate story song about a pirate mutiny. Captain Feathersword, this ain't.

The rest of the album, while not totally happy and cheerful, backs off from the darker side explored in those first three tracks. "The Loneliest Sailor" is a love song, believe it or not. "Doldrums," while exploring the not-so-happy occurrence of being trapped in idle waters, is married to a straight-ahead rock melody. "Dead Men Tell No Tales" is the best song AC/DC never wrote. And the good captain's deranged take on "Part of Your World," from Disney's The Little Mermaid is in its own special category of "must-be-heard-to-be-believed."

Darker in tone than its predecessor, the album lyrically is appropriate for a slightly older audience, perhaps kids ages 6 through 10+. Which isn't to say that younger kids wouldn't appreciate some of the tracks here, just that if you've got a three-year-old, I'd probably start out with Pegleg Tango perhaps rather than this. You can hear samples here.

If you hate pirates, then I wouldn't recommend this. (Though I'd ask you, why'd you make it this far in the first place?) If you or someone in your family loves pirates, or even if, like me, they're just fans of well-crafted rock/pop songs and stories in song, then Prelude to Mutiny is worth your time. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There was a time where not every kids’ musician had a Myspace page or was prepping a music video.

I’m talking, of course, about the late 1990s.

In the late 1990s, the only record company that seemed to anticipate the forthcoming resurgence of kids music was Smithsonian Folkways, which in 1998 issued the Smithsonian Folkways Children’s Music Collection, a 26-track CD culled from the venerable institution’s massive collection of children’s music recordings.

How venerable is the collection? Well, you need look no further than the four artists leading off the set -- Woody Guthrie, Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger, and Lead Belly, who represent the most important kids’ musicians of the first three-quarters of the 20th century, the 1927 Yankees of kids’ music. Their tracks here are representative of the artists’ work -- Jenkins’ take on “Mary Mack,” a song she made her own, includes enthusiastic children’s participation, and while Seeger lends his sweet, clear voice to “All Around the Kitchen.”

There are other tracks here from Guthrie, Jenkins, and Seeger, but there are some other great tracks here from artists you’ve probably never heard, or even heard of. Lord Invader with the Calypso Orchestra turns in a rendition of “Merrily We Roll Along” guaranteed to get your family dancing around (or at least bobbing their heads). The Canadian folksinger Alan Mills has a gentle Animal Alphabet Song from the early 1970s. And “Hey, Coal Miner,” co-written by troubadour Larry Long and a 6th grade class in Alabama, combines both social history and fun chorus (“Hey… coal miner!”) into one infectious mix. While releases from the 1950s predominate, the album covers releases from the ‘60s all the way into the ‘90s.

There are a mix of age ranges here, some songs appropriate for kids as young as 2, with the upper range easily heading into double digits. As is always the case with Smithsonian Folkways releases, the liner notes to the album are an essential component of the release. You can hear samples at many online stores or you can also visit this page and the "Children's Music" program (#16) for another audio introduction to the overall collection.

This isn’t a perfect album to listen to straight through -- it’s more of an anthology than a mix tape, something you’d dip into occasionally, or to find some artist or song you want to explore further. Still, there is relatively little of the sense that you're listening to something "good for you" -- it's much more a sense of "fun for you." And there’s no better overview of 20th century children’s music than this album. Highly recommended.

Readers who find that the number of songs that they and their family enjoy off that album is fairly high may find themselves interested in another release of kids and family music which predates even the music on the Smithsonian Folkways collection. Yazoo Records’ The Story That The Crow Told Me, Vol 1, released in 2000, is a collection of rural American children’s songs recorded in the 1920s and ‘30s. Richard Nevins took 23 recordings from the original 78s and remastered them for the collection.

There are some definite gems collected on the CD. One has to believe that Dan Zanes had listened to Chubby Parker’s version of “King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-me-o” before recording his own take -- Parker’s version has its own swing. Fisher Hendley & His Aristocratic Pigs (yes, that was their name and isn’t it awesome?) do a fun western-style “Hop Along Peter.” And Lew Childre’s “Horsie Keep Your Tail Up” has its own bluesy charms.

To me, the disk as a whole suffers somewhat from a certain sameness in musical approaches -- one song begins to blend into the next over its 67-minute runtime. I think the segment of fans who like the genre of music will really like this disk, maybe even more so than the Smithsonian disk, but it’s not going to be for everyone. I would note that the remastering is every bit Smithsonian's equal, but the liner notes are lacking, with only a few lyrical excerpts.

The album’s appropriate for all ages, but kids ages 3 through 7 will probably appreciate it more than others. You can hear samples here.

As you might gather from what’s already been written, if you’re just dipping your toes into kids music that was recorded, well, to be honest, before you were born, you’re better off starting out with the Smithsonian disk. But for its particular narrow genre, The Story That The Crow Told Me holds its own against the Smithsonian disk. The total audience may much less broad for this CD, but it's got its own charms. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Amidst the explosion of musical styles in recent kids music -- indie rock, country, rap, what have you -- the pure children’s pop tune or album has almost been forgotten. I don’t know whether it’ll ever make a complete comeback (Billy Joel isn't exactly burning up the adult pop charts nowadays, either), but Seth Decker and the Missing Piece won’t be to blame if it doesn’t.

Seth Decker and his wife Leah Decker founded the Red Door Playhouse in the Atlanta area in 2003, providing theater, music, and visual arts programs for kids and families. On their second album, 2006’s Intergalactic Tour, the band runs through a bunch of finely-honed original kids’ pop that sound like they’re the basis of an evening's show at the playhouse. Over the course of 42 minutes, the band covers every bit of hyphenated pop known to man -- the pop-country of “Call Me Anytime,” the swing-pop of “Bugville Boogie,” or the pop-rock of “Open the Door.”

A couple of songs stand out above the rest. “Edna the Elephant” is a simple piano-based pop tune reminiscent a little bit of Justin Roberts. It’s about a light-on-her-feet elephantine ballerina and is a minor classic of kids’ song storytelling. Less conventional perhaps is the dreamy “Trampoline,” which is one of the slowest tracks on the disk, its gentle tempo a nice match for the song’s subject. The songs do sound a bit like they’d fit into your local adult alternative radio stations amidst the Sheryl Crow and Maroon 5 tracks, though it’s doubtful those artists will be recording silly songs like the ‘70s-pop-with Mexican-accents “Taco Love” anytime soon. (Though at this point in their careers, I’d probably rather listen to “Taco Love.”)

I do feel like I’m missing something in listening to the album, and it’s probably the live show that sounds like it goes (or went) along with the songs. It’s structured as a tour through the galaxies, but the plot thread is weak on record. It’s an indication of the strengths of the hooks here and their execution that I’d be interested in hearing or seeing the, well, missing pieces.

I think this is right in the wheelhouse of 4 to 8-year-old kids. You can hear selections from the album here.

In the end Intergalactic Tour is simply an album of well-crafted pop tunes. While you might enjoy the songs more if you’ve seen the songs performed live, if your family likes the music of Justin Roberts, SteveSongs, or Ralph’s World, you’ll probably find the album worth exploring. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are singers, and there are entertainers. In the former camp, I'd put artists like Elizabeth Mitchell, whose interpreter of songs is rivaled by few in the kids music genre and who have glorious voices.

In the latter camp, I'd like to introduce Ashley Albert, lead singer, songwriter, and mastermind behind the New York-based The Jimmies.

Don't get me wrong, Albert has a nice voice and could be a very adept interpreter of standards, kids-oriented or not. But on her band's recently-released debut album Make Your Own Someday (Silly Songs for the Shorter Set), Albert's strengths are in thinking like a goofy 7-year-old and performing for said kid. (It's not for nothing that Albert's done voice work for cartoons and commercials.)

Watch this completely infectious (pun mostly unintended) for "Do the Elephant," one of the catchiest songs on the album, and tell me that the Nickolodeon/Nick Jr. corporate behemoth shouldn't find some show to feature Albert and the whole band on a regular basis. It did wonders for Laurie Berkner -- it could do the same here.

Kinda like a cross between Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang and AudraRox, except skewed at a slightly higher age bracket.

The songs themselves sound bright and tackle common kid-themes like clothes (the swinging "What's On Your Shirt" or the rocking "Cool To Be Uncool") and pets (the unusually-sweet-for-the-album "Taddy") with a variety of musical styles. Albert gets the double-word-score for combining a foreign-language song with a song about pets (in "Spanimals," on which I kept expecting Rob Thomas to make an appearance on the Santana-lite melody). And the album's opener, "What's That Sound?," isn't quite a classic name-the-instrument musical piece like "Mama Don't Allow" and "Peter and the Wolf," but it's pretty darn close. The rest of the band -- who, like Albert, have day jobs that indicate serious musical talent -- backs Albert with aplomb. (Whatever "aplomb" is.)

The album's not perfect -- Albert sometimes has a tendency to cram too many words into the lyrics (making them hard to understand) and some songs are just sort of "eh" -- but it's not for lack of talent or imagination. The silliness here will be most appreciated by kids ages 5 through 10, particularly if they have a "Weird Al" Yankovic album in their collection. You can listen to 4 full tracks at the band's Myspace page or samples from the whole album at the album's CD Baby page.

You may as well get Make Your Own Someday now, because eventually these songs are going to end up on some TV show somewhere. Then your kids are going to beg to you play The Jimmies over and over again in the care and rather than investing in some dubious technology that rips audio from a DVD video, you may as well just get the CD and save yourself the hassle. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*********

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

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

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

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

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

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

Little Monster Records released Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World earlier this week. I originally reviewed the DVD nearly a year ago. I've updated the review below -- if you already have the earlier version of the DVD, go to the end of the review for my comments on this new version.

Continue reading "DVD/CD Review: Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't know if the New York-based band The Deedle Deedle Dees are the most erudite kids' musicians currently recording, but they certainly wear their erudition on their sleeves more proudly than anyone else. One listen to their 2nd album, the recently-released Freedom In A Box (2007), will make that abundantly clear. Here is a random sample of topics covered and phrases used on the album: sampan ("Is that a boat? It's a Chinese boat!"), aphids, the Niebelungenlied, Teddy Roosevelt's charge up San Juan Hill, and the short arms of a tyrannosaurus rex.

And that's just scratching the surface.

Led by Lloyd Miller and some fellow NYC-area music teachers, the Deedle Deedle Dees are, as you might suspect from the short list above, a little obsessed with history, and it's the history tracks that initially grab your attention, telling the story of Nellie Bly's trip around the world ("Nellie Bly") and of Teddy Roosevelt's transformation ("Teddy Days"). And if you're not familiar with the band, I know what you're thinking -- that sounds really dry. But you'd be wrong, because what makes these songs different from most kids' history songs is the rollicking and earthy musical approach. The could-be-a-hundred-years-old "Nellie Bly" starts out with a "doodley-doo-wah" singalong that instantly lodges in your head while "Henry Box Brown" tells the compelling story of Brown, who mailed himself to freedom in a box, with "This Side Up!" printed on the side (the "This Side Up!" being another great singalong). "Henry Box Brown" is probably the best of the history songs here. Some listeners may find the lyrics overly precious at points, and the other songs succeed to varying degrees depending on how much they're telling stories (I think the country-rock "Aaron Burr," which retells the story of the Burr-Hamilton duel, is pretty awesome, but "Teddy Days" just tries to cram too much in, lyrically). Some listeners may find the lyrics overly precious at points,

Now, the band isn't just obsessed with history, and only about half of the 13 tracks on the 39-minute album are history songs. There are nature songs, for example, including the midtempo folk-poppy "Vegetarian Tyrannosaurus Rex" and "Obedience School," which is just about the most punk kids' song you'll hear all year. There are simpler music/movement songs, too (the very simple "Play Your Hand" or "Drum!"). While the band may mix all the songs together in concert, on the album it doesn't blend perfectly -- it just seems to lurch back and forth. Your thoughts may vary, but I'd've probably ordered the tracks differently.

Musically, however, it's all good, with the band taking a mostly Americana/rock approach, throwing in a few curves along the way (the Beck stylings on "Baldy," for example). The band sounds great together and along with their guests the album has an appealing raggedness. (Except on the completely awesome "Major Deegan," a beautiful, slow paean to New York City's traffic -- that fever dream of a song is not like the rest of the CD, but it's a perfect final song.)

Given the range of topics here, the album is appropriate for kids ages 2 through 12 (parts of some of the history songs will go over the heads of the youngest listeners, but are boogieable enough and with musical hooks enough for those youngsters to enjoy). You can listen to four full tracks at the band's Myspace page or samples of all the tracks at the album's CDBaby page. When you order the CD, you'll also get a coloring book with lyrics. That book, along with the information found at the band's Blogspot page for the album, serve as a great resource not only for teachers using the CDs, but interested families, too.

So here's the deal: if you teach American history in the K-12 system, you need this album. If you're interested in history, you need this album. But if history isn't quite your thing, you still probably need this album, too. Even the songs that don't work out are energetic and fun. It's one of the most ambitious and diverse -- not to mention fun -- kids' CDs of the year. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There are two kinds of critic-proof kids' music albums.

The first kind are albums from, say, Barney or the Wiggles or Baby Einstein. Setting aside whatever you (or, more importantly, I) think of the artistic merits of their music (and it's not necessarily what you think), clearly critical opinion won't move the sales meter one iota, up or down. (Note: I'd love to see what Oprah would do with kids' music, though.)

The second kind is an album such as this one, Road Trip, the second album from the Boston-area group Girl Authority, released earlier this week.

Now, seeing as their first album has reportedly sold more than 100,000 albums -- if not High School Musical-type sales, certainly more than enough to hold their own with the Dan Zanes and Laurie Berkners of the world -- there's something of the first kind of critic-proof-ness in here. But the bigger reason this album is critic-proof is this:

Your kids can -- and do -- buy this album.

Listen, if every parent who claims to be sick of the Wiggles just stopped buying their CDs, their sales would drop dramatically. Why? Because 3-year-olds aren't walking into their local Target, plunking down their credit card, and buying the latest CD.

This album, however, isn't targeted at you (or me). It's targeted at your 9-year-old daughter. Who, while she probably doesn't have a credit card (unless you've got a waaay different approach to parenting than I have), does probably have an allowance and could pick this up at the mall or ask you to get it the next time you order something online. And, let's face it, you're probably not going to listen to the CD very much as she'll listen to it in her room or with headphones on.

Still, you (or some well-meaning relative) might be interested in knowing, well, is it any good?

Continue reading "Review: Road Trip - Girl Authority" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Phredderiffic is the third album for kids from the uni-monikered artist whose six-letter name starts with the letter "P."

No, Prince does not have two other kids' albums.

This 2005 album is from Fred McNaughton, also known as, yes, Phredd. While there is no cover of "Starfish and Coffee" on the disk, there are a number of fun tunes here -- the sweet Beach Boys-esque lament for warm weather "Sled Dogs" and the countryfied "My First Haircut" (with the lament "Where in the world did they put all my hair?") in particular stand out. A number of songs also would lend themselves well to kids' movement, particularly the one minute of nonsense in "Zoobah Zoobah Diggity Zoom" or the silly Australian-accented (literally) "Stuffy Hunt." Other tracks do wear out their welcome -- I do not need to hear the reggae'd "Meet the Trolls" or the industrial "William Watermelon" ever again. (I would note for those of you with small collections of coffee-related songs, "If Coffee Smells So Good, Why Does It Taste So Bad?" is an amusing sea shanty.)

Without making too big of a deal of it, it's important that I point out track 5, "I Choose Love." This isn't the first album with religious references I've reviewed, and probably won't be the last, but since it's definitely an uncommon occurrence 'round here, I feel obligated to mention this. If you heard the disk without knowing anything about Phredd, you'd probably be a bit (or a lot) surprised to hear the phrase "God is love" woven into the chorus at the end of the song -- it's only a tenuous fit with the song itself, and nothing before (or after) really prepares you for it. If you're not prepared for it, it's a very "What the...?" moment that will have you scrambling for the CD packaging wondering if you missed something.

Kids ages 3 through 8 will probably enjoy this 39-minute album the most. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page or at his media page.

With his poppy tunes, silly lyrics, and skilled blend of programmed keyboards and real instruments (particularly the ukelele), Phredderiffic is a little bit Eric Herman, a little bit Steve Weeks, and an itty-bitty bit Veggie Tales. It's not a uniformly strong album, but fans of the above artists will likely find something to enjoy here.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lost amid all the talk of hootenannies lately is this crucial point:

They're not always all that interesting for the audience.

Sure, it can be a blast playing music with friends, challenging one another, exploring new music. Sometimes magic happens for musician and listener alike. But sometimes all you're left with is "Jazz Odyssey," of little interest to the people listening.

Tabletop People Vol. 1 & 2 (2005) is an album that grew out of a hootenanny and became a CD that many readers and families out there will absolutely love.

The core of Session Americana consists of six Boston-area musicians with many other gigs; the band itself is known for their roots-rock jams in increasingly large local venues. They recorded the album in the same way they play their shows -- gathered in a circle, with guests joining in. The band's long experience playing live shines through on the CD -- the music is accomplished but with a looseness that makes the joy (and, occasionally, sadness) stand out.

The album starts off with with an invigorating bluegrass take on "Boats Up the River," so propulsive that one of the band members shouts "Don't stop now!" midway through. And they don't, from a rootsy take on Jonathan Richman's "Party in the Woods" (led by former Richman bandmate Asa Brebner) to a gently swinging "Merzidotes" to the best version of "Froggy Went A-Courtin'" on record (emphasizing the "uh-HUH" part gives it a great singalong feel).

And that's just the first CD.

Yes, in the spirit of Wilco's great Being There album, this 59-minute album is split into two CDs. The second CD is listed as more introspective, a distinction that is somewhat hard to hear (there are introspective tracks on the first CD, too), but the split does make it easier to take just a 30-minute CD break. The second CD includes the languid indie-pop "Floppy Tulips," a rockin' alt-country' "Mr. Rabbit" (which, well, would have fit perfectly on Being There or A.M., musically at least), and the final two songs "Point of No Return" and "Trouble Wheel." These last two are not kids' songs by any stretch of the imagination -- they're the songs you hear at the end of the night when the kids, exhausted from dancing and playing around, are asleep in your lap just before you head home.

The album's appropriate for listeners age 2 and up, although there are going to be certain songs that the youngsters won't get -- not inappropriate, just not really geared for 'em. You can hear samples of all the tracks at the album's CD Baby page, but I'd recommend going to both their Myspace page as well as their own album page. Each have the same three (full tracks), but the former also includes "Mr. Rabbit" and the latter also includes "Boats in the River."

Fans of Dan Zanes, Dog on Fleas, and Elizabeth Mitchell will especially hold this album dear, but so will a bunch of other listeners. Sometimes hootenannies leave the listener a little flat, but at times they can be graced by magic. Tabletop People Vol. 1 & 2 falls in the latter category. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is probably accurate, though way too simple, to characterize Peter Himmelman as a "singer-songwriter." Meaning, I've always thought of "person with a guitar singing very personal songs" when I think of "singer-songwriter," and while Himmelman does sing some very personal songs, "person with a guitar" is not at all a fair description of what Himmelman does musically.

One listen to My Green Kite, Himmelman's fourth album for kids and families, and his first for Rounder Records, will make that abundantly clear. The album, released tomorrow, continues Himmelman's wildly creative approach to both music and lyrics. But unlike, say, My Fabulous Plum, which had some strong songs, but was so all over the map that it was hard to get into the album, on Kite Himmelman has dialed back that anything-goes approach just enough to create an album of slightly-more-accessible songs. The result is fabulous.

More so than most kids' lyricists, Himmelman has a gift for putting a new frame on an old picture. On the opening track "Feet", for example, Himmelman creates a Sgt. Pepper's-like ode to, well, feet, encouraging the listener to consider their own feet. (In the liner notes, Himmelman says, "Sometimes people forget about their feet. They are so used to thinking about their eyes, or their ears, or their hair.") Himmelman asks the '80s-synth-pop question "Have You Every Really Looked At An Egg?" and, well, I probably haven't. (So thank you, Peter.)

Himmelman also tells fantastical and imaginative stories, such as on the great pop-rocker title track, about a kite that just keeps flying higher and higher. "Another Bite of Hay" is the best kids' song about that didn't make it on to Bruce Springsteen's early albums. (That it happens to feature a bull, a cow, and a mule seems incidental in nature.) But Himmelman doesn't ignore realistic lyrics either, nailing parental indecisiveness on the Van Morrison-like "Maybe Is A Bad Word" and penning a sweet tribute to his father on "My Father's An Accountant." (And the slow rap "Nothin' To Say" is just fun wordplay.)

I think kids ages 5-9 are most likely to respond to the song subjects and lyrics here. You can hear samples at any major internet retailer (it's good to have Rounder's distribution network!)

This is a fantastic album, chock-full of great tunes and production, with lyrics that sometimes speak directly to kids' daily lives and other times fire their imaginations. It'll make you smile and make you think. I know it's early in the year, but with My Green Kite Peter Himmelman has recorded an album on my short list of favorite albums for 2007. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I appreciate artists like Johnette Downing who have carved out careers making kids' music in genres other than the dominant rock and pop genres. Based in New Orleans, Downing understandably draws upon the rich musical gumbo of the region, using Cajun, Creole and Zydeco as her musical inspiration.

Released nationally this week, Downing's sixth kids album, Fins and Grins, is a fine example of Downing's musical approach. For subject matter, Downing looks to the sea, singing songs about penguins, stingrays, and (naturally) l'ecrevisse, more commonly known as the crawfish. Musically, the album is a great collection of melodies, supported by Downing's sweet voice and strong band. But the album has a strong interactive and educational component, and how you feel about the CD will depend in large part on how interactive and educational you like your CDs. Many preschoolers will like songs like the gently boogie-ing "Clamshell Clap," which encourages lots of clapping, natch, or the "Amazon ABC's," which lists Amazon animals well-known and not. If you're not looking for educational songs, you might appreciate the Zydeco of "L'ecrevisse" while not caring much for the lesson about the crawfish in the lyrics. Some songs do stand well on their own, the traditional folk song (with rewritten lyrics) "The Circle of Life" and the album closer (with a sweet fiddle accompaniment) "Turtles" being two prime examples.

I think kids ages 4 through 8 will most appreciate the lyrical content here (the musical content is definitely all-ages). You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page or hear a couple tracks at Downing's music page.

In the end, despite the solid musical composition, the somewhat narrow lyrical focus and approach of Fins and Grins probably keeps it from being everyone's cup of tea. If, however, you are looking for a kid-friendly collection of New Orleans-flavored music or are a librarian or preschool/elementary school teacher looking for some aquatic-themed music as part of (or to lead) a lesson, then this album will make an excellent addition to your collection.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As way of introduction to the self-titled 2005 debut from Vancouver, British Columbia's, Sam's Rot'n Pot'n Pan Band, I should note that Vancouver is my favorite city in the world. This is probably due to the fact that my dad was born and raised there and our not infrequent travels there as I grew up. One of my great memories of the city is going to Expo '86, Vancouver's World Fair. What I remember most about Expo '86 is the Shuffle Demons, a jazzy saxophone-driven band who, believe it or not, are still going strong (check out their Myspace page), but who, that summer, were still pretty much street musicians. I thought they were awesome.

If Vancouver held its World Fair 20 years later (and I was maybe ten years younger than I was in 1986), I would hold Sam's Rot'n Pot'n Pan Band in the same regard.

Their 34 minute album is, I suspect, less an album than it is a collection of their greatest hits playing at festivals and markets. (If they lived in the States, they could tweak their act to tour around the country at Renaissance Festivals.) "The Treasure Map," a 4-minute pirate story is pretty good on record, but I can totally imagine how captivating it might be live. Same with the jokey "Opera Man," which does earn bonus points for including a selection from "Carmen." Which isn't to say that there aren't some great standalone tracks here. The first track, "A Turtle Named Roy" covers the essence of turtles, memories of childhood, explanation of what a 45 is, and a celebration of one of the great voices in American pop records, and all in about three minutes. The next track, "Your Parents Eat Your Candy," is a rollicking blues reminiscent of the Boston band Morphine, and is a confirmation of every kid's suspicions about their parents. After those two tracks, the rest of the album suffers a little bit in comparison. (I should also point out "Accounting Singalong," though, which is nothing but a 30-second musical joke, but a pretty darn funny one.) The trio are adept with their instruments, and the semi-regular use of kids' voices is handled well.

I think kids ages 3 through 8 are most likely to enjoy the album. You can hear samples (and buy the album, for those of you not lucky enough to live in Vancouver), at the band's website (follow the treasure map to "Samples," where you can also watch videos for "Treasure Map" that confirm my suspicion that the song would be awesome live).

So there you go. It's an album that lists among the instruments "suitcase," "doodads," and (my favorite, and immediately obvious when you hear it) "handfarts." As a result, while I recognize that my affinity for the album may be clouded by other personal affinities, Sam's Rot'n Pot'n Pan Band is a collection of fun recordings that I suspect serves as a good souvenir of what must be a hoot-and-a-half of a performance. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Longtime fixtures of the Austin music scene (with fans in the U.S. and abroad), the Asylum Street Spankers would probably rank low on the list of bands you'd expect to see turning out a kids' album. Any band that counts EPs entitled Dirty Ditties and Nasty Novelties as part of their discography clearly hasn't made their name by recording albums suitable for use in your kid's preschool.

So it's not unreasonable to ask -- is Mommy Says No!, their first family-friendly kids album, really family-friendly or for kids?

The answer is yes, sort of, mostly. The band, who have made their name playing a broad range of musical genres using acoustic instrumentation, apply that same formula to a more benign set of song topics. Learning to ride a bicycle ("Training Wheel Rag"), wondering about being an adult ("When I Grow Up"), or being afraid of the dark ("Don't Turn Out the Light") -- these are all standard subject matter for kids music. But rather than setting those topics to pop fare, they turn them into a swinging rag (with some killer fiddle), funky New Orleans brass-band strut, and a sweet pop tune interrupted by some "Thriller"-like vocals. Whatever the style, throughout the album, the band sounds great.

What distinguishes the album from most in the genre is its winking sense of humor, which at times ignores the kids and aims straight at the parents and at times may give parents pause. More benignly is Christina Marrs' "Be Like You," a sweet little ditty with toy piano and a background chorus of the guys in the band sounding like SNL's old "Unfrozen Cavemen Lawyers." Wammo's "You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox" may have some of the more nervous parents in the crowd skipping for the next track as Wammo leads the rest of the band through a set of tongue-twisters that ends with one more apropos for the over-21 crowd. The band's bluegrass cover of Nirvana's "Sliver" is downright awesome, though lyrically ("Mom and dad went to a show / they dropped me off at Grandpa Joe's / I kicked and screamed, said please no / Grandma take me home") is hardly the paean to childhood a lot of parents want. (Whether kids appreciate the familiarity of the situation is another matter.)

With all due respect to Trout Fishing in America's "Alien in My Nose," I shouldn't let this review go on without noting the best song about snot ever written, the wildly amusing "Boogers" -- it strikes the perfect balance between juvenile humor for the kids and sly references (Quiet Riot -- haven't thought about them for years) for the adults.

So, I'm pegging the age range at between 4 and 9 years of age, though a couple of the songs on the 46-minute album do seem pegged somewhat above the 4-year-old mark. The album's been available at the Spankers' website since August 2006, but is getting a proper release next week. You can hear a medley of songs there or go to major internet retailers to hear snippets.

In the end, sometimes the band is referred to as, simply, "The Spankers." Whether you think that's a particularly good or bad name for a band recording an album for kids will go a long way toward determining whether you like the album. Some mommies will say "no" to Mommy Says No!. A sizeable minority of families won't like it all. But I think most people who are reading this review here will find it a hoot, energetic enough and tuned into kids' lives for the kids, while entertaining for their elders. Definitely recommended.

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

I lived in Minnesota for a portion of my "tween" years (though they didn't call them that then), and not only do I still have the Minnesota-shaped cutting board from my seventh-grade woodworking class to prove it, I still remember spending a portion of fifth grade learning all about Minnesota.

Now, I don't know if in these testing-crazed times states still spend time learning about their own states' geography and history, but in case the schoolchildren of Michigan no longer get class time to do so for their state, might I recommend A Curious Glimpse of Michigan? (See also here.)

Based on the book by Kevin and Stephanie Kammeraad and Ryan Hipp, the album features 49 tracks from a lots of musicians including Hipp, the Kammeraads, ScribbleMonster, and Danny Adlerman. As you might suspect with so many tracks and so many musicians, the music here is all over the map stylistically and enjoyably. In spirit, it reminded me a little bit of They Might Be Giants albums, especially Apollo 18, which included a series of brief song snippets which could be played together as "Fingertips" or played randomly throughout the CD.

Truth be told, the album might almost be worth the price just for ScribbleMonster's "I Wish I Lived In Michigan," 2 1/2 minutes of family-friendly power pop that, six months after I first heard it, I still haven't tired of. Almost makes me wish I lived in Michigan, just so I could say I lived in a state that inspired that song. (Wow, that song and Sufjan Stevens. Not bad, Michigan, not bad at all.) But beyond that, there are some other sweet tracks -- the funky "Over 635 Cities" channels Mike Doughty from Soul Coughing while Dany Adlerman & Friends' contribution "Cousin Jacks" sounds simultaneously early 20th and early 21st century. As for ScribbleMonster's "The Fur Trade?," they answer their own question ("Fur! Fur! Fur!"). And I liked the Schoolhouse Rock! blatant ripoff loving homage of "Capital City, Capitol Building."

At over 61 minutes in length, the album is a bit too much to absorb in one sitting. Not that any of it's bad, it's just... long. But it (like the book itself) is a fun thing to dip into here and there.

I think kids ages 4 through 10 will most enjoy the album. You can here samples of each and every 49 tracks at the album's CDBaby page or 4 complete tracks (including "I Wish I Lived In Michigan" and "The Fur Trade?") at ScribbleMonster's Myspace page.

A Curious Glimpse of Michigan is a hoot to listen to, and -- dare I say it -- a little educational. It's fun regardless whether you live in Michigan, wish you lived there, or have only had a brief layover in Detroit. Recommended.

(Note: Bill at Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child may still have a copy or two to give away.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you weren't convinced by the cover that Aminal House (yes, that's spelled correctly) had some Beatles influences, the liner notes, which thank, among others, Billy Shears, would seal the deal.

So what about the album itself -- is it worthy of such blatant Beatles homages?

Well, yes.

Aminal House (late 2006) is the second album from Seattle-based band Recess Monkey and whereas The Sippy Cups sort of tap the psychedelic part of '60s and '70s rock for their sound, Recess Monkey sticks more closely to the Beatles for their sound and inspiration. Which isn't to say that they sound like the Beatles -- they often sound more like Beatles-inspired bands such as Crowded House. At they very least, they, like the Beatles, are willing to explore a wide range of rock sounds, from the funk of the opening, title track to the singalong chorus of "Aquarium" to the Elton John-like piano ballad "Grey Zebra." (They're fine with more direct homages, too, pulling out a very "Blackbird"-like acoustic guitar figure for "Butterfly," for example.) One of my favorite tracks is "Cookie," a '60s rocker with a hint of Motown about a very nervous pointer dog ("Cookie don't crumble now / Cookie don't fall apart"). Musically, the group is tight; singer Drew Holloway uses the occasional falsetto to good effect, too.

Thematically, the songs are all animal-related, treating animals as characters with personality. The album also has a few sketches which are mostly amusing and very reminiscent in spirit (and somewhat in vocal characterizations) of SteveSongs' Marevlous Day! album. (And, hey, it's not every day you listen to a kids' album that makes a John Vanderslice reference, and a funny one at that.) At 54 minutes in length, it runs on a bit too long, but at least they're experimenting to the end.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9, which isn't surprising since the album includes kids voices on some tracks and their ideas from a summer camp led by the band in summer 2006. You can hear the album's first five tracks here and purchase the album here.

Aminal House is an album that must have been a blast to make, chock-full of creativity. The album is never less than interesting, and always a melodious spin. Definitely recommended.

(More details on the process of recording the album can be found here.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Compilations are notoriously hard things to compile. Any fool can put together a CD of good or popular songs, but their appeal as a single entity often fades after time. (Really, who listens to those Now! CDs, like, six months later?) The key is finding some loosely unifying theme or spirit to guide the collection.

Park Slope Parents The Album (Vol. 1) has just enough theme to carry the day. The 17-track collection plucks chooses songs old and new, released and not, from mainly New York City artists. There are a few tracks that deal with life in New York City -- David Weinstone (Music for Aardvarks) contributes his simple "Subway" ("Bing bong / the doors open on the train / bing bong / All the people pile in") while Michael Leyden has a more rocking take in "I Hear a Train."

Any compilation should also be measured by how well it does in helping you to discover new artists, rediscover chestnuts from old artists, and getting new tracks from your favorite artists. In terms of discovering new artists, Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel's "The Season Song" is a perfect pop tune from an adult band (whose members both teach in schools) writing a kids' song (specifically for this album). Dan Zanes contributes the "The Monkey's Wedding" from his Parades and Panoramas disk while Daniel Schorr's "Good Boy with a Bad Reputation" (off his first album) is a great example of his countryfied Dwight Yoakam-esque rock.

And the new tracks. These, my friends, are why you should get yourself on the CDBaby waiting list and order the disk. Smack dab in the middle of the disk are two great new cuts. The Deedle Deedle Dees contribute their ode to New York City roadways (had to balance out the public transportation songs, I suppose) with "Major Deegan," which was recorded for their upcoming album. The loping song sounds timeless, especially with those "whoo-whoo's". And The Quiet Two continue their surreal attack on kids' music with the loopy and giddy "When I Dream." AudraRox's reggae song of tolerance "Moms & Dads" and the sometimes-out-of-control (in a good way) "Drunken Sailor" contributed by Astrograss (with backing vocals from AudraRox's Audra and Jen) are just as good.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the sweetest track, the album closer "Fools Will Try." Somehow these Brooklyn parents got Ralph Covert to contribute a track from his 1997 album Birthday, and it's nothing less than some of the best advice you can give to a child. This is one of those songs that should appear on a lot of new parents' mix CDs...

The album is probably most appropriate for kids 3 through 8 (who probably don't care less about the appropriateness of a compilation and who just care whether a CD has good songs, which this one does in spades). The album is a fundraiser for Park Slope Parents, an informational website for parents in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For those of you who don't live in New York City, I'd recommend the CDBaby page, where you can hear samples. (The cover, by the way, is by children's author and illustrator Mo Willems, who contributes drawings that are more "Knuffle Bunny" than "Pigeon.")

Though collected for kids living in New York City, Park Slope Parents The Album (Vol. 1) is appropriate for families visiting New York City, learning about New York City, oh, heck, lovers of good music. It's a great collection of music and it's definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Get this man a TV show. Now.

Wondering what in the world I'm talking about? Go check out the website or the music video (lower right-hand corner of the "house" -- the sky-blue horizon room -- yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's a good indication of the creativity at work with this artist.

Take one listen to Sir Jerry's World, the 2006 release and second kids' album from Toronto-based Sir Jerry, and tell me that that 37-minute album wouldn't make for a great episode of television, regardless of whether you're 8 or 38.

Sir Jerry, er, Jerry Levitan, interviewed John Lennon -- yes, that John Lennon -- when he (Jerry) was just 14 years old. As a result, a lot of his press coverage tends to make Beatles comparisons, but I don't hear it too much. Sure, perhaps in songs such as "The Chi L'in Purse," the Eastern sounds of the story song give it a very Beatles-go-to-India effect, but Sir Jerry explores a much broader musical palette. The horn-based rock of "Sir Jerry's Theme," the played-for-laughs rapping on "Do the Melman," the sheer They Might Be Giants-esque goofiness of "Swinging Through the Portals of Time," the winsome pop of "Superhero," -- all show a very Beatlesque willingness to try new things, but don't really sound like the Beatles. Another more apt comparison musically that's been suggested is David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, which on tracks such as "King Santa" makes more sense. (And the band, led by Levitan's partner in musical crime Ruben Huizenga, sounds pretty good, too.) With so many different musical approaches and combination of jokey and less-jokey stuff, the album doesn't quite hang together, but it's definitely never boring.

The album is targeted mostly at kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear some selected tracks at Sir Jerry's website (go to the room in the upper-left-hand corner and click on the piano to hear 2 songs from each of his albums).

With an elaborate stage show (up to 10 people at a time) and time spent acting on Toronto stages, Sir Jerry would seem to be a natural person to tackle a goofy Pee Wee's Playhouse-type TV show. I like Sir Jerry's World the album. But I'd love Sir Jerry's World: The TV Show.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Not Naptime, the title of the 2003 album from Chicago-based Justin Roberts is somewhat misleading. This album, Roberts' third for kids, is probably his most down-tempo, the one most I'd most likely play, well, not at naptime, but at least at quiet time.

To be honest, I've always thought Roberts' rave-ups and alt-pop were his best tunes -- think "Yellow Bus," "Our Imaginary Rhino," or "Day Camp." And so I think the best tracks here are similar -- the furiously played "D-O-G," or "Billy the Bully," an alt-poppy story-song about taking on bullies with a tension-filled bridge, released with a chorus of "one-by-one-by-one-by-one." The gentler songs, sometimes they work (the now slightly anachronistic "Nine Planets") and some are just OK ("Nightlight"). I should note, however, that Roberts is one of the best at writing the album-closing slow song that just about every kids' album seems to have. Here, he's so good that he's written two fine closers, "Dad Caught Stars" and "Last Night the Moon was Full."

With a couple of songs about school on the disk, the target audience here is probably ages 4 through 8. You can hear some samples here (or a full version of "Billy the Bully") at Roberts' website's radio player.

Roberts' oeuvre is broad enough that each of his five CDs is probably the favorite of several families. Not Naptime is certainly a good album, and recommended. Whether this most mellow of Roberts' CDs is your family's favorite depends on how you and your family like your Justin Roberts -- faster or slower.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In 2003, They Might Be Giants teamed up with illustrator Marcel Dzama to produce Bed Bed Bed, an illustrated book with an accompanying CD of four original TMBG songs. Why it took me, an avowed TMBG fan, until 2006 to get the collection, still puzzles me. But since we're in the season of gift-giving, it seemed like an appropriate time to review it.

The songs in the CD and book are supposedly ordered in a way to transition the reader to sleep. While I understand the theory (the first two songs are uptempo, the second two are not), it would work better if the first two songs weren't, well, quite so good. "Impossible," about a child who's been "impossible," deftly explores the double meaning of the word and mixes in new words such as "octo-fish." The best track, "Happy Doesn't Have to Have an Ending," is a good song to have in mind generally, but especially as you start thinking about bed. But the 12-minute CD doesn't finish up as well. The lullaby "Idlewild" is OK, but the reworked "Bed Bed Bed" from their No! disk is a misfire, as it replaces the awesome "A Day In The Life"-esque theatrics of the album version with a plodding tuba-accented version. I like tubas, even and especially in my They Might Be Giants, but this doesn't work so well.

Marcel Dzama's are artful and, as befitting a TMBG project, delightfully skewed (I particularly liked the pet octopus), but having the song lyrics draped across the page doesn't work so well for reading. (And I should note that the pages are regular paper pages, so those families accustomed to reading board books to their 2-year-old TMBG fans may have some difficulties here.)

Like most TMBG works, this is pretty much an all-ages affair, but I think it's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can watch the "Idlewild" video at the GiantKid website.

It's hard to recommend the book just for the brief EP or just the drawings, but Bed Bed Bed would make one fine gift for a family with a They Might Be Giants fan in the household (no matter what age).

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After hearing his debut kids' CD Stomp Yer Feet!, I saddled the Seattle-based musician Johnny Bregar with perhaps an unfortunate tag -- the next Raffi. I considered it a compliment, thinking of Bregar's gifted voice and occasionally soulful reinterpretation of preschooler classics, but there are enough people out there who have such a knee-jerk reaction to the mere mention of Raffi's name that I didn't expect it to be a marketing gold mine.

On his second album for kids, the just-released Hootenanny, Bregar neatly escapes the "next Raffi" tag by pitching his songs at a slightly older crowd. Gone are toddler classics such as "If You're Happy and You Know It" or "I've Been Working on the Railroad," in are folk classics for a slightly older crowd -- the revved-up album opener "Old Dan Tucker" or the straight-up folk last track "Eastbound Freight Train." The younger kids aren't completely ignored -- somewhere Dr. John is crossing "Miss Mary Mack" off his songs-to-record list because Bregar's soulful version will work just as well -- but this time they're the exception and not the rule. I also like his gently bouncing version of "Don't Fence Me In," with an occasional kids' chorus that suggests the lyrics don't just apply to adult cowboys.

Bregar puts a few more original songs on the new album, and for the most part, they're very good. Songs like "Best Friend" and "Airplane" speak to aspirations of five-year-olds. If there's a drawback to the songs, which sound great, is that they're all very Adult Album Alternative-sounding. As opposed to the goofiness of, say, "Pancakes" or "Blah de la" off Stomp Yer Feet!, the songs here are all very polished and may or may not capture kids' fancies.

The album's musicianship is always first-rate, and Bregar has a great voice, one of those things you don't appreciate unless you've heard a lot of kids' music and realize that there aren't that many kids' musicians with great voices. He sounds ever so slightly like Bruce Springsteen and a lot like Justin Currie, the lead singer for the '90s pop band Del Amitri -- in fact, there's even a hint of Del Amitri's sound in the album. (Should I start the rumor that Bregar is actually Currie's alter ego?)

The album's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can hear clips from both of Bregar's albums here.

Hootenanny is another strong album from Johnny Bregar, with many songs kids and their adults can enjoy. If it doesn't quite reach the heights of Stomp Yer Feet!, that's only because that album set the bar so high, and if you were scared by the "next Raffi" tag, it's OK to come back -- Bregar's now setting his own path worth following. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Another week, another bluegrass-inflected album for kids from New York City.

Unlike Astrograss' more esoteric approach, Randy Kaplan folds in more traditional approaches to bluegrass on his first kids' CD, Five Cent Piece, released in November. Which isn't to say there isn't some oddness of other kinds on the album.

Kaplan has released five CDs for adults, but has also taught and played for kids often. His debut CD is a mix of well-chosen (and often reworked) covers and skewed originals. Artists covered include Jonathan Richman (the winsome "I'm A Little Dinosaur"), Arlo Guthrie ("Motorcycle Song"), and Elizabeth Cotton (the timeless "Freight Train") among others. One of the best tracks on the disk is "Grape Juice Hesitation Blues," his reworking of the traditional "Hesitation Blues," which features some great Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus-style interplay between Kaplan and a ragged chorus of kids.

The originals are a little odder, featuring songs about sharks in the bathtub (the spacy "Shampoo Me"), pesky mosquitos (the bluesy "Mosquito Song"), and, well, "Roaches," which features little squeally roachlike-sounds in the background.

For the most part, Kaplan plays it straight and lets the music do the talking -- indeed, one of the best things about the album is the terrific musicianship, especially when they're playing traditional songs such as "Freight Train" or "Over the Rainbow." But Kaplan likes to tell stories, and so a number of songs include spoken word portions including... wait for it... "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Yes, my friends, the Stones cut has been put on a kids and family album, a decision so shocking that my wife, whose interest in music doesn't quite match mine, sputtered, "But, but, that's a classic!" For those who are worried, don't be, Kaplan has crafted a 10-minute story using only the occasional chorus for punctuation.

As adventurous as the album is, it's not perfect. "Mostly Yellow (Big Bird's Song)" is a lovely but sad song about Big Bird's inner life that as amusing as it is for the parents, really doesn't fit on an album that regular (young) viewers of Sesame Street would listen to. And at a length of just under an hour, it's just too long -- the tracks aren't bad, but it's overwhelming when heard in one piece.

"Mostly Yellow" aside, this is a good album for kids ages 3 through 8. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page.

With his mixture of somewhat different arrangements traditional bluegrass and folk instrumentation, affinity for storytelling, and wide choice of covers, Randy Kaplan comes off as sort of a combination of Enzo Garcia, Bill Harley, and Elizabeth Mitchell. On Five Cent Piece, Kaplan has fashioned one of the more unusual kids and family albums of the year, good for chilly winter afternoons or late summer days. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A former participant on the PBS show The Kids Zone, Illinois-based Thaddeus Rex now performs over 200 concerts each year, many of them for schools. On his second album for kids, We Wanna Rock!, released earlier this month, Thaddeus Rex tackles subjects of concern to elementary school students -- fear of moving, spending time with family, or getting dog poop stuck on the shoe (admittedly, probably not the most common concern of most people). The best songs speak straight to kids -- the palpable fear of moving to a new place in the pop-rock "I Don't Want to Go," or trying not to think about not going to sleep in "The Moon Is Rising."

Unfortunately, there are relatively few compelling musical backgrounds to the lyrics. Occasionally some interesting musical motifs occur -- the sinewy melody and bass line on the folk-rocker "Slimy Green & Kind of Funny" (with words from fifth-grader Lauren Walton) -- but they're the exception, not the rule. Thaddeus has a slightly odd singing voice that makes me think he's trapped between a rocker's voice and a Broadway voice, and whatever the case, I don't think the songs showcase his voice well.

The album's most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 8, and you can hear samples at Thaddeus Rex's website (click on "T-Rex's Jukebox").

There are lots of lesson plans available for T-Rex songs, and so your kids may find themselves enjoying the songs, should he perform in an assembly. But you, the parent, will probably take a pass on repeated spins.

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

Colorado-based musician Steve Weeks takes a decidedly different approach on his third kids' album, Rabbit Run, as he retells the classic 1960 novel by John Updike... for kids!

Uh, no.

Released earlier this month, Alphabet Songs Vol. 3 (Rabbit Run) is actually the final in Weeks' series of CDs drawing inspiration from the alphabet as its lyrical source. With 9 songs, one each for letters R through Z, Weeks adheres to the theme to varying degrees. The opening title track features Weeks' nifty bluegrass playing accompanying a story of how water flows from the smallest of tributaries (the "Rabbit Run") all the way to the ocean. The theme of interconnectedness is one that Weeks comes back to on other songs on the disk, such as Barenaked Ladies-styled-rap on "Someday" or the sweet mid-tempo folker "Yellowjacket," which had darn well better be on the next Putumayo Folk Playground collection, should one be in the works. (I also need to mention "Up!," another favorite of mind, a very positive slice of kids' folk-pop.)

Not every song works well. At 6 1/2 minutes long, "Take the Tinkertown Trolley" goes on too long, which wouldn't be bad if the musical accompaniment didn't sound a little cheesy. (Weeks plays every instrument by himself on the disk -- this song shows the potential limitations of such an approach. I tended to prefer his slightly simpler, more bluegrass-y tunes.) And while I give Weeks credit for going whole hog on "Xavier Xerxes Xenophane X," and certainly setting a record for most words starting with the "x" sound on a single song, it doesn't really hold up to repeated listenings. It's as if he decided that was it for the alphabet theme, as "Yellowjacket" and the African-accented "Zed and Zoey" have very few "Y's" and "Z's" in them.

The length and story-telling nature of many of the songs (what better way to get words starting with a desired letter than to create names?) makes the 42-minute CD most appropriate for kids ages 6 through 10. You can samples at the album's CD Baby page.

With a few less-than-perfect tracks, I don't think this will be quite the classic Rabbit, Run was as a novel. Still, there are enough strong tracks on Alphabet Songs Vol. 3 to make it a CD worth your investigation. And now that Weeks has completed his alpha-odyssey, he's hopefully figured what works best for him and is free to go wherever his muse leads. As the narrator sings at the end of "Zed and Zoey," "this is not the end." I hope not. Recommended.

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

This is not your father's bluegrass.

I mean, I don't know whether or not your father listened to bluegrass -- mine didn't -- but I know for sure that this wasn't it.

On its Astrograss For Kids EP (2006), the New York-based band Astrograss takes bluegrass as a jumping-off point for jazz-like improvisation. (It's safe to say that were they to record "Wabash Cannonball" it wouldn't sound like many versions committed to record.) Add to that the fact that they've decided to set their tunes to the lyrics of Shel Silverstein, and the EP is one of the more unusual kids' CDs released this year.

I think the adventurous nature of the songs fits Silverstein's slightly skewed sensibilities, with poems about "Hungry Mungry," who's so hungry he ends up eating the entire universe, or "The Dirtiest Man in the World," about, well, you can figure it out. Probably the easiest song for kids to grasp is "Hurk," with a motley (in the best way) kids' chorus shouting lines such as "I'd rather play tennis than go to the dentist" -- it's a simple melody, with not-so-complex improvisation. I actually thought "Hungry Mungry" might be too long or too complex, but I can see the band live possibly keeping kids' attention throughout the entire story song. "The Generals" is gorgeously arranged, though perhaps a bit too slow to keep the kiddos' attention. (Again, live, it might be a different story.)

I think Silverstein's poetry is targeted mostly at kids ages 5 and up, so that's what I'll peg the age range of the music. You can listen to "Hungry Mungry," which I should note might actually be my least favorite track, as well as their sprightly version of "Jump Up!" with Dan Zanes here.

Astrograss For Kids is probably not the first album you'd think of to start a kids' music collection -- it's not quite as accessible, perhaps, as other albums. But if you're looking for something different for your family's collection, for acoustic music with a definite modern sensibility, this album may be up your alley.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's get the song out of the way -- was there a better song this year that spoke to how kids and parents really interact than "Nerves?" The answer, in case you hadn't guessed, is no. And even though the hard-charging chorus is supposed to be the voice of the child narrator, most parents would probably admit they've felt that their children were getting on their nerves at some point during the week. (And the rest are lying.)

While "Nerves" is the song that stands out the most on Celebrate the Difference, the first kids album from Texas-based singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix, there are definitely other songs worth hearing. One of my favorites is the sweet, Tejano-styled "Lluvia de Estrellas," sung in English and Spanish (natch). But as shown by "Nerves," the angular techno-pop of "Invisible Friend," or the brass-band-accompanied "Yeah Yeah Yeah," Hendrix is willing to try out all sorts of song styles. (Sometimes the array of styles is almost dizzying.) Well-known Texas musician Lloyd Maines (who co-wrote many of the songs) accompanies her throughout, along with a number of other musicians making occasional appearances.

Lyrically, Hendrix's preaching of self-confidence in songs such as "Get Your Goat On," "First Place," and others tackles a subject that has been oddly left mostly untouched in kids' music. And as shown by "Nerves" and "I Want to be Your Friend" (a song about a new kid in the neighborhood), Hendrix can remember how kids think and feel.

While appropriate for all ages, I think kids ages 5 through 10 will be most receptive to the lyrics. You can listen to sound clips here.

Celebrate the Difference is at times almost too wide-ranging in its musical attack, so that as an album it's not as unified as others. But there are a number of great songs on here and the enthusiasm Hendrix brings to the material helps to underscore her messages of self-confidence. For that alone, the album is recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over the course of its two previous albums, the Baltimore-based band Milkshake has been content to mine a poppier seam of kids' music. While I wouldn't call them sentimental, their songs are usually sunny and optimistic -- there's little mischieviousness in their songs (at least lyrically.

On their third album Play!, released this week, Milkshake doesn't veer much from the approach on their previous albums, but does simultaneously broaden their musical palette while narrowing the topical scope a little bit. Play! is, loosely defined, a concept album about the different ways kids play. From the opening track "We've Got a Band" (playing musical instruments) to the '80s power-poppy title track, Mikel Gehl and Lisa Matthews sing about the fun of play. There are songs about make-believe play (the Beatlesque "Imagination Nation," "Pirates," "Home on the Rang") to go along with songs about playing sports ("Bowling with You," or "Baseball," with a Cal Ripkin cameo). What saves the lyrics from being cloying to adult ears is the specificity -- it's one thing to sing about how much fun it is to spend time with your family, it's another thing entirely to make that song about bowling. It grounds the song in a reality that, while it might not apply to your family, is certainly relatable.

Musically, Milkshake adds a few nice touches to their pop-rock approach. The Bacharach horns on "Okay to be Different," for example, or the sea chanty of "Pirates." While Milkshake's version of going wild ("Go Wild") is, well, more mild than wild, they don't completely abandon the rock -- the closing cut "My Best Friend," is a snappy slice of power-pop that starts at about 60 miles an hour, never lets up, and wraps up in less than 2 minutes. (In fact, I really like the last 5 tracks.)

I think the album's geared right at kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear samples of the tracks at the album's CD Baby page or hear full tracks at the band's homepage.

Milkshake is not everyone's cup of tea -- they're writing happy pop songs for happy kids. But they do this better than most of the kids' bands out there and Play! is their best album yet. Recommended, especially if you've enjoyed their other CDs.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Although it has signed very 21st century artists such as Gustafer Yellowgold and Robbert Bobbert (Robert Schneider), Little Monster Records, the new kids' music imprint from V2/Artemis Records has chosen to look back 40 years for its first release, All Together Now: Beatles Stuff For Kids of All Ages. If this first release is any indication, Little Monster releases will be designed to encourage parent-youth interaction.

The release comes packaged with a storybook illustrated with kids' drawings, poems that are meant complement the lyrics, and Beatles facts which are probably familiar to the adults but won't be, of course, for the young'uns.

And what exactly will you be sharing with those young'uns, musically? Thirty minutes of covers of well-chosen if familiar Beatles songs. Producer/guitarist Kevin Salem has assembled a talented backup band for the versions, which are sung by New York Doll Steve Conte along with some guest stars, including Marshall Crenshaw, Jason Lytle (ex-Grandaddy), and the Bangles (with Matthew Sweet joining Susanna Hoffs once more on a fun "Good Day Sunshine"). The songs also feature a chorus of kids who, refreshingly, are neither Broadway-trained nor pitch-corrected. They sound like, well, your elementary school or church choir, in a good way (see the simple "Love Me Do"). If you're going to put kids on record, this is the way to do it.

As well-done as the whole package is, there's really nothing new here. The versions hew very closely to the originals. I realize that the idea behind the CD -- introducing the Beatles to another generation -- doesn't lend itself to massive reinterpretations of classic recordings, but there's little reason why your copies of the original Beatles CDs won't do just fine.

Given the ages of kids singing (they sound like they might be in 2nd or 3rd grade, generally), I'm going to peg the age range here at ages 4 through 9, though obviously Beatles music is OK for just about any age. Three of the tracks are available here. For the moment, the CD is available only at Barnes & Noble, though that will end at some point next year.

All Together Now is a nicely-assembled collection of Beatles tunes, attractively packaged and with nice thought put into it. As good as it is, I don't see it as being of great interest to people who already have some Beatles tunes in their collection. But I can't wait to see and hear what the team behind this album has up their sleeves when they turn their attention to some original songs.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Based in Portland, Oregon Stephen Cohen has been making art of one sort or another for nearly 30 years. Creating music, musical instruments, and visual art, Cohen integrates these three into his performing career.

This is exactly the kind of person that should be making kids' music.

On his recently-released Here Comes The Band, Cohen gives reason to be optimistic for the future of music for families. A heady collection of multi-instrumental folk music, Cohen weaves together an album that flows seamlessly from start to finish. The opening title track serves as the prelude to the whole album, with a melody that pops up at least a couple more times later on in the album. It segues almost imperceptibly into "Give Me That Toy!," which, thankfully, doesn't tell the young listener to ask politely -- it's written from the child's perspective. And from there into the traditional children's rhyme "Mr. Knickerbocker," in which Cohen's distinctive voice (ever-so-slightly nasally and slightly-less-slightly raspy) repeats the phrase "bobbity, bobbity, bobbity-boo" until it gets lodged in your brain. Another favorite song of mine is "The Planetarium," which although is written from the point of the parent taking his son to the planetarium is written with the words of a child ("Then a baby cried and had to go outside / While we watched the lights / Stretch across the black dome sky.")

To talk about the lyrics is to miss the album's chief allure, which is its music. As noted above, some of the musical transitions are seamless. Which isn't to say this is an entirely low-key album. "There Goes the Band" lists 13 people playing or singing on the track. "The Elephant Walk" sounds not a little bit like Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk." The lullabies at the end of the album are sweet as well.

I can't review this album without noting the album packaging, which is one of the best I've seen this year. Lyrics, gorgeous illustrations by Christopher Shotola-Hardt, activities are in the liner notes, along with an explanation of what various people on the album (producer, engineer, visual artist) actually do.

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 9, though it may create fans of parents who are 39. You can hear samples of 5 songs at the album's CD Baby page and hear "Baseball, Baseball" here.

Stephen Cohen's album is a little bit like what might happen if Mr. David and Randy Newman decided to record a kids' album live on Prairie Home Companion. Here Comes the Band establishes a mood and a world that will draw in you and your kids. It may not be the album your family listens to every day for a month, but it will be one you listen to occasionally for many years. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are those who, upon hearing Rockin' In the Forest With Farmer Jason, the recently-released second album from Farmer Jason, might wonder: Could this be the very same Jason Ringenberg who fronted "Jason and the Scorchers"? It sounds so... so... different.

Those of us who have heard A Day at the Farm..., his first kids' album, know that it's definitely him.

The hard part for older listeners to get used to when listening to Rockin' In the Forest is the sheer exuberance of the whole thing -- shiny, gleaming horns on the poppy leadoff track "The Forest Oh!" or the modern country production of the slightly mournful melody of "Arrowhead." The wellspring of exuberance, however, is Farmer Jason himself, who is just so darn enthusiastic that it might drive some parents nuts. Except that he goes so far beyond the line that there's that glimmer of "yes, I know this is all a little too much, but your kids are eating this up, aren't they?, so just play along." I love the deadpan way he says he's going to "sing a song about a moose on the loose called... 'He's a Moose... on the Loose.'"

Ringenberg knows his way around a bunch of musical styles, from the spaghetti western stylings of "Ode to a Toad" to the Django Reinhardt violin noodlings of "A Butterfly Speaks" to smallest, simplest (and perhaps best) song on the whole disk, the virtually a cappella "Mrs. Mouse." He wraps the melodic nuggets around lyrics that introduce young listeners to different animals in the forest (natch). While the cover and liner note art suggest very anthropomorphized approaches (ugh -- did I just use the phrase "anthropomorphized approaches"?) to the subject, the actual lyrics play it straight for the most part.

Kids ages 3 through 8 are the ones most likely to appreciate Jason's enthusiastic approach and lyrical focus here. You can hear samples wherever fine kids' music is sold (on the Internet, anyway).

If you liked A Day at the Farm..., you'll also like this new album, as it's very similar in tone, maybe a little broader musically. I'm giving this album a "Recommended," but it's with the warning that you're going to have to detach that little parental "I'm too cool for this" monitor in your head -- if you can do that (your kids don't -- or shouldn't -- have one yet), you'll enjoy this just fine. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't say that my initial expectations for Colours Are Brighter, the kids' music compilation put together by Belle & Sebastian trumpeter/bassist Mick Cooke, were very high. Franz Ferdinand doing kids' music, along with a whole bunch of other bands, only a few of which were familiar to these American ears? The whole thing sounded nothing more than a quickie album thrown together to cash in on the sudden popularity of music for kids. (OK, a quickie album designed to raise money for Save The Children's "Rewrite the Future" campaign, but still.)

Fear and misinformation are poor bases for making decisions on many things, and kids and family music albums are no different, my friends.

To begin with, Cooke has been putting together the compilation for a couple years, so it's not like Cooke read the Billboard charts in March and thought, hey, I can do that. More importantly, the music's pretty good.

Franz Ferdinand might just do the best job on the entire disk of putting together a kids' song that's in the spirit of the adult band. With its tinkling piano and scuffling drums, "Jackie Jackson" has enough of the more muscular sound of their music for adults, but the song's chief attribute is singer Alex Kapranos' spirited vocal turn on the story of greedy boy who likes to eat too many cakes. (The boy meets an unsavory, Roald Dahl-like ending.) Another band familiar to some are Snow Patrol, who resurrect an old song, "I Am An Astronaut," which seems like a picture book come to life (or sound), using swirly Snow Patrol sounds. (And, yes, "The Monkeys Are Breaking Out the Zoo" returns Belle and Sebastian to their more twee-pop sounds.)

The less-familiar artists sound good here, too -- Rasputina sounds a bit like Bjork on the funky, angular "A Skeleton Bang" while The Barcelona Pavilion (who hail from Canada, I believe) turn in a post-punk "Tidy Up Tidy Up" that sounds They Might Be Giants-ian echoes. My favorite tracks? Four Tet (featuring Princess Watermelon) doing the dance-track "Go Go Ninja Dinosaur" and the Ivor Cutler Trio singing "Mud," a track that sounds like it was recorded 80 years ago, but was in fact recorded only 40 years ago.

Not everything works great -- The Kooks' "The King and I" would sound good on their recent debut album, but if there was something that distinguished the song here from the rest of their work, I couldn't hear it. And the Flaming Lips' track, "The Big Ol' Bug Is The New Baby Now" is a half-sung, half-spoken word track on which, unfortunately the spoken words are too difficult to understand.

There's nothing age-inappropriate here, but I'm guessing kids ages 3 through 9 are more likely to appreciate the music. If you want to hear the tracks, visit either the album's website or its Myspace page. The album is available as an import here Stateside, or you may want to go directly to Amazon.co.uk or CD-Wow.

Colours Are Brighter is subtitled "Songs for children and grown ups too," which isn't a bad description. The songs stretch across the spectrum from being targeted right at the younguns to being pretty much "starter songs" for the bands' adult work. It's not a perfect compilation and there's not much of a unifying theme, but there are enough decent songs that it's worth exploring, particularly if you're interested in hearing a cross-section of mostly British, mostly current, pop-rockers. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The first thing you need to know about Elizabeth Street is that it's a band, not a person, consisting of two people: Connecticut-based singer-songwriter Susan Kolbenheyer and guitarist Gregory Pearce. The next thing you need to know is that their debut album Different (2006) is pretty good.

In kids' and family music, there are many albums with decent music but with lyrics that are just too... obvious. It is possible, however, to write lyrics that are direct enough for kids that aren't so obvious as to make the parental eyes roll, and it's that fine line that Kolbenheyer walks on the album.

Take, for example, the power-poppy "Fair," with a chorus of "Life isn't always fair / Sometimes things don't work out like you plan / But we make the best with what we can / and hey it may be grand." If the whole song was as obvious as the chorus, it would get tiring very quickly. Luckily, the stories in the verses (for example, how the narrator's dad ate the "Chubby Hubby" ice cream she thought she'd hidden in the back of the freezer) are laced with humor and the song ends with a bunch of nonsensical wordplay. Kolbenheyer says she's trying to open up an avenue of dialogue between parents and kids with the songs, and even includes the gentle and bluesy "You Can Tell Me" to expressly encourage dialogue, though even here the verses aren't always direct ("Did you disagree with your imaginary friend? / You can tell me, you can tell me / Did he hurt your feelings even though he is pretend? / You can tell me anything")

If there's a dominant musical approach, it's gentle folk-guitar-pop, but there's definitely enough variety musically to keep things interesting. "Really Gross" is the best song about nose-picking that Jack Johnson never wrote, while "Dragon For Dinner" and "The Eyeball People" are punk tunes. "We're All Friends Here" is a catchy power-pop tune. Kolbenheyer has an appealing voice and Pearce's instrumental work is strong, though sometimes the productions seems to leave the vocals less clear than I'd like on kids' CDs. (Besides the music itself, I'd also commend the lovely album art of Pamela Zagarenski.)

Given the topics of the songs, the album would be most appropriate for kids 5 through 9. You can hear long-ish samples of several tracks at the album's CDBaby page.

Elizabeth Street sounds a bit to me like a more-amplified Frances England, or maybe a less-lyrically-direct Milkshake. But like most good albums, Different stands on its own terms, in this case melding a skewed-enough approach to kids-related topics with parent-accessible music. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Detroit is not afraid of you and will beat your... OK, this is a family website, but it's true. The Detroit Tigers are back in the World Series and if The Family Hootenanny is any indication, they can turn out kid-rock with the best of 'em. (Well, they can turn out Kid Rock, too, but that's for another set of music blogs altogether.)

Released earlier this year, the album is inspired by years of occasional Family Hootenanny concerts in which Detroit rockers let their hair down (or, as the promo materials put it, "pulled it from their faces") for family-oriented shows. While the word "hootenanny" implies a folk-centric approach, the CD collects artists from across the musical spectrum, from the punk of all-mom bands The Mydols ("Run Crazy Baby") and CandyBand (the previously released but totally awesome "Get Up Already") to the faithful cover of Schoolhouse Rock's "Interjections" by the Katzenjammer Kids.

I wouldn't have expected it, but the crazy melding of styles works, mostly because the songs are each great in their own way. The Go! (Jack White's old band) puts together the closest thing to a lead single with "Knock Knock Banana," which sounds like an incredibly skewed Saturday morning theme song from 1975. That song is followed by "Stuck in the Playpen (Again)" by Old Man Miller (Dan John Miller of Blanche), a country-blues with the lines "I wonder if my momma even loves me / In the pen you don't get nothin' to eat / Just some plastic blocks / Some dirty old socks / A bunch of books that I'm too young to read." (As Homer Simpson would say, it's funny 'cause it's true.) The two songs have no business being on the same disk except they're both fabulous songs.

And so on through punk, country, pop, Americana. For the most part, the songs are originals, but even the traditional songs are given vigorous new readings. Loretta Lucas (and the Larkspurs) turn in some great harmonies on "Down By the Bay" while the Saltminers' uptempo (and whoo-whoo-enhanced) "Freight Train" is energetic and, well, fun.

Kids between the ages of 3 and 9 will most appreciate the album. (Heck, Chloe Crawford -- age 5 -- sings on "A Peacock Day" with her two younger sisters.) You can hear 4 full tracks at the compilation's Myspace page or samples of every track at CDBaby.

Most of the tracks here will engage the kids (and on a few tracks, if not the kids, their parents). If you particularly liked the Bloodshot classic The Bottle Let Me Down, you will certainly like this. But I think the album's appeal is broad and will reach many families. The Family Hootenanny is the kids and family music compilation of the year. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't think I'm the only person who, when they saw the cover to the latest Ralph's World album, Welcome To Ralph's World when I say that my first thought upon seeing the album cover was, "Where's Giselle Potter?" She drew all six album covers for Ralph's World, and her replacement by illustrator Jim Paillot for this, Ralph Covert's first album with Disney, is akin to the Wiggles deciding that they wanted to wear black, brown, white, and green shirts or the Yankees abandoning the pinstripes deciding to trot out solid blue uniforms.

It's unlikely, however, that people would like (or dislike) the Wiggles or Yankees based on their choice of clothing -- it's their actions or songs that give them such cultural cachet. In the world of kids' music (the Wiggles aside), Ralph Covert is about as big as they get. There's not another kids' artist who in the past decade has recorded more great songs. Some artists might have a better album or two but don't have the breadth (They Might Be Giants' 2 kids' CDs, for example) while other artists aren't quite aiming for the "kids' music" target (Dan Zanes). But the world of independently-created kids' music has been, up to now, somewhat isolated from the broad American culture, and Disney, by adding Ralph's World to its lineup, is attempting to branch out.

So I realize now that Welcome To Ralph's World is less a "greatest hits" album for his current fans as much as it an introduction to literally millions of families who don't already know his playful brand of kids'-themed (mostly) pop and rock. It does follow the greatest hits template, of course -- collect a number of good songs off each of his albums while adding one new track for the diehards -- but especially since Covert has not had videos on Noggin, the notion of "greatest hits" is somewhat odd. Does the 37-minute album collect his best stuff? For the most part, yes, including the garage rock of "Fee Fi Fo Fum" and "All I Want To Do Is Play" or the gleeful pop-rock of "Dance Around." It's too bad, though, that more songs from Covert's two most recent -- and best -- albums, Green Gorilla, Monster & Me and The Amazing Adventures of Kid Astro, didn't make the cut. "We Are Ants" or "I Don't Wanna" should be on the track listing. Beyond the track selections, the new song "With A Friend (The Pooh Song)" should dispel fears that Disney will completely change Covert's style. It's a retro-sounding pop/show tune that, while not an instant classic, is certainly a worthy addition to the Ralph's World canon. The videos on the accompanying 15-minute DVD, however, will probably only please those who have seen them repeatedly on the Disney Channel. They're not bad, and the kids joking around in the audience (including Covert's daughter Fiona) are having a good time, but aside from the backgrounds -- in the style of, yes, the album illustrator Jim Paillot -- they don't have much to recommend them, visually.

Ralph's World music, particularly on this CD, which omits some of the tracks appealing to slightly older kids, will appeal mostly to kids ages 3 through 7. You can hear clips from a whole host of Ralph's World tracks at his music page.

In the end, there are really three audiences for this review. The diehard Ralph-heads pre-ordered this album weeks ago -- this review is too late for them and wouldn't have affected their decision in any case. Casual fans who some of his albums in their collection can safely skip this collection without feeling like they're missing much. And for those of you out there discovering Ralph's World for the first time, this collection is recommended as a very good (and bargain-priced) introduction to one of kids' music finest songcrafters.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Based in New York City and led by mother of two Audra Tsanos, AudraRox strikes a punk pose -- a leather-jacketed, hair-streaked elementary school student poses on the cover of their debut album I Can Do It By Myself!, released earlier this month. But make no mistake, their music is more pop than punk.

Which is by no means a put-down when the pop is as finely tuned as it is here. One of the stand-out tracks is a 2-minute slice of power-pop goodness called "Tired," which sounds a bit like the Replacements (if the Replacements had three women doing vocals). On the New Wave-styled titled track, Tsanos channels the Missing Persons' Dale Bozzio. The band also runs through other styles -- country ("I Hope My Mama Says YES!"), funky blues ("Where's My Shoes Blues"), disco, etc -- and sounds great doing 'em all. And not only does the band sound great, they all have assorted songwriting credits on the album.

Lyrically, the album tackles typical 6-year-old concerns -- the effects of rough-housing ("All My Toys Are Broken") or begging for a little extra parental indulgence ("I Hope My Mama Says YES!"). The songs are mostly written in the first person, so the young listeners will grasp on easily, but there are enough sly bits to hook the parents. I was particularly amused by how the band turned the plaintive phrase "everybody's havin' more fun than we are" into a whole song that ever so gently chides the child that uses it. And the only thing better than a 7-minute song about procrastination ("I'm gonna button my coat so I don't catch a cold / I'll do it in a minute, but first, I'll sing the chorus" -- how very meta) is a good 7-minute song about procrastination.

Given the lyrical focus, it's targeted right at kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear samples at the CDBaby page for the album.

In its willingness to explore a whole bunch of pop and rock styles, I Can Do It By Myself reminds me -- in a good way -- of Ralph's World albums. It's energetic and lots of fun, speaking to kids without ignoring the parents in the back of the room. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When Bloodshot Records' classic kids and family music compilation The Bottle Let Me Down was released in 2002, it was, well, something of a novelty. Adult artists -- edgy ones, even -- doing kids' music? What was perhaps surprising was just how darn good the collection was.

Now it's 2006 and adult artists doing kids' music, while not yet passe', is certainly not a novelty, not when every rocker with kids underfoot may be thinking that there's an audience out there that's waiting to be served. So it hardly seems necessary to note that the Wee Hairy Beasties, whose debut album Animal Crackers will be released next week, actually consist of musicians with a long history of playing in places far seedier than your local day care center -- Jon Langford and Sally Timms, of the punk band the Mekons; Kelly Hogan; and Devil in a Woodpile.

It also is much less surprising than it would have been four years ago that this album is more fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Or ants. OK, it's way more fun than a barrelful of ants. Barrelfuls of ants are never fun, but the rewrite of the Bo Diddley classic "I'm a M.A.N.," which is turned into "I'm an A.N.T." definitely is. "Housefly Blues" introduces young listeners to the problems of the common housefly. Langford's distinctive and slightly raspy voice is a great fit for the zippy "Ragtime Duck." And so on, through a whole range of country, bluegrass, and swing arrangements. My favorite track on the CD is "Cyril the Karaoke Squirrel," on which Hogan's sly vocal delivery and the '60s-era arrangement draws the listener into a story about intolerance which, as you might expect from Bloodshot Records, doesn't end quite the way you'd expect.

I'm going to put an age range of 3 to 8 for the 33-minute album, thanks to the animal subject matter, which always goes over big with preschoolers. You can download the leadoff track, the ragged-sounding (in a good way) and lots-of-fun "Wee Hairy Beasties" and pre-order the album at its Bloodshot page.

Make no mistake, Animal Crackers is a kids' album. But it's made with love and enthusiasm and will engage kids while making the parents smile. And if you had any affinity for The Bottle Let Me Down, you shouldn't hesitate at all to get this album. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sad about the closure of CBGB's? Have no fear, The Sippy Cups are here with Electric Storyland.

On their first album, 2005's Kids Rock For Peas, the San Francisco-based band took a bunch of '60s and '70s-era tunes (some famous, some less so), tweaked them as necessary to make them kid-friendly, and played them live in front of an appreciative audience of preschoolers, grade-schoolers, and their parents. Making the album and band more than just a one-off joke ("I Wanna Be Elated," get it? Ha!) was the band's energy, enthusiasm, and sense of humor (pitched at both kids and adults). What could have become very old very quickly was given fresh life.

Electric Storyland takes a slightly different approach, eschewing cover songs for a set of 14 original songs. But the album has every bit of the debut's energy, enthusiasm, and humor, with songs that draw inspiration from the '60s and '70s, but are definitely original. Take "Use Your Words," one of very few tracks that have anything remotely resembling a "message," about how articulating feelings rather than simply acting on them is a preferred way of dealing with frustration ("The world will be greater / If you use your words"). It's a fun, uptempo song that has the faintest echoes of, say, Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride." But most songs are content to paint pictures, such as the Jimi Hendrix-esque sounds of "Drinking From the Sky" or what I'm assuming is an early Floyd tribute (as indicated by the "Money"-esque clinking of change at song's start) in "How To Build A Dog." And lest you think the Cups are stuck in the music of 30 years ago, a couple songs (the excellent "Springtime Fantastic" and "Flower Tower") have hints of the Replacements and the Gin Blossoms and guitar power-pop less than 30 years old.

I can't think of too many downsides. The album did feel a bit long at 51 minutes, but that's a minor quibble -- the songs are all pretty good. I'm one of those people who doesn't like skits with my music, but the characters here (familiar to those who've heard the band's first two CDs, plus a new one, "Major Minor") are amusing and their skits brief.

The album is pitched at a slightly older crowd perhaps than the first CD, think ages 4 through 10. You can listen to sound clips and buy the album at its CDBaby page or at its iTunes page.

Electric Storyland is a strong step forward for The Sippy Cups -- it's a winning album retaining the spirit of music from 30 years ago or more but giving it its own youthful energy. Instead of bemoaning CBGB's demise, listen to the Sippy Cups. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's safe to say that the fine folks at Putumayo Kids aren't putting together a collection called, say, "Phoenix Playground," or even "Chicago Playground." Phoenix has a decent musical history for a city so young, and Chicago's musical history is tremendous, but New Orleans is probably the only American city with a musical background robust enough to provide so many songs to choose from while offering a distinct-enough sound to make the mix-tape at which Putumayo excels sound good.

While touching on many strains in New Orleans music, New Orleans Playground (to be released on Tuesday) relies most heavily on the side of rhythm and blues. With a number of classic songs on the collection (most notably Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya" and Fats Domino's "Whole Lotta Lovin'"), the adults may be forgiven for thinking that they've accidentally turned on the radio and "KOOL 97, Classic Oldies!" (See also Dr. John's bouncy-yet-mellow "Row Row Row Your Boat" and Buckwheat Zydeco's massive reworking of "Skip To My Lou" into "Skip To My Blues" for familiar voices.) But there are enough much less familiar artists and songs to make the collection not feel stale. I particularly liked Charmaine Neville's "Second Line," a fun tribute about New Orleans' brass band tradition. Credit goes to Putumayo for not always picking an obvious artist -- it was nice not to hear a more-famous Neville brother on the collection, and they chose the unknown-to-me Hack Bartholomew for a rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In." It's too bad, however, that the collection mostly ignores New Orleans' strong jazz tradition -- while it's hinted at on some of the more brassy tracks, this collection needed a jazz track from the birthplace of jazz.

If you didn't have the familiar Putumayo illustrations, you wouldn't necessarily know that this collection was targeted at kids (only one or two tracks are really kid-focused), but let's say that kids ages 3 through 9 are most likely to enjoy it. You can hear some samples at Putumayo's album page.

This collection is a gentle if incomplete introduction to New Orleans music. Expertly compiled and arranged, both parents and kids will enjoy it. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've received a lot more kids' music this year than I have time to review here on the site. There are many reasons why I don't review something -- it's absolutely awful, it's too far past its expiration date, it's not really kids' music -- all reasons that I'm willing to throw out the window at any time, I should note. But what about those albums that I'm, well, only lukewarm about?

Case in point: this album.

New York-based Mr. "S" (aka Ed Stankewick) recorded for several indie rock labels before becoming a schoolteacher and, eventually, releasing Songs For Family, Friends & Frogs, his 2006 kids' music debut.

I really wanted to like the CD, but being a hopeful person I really want to like just about every CD I listen to. And there are components of the album that I did like, especially the solid musicianship of Stankewick and his Burnt Bottom Cookie Band. When they grab ahold of a good song, like the "everybody's a hero" pop-rocker "Superhero," the resulting energy is fun to listen to, as it is also in the gently insistent "Frankie the French Fry." The bluesy cuts ("Itchy Little Toe," for example) tend to be the strongest songs.

But for the most part the songs just weren't that memorable to me. Some went on too long ("Take Your Medicine"), some were just a little too cheesy ("My Dog Sings the ABC Song"), and some... It's not that the songs were bad -- believe me, I've heard plenty of bad kids' songs, and these weren't it -- but they just left little impression on me, no compelling desire to go back and hear it again (even though I did so several times for the purpose of this review).

The songs have a slightly goofy lyrical sense that would be most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can hear several cuts at the Mr. "S" website. Which I recommend doing, because maybe I just ate something bad, or I haven't been getting enough sleep, or something. And that's why I will sometimes review albums that just don't speak to me, especially if there's something worthwhile in there that could serve as the core for someone else's serious enjoyment. Whatever the case, while I could appreciate the musicianship on Songs For Family, Friends & Frogs and look forward to hearing what else Mr. "S" comes up with in the future, this album didn't speak to me.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

There are albums (in all genres) that you can drop in and out of, where your attention can wander without ruining the overall effect. And then there are albums whose enjoyment depend upon a sustained mood, whose parts are greater than the whole.

Peter Himmelman's 2004 album My Fabulous Plum is the latter.

Heard in bits and pieces in the car -- the minivan is the parental 9:30 Club, dontcha know -- the album doesn't come off that great. Elaborately produced rock songs with a hint of Broadway stylings, with vastly different song palettes from track to track, it's hard to pin down. Not that the songs are bad -- "Sherm the Worm" is a fun, driving rock track with horns, but it's squeezed between the mid-tempo Shel Silverstein-esque fable "A World Where You Only Eat Candy" and the Caribbean-tinged self-empowerment ode "Ain't Nothing To It."

But Himmelman, who's been creating music for adults for more than 20 years, is an excellent songrwriter, and it's only once you've listened to the album in full that you appreciate the world Himmelman's created. Your kids will enjoy the silliness in songs like "Herman the Big Oily Moose" and "Cindy and the Octopus," and they might even hear the message in "Ain't Nothing To It," and "I Don't Like To Share." You might even come to enjoy the pure weirdness that is "Waffles," a spoken-word track. In no case does Himmelman ever talk down to his audience.

I think kids ages 4 through 9 will most appreciate the 36-minute album, which is the second of Himmelman's three kids' albums. You can check out samples at Himmelman's website for the album.

My Fabulous Plum has some strong songs, but it will probably take a few spins before you'll get the cumulative effect of the album -- a book of musical short stories and poems for kids. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a parent of five- and one-year-old kids, I'm not quite in the Lemony Snicket core demographic -- my kids are too young to really be reading the books, and I'm way too busy to add another kids' book series to my plate. (I'm sorry, Harry Potter got there first.)

I am considerably closer, however, to the Stephin Merritt demographic and it's he, in the guise of his "Gothic rock-bubblegum pop" band The Gothic Archies, who has composed a song to accompany the audiobooks for each of the Lemony Snicket A Series of Unfortunate Events books. With the release of the thirteenth and final book in the series The End on, appropriately enough, this Friday the 13th, Nonesuch Records is releasing The Tragic Treasury: Songs From A Series of Unfortunate Events tomorrow, collecting tracks from all thirteen audiobooks for the first time on one disc. (How did this partnership occur? Well, Snicket's alter ego, author Daniel Handler, and Merritt go way back -- Handler played accordion on Merritt's breakthrough with the Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs.)

As you might expect given the source material, this is not exactly "Up With People." More like "Down With People." The opening track, from the first book in the series, has a pleasant enough melody, but with lyrics such as "You might be thinking what a romp this is / But wait 'til you meet his accomplices" and a chorus that goes "Scream and run away / run / run run run run run run run / or die / die die die die die die die," there's a lyrical darkness that you don't really get on a lot of kids' albums. OK, on virtually no kids' albums.

But having read the first book in the series to prepare for this review, I can assure you that the song totally matches the tone of the book with witty and intricate lyrics that are the equal of Snicket's words. Musically, Merritt singing style recalls one of the pioneers of Goth music, the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division. And the songs themselves, which peppy ("Freakshow") or moodily atmospheric ("Crows"), serve the lyrics, which typically don't tell stories (a la the intricate narratives of the Decemberists) as much as they serve as musical illustrations for the book. They're complementary, in the best way. It's almost a shock, then, to hear the "bonus tracks," the sunny (or at least only partly cloudy) "Walking My Gargoyle" and the almost snappy "We Are the Gothic Archies." The tone still matches that of the books, and "Gargoyle" is an especially fun track, but they do feel a little out of place.

The recommended reading age for the books seems to be about 9 though 12, so I'm guessing that kids 8 and up will enjoy the songs the most. You can hear three excellent tracks at Nonesuch's site for the album or the band's Myspace page.

I don't think families will want to listen to The Tragic Treasury on a regular basis if they have no familiarity with Lemony Snicket or Stephin Merritt. These are excellent songs, but they're for a certain time and place, and you may not be at that time and place yet with your family. If, however, you've got Stephin Merritt or Lemony Snicket fans in your household (be it you or a younger member), this CD is an excellent and darkly humorous romp through the world of Lemony Snicket and is highly recommended for you. (And it might even get you turned on to another great series in kids' literature. After all, I only need to get through one more Harry Potter book, and then I'll be looking for something else...)

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Paul Westerberg's place in the rock canon is safe, thanks to the his work in the 1980s with the Minneapolis band The Replacements. If you had placed a bet back then that he'd eventually score an animated movie replete with a bunny rabbit, chances are you'd received pretty good odds. But here we are in 2006, children's music is all the rage, and Paul Westerberg has scored an animated movie replete with a bunny rabbit -- Open Season, whose Original Soundtrack is being released today.

Setting the improbability aside, is it any good? It's a hard question to answer, because you're inevitably judging the album against Westerberg's previous work, much of which was recorded long before you were even thinking about parenthood. In any case, it's a mixed bag. Westerberg, who crafted a great soundtrack cut for the movie Singles ("Dyslexic Heart"), has another great song here in "Meet Me in the Meadow," a gorgeous pop tune with a soaring string-accompanied chorus, the sense of hope very reminiscent of Replacements' themes. It's definitely one of my favorite kids' music tracks of the year.

"Love You in the Fall," the lead single, sounds most like an actual Replacements song, and is a decent song to boot. "Right To Arm Bears" is a bit of silliness obviously crafted for a particular bit in the movie and shows off Westerberg's wordplay, as does "Any Better Than This" includes the amusing turn of phrase "knight in shining armchair."

Where I think the soundtrack fails, at least for kids, is the slower songs. "I Belong" and "Whisper Me Luck" move too slowly to grab most kids' attention (at least without a visual accompaniment), and I'm not sure the kids are going to respond to the lyrical concerns. In the context of the movie, they may be perfect, but as a set of standalone tracks, they bring the soundtrack to a halt.

There are four tracks not performed by Westerberg. Pete Yorn covers "I Belong" and he, too, doesn't make it particularly compelling. Sacramento's Deathray (including members from Cake) cover Westerberg's "Wild As I Wanna Be" and have a fun, poppy original, "I Wanna Lose Control." And the Talking Heads, whose place in the rock canon may be even more safe than Westerberg, contribute "Wild Wild Life," a song whose existence will continue long after the apocalypse happens and cockroaches roam the earth. Needless to say, I'd've rather heard another Westerberg track than that recycled cut.

I'm gonna peg the soundtrack as most appropriate for ages 6 and up. I mean, there's nothing inappropriate about the album -- I just don't think 3-year-olds will care much. Listen to four tracks at the soundtrack's Myspace page.

The Open Season soundtrack is a good Paul Westerberg album, with probably more good songs than a lot of his recent work. Whether you or your kids will listen to it in the long run probably depends more, however, on whether you (or your kids) care about what Westerberg and his bandmates recorded 20 years ago.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

How to describe New York-based Dog On Fleas? Hmmmm... The band itself has used the phrase "Brigitte Bardot will serve you from John Cage's hat" to help describe the Dog on Fleas "recipe." It's a not inaccurate description of the band's attitude, but doesn't really give you any indication of what they sound like. So that's where I'll give it a shot.

On their 2006 release When I Get Little, their fourth album, Dog on Fleas play blues, country, jazz, folk, and zydeco -- among other styles -- with a loose feel reminiscent of Dan Zanes, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Woody Guthrie. The five-member band are a talented group of musicians, but the resulting sound on the album is not overproduced, giving it room to breathe and sway. They come at songs from odd angles and most of those angles work. "Come On Down" has a loping New Orleans jazz feel and sounds very much like it could have been recorded strolling down a New Orleans street. "Green Grass of Summer" is a sweet retro-sounding folk-pop tune that would've sounded great on AM radio 35 years ago. (Heck, it would sound great on AM radio today.) And "Big Black Snake" is an instant folk classic that's remiscent of Woody Guthrie songs given a Billy Bragg/Wilco "Mermaid Avenue" treatment, except instead of Bragg's raggedy voice we get the clear voice of Debbie Lan.

Thirteen of the fifteen tracks on the 42-minute album are originals (most written by member Dean Jones) and none of them are traditional kids' songs. They're definitely in the traditional of family folk, and even songs about more kid-centric topics are given a twist -- the Cajun stylings and French lyrics for a song about French toast ("Mon Pain Perdu"), for example. The low-key feeling of peace and goodwill throughout the album is helped in no small part by the lyrical components on songs such as "Peace Will Come" and the ska-inflected "What's Behind the Wall." By no means are the messages of peace hammered home, but they're definitely there.

As with the best family folk albums, the music is appropriate for all ages, but kids ages 3 through 9 will probably appreciate it the most -- they'll be the ones most willing to dance along, too. Listen to samples here.

So how would I describe Dog on Fleas and When I Get Little? How about simply as "good and fun music for listeners of any age." Fans of Dan Zanes' music should especially check out this album, but unless you require your music pitch-corrected to within an inch of its life, you'll find it a vibrant and joyous experience. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are two basic approaches to putting together a genre-specific compilation of music, approaches which for brevity's and wit's sake, I call Putumayo vs. Rough Guides. The former approach may not necessarily be an exhaustive look at a genre, but it sure results in a pleasant thirty-to-sixty-minute mix of music to someone unfamiliar with the genre. The latter approach is as much history lesson as mixtape and while you might not listen to it often, unless your expertise is such that you might have been asked to compile one of these yourself, you're bound to find something new and something really fabulous.

Bright Spaces 2 is Dan Zanes' Rough Guide to Family Folk Music.

Zanes compiled this 2006 collection, released last week, on behalf of the Bright Horizons Foundation. The Foundation sponsors the "Bright Spaces" program, which puts playrooms in shelters for children in crisis situations. He calls this collection a "musical scrapbook," and like many a scrapbook, it's a collection of snapshots (in this case, songs) that have significance to Zanes. His scrapbook might not be your scrapbook, but he's certainly taken a lot of pictures of family folk music.

Zanes pulls from artists young and old, famous and not. And unless your collection of family folk music is, oh, a thousand albums full, many of the tracks are likely to be new to you. Boston's Session Americana turns in a fabulously languid version of "Merzidotes," which is followed by "L'cha Dodi," a 16th century Jewish tune recorded by Craig Taubman. The Deighton Family, a real "family band" for whom Zanes has had many a good word, leads off the album with a happy "When You're Smilin'." And Zanes re-records his hit "Jump Up" with New York band Astrograss, putting a more muscular bluegrassy accompaniment to his tune -- I wouldn't buy the album just for that version, but it's good in its own right and different than the original. There are probably few tunes you already have in your collection -- Elizabeth Mitchell's version of "Little Sack of Sugar" and the Garcia/Grisman rendition of "Hopalong Peter" are the two most likely. If there's any downside to the collection is that it lacks some of the musical diversity that makes Zanes' own albums such adventures to listen to. The songs here fit more in the folk music mold, and if that's not your bag, you may be underwhelmed.

As an album of family folk music, it's really appropriate for all ages, though the tiniest ones may not be too interested. Call it ages 2 through 10. You can purchase the album at Amazon as well as on this page. You can hear the Astrograss/Dan Zanes track here.

In calling this the "Rough Guide to Family Folk Music," I've probably understated the mixtape qualities of Bright Spaces 2. There are good and excellent tracks collected here, and, if you have any affinity for Zanes' music-making, will without a doubt send you spinning off in at least one new direction you've not gone before. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Boston-based folk-pop artist Vanessa Trien's debut kids' album, Hot Air Balloon (2006), is one of those albums for which your opinion depends upon your tolerance of earnestness in kids' music. There are plenty of adults dipping their toes into the ocean of kids' music for whom everything sounds like the old Simpsons group "Hooray For Everything" -- relentlessly peppy. And for those adults, their appreciation of this album may take awhile. Part of the reason for this is that Trien, who's also recorded for adults, has loaded the peppiest songs at the front of the CD. Sometimes the songs strike a nice balance -- the gorgeous leadoff pop ballad "Hello World," the bluegrass of "Good Morning!" And sometimes they veer over the line (or my line, at least), such as on the semi-rapped "Backward Alphabet Craze" or the cutesy reggae "Bluenanas and Bananaberries."

But all of a sudden, on track 8, "Wyona Wide," Trien strings together four songs that seem to come from an entirely different album. It's as if the first seven tracks were for the four-year-olds (and 3 of them were indeed written for a Montessori school at which Trien taught) and the last four were written for seven-year-olds. They're a little less peppy, and include the strong bluegrass tune "End of the Line" (probably my favorite cut on the album, and the least kid-centric) and the sun-dappled pop tune "Island in the Sun."

One constant, however, is the solid musicianship on the album -- it sounds fabulous. The 37-minute album is best for kids ages 3 through 8. You can listen to samples from the album here.

Those of you who have an earnestness intolerance should stay away from the CD. But if you're looking for a folkier Milkshake, or for solidly-arranged and played folk-pop kids music, Hot Air Balloon is worth a spin.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Chicago's Bloodshot Records is known for for their insurgent country, or some other name for music that sounds like country but sounds nothing like Nashville. With their 2002 compilation The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs for Bumpy Wagon Rides, Bloodshot could easily have staked their claim to "insurgent kids music." (Or, even more marbly-mouthed, "y'all-kid-ternative.")

With a broad range of "adult" artists (from Alejandro Escovedo to Freakwater to Nora O'Connor and Steve Frisbie -- partner in Frisbie with Justin Roberts accomplice Liam Davis) and a collection of both kids' classics and originals, it's hard to summarize the 26-track, 63-minute album. But the one word that keeps coming back to me as I think of the CD is fun. On many kids' albums from "adult" artists, you get the feeling that the musicians are deigning to play this "kids' music," and it shows in a song that, well, isn't much fun to listen to. Not here -- the musicians are having fun playing these funds, and it shows. The Waco Brothers' spirited take on the folk classic, "The Fox," and the Asylum Street Spankers' punked-up bluegrass version of "I Am My Own Grandpa" shows no signs of "well, let's make a track for the kiddies." They're making tracks that any music fan would appreciate, kids not excluded. The Cornell Hurd Band's original "Don't Wipe Your Face On Your Shirt," is an amusing plea for respectability most parents will relate to, while Escovedo's live version of his "Sad & Dreamy (The Big 1-0)" (with the chorus of "I'm the big 1-0 / Candy just doesn't taste as sweet anymore") will ring bells with the tween set.

Like you would expect from an album produced by an "insurgent country" record label, many of the tracks are not sanitized. Carolyn Mark's fun retelling of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" doesn't sand off the rough edges of the story, for example, and Devil in a Woodpile's swampy cover of Mississippi John Hurd's "Funky Butt," is just what you might expect from the song title. And while most tracks stay safely on the parental side of appropriateness, Robbie Fulks' "Godfrey" (about an sickly, unemployed magician) and Freakwater's inneuendo-filled "Little Red Riding Hood" are probably way on that other side. The parents themselves will probably like those songs while thinking repeatedly, "Should I fast-forward? I should probably fast-forward. Right? Tell me I'm right."

Some of the tracks are appropriate for kids as young as three, though the album is appropriate for kids who are as old as 10 as well. You can hear samples at any major online retailer.

In the end, this is a solid album with no weak tracks. Your kids won't even know that they're being exposed to a great collection of bands and songs, they'll just love these energetic renditions. And so will you. It's probably the best compilation of adult-musicians-doing-kids-music out there; its status as a minor classic (or even a major one) is deserved. Highly recommended.

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

"Listen To This" is my brand-new category for music that doesn't really fit a review format but deserves a mention. I'm going to inaugurate it with music from Ben Fairfield, an artist out of Hawaii who, he says on his website, was inspired by the NPR story that drew many of you here. (I am sure that it was Justin Roberts and Brady Rymer who inspired him, not me or Melissa Block.)

Fairfield's music is acoustic guitar-accompanied folk-pop covering such kid-friendly topics as dogs, penguins, and homework. Lyrically, he's got an environmental/ecological bent, so if your kids interested in that, these tunes are perfect. He's not above silliness (his conversion of Shel Silverstein's "The Homework Machine" into song) or sweetness ("Goodnight"), though. (The friendliness of the first track, "Hello," may, however, puzzle some kids who've had Stranger Danger drilled into their heads.) The combination is somewhat a combination of Johnny Bregar and Jack Johnson. (Those are just the two artists whose musical and lyrical concerns struck me as familiar here.)

As a collection of songs, it doesn't work quite as well because of the relative same-ness of approaches, but the individual tracks are pretty strong. Try listening to "Hello," "It's Men That Try To Run the Universe," and "Goodnight" for a representative sample.

And drop him a line and tell him to get the CD pressed and to start working on the next batch of songs pronto.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

You don't see too many kids' music acts with a live album. Trout Fishing In America has, with the release of My Best Day (2006) today, two. That fact speaks to Trout's longevity (30 years as a duo and 7 family recordings in addition to other recordings for adults) and their popularity as a live act.

My Best Day is a Greatest Hits collection to an extent. Long-time favorites such as the calypso-styled "My Hair Had a Party Last Night" mingle with new favorites such as "Alien In My Nose" (an absolutely disgusting track -- your 7-year-olds will love it). While those songs (and others) show off Ezra Idlet's and Keith Grimwood's sillier side, slightly straighter songs such as the sweet "Fill It Up" and "Alberta Postcard" fit more squarely in a folk-pop tradition that would sound great at any folk festival, kids-associated or not. The two new songs, "I've Got A Friend (and He Won't Be Quiet)" and "My Pants Fell Down," are pretty good additions to the Trout canon -- I particularly liked "My Pants Fell Down" (the title says it all, and, yes, your 7-year-olds will love it). Both the new songs (and "Alien" and the title track) were written in songwriting workshops with kids.

Having said all that, the banter and interaction that would be lots of fun if you were actually at the concert gets to be a bit repetitive if you're listening to the CD. "Simon Says" gets tiresome; the jokes, amusing on first or second hearing, are no longer funny the fifth or sixth time around. Perhaps the upcoming DVD of the concert (recorded in Febrary 2006) will make you feel more like you're at the concert (and, therefore, not so weary of the between-song stuff).

Kids ages 5 through 10 will most appreciate the album. You can listen to Trout's music by going here and clicking on "Launch Trout Radio" or going to the usual online suspects to hear clips from the new CD.

If you're a Trout fan, you'll enjoy this CD (unless of course they left off your favorite track). If you're not a Trout fan, you won't enjoy this CD -- there's nothing to convert you. If you're not sure about Trout, this is a decent place to start as it does pick tracks from throughout their family music career. My Best Day is, for better and occasionally worse, a good representation of a Trout Fishing in America concert.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is possible to be impressed by an album, but not have it move you. Such was the case for me with Snowdance (2006), the second album from New York-based duo Erin Lee & Marci. The duo, with a background in children's musical theatre, have crafted an album of 12 songs, one for each month of the year.

As a whole, the album fits together well -- the opening track "This Year" makes a lot of references to the songs to follow and the songs for each month make sense. The snow-day-wishing of track 2 "Snowdance" has a pleasant wintry, jangly beat. The forced "September March" acutely highlights the feelings of dread and uncertainty heading into the new school year. There are some interesting stories here.

But although the folk-pop melodies and their playing aren't bad, there isn't a single cut that begs repeated hearings. Part of that may have been the voices of Erin Lee & Marci, which for me, were... how should I say this?... not my cup of tea. They were a little too Broadway for me, not enough pop or folk. Or perhaps they weren't enough Broadway for me -- this was an album of stories, some of them good -- maybe they should have dropped any attempt to sing in a standard pop manner, and brought in additional singers to fill out the "cast," so to speak.

With its focus on the tribulations and joys of growing up for elementary students, the 48-minute album will be of most interest to kids ages 6 through 10. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page.

It's possible to admire what Erin Lee & Marci were shooting for with Snowdance and appreciate the structure of the album and the songs within. But it doesn't mean your family will want to listen to it repeatedly.

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When I've contemplated how I would put together the inevitable Ralph's World musical -- what, you haven't? -- I've tended towarded organizing the songs somewhat chronologically. This leaves me with no other choice than to start with the bang-up song "Cavemen!," off Ralph Covert's fourth Ralph's World album, Peggy's Pie Parlor (2003). The song, a mock Broadway revue number, keeps me in stitches (what other kids' song would refer to Modigliani?), while the chorus, "Cavemen! We are Cavemen!," is pitched perfectly at the 1st graders out there.

The presence of a Broadway number on the CD isn't out-of-place, because more than any other Ralph's World album, Peggy's Pie Parlor is willing to reach way back into the 20th century for musical styles -- the vigorous polka of the title track, the zippity ragtime of Walt Kelly's manic "Go Go Pogo," the I-had-to-double-check-it-was-a-Covert-original "I Never See Maggie Alone," which could've easily been written 80 years ago. (Covert also does his best to make "Yon Yonson" sound appealing for its 2-minute run time, but runs out about halfway through.)

Having said that, my favorite tracks are the more modern-sounding tracks. "All I Wanna Do Is Play" is a sweet slice of Hammond organ-spiced garage rock, while the pop-rock leadoff track "The Mighty Worm," has a simple yet ear-wormy melody and chorus ("Everybody does what they do best / the best"). And "Tango Dancing Bear" concludes with a Dave Mathews Band-esque waltz coda.

Kids age 4 through 8 will appreciate the 37-minute album the most. You can hear samples here or at other online merchants.

I've come to consider Peggy's Pie Parlor as a transitional Ralph's World CD, moving from the least essential CD in his collection (Happy Lemons) to his two most recent and cohesive albums, where his songwriting for elementary school kids really took off, marrying a kid-centric perspective with great melodic hooks. Although Peggy's Pie Parlor doesn't quite reach the heights of the two later CDs, everybody should find at least a few songs they and their kids will enjoy. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When did I know how seriously I'd started to take this whole "kids and family music" thing? When I spent $25 for an out-of-print kids' music CD -- to be specific, the Hoodwinked Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Now normally I'd just chalk it up to the semi-obsessional nature of being a niche expert, but I'm used to hearing -- and reviewing -- albums that with print runs of just 1,000 copies. What in the name of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack is going on, then, when a soundtrack of a movie produced by the Weinstein Company goes out of print six months after its release?

Especially when it's as good as this one.

There are three songs on here which are in my top ten kids' songs of the year, two of them in my top ten songs of the year, period. And they're all completely different. "Great Big World," which I've raved about before, has a fantastic '60s-esque sound with a Phil Spector "Wall of Sound" production and crystal clear vocals from Anne Hathaway. "Bounce" is an old school rap whose lyrics sound pretty nonsensical (if albeit pleasing to the ear) until you see the movie, after which they make sense (the song rolls over the closing credits). And "Red is Blue" is a stunning ballad which works both within the movie, representing character Red's interior monologue, and outside of it. Listening to the song in the movie, I thought, they have Ben Folds down cold. And then in the closing credits, I noticed that Ben Folds sang the freakin' song! Though he didn't write it, he did add the piano hook -- it's definitely the best Ben Folds soundtrack song of 2006.

The rest of the songs cover most of the past 30 years sonically -- "Critters Have Feeling" could've been on the Cars' Heartbeat City, "The Real G" has a Limp Bizkit rock-rap sound (in a good way), "Glow" has a bit of an Elton John feel, and "Eva Deanna" is a very fine Pixies rip-off. Most of the credit for the awesomeness of the soundtrack has to go to co-director and songwriter Todd Edwards, who wrote 9 songs here. The rock tracks here have a very Pretty Woman soundtrack feel, where you know that some of the songs' interest will fade over time, but it's still a fine collection of songs.

Now the question remains, is this a good album to recommend for listening with kids? Well, yes and no. Yes, because there are so many good songs here. No, because I'm not sure the kids will necessarily connect to the songs (aside from the "hey, I remember that song in the movie!" effect, which may be enough). In addition, while there's nothing wrong with the score, its placement scattered throughout the disk may be more distracting than enlightening.

I'd peg the age-appropriateness of the album at ages 5 through 10. You can see music videos for three of the songs (including the catchy "Critters Have Feelings") at the movie's website. I'd also note that the album also includes song notes from Edwards and complete lyrics. So all you people searching the website for the lyrics, just buy the album! (And if you need to know where to get the CD at a reasonable (i.e., not $50) price, drop me a line.)

You don't need to have enjoyed the movie -- or even to have seen the movie -- to enjoy the Hoowinked soundtrack (though it'll add a little bit to your enjoyment). I definitely recommend this album, but it's not so much for your kids as it is for yourself. Your kids are likely to get tired of it long before you do.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Let me begin by saying that I had heard "Marvelous Day!" the song long before I heard Marvelous Day! the album. And the song... well, it just sounded like one of those pull-out-all-the-stops attempts at a hit that just, well, didn't work. Too forcibly goofy, too many kids in the chorus, too much or too little of something -- whatever the case, I didn't like it. So I approached the SteveSongs' album, their fifth, originally released in 2005 and rereleased this week by Rounder Records, with trepidation. Which is another way of saying I skipped the opening (title) track and held my breath.

Well, I needn't have been so worried. For the most part, the album will have broad appeal to families. SteveSongs' namesake, New England-based Steve Roslonek, and his bandmates, primarily Anand Nayak, have crafted some fabulous pop melodies here. "Elephant Hide and Seek" is an uptempo ska-inflected tune while "Sprytle the Turtle" is one of many solid kids' pop songs here. My favorite track on the album is a song called "Ducks Hatching," which Roslonek and Nayak co-wrote with "Mrs. Grimsley's 3rd grade class." OK, they're not exactly George Harrison to Roslonek and Nayak's Lennon/McCartney, but the resulting song, about a classroom waiting for some duck eggs to hatch, has got a killer chorus and great usage of a kids' chorus to build out the sound. (It is, by far, the best song you will ever hear with the word "incubator" in it.)

Lyrically, the songs target the kids fairly directly. Rather than writing songs that might fully engage the adults listening, Roslonek and his partners prefer to throw in funny asides and puns to tickle the adults' funny bone. "Fast Monkey," a silly song about contrasts, has a cartoony-voiced something-or-other called (I think) "Silly Minilli" who would drive me nuts if it weren't for the fact that his asides are quite amusing, almost echoing the thoughts of the adults listening. (He appears briefly on a couple other songs, too.) The lyrics are well-done and large-hearted, but they're definitely of much greater interest to your kids than to the adults.

The band has a nice sound for the pop melodies, but Danger, Will Robinson! there are lots of (talented) kids' voices on this disk, sometimes taking leading roles. Your kids may enjoy this but you may grow weary of them. (The voices, not your kids, silly.)

Kids ages 5 through 9 will most appreciate the songs (and lyrics) on the album. You can listen to samples from the 52-minute album here.

Marvelous Day! is filled with strong melodies and fun, uplifting lyrics. There are enough moments of adult interest to sustain multiple listenings, which is good, because your kids will probably want to listen to this a lot. Recommended, if only for your kids' sake.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm not usually one to be swayed by the cause behind an album, but when the first sentence of an album's press release includes a statement that "kids need to know they can be creators and not just consumers," that can exert a strong pull on me. With his Kid Pan Alley program, Musician Paul Reisler has gone into schools around the country to create songs with more than 10,000 schoolchildren. The album in question, Kid Pan Alley (originally released in 2004 and rereleased next Tuesday on Compass Records) and was the result of collaboration between Nashville schoolkids and the city's songwriting community. Nashville is arguably the most vibrant songwriting community in the country (where is its Brill Building, one wonders), and so there were some exciting possibilities from combining that talent and experience with the viewpoint of youth.

Produced in combination with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, the album is a rich collection of styles, from R&B to power-pop to bluegrass to, yes, country. The strongest tracks are those where the artist was well-known enough to allow the songwriters to craft it in the artist's particular style. Kix Brooks' "Cartoons" is a great song in the slick country-pop vein while the strutting "Freaky Friday" is given a fun rendition by Delbert McClinton (it's a great kids' Halloween song out there, one that begs a "Thriller"-style video). "Whispering in Spanish" is given a '60s string-laden ballad treatment, one that Raul Malo is familiar with. And there are less familiar artists (to me, at least) who turn in some performances -- the power-pop "No Fair" performed by Will Hoge will probably ring true to a lot of 6-year-olds. Other tracks ("Little Drop of Water," for example) take a much less direct lyrical approach, showing the influence of the professional songwriters.

There are other good songs, but the sheer diversity of musical styles works against the album as an album. I understand the desire to get as many of the tracks recorded and onto the CD, but at 18 tracks and 58 minutes in length, there are some tracks that could probably have been cut. ("Extra Hand," for example, while a nice little bluegrass tune, sounds out of place amongst the poppy and often orchestrally-enhanced pieces.)

The album will probably be of most interest to kids ages 5 through 10. You can listen to clips at Amazon or at the original release's CDBaby page.

This is not the most cohesive of albums. But as a collection of always intriguing and sometimes amazing songs, with the knowledge that kids helped make this album, Kid Pan Alley commands the listener's attention. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes it's easy to review kids' music -- a little of bit of this, sounds like that, there are songs about food. Then an album like The Great Adventures of Mr. David (2006) comes along, making the task much more difficult. Whatever it is (and it's many things, sometimes all at once), this is not a typical kids' album.

The second album for kids from San Jose-based musician David Alexandrou, who performs as Mr. David, The Great Adventures has, as you'd expect from the title, a number of songs about adventures and travels. But these aren't typical adventures. The very first line of the album, on the winding Bob Dylan-esque track "Sea Song," is "Golden brown peanut butter fell from the sky." And then it gets odder. (Yes, the narrator quickly gets to the sea. The sea serves as the location for other songs -- "Surf's Up All Around the World," "In the Storm Fighting the Octopus," and the Beatlesque "I'm A Fish." There's a sense of wonder and absurdity in the lyrics that sets it apart from the concrete lyrics of many other artists. Not that one is necessarily better than the other, but this is definitely the road less-traveled lyrically.

The lyrics would just make the album slightly unusual if it weren't paired with a fabulous musical approach. Instrumentally, the album employs, among other things, horns, dulcimer, washboard, and ukelele. It's very Dan Zanes-ian in that regard. Mr. David also has a rough voice reminiscent of Zanes, but is also willing to use voice almost as an instrument, as at the end of the terrific "Surf's Up All Around the World," which sounds like the Beach Boys-meet-Laurie Anderson, or the instrumentals "Dream Away; Sail Away" or "Dancing with Peter Pan," which have a touch of Peter Gabriel in them. There's also the Jane's Addiction-goes-mariachi of "La Cucaracha" or the blues-rock of "Rock 'N' Roll." Even when something doesn't work (the medley of nursery rhymes), at least it's different.

The album probably would interest kids ages 3 through 9, though different songs would interest different kids. You can hear "I'm A Fish" here or samples of all the songs at the album's CDBaby page.

Even though I've made a lot of comparisons here, as a whole this album sounds like nothing else you've heard all year. It's got a sense of wonder and playfulness that will interest kids (and their adults) for a long time. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dan Zanes' 2004 album Parades and Panoramas: 25 Songs Collected by Carl Sandburg is not, strictly speaking, a "kids music" album. This collection of songs from The American Songbag, compiled and published by the poet Carl Sandburg in 1927 does not always have the friendly vibe found on Zanes' five kids-related CDs. But it is a "family music" album in the best way -- it encourages families to listen, and occasionally sing, together.

Recorded with the same large and talented cast of characters Zanes has recorded his last few albums with, the album takes the Sandburg's collected songs and gives them new life. Musically, this isn't the rave-up (mostly) of Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Session album, nor is it quite as modern as the two Billy Bragg-Wilco Mermaid Avenue collections, but there are a few songs given a modern touch, such as "All Night Long," on which Rankin' Don recites the words of French painter Millet, or the midtempo rocker "The Midnight Train," about which Zanes notes, "I couldn't believe that it wasn't being played by every rock and roll band in New York."

The songs themselves are a history lesson. "Titanic," which tells the story of that fateful ship, is given a sprightly reading. Zanes and his brother-in-law Donald Saaf have a nice duet on "The E-ri-e," which tells a story about a different fateful ship. The California Gold Rush is given a nice banjo accompaniment on "California." All of which wouldn't be much more than a nice historical collection if it weren't for the sheer fun of some of these arrangements. The recurring tuba, fiddle, and many other fabulous instruments make the album a joy to listen to. At 65 minutes in length, the album is sometimes a bit much for one sitting, and the liner notes, while fabulously detailed, are sometimes rendered in fonts that make it harder than necessary to read. But those are really minor quibbles.

Like with all of Zanes' CDs, this one is appropriate for many ages. However, given the storytelling nature of many of these songs, I think kids ages 5 and up would probably get the most out of the album. You can hear samples, read lyrics and chords here.

I find Parades and Panoramas best exemplified by the rollicking "The Son of a Gambolier," a drinking song sung by a kid (with accompaniment reaching double-digits). It speaks both to the rough start of this country and to the sheer fun of communal singing. You're bound to find some song that strikes you similarly and you may, like me, be inspired to track down the Songbag that inspired Zanes to see what other delights the other 255 songs hold. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The creation of music industry veteran Andy Hurwitz, the supergroup Baby Loves Jazz is just one part of the Baby Loves Music empire. With Baby Loves Disco well-established and Baby Loves Reggae and Hip-Hop yet to come, who knows if Baby Loves Grime and Baby Loves Trip-Hop are next on the list. Released tomorrow, Go Baby Go! (2006) is the first of the Baby Loves... genres to make it to disk and it's a good first, er, baby step for the series.

The Baby Loves Jazz supergroup includes John Medeski from Medeski Mertin & Wood, members from the jazz band Sex Mob, and other musicians with strong jazz backgrounds. The concept on this album is fairly simple -- take classic children's melodies and jazz-ify them. From the bebop version of "Old MacDonald" to the funk/soul of "Paw Paw Patch," the group puts their own take on the melodies and lyrics in the best jazz tradition. The vocals are especially strong on "ABC" and the fun original "Scat Song." Two of my favorite tracks are the slow and funky "Wheels on the Bus" and the frenetic title track, both of which feature kids on the choruses. (Listening to the kids shout "Round and round! / Round and round!" in "Wheels" puts a smile on my face every time.

The 18-track, 51-minute album is not without some less-appealing moments. The interstitials, which introduce different instruments, are fun, but are placed before songs that don't build on the instruments mentioned (e.g., "The Piano" is followed by "Paw Paw Patch," which is played on an... organ). It's not bad, it's just an opportunity missed. And, frankly, I can do without the last 3 tracks, which are intended to be a calming, gateway to sleepy-time, but instead just drone on for way longer than necessary. Take out the last two tracks, and you'd have a fairly zippy 36-minute album.

The songs will probably be most appealing to kids ages 2 through 8. You can listen to the modern sounds of "If You're Happy and You Know It" and tracks from the four simultaneously-released "Baby Loves Jazz" books here. Because it's being released by the well-regarded jazz label Verve Records, expect to find this in a lot of different places.

People who think jazz ended when Miles went electric in 1969 may not appreciate all the tracks here (and, to be honest, I'm mostly in that category myself). But there are enough solid tracks to keep you traditionalists happy and if you (and your baby) like your jazz mixed with more modern elements of funk and soul, Go Baby Go! is an excellent addition to the small canon of jazz for kids. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer have been nominated for 11 GRAMMY awards (winning two of them) and are talented musicians and songwriters in both kids' and non-kids fields. So how come I didn't adore Scat Like That!, their 2005 GRAMMY-nominated kids' album? There's nothing wrong with the album's execution -- the musicianship and production are strong -- and the concept is intriguing, focusing on all sorts of wordplay. And there are some very good songs amidst the wide-ranging musical styles used here. My favorite is Marxer's midtempo blues number "Dagnabbit!," which matches Marxer's expressive vocals to amusing lyrics about a kid who let the wrong word slip out in a moment of frustration ("I need some words with consonants / To say what I must say / Words with B and D and P / And S and T and K"). I particularly liked the song's 2-minute musical outro. I also find it hard not to like a song titled "I Love Pie" which is set to a Latin meringue melody. (I don't care if it's not a meringue -- though I'm pretty sure it is -- "pie" and "meringue" is too good not to believe.) I think what makes me so blase' about the album is the feeling that the disk's educational thrust (it is an album about wordplay after all) was getting in the way of enjoying it. The best songs -- "Dagnabbit!" or "A Pirate's Song," perhaps -- would fit on any album of good kids' music and the wordplay themes of those songs are just happy byproducts of the songs themselves. In this case, it doesn't reach the manic heights of their excellent 2001 collaboration with Brave Combo, All Wound Up!. The album is best for kids ages 6 through 10, especially if they're into words and all the fun things one can do with them.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For those of you who adore Sandra Boynton's comically plaintive drawings of pets and her whimsical sense of humor, but found the Broadway show stylings of Philadelphia Chickens a little too, well, Broadway show-stylish, her 2005 album/book Dog Train really brings the rock. Or, well, as much as any album that features three separate episodes entitled "Cow Planet" can bring said rock. Boynton and her musical collaborator Michael Ford have recruited a... diverse collection of musical performers to perform their (mostly) humorous songs -- Alison Krauss, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Blues Traveler, among others. As is often the case with albums where a collection of performers tackle the work of another artist, the best work is done by the least expected -- the Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan bringing his Tom Waits-esque voice to "Sneakers," or the energetic "Pots and Pans" built up to a percussive crescendo by the Bacon Brothers and Mickey Hart. The best song on the CD may be the most familiar -- the wonderful "I Need A Nap," which pairs "Weird Al" Yankovic with Kate Winslet ("this is Ms. Winslet and Mr. Yankovic's first duet together," the liner notes wryly comment). It takes a Titanic-worthy overwrought ballad and applies it to the overwrought words of a cranky kid. It's very meta, and very funny. Less successful, though, are the fairly straight songs (Alison Krauss sounds wonderful on "Evermore," but she'd sound wonderful singing the "Weekly Clipper") and the "Cow Planet" interludes. The album will probably be most appreciated by kids ages 4 through 8 and people of a certain age remembering the soundtrack to their high school and/or college years. (Hey, I liked the Hooters. And the Spin Doctors CD. And the Hootie CD. I'm just sayin'.) You can hear clips from all of Boynton's CDs here. Oh, and if you don't want the book/CD compilation, the CD by itself is scheduled to be released on August 8. Fans of Boynton's work won't be disappointed by Dog Train; newcomers may be surprised at the breadth of collaborators here and amused by the whimsy.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 2006 Cooperative Summer Library Program may be winding down, but here's another pet-themed CD in case librarians reading here are looking for a CD to tide them over these last few days of summer. (I'm guessing throwing up one's hands and feeding the kids animal crackers is an insufficient response.) Kids' music artists Campfire Kev and Mary Lafleur have teamed up to record The Pet Project (2005), an album with more than 20 original songs, all about pets and animals in general. The songs generally fit in the children's pop mold, with a large cast of musicians backing up the two leads, who trade vocals (and songwriting credits). With 20+ songs about the same subject, I gravitated toward the songs that stood out musically and lyrically -- the country-rock on Kev's outstanding "The Cow Who Can't Say 'Moo'", the gentle AM pop of Lafleur's "Teddy's Bear" (weaving a story about Teddy Roosevelt's pets), or the dueling vocals on "Queen of the House," a clever "cat vs. dog" song that would be great in a kids' musical. The disk is best for kids age 4 through 9 and you can hear clips at the CD's CDBaby page. (And if you like Campfire Kev's more rocking songs on this disk, you might want to check out his first CD, The Campfire Kev Show and Other Radio Favorites.)

We don't have pets in the house at the moment, so I'm not the first person you should read looking for "oh, they have so described my pet" comments. I can only hear so many songs about how wonderful pets are or the wacky things they do before I go a little crazy. Kinda like reading one too many mommy- or daddy-blogs. But in selective doses, there are some good tracks on The Pet Project.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trinidad-born and Bay Area-based, Asheba released his third kids music album, Children Are the Sunshine (2006), earlier this month. Asheba's music draws on his Caribbean heritage, employing reggae and calypso styles on kids' standards and his originals. The strong points of the CD? There are some tracks I enjoyed -- the reggae-fied version of "All Around the Kitchen," for example, or an original version of an alphabet song ("ABC (Alphabet Story)"). But his CD fails to draw enough attention to Asheba's reported strengths as an improvisational artist or storyteller. There isn't always enough musical variety within a song to merit the 4- to 5-minute track lengths of many song, and sweet story songs like "Picoplat Calypso" were more the exception than the rule. And I was disappointed that the album didn't include a single song with steel drum, which Asheba can play.

Asheba is reputedly very popular in the Bay Area, and is working on a Putumayo Kids recording. I hope that that next album, especially with the backing of Putumayo, allows Asheba to use a broader array of instruments and larger number of musicians, thereby drawing out more of the qualities fans see in his live shows. Children Are the Sunshine isn't a bad album, it just doesn't do enough to showcase Asheba.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You don't often get a second chance to make a first impression, the cliche goes, and that's especially true in children's music. A cheesy song is enough to make the parent quickly hit the eject button lest the children get too attached to music that drives the parent absolutely nuts; a poor album cover will doom the CD before it even reaches the player. So it was with Uncle Rock's 2nd CD, Plays Well With Others (2006), released a couple weeks ago. Uncle Rock? Just the name made me a little dubious. The logo? Designed by a child (the artist's son, as it turns out). And the opening song? Starts with the shouted phrase "Are you ready?" I was thisclose to hitting eject and never looking at the CD again, let alone listening to it.

And then within the space of about one minute, I was interested. The opening track, a general dancing around song, has a nice groove and includes the lyric "I'm gonna shake my head like the head of a mop." OK, you've got me back -- I'll stick around. Uncle Rock, as it turns out, is New York State-based Robert Burke Warren, who's played with both Wanda Jackson and RuPaul, among others. (I feel fairly certain that puts him in fairly small company.) Joined by a bunch of musicians on various tracks, he brings a loose roots-rock attitude to the CD, giving it a nice, organic feel. (The production is a lot better than the 4-track home recordings on his debut album.) The best cuts are those that are more fully realized instrumentally and lyrically. "Picnic in the Graveyard," for example, is a great kids' song about... er... death. Well, not exactly, but it's about Dia de los Muertos, a day of celebration where people have a picnic in the graveyard. "We're gonna sit in the grass / With people from the past / And we will not be afraid," goes the lyrics. It's got a great chorus backed by a horn section. The amusing "Gettin' Big Blues" is a bluesy number about how difficult it can be for kids to grow older ("I once had a T-shirt / the coolest thing around / but since I can't get it over my head / It's gonna be a hand-me-down" ... "I once had attention / I was an only child / But now there's a baby in the house / So I'm going wild... Pick me up / 'Cause I don't wanna walk") It works for both kids and their parents. The kids on the album generally add, instead of detract, from the mix.

Some songs ("Playin' Possum, "Shoe Bandit," "I'm a Pirate") don't work as well for me, they seem a little cheesy. But I give Warren credit for trying different things. He turns in a nice medley of "Magic Carpet Ride/Hey Bo Diddley/Magic Bus." And while the album's best cuts are the midtempo rockers, the closing ballad "Connected" is a sweet song.

The CD is most appropriate for kids age 3 through 8. You can hear clips of a few songs at Uncle Rock's MySpace page, though only one song, "Sugar Talkin'," is off the new CD. (Robert, update that page, pronto!) You can also hear samples at the album's CDBaby page.

Warren has made big strides in this, his second album. Teaches me to judge a book by its cover. He's got a little bit of Ralph's World and a lot more of Brady Rymer in him. Plays Well With Others is an album with some great cuts of kid-friendly roots-rock. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unfortunately for New York band The Quiet Two (formerly the Quiet Ones), their 2005 debut Make Some Noise didn't, er, make some noise, or at least not as much as it should have. And while I can't answer the question of how in the name of They Might Be Giants did this album fly under the radar, I can do my best to explain why it shouldn't have.

The Quiet Two are Chrstopher Anderson and Andrew Ure, 2/3rds of the band Muckafurgason, which toured with They Might Be Giants and whose final album was produced by John Flansburgh of the band. The They Might Be Giants reference is appropriate here, because the album is filled with lyrical flights of fancy that would not sound out of place on a TMBG album. Take, for example, "Polar Bear," a country-ish tune which starts out with the line "Straight to the point / I wanna be a polar bear," then comes back to the concept later on in the tune with the line "Back to the point of being a polar bear," a meta reference that is likely to amuse the parents within a very kid-friendly song about, well, being a polar bear. Or "Invisible Trousers," in which the narrator talks about how he "Wore them to the dentist & to the pet store / And everyone was pointing / Because they’d never seen invisible trousers before," which is a punchline that will reward the older kids and parents listening. For adults tired of listening to kids' albums with too many lessons, the lessons here are few and far between, with the band typically content to tell stories with subjects of interest to kids, like running ("How Fast Can You Run") and superheroes ("Ultrafoot").

Sonically, the album has a very British vibe, with some songs sound more like British Invasion bands ("Make Some Noise"), some like XTC outtakes (the amusing "My Keyboard"), and some like the Beatles (the lovely "I Remember Purple"). And, gosh, I've somehow managed to not mention my two favorite songs, the power-poppy "You Can't Hide Your Bike" (which is about exactly what the title implies), and the narratively exuberant album closer "Fizzy Milk."

Well, kids ages 4 through 9 -- especially slightly silly ones -- will enjoy this album the most. You can hear samples of some songs here or all songs at the album's page at Amazon. You can also see the lyrics and hear karaoke versions of most songs here.

Can you tell I liked the album? There are no bad songs here, just songs you'll like more or less than others. At just over the 30-minute mark, the album is short but very sweet. Fans of power pop or XTC or They Might Be Giants should check out the album post haste. Like, yesterday. As for the rest of you, the appealing goofiness and catchy melodies make Make Some Noise also worth your time. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We really have Meg Ryan and the diner scene to thank for this. Jazz musician and erstwhile Broadway star Harry Connick, Jr. got his big break when he was asked to record the soundtrack to the movie When Harry Met Sally. The soundtrack was good, but the massive success of the movie was what pushed Connick into the national consciousness. More than ten years later, Connick repaid the favor -- sort of -- with his 2001 album Songs I Heard, on which he reworked Broadway and film showtunes. It's not a traditional kids' album, but when said tunes come from beloved sources such as Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, there's clearly a kids' music theme to the album. The best tracks are those where Connick lets loose his band and really swings. The opening cut, "Supercalifragilisticexpiadlidocious," is well, that word, on which Connick, Jr., backed by a New Orleans brass band, almost makes us forget Dick Van Dyke. (Connick's voice is smooth as always.) Other uptempo tracks such as "The Lonely Goatherd" and Dixieland stylings on "Spoonful of Sugar" also benefit from Connick's big band and his traditional jazz arrangements. They're definitely a new, jazzier version of the original, but they're not so different from the original that kids won't enjoy them. Less successful are the slower tracks -- I can't see kids recognizing "Maybe" (from the musical Annie) or enjoying the string-backed version here. On the whole, Songs I Heard is a playful album. It's probably too long with some songs too obscure for kids to enjoy the whole thing at one sitting but parents wanting to discover some new showtunes or hear new spins of classics may find this worthwhile and "have what she's having."

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why are there not more great jazz albums for kids? You have wonderful melodies infinitely adaptable to the improvisational technique that is one of jazz's trademarks, and yet the number of really good jazz albums geared for kids is small. Hayes Greenfield's 2002 release, Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz, is one of those few albums, great for introducing kids to jazz.

The vocals, unsurprisingly for an album of renditions of kids' songs, are front and center. Miles Griffith turns in a broad variety of vocal approaches and his often gravelly voice contrasts nicely with the sweet voices of Lisa Michel and Charenee Wade. Richie Havens also lends his resonant voice to two tracks, "Grandfather's Clock" and "Oh Susanna."

The album utilizes a broad range of jazz styles, from the gospel wrap-up to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to the scat stylings on "Skip To My Lou" to the more contemporary jazz sounds of "This Old Man." Greenfield has also indicated -- and here's where my surface-deep jazz knowledge recognizes the names but not the particular albums -- that on "Grandfather’s Clock" they employ Latin swing (like John Coltrane's arrangement of "A Night Has A Thousand Eyes"), on "Old MacDonald" they use Thelonious Monk’s harmonic progression from his tune "Bemsha Swing", and on "Animal Fair" they superimposed Coltrane's classic "Giant Steps" harmonic motion. (Note: I have "Giant Steps" and I didn't recognize it, which says everything about me and nothing about Greenfield's skill here.)

What makes this album such a great introduction is the combination of vocals that are both skillful as well as engaging for kids (some tracks feature kids, but only as accompaniment) with instrumentals that are so often missing on kids-focused jazz CDs. Most tracks feature an instrumental break, with Greenfield's saxophone work taking the lead on the solos. The rest of his band swing solidly, too, making the whole 47-minute disc a pleasure to listen to.

It's really hard to put an age range on this disk, because I think most of the album works for adults just as well as for kids (with the possible exception of some of the vocal tracks where Griffith's voice is perhaps too cartoony), but I'll shoot for ages 2 through 12. You can see video clips and learn more about the project at the Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz website.

Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz is a fabulous disk, one that can serve as great introduction for kids to the broad vocal and instrumental palette used by jazz musicians. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With its stylized cover photo of San Francisco, little about the packaging of George Winston's 1996 album Linus & Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi suggests "kids music." Indeed, we had this in our own family long before we had any idea what a Baby Bjorn was, let alone struggled to make those snaps, well, snap. But through his scores for 15 Peanuts television specials and one movie, Guaraldi's music may be more familiar to Americans old and (especially) young than that of just about any jazz composer. So it's with the nostalgic thoughts of repeated viewings A Charlie Brown Christmas that many adults may be tempted to get this album, both for themselves and for their kids. Winston, a pianist better known for his New Age(ish) soundscapes and lesser known for his affinity for Hawaiian slack key guitar, plays things pretty straight here. His renditions of two familiar cuts from the Christmas score, "Skating" and "Linus and Lucy," sound much like the original recordings, with only a little flourish at the end of "Linus and Lucy" to distinguish itself from the original. Guaraldi was often backed by his own Vince Guaraldi Trio, so Winston's solo piano does have to do a little bit more work than Guaraldi's original piano work did with other musicians. Other highlights include Winston's rendition of Guaraldi's hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" (again, not so different from the original) and the brief "Bon Voyage," but there really aren't bad tracks. One of the main reasons to get this album is the broad net Winston casts across Guaraldi's work, both Peanuts-related and not -- sadly, it might just be the best Greatest Hits album out there for Guaraldi. Whether or not the kids will be interested in this album is another question entirely; this is probably one of those CDs the parents will play much more for themselves than for their kids. Which isn't a bad thing, either.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With its Giselle Potter-illustrated cover, the inattentive adult might be fooled into thinking that this is another Ralph's World CD. Clearly, Verve put some thought into how to market this compilation. But with Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald (twice!) among those heard on the disk, somebody also put at least a little thought into the music itself. The 11-track, 28-minute album is a nicely sequenced mix of jazzy renditions of children's standards (Ella's versions of "Old McDonald" and "The Muffin Man"), silly novelties (Louis Prima's "Yes! We Have No Bananas"), and other kid-friendly songs. While the presence of Hampton, Peterson, and Fitzgerald are nice, for a person like myself whose jazz knowledge is about a quarter-mile wide and a foot deep, the Louis Jordan, Blossom Dearie, and Carmen McRae tracks are pleasant discoveries. (And while Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" doesn't really fit the swinging attitude of the rest of the tracks, it's a great cut, so we'll let it slide.) If I had any qualms with the disk it would be: a) I wish a disk entitled "Jazz for Kids" would have more than one semi-instrumental track (Peterson's boppy "Mumbles"), and b) I wish the disk's liner notes would've been seriously upgraded, giving more than just each track's title, artist, and release date. But as a whole, this is a pleasant collection of vocal jazz tracks from the mid-20th century and should please even those proclaiming to be allergic to jazz. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Longtime FOZ (Friend of Zooglobble) Eric Herman released his third kids' music album, Snow Day! (2006), a couple weeks ago. It's taken me awhile -- three albums' worth -- to put my finger on how to describe his music, but I think I've got it -- it's a mixture of Shel Silverstein and the Beatles. Now, before Eric uses that as the pull-quote to end all pull-quotes, I should explain further.

Herman typically includes a few songs with lyrics by the poet Kenn Nesbitt on his CDs, and Snow Day! is no exception. Four songs include lyrics by Nesbitt, and those songs, like many of Silverstein's poems, take a skewed and occasionally dark view of life. "Snow Day," written in two- and four-word lines, is a quick, punky song about a kid who runs into a tree on his sled. "I Can't Wait For Summer" is a nifty, Beach Boys-inflected song about how wonderful summer will come when it gets here which ends with a cruel (for a kid, anyway) punchline. Indeed, five of the album's twelve tracks have a final-line punchline. And, punchline of not, many of the lyrics are humorous, like in "Cowboy Bergaleoukaleopaleous," about a sheriff whose less-than-catchy name leads to folks attributing his fabulous deeds to others like Annie Oakley whose names were less than a mouthful. It's something that would fit in perfectly on Where The Sidewalk Ends. (The book, at least, if not the album.)

Musically, Herman uses a wide variety of styles, employing country, disco, a Beatles reference (or a very Beatlesque guitar riff) on the opener, "Melody Ring." The best songs are those where Herman's just trying to write a song without getting too humorous or add over-the-top storytelling stylings. "My Lucky Day" is a darkly humorous pop tune about one kid's increasingly lucky day. The penultimate track, "Hide and Go Seek With the Moon," is a fabulous, gentle pop song about a kid's perspective on looking for the moon throughout the day (and night). One of the problems with the album, however, is that some of those gentler songs feel out of place on the disk. The best tracks also don't show the limitations of not working with a real band.

The album (with the exception of the final two tracks) is probably best for kids age 6 through 10. You can hear samples from all of Herman's albums here; the album is available from his website and the usual online suspects (both in physical and electronic form).

I liked individual tracks on the CD, but for me, the whole was less than the sum of its parts. The inconsistent tone between the darkly humorous tracks and the sweeter, more positive tracks was hard for me to negotiate. Kids (and parents) with more flexible minds, however, may find the album a worthwhile spin. And if you're a big Shel Silverstein fan, definitely check this out.

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

[Here because Robbie sent you? Welcome! If you dig this album, there's plenty more great music here at the website (but few carp). Explore and thanks for stopping by!]If you're an adult, and you title your debut kids' music CD Songs For Kids Like Us, you've implied a certain level of (im)maturity to the prospective listener. On his 2006 kids' music debut, Virginia-based Robbie Schaefer (guitarist for adult rock band Eddie From Ohio) meets those expectations. Indeed, in the liner notes he thanks his family for seeing that he's got the "emotional maturity of a five-year-old" and recognizing that he should "use that to [his] advantage." The best songs on the CD are those where he lets his inner five-year-old out -- the backwards lyrics on the countryfied "Cowboy Bob," the sheer silliness of "There's a Carp in the Tub" (with a background group of... carp? singing "Carp. Carp.") Schaefer sticks mostly to folk and bluegrass in his tunes, though he employs pop on the album's best track, the leadoff "No! No! No!," and pulls in accordion and trumpet on the mariachi-inflected "Fredinand." He also turns two versions of "Chicken Lips," covered by someone slightly more well-known (Bruce Springsteen) a number of years ago. I could do without one of those versions (one version goes a long way) and the bland version of a "There's A Hole in the Bucket," though -- it seems out of place amongst the rest of the weirdness. (Oh, and the cartoony "Professor Schnoodle," bugs me too, but longtime readers know my aversion to cartoony voices.) You can listen to three songs off the album at the album's website. Overall, Songs For Kids Like Us is a nicely thought-out and well-executed debut that makes me hope that Schaefer hasn't exhausted his immaturity just yet. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With her third studio album, Tall and Small (2006), set to be released next week, Rebecca Frezza and her band Big Truck make a bid for kids' music stardom. The New Jersey-based singer/songwriter has had videos on Noggin, but this album seems one of those CDs designed to attract even wider attention.

Take, for example, what would be considered the lead single off the album, "It Wasn't Me," about receiving blame (or placing it on somebody else). Frezza and Big Truck take the song, written by Ron Cardazone, and craft it into an insanely catchy tune with a number of musical layers. The secret is taking the "tattletale" song -- you'll know it when you hear it -- and weaving it into the chorus. (And this isn't the confident narrator of Justin Roberts' "My Brother Did It," but a much more uncertain 6-year-old, which may appeal to 6-year-olds for an entirely different reason than Roberts' song appeals to them.) Frezza is no slouch herself in the songwriting department, writing or co-writing 12 of the album's 14 tracks. A couple of the stronger tracks include the title track, which has a melody that climbs and falls repeatedly, nicely echoing the subject of the song, and "Show Me!," which borrows some of the guitar riff from "What I Like About You" to create an energetic song that encourages movement (I'm envisioning a very hyperactive crowd in concert).

The better songs generally were those which used the skills of the 8-member Big Truck band to good effect on the pop-rock tunes -- fiddle and mandolin on the Irish-tinged "Tell Me A Story," or the nifty guitar work on the "Can't Let Go Blues." I tended to prefer the faster songs, finding some of the lyrics on the slow songs worked a bit too hard at establishing the positive message that runs throughout the album. ("Happy" in particularly didn't work for me at all, though I could see how a 4-year-old, after wiggling through Frezza's faster numbers, might be more receptive to the message than I.) The faster songs seemed to convey Frezza's lyrical points with more ease.

The 41-minuste album is laser-targeted at kids ages 4 through 8. You can now hear clips of the album at Frezza's website (click on "Music & Lyrics" at the top, then on the album cover); they're also available at Amazon.

Rebecca Frezza and Big Truck are clearly shooting for the stars with this album, seeking a wider audience. As a whole, Tall and Small is an album deserving of that wider audience that this kid-targeted and adult-friendly CD will bring them. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's hard to think about a time before "children's music" was even a genre, back before, well, if we weren't walking to school in the snow uphill both ways, at least before satellite and internet radio offered people thousands of listening choices. But there were a few artists that recorded songs for kids (if not exclusively) a half-century ago and for their continued presence on CD, we have the fine folks at Smithsonian Folkways to thank. Of the four major kids' artists on Folkways' roster (Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie), Lead Belly's collection of children's music is the most compact (read: easiest to review), and that's where I'll begin.

Lead Belly was born in 1888 and, according to the detailed liner notes in Lead Belly Sings For Children, Folkways' 1999 collection of his children's material, he claimed to have collected 500 songs over the 60 years of his life. From that perspective, Lead Belly was clearly important to 20th century American music and this collection should be considered "essential" for that alone. It's a reference CD of sorts. But I'm sure you have heard many "essential" albums that sat unused on your shelf for yours or went back to the library without even one renewal -- is this one of those albums?

Thankfully, there is enough great material that merits repeated spins by a modern audience. The album is grouped by type of song, starting off with children's rhymes and game songs from many years ago, such as "More Yet" and "Sally Walker," then sliding into blues songs (though those are certainly mixed throughout the entire collection). The spirituals collected here are given fine renditions as well, getting a group of children to sing with him on "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The collection ends with a series of work songs, many of which will be familiar to modern listeners, including "John Henry" and "Pick a Bale of Cotton." (Any interpreter of children's and folk songs worth his or her salt will have covered at least one of the songs here.)

My ears are spoiled by modern production values, and so I was pleased by the fact that these recordings, some of which are more than 60 years old, sound pretty good. Lead Belly's voice is appealing (I particularly liked the way his voice sounded on his slightly bluesier take on the chorus of "Blue-Tailed Fly (Jimmie, Crack Corn)") and his guitar work (it's generally just him and his guitar) is easily heard. (An exception to the "solo" rule is his lively rendition of "Pick a Bale of Cotton" with the Oleander Quartet.) A minor quibble with the disk is that Lead Belly's introductions (and there are many of them) sound a bit muddled compared to the songs themselves. When Lead Belly get a crowd of children to sing along, however, they sound great.

Children aged 2 through 10 or so would probably most appreciate the songs here (though different songs will appeal to different age groups. You can hear clips at the Smithsonian's site.

Given the broad historical overview of the collection, and the relative sameness of the songs, it's unlikely that Lead Belly Sings For Children will become you or your child's favorite children's music album. It's very likely, however, that you will find a few songs worth playing repeatedly and that it won't gather much dust on your shelf. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I doubt Lester Bangs used the word "gentle" to describe music in his reviews, but he probably didn't write reviews of kids music too often. There's no better word, however, to describe Timmy Abell's 2005 album Little Red Wagon.

On his fourth music album (he has recorded albums of stories as well), the North Carolina-based Abell blends modern folk songs of his own with traditional folk songs familiar to many. If there is any unifying component to the album it is the sense of, well, gentleness that pervades the songs in both treatment and theme. Abell is an accomplished musician, and one of the pleasures of listening to the album is the nifty playing of both Abell (who plays banjo, guitar, and hammered dulcimer, among other instruments, on the album) and the other musicians. The musicianship is particularly noticeable on the traditional (and silly) "Turkey in the Straw" and the brief but sweet Abell original "Rounded Glass Jig," with what I believe to the hammered dulcimer making a beautiful sound on the latter. No matter whether uptempo ("Turkey" or "I'm My Own Grandpa") or subdued ("Jig" or the pleasant title track), the songs exude a sense of calm. Over an entire album, it may be a little too much gentleness, but there's a sense of unity to the songs.

Not all of the lyrics are specifically kid-focused, but those that are have some style to them. "Going To Grandma's" weaves various modes of transportation into a zippy little (and true) narrative about the many different types of vehicles used to get from one distant place to another. "Secrets" is a textbook example of how to write a children's song with moral content, illustrating the point rather than lecturing the listener. The song combines a nifty metaphorical chorus ("A cat in a bag becomes very uncomfortable / Birds in a cage become eager to fly") with verses about the progress of a secret through the narrator's circle of acquaintances to show what happens to secrets rather than saying "Secrets Are Bad!" It's a neatly effective track.

Like many folk albums, there's nothing that would prevent playing this album for very young kids, but lyrically it's probably most appealing to kids 4 through 8. You can hear samples and read lyrics for the album here (click on the Little Red Wagon album cover) and purchase the album either at Abell's website or other retailers (online or iTunes).

As noted above, the album is a very gentle folk album, and if you don't think that will appeal to you, there's nothing on the album that would change your mind. But I've heard Abell compared to a younger Pete Seeger and I think that the comparison is a pretty good one. Abell's clear voice and use of the folk tradition are reminiscent of Seeger in his prime. The album is a pleasant retreat from more active, more modern kids' music. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rhode Island School of Design may be known for many things, but musically it may be most known nationally for being the incubator of the Talking Heads. On a smaller scale, however, perhaps it should also be known for Keith Munslow. Munslow, who has taught in RISD's Young Artist Program, released his third album for kids, Accidentally (on purpose), in 2005, and while there's nothing remotely resembling, say, "I Zimbra" on the disk, it's still a well-crafted album of children's music.

Munslow employs a wide variety of musical styles on the disk. Perhaps the best track is "Bad Robot," a swampy, bluesy stomp about a robot rampaging through the neighborhood (sort of). With a winning melody and a horn section (not to mention great lyrics and), the song works for both the 7-year-old and the adults in the car. (The dryly witty sound effects at the very end show the care taken to put this album together.) Beyond the blues, Munslow employs the polka ("Absentee Polka"), swing ("Dancin' in the Kitchen"), and even a touch of Randy Newman-esque pop, but without the cynical view of the world ("Cardboard Box"), among other styles. Munslow and his large cast of backup musicians give his lyrics a fine, well-played setting.

Lyrically, Munslow likes to tell stories. If you're reminded a little bit of Bill Harley (I was), it's not surprising to find out that Munslow and Harley have collaborated on a number of projects in the past. The title track, which leads off the album, includes some amusing couplets ("I accidentally tracked that mud in/ accidentally pushed my cousin / accidentally clogged the drain /accidentally called up Spain") but also crafts a small comeuppance for the narrator. A number of songs deal with imagination, both positively ("Cardboard Box" and "I Just Wanna Be a Frog") and, er, less so ("Bad Robot").

Kids ages 4 through 9 will most appreciate the overall package of the songs (the music is appropriate for a broader audience, it's the lyrics that won't interest the youngest ones very much). You can hear samples and read the lyrics from the 29-minute album here. The album is available through Munslow's store, CDBaby, and the iTunes Music Store.

While the album isn't perfect throughout, that's probably just because the first three or four songs are so strong that the merely good songs on the rest of the disk just don't quite compare. But overall Accidentally (on purpose) is a fine, well-crafted album of creative children's pop. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's see... rock songs with not a little bit of theatricality. Lots of nautical themes. Band out of Portland, Oregon. We're talking about the Decemberists, right?

Well, not exactly. Pegleg Tango, released in 2005, is the second album from the Portland-based group Captain Bogg & Salty. Captain Bogg & Salty has been playing pirate-themed rock and pop for kids and adults since 1999. Unlike Monty Python's famous short film appended to the start of The Meaning of Life, The Crimson Permanent Assurance, which applied the themes of the business world to a pirate movie structure, Pegleg Tango more often applies themes of pirate life to a rock/pop song structure.

Musically, the six-piece band appropriates a number of different styles on the 39-minute disk -- gorgeous pop on the midtempo "Sea Monster," theatrical Decemberists-esque storytelling on "Scallywagg," or the '50s rock rave up "Pirate Party," to name just three. The theatrical background of the band (many of them with musical theater or sketch comedy backgrounds) comes through most noticeably on songs such as "I'm A Pirate," which interrupts its surf-rock tune to do an amusing "Wide World of Sports" riff, or "Sea Kings," an Elvis-like slow pop tune featuring a spoken-word interlude by the clearly demented Captain Bogg himself.

If you're looking for true pirate songs, I have a feeling you'd be a little disappointed by the disk, which only has 3 or 4 songs which I would consider shanty-like. Lyrically, however, even the most modern tunes have a very piratical focus, alternating between the boredom of life at sea (and what's done to alleviate that boredom) and the excitement of plundering. Frankly, the only parts of the disk that I didn't care for very much were the 3 audio sketches, and that was mostly for the fact that audio level on those was so much quieter than the music that it made it hard to listen to.

Kids love pirates, though without the visuals, I think the CD itself would appeal most to kids age 5 through 9. You can listen some sound clips at the band's website here or more here.

There are those of you for whom listening to pirate music would be akin to walking the plank. (What, you didn't think I'd make at least one pirate reference here?) You should stay away from this. But for the rest of us, even though the captain is slightly deranged, the journey on Captain Bogg & Salty's Pegleg Tango is an enjoyable one. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Presented with a band that includes 3-, 11-, and 12-year-old kids as members, plus an album cover that makes it look very much like the 3-year-old was the artistic director for the album, Ablum (2005), by the Vancouver-based Duplex!, had a couple strikes going against it according to my general bias against kids in bands and bad album cover art.

Thank goodness I have no idea what I'm talking about there, because this is a very good album. Consisting of adult members from assorted north-of-the-border bands (The Beekeepers, p:ano, and more) plus a few of their kids, Duplex! is very much a side-project supergroup. And while my temptation is compare them with labelmates and Western Canadian supergroup The New Pornographers ('cuz I'll do anything to work in a reference to them), the more appropriate comparison is the Eastern Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene. While the New Pornographers work up their tunes into a polished if frenzied power pop sheen, Broken Social Scene plays things loose, sometimes sounding ragged around the edges.

It's the general ragged charm of the album, plus the willingness of the group to throw just about everything against the wall and see what sticks, that is its strength. From the Grateful Dead-noodlings of the album opener "Yr Mama" to the Cake stylings of "Heatin' Up the Milk," there are few musical stylings that it doesn't cover. Euro-cabaret of 8 1/2 Souvenirs? Try "Mr. Slim or "Bethlehem." Sleater-Kinney? Try "Nucat." Ska? "DNA."

The album is not without a strong sense of humor, amusing both youngsters and hipsters. For kids, the album's particular enjoyment in rhymes is particularly noticeable in "The Salad Song, " which takes a decidedly anti-green approach ("Spinach, cucumber / I think I'm going under / Cabbage and sprouts / I have a lot of doubts"). Adults will probably appreciate more the cabaret song "Bethlehem" and its less-than-reverent view of the city ("Bethlehem / Where the beds are fluffy and the rocks are hard / where everyday is a holiday card"). For the most part, though, the subjects (including poop, monkeys, and multiplication) are very kid-focused.

When you throw everything against the wall, some of it is bound to, uh, slide off. The spoken word "Lament of the House Rabbit" is tedious while "Lookit Me!" is as annoying as your 4-year-old who wants you to look at her every five seconds for what seems like an eternity. But those are exceptions, not the rule.

Kids age 3 through 8 (or 38) are most likely going to enjoy this album. You can buy the CD at many online stores (physical and download formats), and find samples there. (There are no samples at the Mint Records page for the band.)

If you have any sort of indie-music tendencies, you will find something to amuse and entertain you in Ablum. The giddy fun in making the record comes through loud and clear on the album, and you'll find yourself telling others, "Yeah, the album cover's kinda dorky, but wait 'til you hear it..." Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There must be a scientific study out there verifying what a lot of parents already know through personal experience -- your child's endurance when it comes to dancing outpaces yours. Sure, you go to the gym three times a week, but your kid, he's Lance Armstrong with the stereo on.

If this sounds at all familiar to you, then the third release from the Bay Area-based Charity and the JAMband, Rock Your Socks Off (2006), will come as a welcome relief to your legs, because it's filled with enough boogie-friendly music to tucker out even the most energetic of kids.

The album is filled with kid-friendly and self-empowering themes mixed with a (I wouldn't say it if weren't true) jam-band attitude and style. On the album's best songs, singer-songwriter Charity Kahn encourages kids to move to the music with a soulful voice and wordplay both direct and abstract. On the infectious "Happy Fluffy," lyrics such as "You're gonna jump around / Jump jump around / Jump around / Jump up and down" are matched to a bouncy melodic line that does its best to encourage actual jumping. Meanwhile, on the closest thing to an actual jam on the album, the leadoff track "Travellin'" includes a whole mess of bluesy nonsense wordplay ("car jam jeep jam double-decker bus jam / bug jam beetle jam chuckwagon van jam").

Musically, the 6-person JAMband itself has a great sound together, but with enough looseness to not feel too structured. Although it's mostly soulful and funky, the music takes some detours (the amusing "Towel Tango," for example). Some of the tracks are really motion oriented and may not sound all that appealing while stuck in traffic driving to soccer practice (I'm thinking here of "We Need Mud" and "Cake"). And two tracks just before the end ("Wish" and "Peace Dream") bring the dance party to an abrupt halt. After more than 30 minutes of dancing and movement, it's probably necessary, but these two tracks are really slow and lyrically serious and feel out-of-step with the rest of the album.

Lyrically, the album is probably most appropriate for kids age 4 through 8, although any kid stable enough to boogie will probably enjoy the rhythms and music here. You can listen to samples of the album at the CDBaby website for the album as well as watch a video for "Cake" at the Indie Food Channel.

The Grateful Dead and Phish have each gone their separate ways. But with Rock Your Socks Off, you could actually rediscover a little bit of the jam-band magic (even after you need to take a break collapsed on the living room floor from exhaustion). Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In college, I had a friend who occasionally entertained crowds by doing rock classics in the one-and-only voice of Ethel Merman. You've not lived 'til you've heard an Ethel Merman impersonator doing performing "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin. ("Hey hey mama, said the way you move...") The incongruity of rock lyric and near-cartoonish voice rarely failed to bring down the house. Nobody could take that voice seriously.

I think most people would agree that "Black Dog" isn't a kids' song, but the question remains: why is it that some children's music feels the need to use cartoon voices? Cartoonish voices are good... in cartoons. Stripped of the visuals, cartoonish voices can become very tiresome very quickly. Do you want to hear an entire album of alternative pop recorded by, say, Bugs Bunny?

ScribbleMonster and His Pals attempts to bridge that gap on their 2004 album, their second, Chocolate Milk. ScribbleMonster is joined by ScribbleKitty, ScribblePiggy, and ScribbleBunny in singing seriously catchy power-pop melodies. Can the combination work?

Not entirely. This is best demonstrated on the title track (which fills the "void of festive, drinking songs for kids"); it's actually found twice on the album. On the first version of the song, voiced by ScribbleMonster, the growly voice causes me some ScribblePain. The second version, voiced by ScribbleJim (James Dague, the Chicago-area group's songwriter and voice for ScribbleMonster) provides no small amount of ScribbleJoy and is a ridiculously catchy song. "Beautiful Day" borrows part of the chord progression from Weezer's "Island in the Sun," and has the same, mellow alterna-pop feel of Weezer's song. In a good way. Because it's sung by "ScribbleKitty," whose voice is, well, normal, it's pleasant to listen to. (And while we're on the subject of songs sounding a lot like other, older songs, "Don't Cry, Dance" makes me wonder if the ScribbleAnimals haven't been to more than a few showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.)

The power-pop melodies and instrumentation will be familiar to fans of alternative pop and rock over the past 20 years, with mid-tempo rockers and quite a bit of fuzzy electric guitar. The lyrics are written with good humor and have little pretension. "The World's Greatest," for example, a driving rocker about being whatever you want to be, a standard topic for kids songs, has a list of entirely reasonable careers, including lines about "I'm gonna be the world's greatest plumber / I'll clear a clog like nobody else can." Any song that sings about becoming a plumber without condescension is OK by me.

The album will probably appeal most to kids ages 3 through 8. You can hear a number of songs at the ScribbleBooks Music page, or watch some additional videos at their Video page. You can buy the 32-minute album through the ScribbleMonster website and the other usual online suspects (in physical or download format).

In the end, I can't recommend Chocolate Milk entirely because of the cartoonish voices, but other listeners may not have the same eye-twitching that the voices cause me on some of the tracks, so if you're interested check out the Music and Video links above. Behind those cartoon voices you'll find a nice batch of kids' alterna-pop. And if ScribbleJim ever releases an album, I am so there.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Listening to The Amazing Adventures of Kid Astro (2004), Ralph Covert's fifth album as Ralph's World, one can't help shake the feeling that Covert spent a lot of time listening to AM radio growing up. Because the album sounds like what kid might hearing moving up and down the AM side of the dial (and occasionally flipping over to FM).

Take one of the strongest cuts on the album -- "Fee Fi Fo Fum," which is a great little slice of bluesy garage rock. Covert sings it with a Jagger-like swagger; and even '90s garage-rock revivalists The Smithereens wouldn't do it any better. (Not to mention Covert slides in some healthy self-esteem lyrics such as ("It doesn’t matter who our friends are / if you got some Fee Fi Fo Fum / It doesn’t matter who our friends are and / let me tell you everybody got some"). "Dumptruck" has a funky countryfied sound with a slinky bridge. "We Are Ants" is a sweet piece of bubblegum pop that would sound great on any oldies station today. (Sure, it copies some of the chord structure from "Fee Fi Fo Fum," but why wouldn't you when it sounds so good?) "Sun in My Eyes," despite some clunky lyrics ("And the simple things are simple / And the truth will still be true"), sounds like a Beatles outtake.

Even on the songs I didn't enjoy I can appreciate what Covert's trying to do. "The Tea Tale" is a slice of James Taylor at his most acoustic. The lyrics and arrangement don't do much for me, but I recognize that's a matter of taste, not execution. And the title cut nicely blends the outrageous tropes of Saturday-morning adventure cartoons with the ever-popular-with-kids-genre of... prog-rock. For all those kids begging their parents to play their copy of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. (OK, I really don't care for prog-rock. Having said that, it's not half-bad.) On all the songs, Covert backs himself up with a crack band and well-placed soloists (the clarinet on the zippy "Miss Molly Crackerjack," for example).

With songs about dumptrucks and first kisses, it covers a wide range, age-wise, perhaps ages 3 through 10. You can read lyrics and get an mp3 of "Fee Fi Fo Fum" at the Ralph's World site here. The 36-minute album is available at many online (iTunes Music Store, included) and finer retail locations.

Over the years in Ralph's World, Ralph Covert has honed his children's pop and rock songwriting skills, coming up with great hooks while generally steering clear of lyrical sappiness. The rockers and gentle acoustic ballads combine in The Amazing Adventures of Kid Astro to make for an album which sounds just as nice coming out of your speakers in the 2000s as it would have in the 1970s. Definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For many artists, children's music is a side project. If you're Justin Roberts, however, you're already a children's music artist, so what's your side project? It's recording as Why Not Sea Monsters? with frequent collaborator Liam Davis.

In late 2005, Roberts and Davis released two Why Not Sea Monsters CDs -- Songs from the Hebrew Scriptures and Songs from the New Testament. Most of you will recognize that these albums have a distinctly... Biblical aspect to them. (My readers, they're sharp.) Roberts was commissioned to write many of these songs by Augsburg Fortress Publishers, he wrote a few more when deciding to record the album, and added a couple covers.

To put in context my review of the album's music, I should explain to you my history with Christian music.

Which is to say, virtually none. Aside from my U2 albums (upon which some churches are basing entire services), the only Christian music album I've ever owned was Amy Grant's Unguarded, and I didn't buy it for the praise music. I bought it because the music was good. The message was secondary. (That's still the case today, even though I'm now an active member of a mainline Protestant church.)

For the most part, the music here is good. Those of you expecting Meltdown! Bible Stories, as Roberts and Davis dial back some of the tempo and layering of instruments found on that album. Instead, they're content to play mostly midtempo acoustical songs in the manner of "Roller in the Coaster" off Way Out or "Koala Bear Diner" off Meltdown!. Given that many of these songs may end up in Sunday School curricula, the fact that many of these songs are little more than guitar and drums and/or bass, the simplicity is appropriate. (Each of the 35-or-so-minute discs include chords and lyrics.)

The best songs are those where Roberts lets his humor shine and he puts his own spin on stories so familiar that most people, Christian or not, would recognize them. On the sweet and poppy "Why Not a Spark?," Roberts' narrator tells of God choosing what to bring forth at the Creation, but he keeps getting ahead of himself ("On the fifth day / God said, why not sea monsters / Why not starfish and lobsters / why not airplanes over water / Wait that's later!"). Or Daniel in the lion's den who beckons the lion with "Here kitty kitty / Won't you come kitty kitty" ("Here Kitty Kitty"). As a whole, Roberts has written Christian music without much trace of sappiness.

I found the songs on Songs from the Hebrew Scriptures more enjoyable, and maybe that's because my raised-not-in-Sunday-School theological foundations are pretty weak and I was drawn to the more familiar stories in the Old Testament. Hebrew Scriptures also has the advantage of having Roberts cover Craig Wright's "Where Were You?," a beautiful hymn ("Where were you when I crafted you a language... / So you could live and die with dignity / And shake your fist with poetry, imagining creation from the first") for which Roberts and Davis pull out all the instrumental tricks (strings, for example) they've otherwise left in the bag. It's an absolutely gorgeous song. On the other hand, New Testament's stories are less familiar and the songs aren't as compelling ("Lydia" has the lyric "Her name was Lydia / Our hearts will never be rid of ya," which, I'm sorry, bugs the heck out of me).

Biblical songs can probably be sung at any age, but I think the morals and religious precepts contained within the songs are most appropriate for kids aged 3 through 10. You can hear samples by going through the Sea Monsters website.

In the end, this is a Christian music album, and there's no two ways around it. Having said that, I think you just need a basic Christian belief system (regardless of whether you attend church regularly) to enjoy the CDs. [And, as a reader subsequently pointed out to me, the Hebrew Scriptures CD is appropriate for persons of the Jewish faith as well.] Regardless of your faith, if you're not sure these are for you, start off with Hebrew Scriptures. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

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

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

Kids aged 4 through 10 are most likely to enjoy the subject matter and the occasionally slow-paced song. The Terrible Twos' website has two downloads ("When I Get To Eleven" and "Caroline"), while their Myspace page has four more songs.

Normally I'd mention where the album is available for purchase, but here's the sad part -- due to unspecified release issues, the album is currently only available at New Amsterdams shows. I can only think of Wilco's troubles in getting their terrific album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot released after getting dropped by their own label. It took a great deal of effort before the album saw the light of day and attracted great praise, perhaps more than it otherwise would have. If You Ever See An Owl deserves not only a release but lots of fanfare to accompany that release, because this is an album that's going to make lots of kids and parents very happy. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We at Zooglobble love librarians. We especially love children's librarians. Turning on kids to the excitement of reading (and listening) -- way cool.

If you're a children's librarian and you're not aware of Monty Harper, you should be. Harper has carved himself out a niche writing albums filled with library-friendly children's music. His latest album, 2006's Paws Claws Scales and Tales, is another album specifically targeted to the Collaborative Summer Learning Program, a "grassroots consortium of states working together to provide high-quality summer reading program materials for children at the lowest cost possible for their public libraries."

All of which is very nice in an "isn't reading wonderful" sort of way, but you're asking, is it any good? And the answer is, yes, it is good. Even if you're not a children's librarian.

Now, Harper's subject matter from which to draw lyrics is narrowly constructed -- talk about pets and reading/libraries. It's a very square peg he's trying to pound into the round hole of good music. It's a testament to Harper's skill as a lyricist and storytelling that the references to reading typically don't come off as sounding overly forced. The title track refers to four popular animal characters in children's literature and each verse should be fun for kids as they guess which character Harper's singing about (a conceit Harper's used on previous albums). "Villa Villekulla Hula" sings about Pippi Longstocking while the peppy "Dog Books" refers to a few classic canine-related tales.

Harper really shines, however, in those songs which he's not trying to sing about both pets and libraries. My favorite track is the country-ish, inspired-by-a-true-story "It's Hard To Love a Reptile," which would be a fabulous song on any album and includes the classic lyrics "It's hard to love a reptile / When you know that she don't love you back / When your gazes connect and you start to suspect / She's been thinking of you - as a snack!" "Eleanor Gerbil" is as close Harper can get to the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" without paying Michael Jackson royalties. "Hummingbird Hum" is a sweet Beatlesque tune sung with his daughter. (As for "Fred's Frog Flippy," about a frog who just won't hop, I would've much preferred it if Harper had taken the opportunity to write a Talking Heads homage called "Making Flippy Hoppy.") In general, the music is kids' pop-rock.

The enhanced CD includes some bonus tracks, but the real reason to use the enhanced CD is to read Harper's detailed songwriting notes for each song. The care with which Harper constructs his songs and especially his lyrics is evident. He's also open about where he would've liked to have done more. (For example, on "Eleanor Gerbil" he mentions how a real string quartet would've sounded much better than the synthesizers employed on the track, and it's true that one of the CD's few weaknesses is the mostly synthesizer-driven nature of the sound.)

Given the reading-focused nature of the lyrics (which are extensive), I'd recommend the 36-minute CD for kids ages 4 through 9. You can hear samples at the Reading Songs website.

If you're a children's librarian, I highly recommend Paws Claws Scales and Tales, even if you're not participating in the CSLP. If you're not a children's librarian, I still think you and your kids will like the album, which is fun musically and sophisticated lyrically. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Bay Area three-man band The Hipwaders released their second (self-titled) album in 2005. On the 42-minute CD they cover a wide range of musical styles, from the jangle-pop of the album opener "Come Along With Us" to the new wave stylings on "Silly Robot Dance" to the vaguely Nirvana-esque stylings of "Stand Up To The Bully," with many more styles as well ('60s psychedlic pop in particular). Generally, it's a guitar-based pop-rock confection.

With the exception of two songs, all songs were written or co-written by the band. Lyrically, they cover the gamut of elementary-school-aged themes -- cleaning up one's room, bugs, and the sheer wonderfulness of jelly beans, just to name a few. The Hipwaders also have a slight science bent, with songs about earthquakes ("It's An Earthquake!") and volcanoes ("Volcano," natch).

With 18 tracks on the CD there are bound to be some favorites and less-than-favorites. I particularly like the "Rock Lobster" echoes on the driving ode-to-antsiness "Twitchy," the funky new-wave "Silly Robot Dance," and the brief, strutting '80s pop "Kelly the Clown." There are a pair of eerie story songs about a Civil War-era ghost/skeleton/thing ("Mr. Wiggly Jiggly Bones") and werewolves ("Howling at the Moon") which I find to be too long, breaking up the overall poppy flow of the album. But I think that's just personal taste (they're not bad songs) and older kids may find them appealing. (At the very least you can enjoy the Cab Calloway reference on "Bones.")

Given the lyrical themes, I think the album is most appropriate for kids age 5 through 9. You can hear 4 of their songs in their entirety at The Hipwaders' MySpace site. You can buy the album at Amazon, CDBaby, and a few other sites linked through The Hipwaders' main website.

In sum, The Hipwaders is a solid album of kids' pop-rock. In its broad appropriation of pop music stylings, it is very reminiscent of Ralph's World albums. They're not at a Ralph's World level of polish and songcraft yet, but give The Hipwaders time. They may just get there. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Folk Playground is neither 'folk' nor 'playground' -- discuss."

The Putumayo label got its start a number of years ago putting together mix tapes for use in its clothing store. They have since abandoned the clothing store, focusing solely on music, and have developed a kids' music label, Putumayo Kids. The latest entry in the Putumayo Kids series of CDs is the 2006 release of Folk Playground, to be released on Tuesday.

The 33-minute CD may confuse folk purists while also confusing some parents new to the children's music scene. The key component in the definition of "folk" seems to have been whether or not acoustic guitar was included on the track. The "playground" songs -- "This Old Man," "Froggie Went A Courtin'," -- aren't necessarily "folk music" in execution (or, if they are, it sort of stretches the definition.) The term "Folk Playground" is marketing and stretches the definition of what's actually on here.

Now, if you are a devoted children's music listener, you may already have half the songs (or at least half the artists) already in your collection. The problem with the selections from the more familiar artists is twofold. In some cases, the selections are not very representative of the artist's work (Justin Roberts' "Roller in the Coaster," while a nice little song, is a less common type of song for him, compared to the rave-ups; Laurie Berkner has made a name for herself for her originals, not covers. Neither would be considered folk artists.) In other cases, the songs are more representative of the artists' overall work, but not necessarily a highlight from their catalog (Dan Zanes' "Hop Up Ladies," Trout Fishing in America's "Fill It Up," Elizabeth Mitchell's "Crawdad"). These songs are perfectly fine, but I could probably have come up with a half-dozen songs each that I'd've preferred to see on here. (I do think Brady Rymer's "It's All How You Look At It" is pretty good, though.)

Of the less familiar artists (kids' related -- Leon Redbone is hardly an unfamiliar artist), the clear standout song on the CD is Zoe Lewis' "Sheep," about her musings while seeing sheep from far above in an airplane ("I wonder what are you thinking as your little pink lips go round and round and chew / Does night time bring you dreams of spring, mutton, mint sauce, leg of lamb or stew? / (Sorry, sheep)"). It's a sprightly melody, sung with whimsy, and mixed with tin whistle, among other instruments. Forget about the less familiar artists -- it's the best song on the CD, period.

The album is probably most appropriate for kids age 2 through 8. You can download lyrics and listen to sound samples at Putumayo's page for the release.

In the end, after listing all my criticisms, you might be surprised to read that I like the CD. It's a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Putumayo's history as a mix-tape creator serves it very well here as Folk Playground is a CD which will serve as a very pleasant soundtrack to a session of coloring or game-playing. While there are few standout tracks here, the overall listening experience is nice.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[To Dan Zanes and Salon.com readers -- greetings and thanks for stopping by. And check out the main site for tons more music for kids and adults. No, that's not an oxymoron.]

The short review of Catch That Train!, Dan Zanes' 2006 release and his fifth album specifically for kids and families is that it's like his previous family music album, but more so -- more musically diverse, more lyrical, more... everything.

The long review is... well... the thing is, after listening to this album so many times, I didn't want to write the short review, which might otherwise have just said, "It's like every other Dan Zanes CD -- it's great." So I went back to his first family music album, 2000's Rocket Ship Beach, to see if I could notice progression in Zanes' music that is harder to see from just looking at his last album, House Party. And a couple things struck me as I listened to his first and his latest CDs.

The first thing that struck me was how Zanes has gradually broadened his musical horizons since 2000. Six years ago, the debut's most adventurous musical step could very well have been the appearance of Father Goose (Rankin' Don) and his dancehall stylings. On Catch That Train!, Rankin' Don's appearance on "Choo-Choo-Ch-Boogie" almost feels safe compared to the rest of the album. The Blind Boys of Alabama on the gospel "Welcome Table," the Rubi Theater Company on the strutting "Walkin' the Dog," the forward-thinking Kronos Quartet on the retelling of the psycho-pet story "Grey Goose" -- they all come from diverse musical places and yet fit in perfectly on this disk. It's as if Zanes has released his very own Putumayo collection. Which is not to say that the stuff that's been around since Rocket Ship Beach -- Rankin' Don, the duet with Barbara Brousal ("Mariposa Ole," in Spanish, of course), and the duet with a female singer-songwriter (Natalie Merchant on the lovely "Loch Lomond") -- isn't there, and isn't great. Because it is.

The other thing that struck me was that the first CD seemed to me a collection of songs that Zanes really liked. The latest CD does seem to have a thematic cohesiveness to it, and it's not about trains. It's about community. "When we ride / We ride together," Zanes has written on the title track, and there is a strong sense of doing things together that runs through the album. Inclusiveness ("All God's children gonna sit together," from "Welcome Table"), neighborliness ("High and low, people that we know / They say 'Hey there,' and 'How’ve you been?'," from "Wander in the Summer Wind"), and a welcoming neighborhood ("Wherever you’re from / Know that you’re welcome / If you want to bring your family ‘round / To this moonlit town," on the album closer "Moonlit Town.")

Quite possibly my favorite song on the album is Zanes' "While the Music Is Playing," about wanting to linger in the neighborhood into the night, listening to all the different music in the air.

People gather all around the square
People laughing in the evening air
Swirls and mingles with the songs that brought us there
That brought us all there.

As with all Dan Zanes albums, Catch That Train is for people of every age. But if I had to narrow down the age range, I'd call it ages 5 through 10. You can hear samples, etc., by following the links at Zanes' Catch That Train! page.

In the end, if you're at all a fan of Dan Zanes' music, you'll enjoy this album. (And if you're in the minority who don't, this album won't change your mind.) Catch That Train! is Zanes' strongest album to date, a celebration in music of the joys of family, community, and music itself. Highly recommended.

[May 19, 2006 Update]
Now that I've had the full copy of the CD and packaging for a few days, rather than just an advance promo copy, I wanted to add a few additional comments to the review.
1) The packaging is quite nice -- Zanes has replaced the book format of his previous kids' CDs with more of a foldout design similar to which he employed on Parades and Panoramas. The entire design is thought out quite well (the title, "Catch That Train!," is actually the very end of a sentence that runs through the entire physical package).
2) Lyrics! Chords! The presence of these two things in the liner notes only makes the absence of them in previous albums that much more stark. Again, Zanes had started doing this with Parades and Panoramas and Sea Music, but their presence here is very welcome (especially for an artist so enamored of public singing). And, Zanes' comments in the liner notes are useful, too. (Not to mention finding out little things like Warren Zanes plays guitar on "Mariposa Ole.")
3) The video for "Catch That Train!" is OK, but nothing special. Dan Zanes plays around in his apartment while a tiny little animated train drives around. The scene where Zanes looks at a comb by his sink, then shakes his head as if to say, "naaaah," did make me laugh, though.

So, there you have it. And if you don't (have it), why not?

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Classical Music Geek Test: I took piano lessons as a child.

I'm sure many of you are thinking, Hey, I took piano lessons as a child. Lots of people take piano lessons. That doesn't make you a classical music geek. Yes, but...

I took piano lessons to strengthen my fingers for my organ lessons.

No kidding.

Between organ, piano, and violin lessons, I had a reasonably musical childhood, primarily focused on classical music. And although I only play the violin now on a semi-regular basis, I still enjoy listening to classical music.

So it's with that background I'm reviewing Beethoven's Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies, released in May 2006, the 3rd (natch) in the popular Beethoven's Wig series from Richard Perlmutter. The concept of the series? Take famous classical melodies and write (or re-write) lyrics for the melodies. Instead of the lyrics from an answering machine tape ad from many years ago ("No-bo-dy's HOME... no-bo-dy's HOME..."), Perlmutter in his first CD matched the famous notes from the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to the lyrics, "Beethoven's WIG... Is very BIG..."

In his first CDs, Perlmutter's lyrics focused on the composer, matching a composer's famous piece(s) with lyrics tied to the composer. Recognizing that perhaps he'd have to dip back into a particular composer's well once too often or go to composers whose few outside the classical music world would recognize, on Beethoven's Wig 3, Perlmutter ties the lyrics to particular instruments. Sometimes the resulting effect is great -- the unknown (to me) Beethoven work for mandolin is given lyrics suggesting that Beethoven wrote the song for a girl who done him wrong, breaking his heart so much that he never wrote for the instrument again. It's a delightful, sprightful piece with lyrics to match. Handel's Harp Concerto in B-flat and the very beginning of Rossini's "William Tell Overture" (before the "Lone Ranger" part) are two other successful matches. And the paranoid, almost non-sensical lyrics of "They're There," rewritten from Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," though having nothing to do with the bassoon, are amusing.

In other cases, though, the lyrics don't match up as well. And I found the "Short & Suite" -- very short pieces in the middle of the disc -- went by too quickly to make much of an impact. (Even the longer pieces are typically excerpts from movements, not the full movement.)

Musically, it's appropriate for kids of all ages, of course, but the lyrics, given their complexity and speed of enunciation, probably make this most appropriate for kids aged 4 through 9. The disk is actually pretty short (about 33 minutes), and that includes the original instrumental versions for every piece on the album. (I guess you could even sing the Perlmutter lyrics karaoke-style if you wanted to.) The liner notes also have trivia questions and suggested activities. You can hear excerpts of the pieces at the Beethoven's Wig website. The album is available at the usual online and offline suspects.

I'm a believer that if you want your child to develop an appreciation for classical music you should just play the actual pieces of music. But if you don't have a classical music background, this series is a fine starting point. (And even if you do, it's a good starting point.) And while perhaps the first two albums had a slightly higher ratio of familiar-to-unfamiliar pieces, Beethoven's Wig 3 still has a fair number of selections familiar to somone whose exposure to classical music is mainly through movie trailers and television ads. You may find yourself just as interested in the music as your kids.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Straight-ahead rock-and-roll is somewhat of a rarity in children's music. More common is a more pop- or folk-based approach. Sounds more appropriate, perhaps, for the playroom or coffeeshop.

Turn It Up Mommy!, released in late 2003, is the first children's album from the Washington, DC-based RTTs, who lead a double life as the Rhodes Tavern Troubadours, an "adult" rock and roll band. I'm not sure if that makes them a bar band (it seems a bit pejorative for a band with considerable musical talent), but whatever you call them, they've produced a fine little kids' music album.

Musically, the album gives no indication that it's geared towards kids. If you could turn the lyrics off and just listen to the music, you wouldn't know it was a children's music album. It's rock-and-roll that will be familiar to listeners of American rock dating back to the '50s. Of particular note is the guitar work, with a wide variety of styles, from the "surf guitar" heard on the ode to lifeguards "My New Hero" to the Chuck Berry stylings on "Turn It Up Mommy" to the roots-rock Jayhawks/Tom Petty "Rainy Day." The band sounds really good together and shines under the fine production.

The lyrics are geared for the most part to the kids and subjects near and dear to their heart -- learning the alphabet ("Learning My Letters"), pets ("Boofa"), and on the peppy opening cut, "Snack Time," which includes some classic lines -- "Well, who made juice in a box / Who made cheese in a stick / Who made little tiny crackers / That look just like goldfish / I want to shake their hand / Pat them on the back / 'Cuz they made all my favorite snacks." A couple songs are targeted at the parents -- I doubt that any kid really has ever complained about their parents doing taxes as in "April 14th" -- but even in those cases, singer-songwriter Jake Flack tries to write about the subjects from a kid's point of view.

I think the album's probably best for kids aged 4 through 8. You can listen to samples and order the album from the band's page at CD Baby. All in all, this is a solid little 27-minute album, of particular interest to fans of blues- and roots-rock like the artists mentioned above, or perhaps John Hiatt or the Fabulous Thunderbirds. But even if you lean toward more pop- or folk-oriented artists, you'll certainly find a few tracks worth your time here. Recommended.

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

An innocent wandering through the world is hardly an original concept for a story. The Who's Tommy, for example, or countless first novels.

To say that Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World borrows the concept, then, is no knock on this "Musical Moving Book," as it's called. The concept may be borrowed, but the execution is quite unique and wonderful.

Gustafer Yellowgold is the brainchild of New York-based songwriter and illustrator Morgan Taylor. Taylor has previously self-released several CDs but here has combined his songwriting talents with his illustrating skills to produce a concert which combines live music from Taylor and a small band of musicians with illustrations projected on large screens. It's the music and illustrations behind this live "moving book" which are captured here on the 24-minute DVD. There isn't much of a plot; it's more of a series of character sketches.

Gustafer is an alien from the sun who tells his story of life on the sun in the opening song "I'm From the Sun." It's an uptempo number which shows exactly how difficult life can be on the sun. ("No snowflakes on the tongue" is one of the complaints.) It's a jangle-pop tune with bongos, giving it a little Guster-like feel. The best song on the DVD is the concluding "New Blue Star," which is about, well, a new blue star, but could just be easily interpreted as a love song -- it's a gentle midtempo rockersworthy of Matthew Sweet in his less guitar-focused work (think Blue Sky on Mars without all the synthesizers). Another one of my favorite tunes is "Pterodactyl Tuxedo," a friend of Gustafer's who may be exasperating at times but is also a true friend ("He's always had the time / To pick up the phone / When you're calling way too late / He's always been the kind / To help you pickin' bones / When your faith begins to fade.") The music is hard to peg, but besides the bands listed already, there are hints of the Beatles (in the slow songs), World Party (yeah, a Beatles tribute band, virtually), and the Flaming Lips.

The lyrics here make it sound rather serious, and there's an undercurrent of sadness in Gustafer's story. His eel Slim ("Your Eel") will leave one day. The "Mint Green Bee" is sad and cries. But that sadness is leavened by the whimsical illustrations. This isn't really animation; particular animations are moved around the screen to give a primitive sense of animation. It might not sound compelling, but it's quite engrossing. It's used to particularly good effect in the surreal, vaguely They Might Be Giants-like "I Jump On Cake" ("I jump on cake from up above / I step on pie so warm and lovely / It's mine to punt, vanilla bundt / All freshly baked, I'm on your cake"). A picture of Gustafer moves (with blinking eyes) from up above onto a tempting cake. Pies explode like fireworks.

I'm always one to find nits to pick, and the only thing I can come up with here is that it's a DVD only. Perhaps in the future they'll consider bundling the DVD with an audio-only CD. Other than that, it's great. The album is probably best for kids age 3 through 8. You can see (and hear) video clips from "I'm From the Sun" and "Your Eel" here. You can purchase the DVD from the Gustafer website. Of note as well is the ability to sing along with the video, karaoke-style -- not sure how popular that will be, but since the videos all have the words on the screen, it's not inconceivable that it'd be used.

Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World is a work of great creativity, visually and musically. It's definitely worth your time to check it out.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We Shall Overcome (The Seeger Sessions) is Bruce Springsteen's children's music album.

Or, at least, it's as close as we'll ever get.

I have listened to Springsteen's newest album several times since picking it up on Wednesday, inspired by this NPR story. The story led me to believe that the songs, culled from folk musician Pete Seeger's songbook, could be just as appropriate for 4-year-olds as they would be for a 54-year-old.

There are plenty of other reviews of the album which approach it from an adult's perspective. My goal here is to talk about the album's appropriateness for kids.

Springsteen collects a whole host of musicians (17 in addition to himself) to play a wide variety of folk songs and spirituals in styles ranging from bluegrass to Dixieland. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the entire enterprise is the obvious sense of joy Springsteen and the band takes in playing these songs. The idea that people should get together and just sing and play isn't new to children's music (hello, Dan Zanes!), but it certainly gets a forceful endorsement here.

The songs that end up working best, then, are those songs which allow the band to let loose and play. "Old Dan Tucker," even though it's a song about a man who "got drunk and fell / In the fire and kicked up holy hell," is guaranteed to end up in my list of top 10 children's songs in 2006. It's played with bluegrass style and verve and had our entire family dancing. (Well, except for the nine-month-old. It's a great song, but not miraculous.) The Cajun stylings of "Pay Me My Money Down," in a version more umtempo than Zanes' version, give it an extra kick, fun for dancing. It's also the one song where Springsteen allows himself the barest hint of a modern-day reference (if you're using a computer, you'll recognize it). It's a testament to the enthusiasm Springsteen brings to the song that the thought Springsteen is a man who has his "money hauled in, in crates" barely crosses one's mind.

Where kids might not like the album as much is in its slower songs such as "Shenandoah" (in which our daughter during the extended intro, said, "Go back to the one with words.") As much as it pains me to say it, the version of "We Shall Overcome" on the album (recorded and released about eight years ago) is not much fun to listen to. And the extended instrumental soloing, even in the uptempo numbers, may or may not interest the kids.

Taken as a whole, however, this is a pretty amazing album from a man who is one of the few popular musicians even attempting modern folk music. ("The River" is one of the finest folk songs written in the second half of the twentieth century and The Rising, while not perfect, is still the best musical attempt to talk about the events of 9/11.) Parents will be able to use the songs to talk about a whole host of social issues -- economic justice, war, civil rights. And they may even, like I am now, be inspired to track down the original Seeger recordings. (Or just go to this website.)

I think kids age 5 and older may be best positioned to enjoy the lyrics and ideas raised by the songs. (Though, as I said, "Old Dan Tucker" is a stone-cold classic for all ages.) The album is available just about everywhere, of course. (You can listen to samples at Springsteen's site.) The album comes in the DualDisc format which has problems playing in some computer and car CD players (somebody needs to write a protest song about that); the documentary on the DVD side is just OK, but the two bonus tracks on the DVD side, "Buffalo Gals" and "How Can I Keep From Singing," are well worth the time to listen to.

Final thoughts: This is a great album. As an album of "old-time" music, it's much more cohesive than the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. (Along those lines, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the album that finally gets Springsteen his Best Album Grammy next year.) Your kids' enthusiasm for the album may flag during its 60-minute runtime, but they're likely to enjoy most of it as well.

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

The list of stand-up comedians who tried their hand at becoming musicians is long -- Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and Bill Cosby, for starters. The list in the other direction -- musicians becoming stand-up comedians -- is much shorter, if it exists at all. There is, after all, a fine line between stupid and clever.

John Boydston, who will release his fifth Daddy-A-Go-Go album, Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate on May 2, 2006, may not be appearing at the Improv next week, but he does have stand-up tendencies. Ad libs, puns, humorous vignettes -- all make an appearance on the album.

Boydston's singing approach is somewhere on the tunefulness spectrum between Lou Reed and Craig Finn from The Hold Steady, in which he talks as much as sings. I didn't mind so much, because the it's not too out of sync with the music itself, which is straight-ahead, well-played guitar rock. (Your mileage on his vocal stylings may vary.) Perhaps "For Those About to Walk, We Salute You" doesn't sound quite enough like AC/DC to merit its title, but it's a fun little ditty that encourages walking without any sappiness. "Eat Every Bean and Pea on Your Plate," is a bluesy rocker that isn't much more than a listing of vegetables with ad-libbed jokes ("Okra! I love her show!") liberally sprinkled throughout.

The best tracks are those in which the humor is curbed a bit -- the aforementioned songs, the reworked cover of the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" (on which Boydston's 14- and 11-year-old sons play bass and drums), the two instrumentals. Less successful for me were "Hang Up and Drive," in which frustrations with drivers who talk on their cellphone will completely go over most kids' heads, and "Pink Floyd Saves Hugh Manatee," in which the guest singer sounds just like Boydston and the song sounds nothing like Pink Floyd. And I found the earnest cover of "Listen To The Flower People" from the classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap to be completely unnecessary, but maybe that's because I've got 20 years of associations with that song. Your child probably won't recognize the "Stonehenge" references you make afterwards, but that's your (or at least my) problem.

The album is probably best for kids age 5 through 10. You can hear samples and read lyrics (without Boydston's many ad libs) here. The album is available at the Daddy A Go Go website and at online retailers, and possibly at some retail locations.

In sum, maybe the best way to determine whether or not you'd like the album is for you to decide whether you like Jimmy Buffett. Don't misunderstand me, the album doesn't sound anything like Buffett, but it does have a very Buffett-like vibe. If you think Buffett is a joke and can't stand any of his songs, you won't like this. But if you understand where Buffett is coming from and don't mind the occasional Buffett song or album, you and your kids will enjoy listening to this.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Virginia-based Buck Howdy bills himself as "The King of Kids' Cowboy Music." While that might sound like an example of "big fish/small pond," his 2005 album Giddyup! does nothing to make someone doubt that claim and might even gain some fans outside the genre.

Let's start with the best-known song, "Baked Beans." It's a silly story about gastrointestinal distress on the range that would grow old very quick if it weren't so expertly crafted. I mean, between listening to the album and satellite radio, I've heard the song 15-20 times at least -- a song about "cutting the cheese", for goodness' sake -- and it's still tolerable. (Which is a good thing, because I'd imagine 5-year-old boys would want to listen to the song 15-20 times. In a row. Every day. For, like, six months.)

That song is tolerable over repeated playings in large part because the musicianship is top-notch. Howdy's small band plays western swing, bluegrass, and traditional country tunes with precision. Howdy has an appealing voice with just enough twang. The album just sounds great.

The album is split evenly between Howdy originals and covers. If you're worried that the whole album is jokey, don't be. With the exception "Baked Beans" and "My Favorite Kind of Bugs," the originals are straightforward cowboy songs (albeit targeted at 6-year-old cowpokes). Some of the covers work well (Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John"); others, while not bad, left me with a "why bother?" feeling ("Hokey Pokey").

Those of you buying the album for the Trout Fishing in America performances will likely be disappointed, as they don't make much of an impression in their songs ("S'mores," "Giddyup!"). Laurie Berkner's appearance is another matter -- her duet with Howdy on Dale Evans' "Happy Trails" is sweet and makes you wonder where Berkner has been hiding that fabulous voice on her own CDs.

"Happy Trails" is one of my two favorite songs on the album; the other is the last "Bonus Track." To reveal too much about the song would ruin the surprise, so I'll just say that it's a song that will likely amuse the 6-year-olds and possibly make the adults laugh out loud.

Giddyup! is probably best for kids aged 4 through 10. It's available in the usual online and offline suspects. If you want to listen to most of the album (though, sadly, not my two favorite tracks), you can listen to the tracks here. Unless you or your kids have a genetic twang deficiency, you will probably find something to like in the album. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me begin by saying, for the benefit of the newcomers to the site, that I if were trapped on a desert island with an iPod, and could pick just one children and family music artist to listen to (their kids' music only), it would probably be Dan Zanes. In part, this is a matter of material -- he's released 4 kids' albums and another 2 albums easily categorized as family music, so that's 6 albums right there. (Why limit yourself to just a couple albums?) But more importantly, to help me stave off going all Tom Hanks on the volleyball for as long as possible, Zanes' albums are eminently sane, hummable, and hopeful. They're albums I have no problem listening to when the kids are nowhere around.

Which brings us to his 2005 DVD release, All Around the Kitchen!. The DVD is a collection of his videos for Noggin and Sesame Street, along with some concert footage. Let's start with the videos. There are six of them, and by far my favorite is the Sandy Girls' rendition of "Go Down Emmanuel Road," which is an animated video for Sesame Street that shows the numbers one through five to nice anthropomorphic (numero-morphic?) effect. "Hello, Hello" for Noggin, is also animated (looking much like the Zanes/Donald Saaf book on which it's based). The other two Noggin videos are reminiscent of the Laurie Berkner videos -- the band acting goofy in front of a white background with shots of kids acting goofy in front of a white background. The final video, "Wanderin'," consists of concert footage and reminded me most of all those concert-footage videos by hair metal bands in the '80s (think Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive"). I doubt my kids will make that association, though... So that's six videos, 15 minutes, and your kids will probably like them.

The concert... well, I liked the concert, filmed at NYC's venerable Knitting Factory club in late 2004. The sound is great. It's well-filmed. But I don't know how much kids will love it. There are a number of crowd reaction shots where the kids are just sitting there, looking sort of like the audience in the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show appearance that wasn't crying uncontrollably. They're entranced, but they're not quite sure to make of 5 or 6 people up on stage making such a large sound. And so your kids may have the same reaction. They may get up to move more when Father Goose makes an appearance for the last 3 or 4 songs; in seeing the concert, I have a much better appreciation for what he brings to the band. The concert, then, is 9 songs, 30 minutes, and your kids' mileage may vary.

For those of you looking for an overview of Zanes' kids music, this isn't perfect, because 10 of the 15 songs come from Zanes' first two albums, with just 5 songs from his other four albums. Having said that, he hasn't changed his musical style much, and if you like the music on the DVD, you should definitely check out all his CDs. You can see a couple of his videos, including "Hello, Hello," here. It's a good DVD, but I recommend the videos more than the concert, at least for the kids.

Now... if I had a video iPod, would I choose Dan Zanes or They Might Be Giants? Hmmmmm...

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Writing children's music that appeals to both kids and adults is a tricky proposition. Many artists target their songs at the kids and try to include enough interesting musical or lyrical ideas to keep the parents from ripping the CD out of the car's CD player and throwing it onto the road in utter frustration after listening to it for the third time today. It's more difficult to write songs that speak equally (or at least not utterly disproportionately) to both generations. Justin Roberts is one of the best practitioners of that art.

Released in March 2006, Meltdown! is Justin Roberts' fifth album for kids. Roberts has been compared to James Taylor, a comparison earned mostly because their voices are similar. But Roberts' musical strengths are his uptempo rockers, not wistful ballads, and this album shows off his guitar-based pop-rock to fine effect.

Roberts has honed his pop hooks to a fine point. "Our Imaginary Rhino," the lead single, pulls out every stop to create a great power-pop song -- an irresistible pop hook, "c'mon, c'mon, c'mons," and "na-na-nas" It's such a great tune that I'm willing to overlook the lyric "Cause it's more than super fino / When you're imaginary rhinos." (Hey, there are only so many words that rhyme with "rhino," and I think I speak for everyone reading when I say that "wino" would not be an appropriate word for a children's music album.) The song has been in my brain for more than a month now and shows no signs of leaving.

My other favorite song on the album is "Cartwheels and Somersaults," another uptempo song about an older brother's happiness upon the arrival of a younger sibling. While it's written from the perspective of the older sibling (the narrator and subject of many of Roberts' songs are the kids themselves), the chorus is totally relatable to the parents -- "And it's all your fault / yeah it's all your fault / It's you we love / (Mama can I hold her) / You we love / (Let's put her on your shoulder)." The giddiness of the music (with a vaguely "Lust For Life" bass line) matches the giddiness another family member can create in that family's life. And let's face it, we don't get to hear songs that talk about that part of our lives too often, but Roberts has figured out how to do it here.

The rest of the album is pretty good, too. The gratuitous Modern English references in the title track, the '80s synthesizers in "Maybe the Monster," the sneaky older brother blaming all the accidents on his siblings, they're enough to keep the parents listening while the kids bop their heads. I've never been as big a fan of Roberts' slower songs -- personal taste here -- but the closing track, "Song For You," is a nice ballad that could be sung to your child or your spouse. It's a song that James Taylor would be proud to record.

While younger siblings may bop their heads along to the bouncier songs, Meltdown! is best for kids aged 5 to 10. It's available at the usual online suspects and may or may not be available in some big bookstores. Meltdown! is Justin Roberts' best album yet. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Brady Rymer's 2006 release Every Day Is A Birthday is his fourth CD of children's music. Accompanied by what might just be the best-sounding band in children's music, Rymer delivers a solid batch of songs that will engage both kids and adults.

Brady Rymer was a member of the '90s roots-rock band From Good Homes. On Birthday, he's firmly placed in the AAA (adult album alternative) format, with hints of alt-country, cajun, and Motown thrown in for good measure. Fans of the Wallflowers, Counting Crows, and the Jayhawks will probably enjoy the musical textures here. I also heard not a little bit of Paul Westerberg in the album, both in the melodies and the voice, if not the desperation.

Indeed, Rymer has a thoroughly positive outlook on childhood. Songs like "Look In Your Pocket" and "Diggin' Up a Dinosaur" talk about the power of childhood imagination, while the amusing "Dilly Dally Daisy" and "Keep Up With You" celebrates childhood energy ("Mama needs a hot bath every evening / Loofah sponges, essential oils... / If she's ever gonna keep up with you!"). Some listeners may find some of the slower and quieter songs (such as "Side By Side") a bit too earnest, but that's more an issue of taste -- your "tolerance for mushy," as it were. I personally preferred it when Rymer let the band loose, as in the opening track "Rock 'N' Roll Mother Goose," the cajun-styled Guthrie classic "Little Sacka Sugar," or the rollicking "Mama Don't Allow." (I also could've sworn I heard a bit of a sneer in "Instead of Watching My TV" as if Rymer was telling the child in question to do something instead of watching his TV. But maybe I'm reading too much into that.)

A couple other notes: The album comes with a collection of snippets from the songs to challenge the listener to identify which song which snippet came from. This was harder than I anticipated. Must pay closer attention! It also comes with karaoke versions of three album tracks. This is such a cool idea that I can't believe it hasn't been done before (that I'm aware of). This is really great.

In the end, if you're looking for something more "adult-sounding" than some of the children's pop/rock that's out there, this CD is for you. (My wife, who definitely fits that category, really likes the CD.) It's best for ages 4 to 9. Recommended. Available at the usual online suspects.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ralph Covert released his sixth Ralph's World album, Green Gorilla, Monster & Me, in 2005, 5 years after he released his self-titled Ralph's World debut. Six albums in six years -- that's like one less than Peter Gabriel's done in almost thirty years. So, yes, he's prolific.

One could understand perhaps if Covert started repeating himself at this point, but this is his best album, full of great pop-rock songs. The album leads off with "Clap Your Hands," a rousing tune entirely different from the They Might Be Giants song of the same name, but with almost as few words and just as winning. As with many of his albums, Covert covers lots of stylistic ground (the klezmer of "Me & My Invisible Friend," the southern jangle-pop of "Old Red #7," the Ramones-lite punk of "I Don't Wanna," and, most bizarrely, the Elvis-meets-Moby sound of his cover of "Gitarzan"), but for whatever reason the forays no longer sound somewhat forced as they did on earlier albums.

Covert's lyrics have also improved over time. "What do you do when you need to / Hang your heart on something real / Remember what you're after?," he sings in "Hideaway," lines that would work in an "adult" song. "Liesl Echo," a slow, Beatlesque tune (and do you think the Beatles get royalties anybody even uses the phrase "Beatlesque"?) about a mountain girl and a shephered in love with her features the couplet "The shepherd left her / For greener pastures," a line which brings a wistful smile to my face every time I hear it.

Not every song is perfect -- "Tim The Boy" is an attempt to teach a lesson that ticks me off because it basically cribs the chord progression from "Red Banana," on the same album. ("I Don't Wanna" is a much more effective lesson-song, and more fun to boot.) But the hit-to-miss ratio is very high.

The album is best for kids age 4 through 9. Thanks to Covert's recent signing with Disney, the album has now been rereleased by Disney, which probably means you'll be able to buy it at your local Sip-N-Slurp in the near future. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Don't judge a book by its cover," goes an adage I tend to ignore when it comes to CDs. The aura of competence regarding album covers and inserts is often an indication of the competence of the music and production itself, particularly in children's music.

So this CD, with its cover picture a giant mouth that brings nothing to mind more than, "Let There Be Lips!" (that's a Rocky Horror Picture Show reference there, folks), worried me.

Thankfully, in this case, the old adage is actually true. Monty Harper's 2005 album, The Great Green Squishy Mean Concert CD, is a fun and occasionally funny album. (It certainly exceeded my cover-based expectations.) For his fourth CD, the Oklahoma-based Harper recorded three concerts with his "Thrice Upon a Time Band" in front audiences of kids and parents. The concept brings a couple strengths to the CD: 1) the full band (guitars, bass, drums) sounds really good, and 2) the audience participation songs have an audience to participate. Both make the CD very lively.

Harper writes straight-ahead rock (think "classic rock") tunes with a sense of humor and an occasional tendency toward "educational" lyrics. My favorite songs on the CD are the two songs leading off the album, "Loose Tooth," a cute pop-rocker about, er, a loose tooth, and "The Great Green Squishy Mean Bibliovore," with crunchy guitars (and lead character). While I tend to prefer his more story-based songs (like the two above), his "educational" songs aren't bad either -- young kids will probably eat up (pun mostly intended) "You're a Dinosaur," which introduces a whole bunch of dinosaurs in song. (It's one of 5 reptile/dinosaur songs on the CD, so if that's your child's thing, definitely check it out. I'm pretty sure it's the only album in the world with two songs about horned toads.)

The CD also comes with some CD-ROM bonuses -- I did like the two healthy-eating-based songs, "I Go Bananas," and "Gimme Vegetables," the latter of which had a very '80s synth-pop texture wholly unlike the concert itself. (Both are fun -- if Harper ever releases a B-sides/rarities disk, these seem like perfect candidates. Because I don't think I'm ever actually going to listen to the CD at the computer....)

I'd recommend the CD for kids aged 4 through 9. You can find it through the usual suspects (artist's website, CDBaby, Amazon, with samples available at the latter two). If you're looking for a CD of rockin' kids songs, check it out.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This review really revs up when the reader reconsiders her readily held notions regarding the realism referred to in this record...

OK, I admit it, it's hard to write (or "rite," to continue the motif) reviews by focusing on a single letter. And so it begs the question, why would an artist set up such an obstacle?

For that very reason, I had some trepidation upon my initial spin of Steve Weeks' 2004 album Alphabet Songs Vol. II (Ivan Idea). Each of the nine songs focuses on a single letter, I through Q, and I feared lyrics stretched beyond anything remotely resembling (stop it!) enjoyment. Luckily, the CD passes the enjoyment test with flying colors. The lyrics themselves focus on a single letter, but generally not in a way to call attention to them. (Only if you're listening closely will you notice all the words starting with the appropriate letter.)

On the CD's best songs, the letters seem almost secondary. "Kiki Kangaroo" is a bouncy song about a kangaroo with a mind of its own, "Look, Look!" a midtempo rocker about noticing what's all around, and, my favorite, "Monkeys" is an amusing, laid-back track about, well, monkeys. (The song, which includes a completely gratuitous "Sound of Music" reference, has a very Jack Johnson-like vibe, which is a little ironic given Johnson's work on the Curious George soundtrack.) Some songs tend to show the effort of focusing on a single letter a little more (see letters "N" and "Q"), but there isn't a weak track on the album.

The album is nicely produced -- fun acoustic guitar work, with some funky percussion tracks and even an occasional banjo. The songs are mostly gently uptempo folk-inflected rock. To put the album in adult terms, I'd describe it as Barenaked Ladies meets Phish. (Weeks' voice even reminds me of one of the Ladies' singers.)

I'd recommend the album for children aged 5 through 9. It's a fun album (or, to end the motif, "really rockin'") and would probably work in a school setting (though it'd work outside of such a setting, too). You can get the album through the usual online retailing suspects and through Weeks' website.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rocket Ship Beach was the first Dan Zanes album I ever heard. This was maybe 4 years ago or so. I liked it, but it didn't quite grab me at the time the way his 3 subsequent albums did. In going back to the album for the purposes of this review, I tried to figure out why.

Let's start out with the stuff I liked then, and still do. You wouldn't think that "Bushel and a Peck" from the Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls" would be a great fit for a chorus of elementary school children (whom I generally dislike hearing on record), but they sound great in the song. It's 180 degrees different from the Olive Oyl-stylings of Faith Prince in the Broadway revival from a few years ago, but lots of fun. My other favorite track on the record is Suzanne Vega's take on the "Erie Canal," which is... well, I don't want to say "eerie" (that would be too easy), but Vega's voice and Zanes' lap steel guitar blend together in a wonderful duet.

The rest of the album is... maybe it's just too folk- and bluegrass-based for an entire album for my tastes. Yes, Father Goose and the Sandy Girls make their appearances, as does Barbara Brousal, but the overall feel of the album is definitely more "folk festival" than the other Zanes and Friends CDs. Maybe part of that is that there's only one Zanes original ("Hello," on which Brousal duets). In any case, the album is less diverse musically (if no less technically and musically accomplished).

Don't get me wrong, I like the CD and I'm glad to have it in my collection, but I guess unless you're a big folk music fan, I would recommend one of Zanes' other CDs (probably "House Party") as an introduction to his stuff. The CD is best for kids ages 3 through 7 or 8, though like all of Zanes' work, it's definitely appropriate for people of all ages. Zanes' music is available in most stores with a children's music section. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's funny what people remember from their youth. Meals at their grandparents, trips to Disneyland, their first kiss. One of my memories is of a white coffee mug with a cow with a befuddled expression standing on his (or her -- my memory isn't that good, nor was the drawing that detailed) hind legs on a patch of grass somewhere. On the other side, the text -- "For someone outstanding in their field"

Still gets me everytime.

The creator of that silly mug was illustrator and author Sandra Boynton, who besides countless children's books now has three albums of kid-friendly music to her credit.

Her second album, Philadelphia Chickens, was created with her musical collaborator Michael Ford in 2002. Unsurprisingly, given Boynton's talent for anthropomorphizing animals, many of the songs revolve around animals. Some of the songs do so very clearly, such as "Please, Can I Keep It?," an amusing story-song about a ravenous stray pet. Others focus more on their owners, such as the slightly funky "Fifteen Animals." And some have nothing to do with animals at all-- "BusyBusyBusy."

In the liner notes to the CD, Boynton mentions that the music came about as a result of her desire to make something a "little more nuanced" than the recordings of perky children's music her children were once given. She wanted to "create an album that would somewhat parallel the soundtrack that ran beneath [her] own childhood," including "Broadway show tunes." Some of the best songs on the album would be perfect in a Broadway review -- "Faraway Cookies" is a note-perfect song about longing. Longing about cookies, yes, but the emotion is surprisingly universal.

Another sign that Boynton was really trying to create a Broadway review is the list of performers -- they're much more familiar to fans of the stage and screen than to readers of Billboard. Meryl Streep, Laura Linney, Kevin Kline, even Scott Bakula -- they were recruited to sell the songs. Their voices are pretty good, but the songs are better than you would expect.

There's a wide variety of musical styles on the album, but you do have to have a tolerance for show tunes and moderate tempos. Kids aged 4 to 8 would probably appreciate this CD the most. You can either buy the CD separately or with an accompanying book with goofy Boynton drawings and sheet music that is just a bit too advanced for my rudimentary piano skills. The album is recommended, especially if you're looking for a change from your children's-oriented folk or rock music.

Oh, and if you want to know the source of this blog's name, check out "Nobody Understands Me." It's not just the mug that stuck with me.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Unlike pop music, children's music is most definitely not a singles-driven genre. So while the advent of iTunes has been a blessing for those of us who might otherwise buy an entire Chumbawumba album just to get a copy of "Tubthumping," children's music CDs are much more even.

So it's hard to discuss Eric Herman's first album for kids, The Kid in the Mirror, without spending most of the review talking about the single best song on the album, which outshadows the rest of the CD. "The Elephant Song" is a simple song, singing about many different animals in a way which amuses adults and is likely to generate squeals of laughter from kids singing along. I'm trying not to say much about the song because I don't want to ruin the surprise of the song's central conceit, but it's one of the few non-traditional kids songs I've heard that I've wanted to sing with children without the CD around.

The rest of the CD has some high points. Herman (along with his occasional co-lyricist Kenn Nesbitt) has a slightly skewed sense of humor that sometimes helps leaven the morals in his songs (for example, the detached-sounding "wow... cool" on "The World's Fastest Bicycle"). Sometimes the humor isn't there, and for my tastes, it doesn't do much for me, but your tastes my vary. Musically the album is mostly uptempo, with just the concluding song a sweet ballad. And although you wouldn't think an "Invisible Band" could generate a musically diverse and full sound, the album proves me wrong.

I think the album is best for kids age 5 to 8, although "The Elephant Song" is appropriate for kids as young as 3 or even 2... but there I go again, talking about that song. You can get the CD through Herman's website as well as CD Baby. Recommended, if only for, well, you know...

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The idea of a concept children's album is probably a bit too difficult to pull off. There aren't many I'm familiar with (John McCutcheon's quartet of seasons-related CDs is an exception). Concept albums for 4-year olds are a little broader generally, and don't always work. (Do you want to listen to 12 songs about addition? Didn't think so.)

On his third family and children's music album, Night Time!, Dan Zanes wisely eschews an explicit "nighttime" conceit for a set of songs that sounds very similar to his other kids' music albums, just a little more... nighttimey. (Yes, I'm a critic and I'm allowed to make up words.) By "nighttimey," I basically mean "mellow and relaxed."

This isn't sleepy-time music -- the leadoff track "Night Owl" with Aimee Mann is all about staying up late. The second track (my favorite on the album) is the jagged sea shanty "Pay Me My Money Down." When I first heard the album, I thought a song mentioning bars and jails was an... atypical choice for a children's music album, but in his liner notes he mentions that it was kids' favorite song when he would play schoolrooms. Go figure. It's a blast.

While all the elements of a Dan Zanes album are there -- the beautiful Spanish duet with Barbara Brousal, the Sandy Girls folk song, Rankin' Don doin' his dancehall thang or whatever his thang is -- there is an element of looseness and relaxation that is emphasized more so on this album than on the other ones. Maybe it's just the subtle hints in the liner notes and pictures, but it's easier to picture this album being made (and listened to) as the sun sets long into the evening. The album's one false note, "What A Wonderful World" with Lou Reed and the Rubi Theater Company, fails precisely because it's the one song that doesn't sound like it just "happened." Aside from that, the concept, loose as it is, works.

As with all of Zanes' albums, the album is probably best for kids ages 3 through 8, but is perfectly OK for infants and grandparents and everyone in between. The CD is available through Zanes' website, online, and in what seems to be an increasing number of offline locations. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Children's music doesn't have a lot of great anthems. Sure, the Wiggles may be able to get a bunch of kids screaming like Shea Stadium with the Beatles in 1963 with the strains of "Hot Potato," but there are few songs that I can envision getting a crowd of kids singing along. (Think U2 and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" or "Beautiful Day," or, in a less enobling way, KISS songs.)

But on his most recent album Way Out, Justin Roberts writes a couple songs that I think reach kids' anthemic status. "Way Out" is about various characters and their dreams and encourages kids to "sing this song as loud as you dare," while "Humpty's At It Again" adds an interesting twist to the traditional nursery rhyme with a fun "oo oo oo" chorus. In concert, these must be fun to listen to (or sing with).

The other songs are another strong collection of mostly upbeat rockers. The use of brass on four songs may induce Herb Alpert flashbacks in adults, but is a nice expansion of the sonic palette. Roberts still has fun with his lyrics, likely to generate amused smiles from kids and their parents (though the phrase "Why-oh-why-oh-why-oh-J-C-C!" in "Day Camp" is likely to go over the heads of the kids).

Way Out is Roberts' strongest album yet. With songs about school and the tooth fairy, it's targeted mostly at kids 5 to 8 years of age. It can be found at the usual online and offline suspects as well as through Roberts' website. Highly recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Family Dance is billed as being by "Dan Zanes and Friends." By inserting the "and Friends" part in there, the listener gets the impression that he or she, too, could gather their own friends round the piano in the living room, drag in a small amp and guitar, and record a really hip version of, say, "Skip To My Lou."

That listener, of course, would be completely and utterly wrong.

The reason they would be wrong is that Dan Zanes has a whole bunch of really talented friends who can actually sing and play their instruments. On Family Dance, for example, Rosanne Cash turns in a nice duet with Zanes on the obscure (for me) kids' song "Fooba Wooba John," Loudon Wainright III helps in a raucous version of "All Around the Kitchen," and Sandra Bernhard "sings" (sort of) on a Dan Zanes original, "Thrift Shop." The less famous of Zanes' friends are no less talented -- Barbara Brousal sings one of her songs, "Malti," while Rankin' Don puts some life into those most tired of kids' songs "The Hokey Pokey" and, yes, "Skip To My Lou."

There's not much difference between this album and, say, Zanes' later House Party. The later album is perhaps ever so slightly more diverse (there's not much bluegrass in Family Dance), but however you felt about House Party, you'll likely feel the same way about Family Dance. It draws from the same well of kids' classics, American songbook classics, some foreign nuggets, and a few solid Zanes originals.

The CD is appropriate for, well, just about anybody. Kids age 3 and older might appreciate it more, but more than any other kids' artist out there right now, Zanes is a practitioner of "family music," meant for the whole family. Available from Zanes' own label, Festival Five, or finer online and bookstore vendors. Definitely recommended.

(And Zanes would definitely recommend that you get your family and friends together to sing and play music -- it's one of his attitudes that I find most refreshing. But hold off pressing that CD, OK?)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With his first, self-titled Ralph's World album, Ralph Covert immediately set the standard for 21st century kids' music -- musically diverse and lyrically targeted at kids while winking at their parents.

It is not a criticism of his second kids' album, At the Bottom of the Sea, to say that it's just like the first CD, only more so. At the Bottom of the Sea is even more musically diverse than Ralph’s World, from the country stylings of “Honey for the Bears” to the faux-Beach Boys sound of “Surfin’ in My Imagination” to the pirate chanty “What Can You Do with Your Baby Brother?” The parents will probably bob their heads happily during the “Banana Splits” theme song; my wife especially appreciates “The Coffee Song,” which obviously bears the imprint of having been created waaay too early one morning (a wild guess on my part which Covert has confirmed in subsequent interviews). Even his rendition of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" has enough subtle humor to keep the parents amused while maintaining a simplistic approach to the song that will hold the attention of the very youngest.

Given that Covert’s daughter is probably a couple years older than when he wrote the songs on Ralph’s World, the songs on this album are targeted mostly at kids between 3 and 8. Covert's popularity means that if any non-Disney CD is to be found at a Best Buy, it's his; otherwise, the usual online suspects are the place to go.

If you liked Covert's other Ralph's World CDs, you'll like this one. Recommended.

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

Parents are familiar with serendipitous combinations -- peanut butter and jelly, Bert and Ernie, diapers and the Diaper Genie.

But some combinations aren't nearly as obvious.

Brave Combo is Texas band that plays polka (among other things) and Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer have been making kids music for 20 years. You wouldn't necessarily think that they would be making music together, but in All Wound Up!they have made one energetic album that should get your child dancing. (Warning: The Surgeon General has recommended that you do not play this album right before bedtime.)

The songs are lots of fun and cover a broad range of styles, helpfully listed in the liner notes. Some songs are Fink & Marxer originals -- "I Will Never Clean Up My Room" is an amusing tale of one child whose recalcitrance pays off in interesting ways. Some songs are hearty renditions of public domain and traditional songs (including, yes, "De Colores," which makes this literally the 5th or 6th version on our CD shelf). Ironically, the favorite song of mine and my daughter is the one Brave Combo-penned song, "Spaghetti," and enthusiastic tribute to restaurant pasta that ends with three or four overlapping musical lines. As with any good music, you can play either of these albums for kids of all ages, but kids from 4 to 8 years of age would probably appreciate them best. The record is on the Rounder label, available in the usual online suspects and in the "real world."

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What is it with Chicago and the abundance of good music for children out of that city? OK, it's probably the incredibly dense and relatively affluent population in the Loop that makes it possible to create a niche (and living) for yourself by performing kids' music.

See, for example, Justin Roberts. Roberts, like Ralph's World's Ralph Covert, tried for a few years to make music for adults, except Roberts did so in Minneapolis. Somewhere along the line, however, Roberts moved to Chicago and eventually turned his attention to making children's music. Kids and their parents are the luckier for it.

His third album, Yellow Bus, has a lot of rollicking tunes and some sweet slower songs (at the end of the CD -- I think this must be required by some sort of international children's music CD protocol). If you find Ralph's World just a little too saccharine for your tastes, Roberts is less so. Roberts' voice reminds me a lot of James Taylor's, but his songs are definitely more upbeat and uptempo than "Sweet Baby James." There are enough gently humorous twists in the lyrics to amuse adults. Some songs, like "One Little Cookie" (my favorite song on the CD) almost seem like they written to amuse the parents, not the kids. Roberts' songs have definite narratives and as a result violate my two-minute maximum rule. But I can definitely see how older kids (4 to 9) would enjoy listening to the songs. You can get the CD at Hear Diagonally (Roberts' label), or the usual suspects (Amazon and CDBaby).

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a parent of a pre-schooler, I've heard lots of CDs with pretty simple lyrics. "Row, row, row your boat" may be a model of Zen equanimity to some with a Matrix-like philosophical underpinning, but, really, it's about rowing your boat downstream. Over and over and over again.

This is not to say that simple lyrics are bad. Just that they've been the norm thus far in my infant/toddler/preschooler parental music experience.

So it takes some adjustment on my part to listen to music obviously geared toward older kids. Lyrically, the new CD from Eric Herman and the Invisible Band, Monkey Business, has some moments of inspired weirdness, which I mean as high praise. For example, the song "The Monkeys" tells the familiar story (to thirty-somethings and forty-somethings, perhaps) of four monkeys named "Mick and Dave and Mike and Pete" who sang in a band, and were accused of not even playing their instruments. The song concludes with lyrics such as "I'm in love... I'm a banana eater" and "Take the last vine to Clarkville." Another song, "Don't Bother Any Butterflies," works in a nice Beatles reference in an appropriate place. So lyrically the album works in enough sly references and humor to amuse both the children and the adults.

I think this CD works best (for adults at least) when Herman is telling a simple story or just singing -- "In the Box," the uptempo song that starts the CD is a fun song about cleaning up. The two slow songs at CD's end -- "The Hero of Your Dreams" and "Rest Easy Now" -- are sweet, slower songs appropriate for CD's end. Less successful for me were storytelling songs in which Herman assumes the voice of pirates or a robot. I can see six- and seven-year-olds really enjoying those songs, especially in concert or on a video, but I think their parents (or, at least, this one) won't enjoy them nearly as much on this CD.

Kids age 5 through 8 would probably enjoy this CD the most. You can buy the CD through online stores such as Amazon or CDBaby, or through Herman's website.

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are those kids' albums that sound like they're specifically geared toward, well, kids. The best of these get into the kids' worlds, their hopes and fears. The worst talk down to kids, way too stickly sweet.

And then there's Dan Zanes. His albums are the best example of what I'd call "family music." Instead of gearing his music primarily toward kids, Zanes finds (or, on occasion, writes) songs the whole family can enjoy. Zanes' 2003 album, House Party, exemplifies this approach. The title track is all about making music at home with family friends. My daughter asks to listen to it all the time, along with the uptempo "Down In The Valley." "House Party" is followed up by the traditional bluegrass tune, "Wabash Cannonball." There's nothing about "Cannonball" that makes it geared towards kids, except the fact that it's just a great little song, part of the American song canon.

"Cannonball" is only one a few traditional songs Zanes uses to good effect on the CD. My favorite is a lovely duet with Debbie Harry on "Waltzing Matilda," on which Harry's voice is so lovely you can't believe you're listening to the same person who led (and still leads) the rock band Blondie. As fun as that and other songs are on the CD, my very favorite is a Zanes original that ends the CD, "A Place For Us." A simple song about friendship and belonging, with composer Philip Glass on pump organ, I find it almost heartbreakingly beautiful, which lets me indulge its 6-minute runtime. (It's way too long for kids, of course, but I think it's great.)

Like all of Zanes' CDs, this one comes packaged in an illustrated book-like cases with liner notes. But you'll probably be too busy dancing with your kids to read it. (Unless, of course, you're driving. Then you're not dancing. I hope.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my younger days, I went to clubs to hear Rawk Bands. And in my much younger days, I watched Sesame Street.

It is no knock on this new DVD -- it's high praise, in fact -- that I could see clips from the DVD played at clubs and on Sesame Street.

My review from last week on the CD version of this album was interpreted in the comments section by a snarky friend as being a negative review. As a long-time They Might Be Giants fan, I prefer to think of my less-than-5-star CD review as a reflection of them just failing to meet the high standards I've set for them. And part of that was a result of some songs that sound like they were designed for the DVD that were less than compelling without visuals.

So, then, the questions is, "how are the visuals?" And the answer is, fantabulous. Really. The video for "Pictures of Pandas Painting," while not a favorite song of mine, has a hypnotic, psychedelic feel. The art in "C is for Conifers" is nothing less than, well, art. "Q U" is a quirky live-action bit with Q and U (I love the shot of them walking through Central Park, with the crowd completely ignoring them). The puppetry in songs like "Who Put the Alphabet (In Alphabetical Order)" is lots of fun and a little surreal (e.g., the guitar windmills of a nearly-punk-rockin' pink poodle). And with visuals, songs such as "Letter Shapes" are much more enjoyable. (One note: if you're interested in the DVD because you want to see the actual band, you'll be mostly disappointed as the "thumb puppet" Johns get almost as much screen time as the "real" Johns -- i.e., not much.)

Taken in one 50-minute sitting, it's almost too much, but these visuals would fit in perfectly as interstitials (between-segment shorts) in Sesame Street. They would also make perfect oblique sense played on TVs in a rock club between sets.

One other minor complaint -- the DVD menu doesn't have scenes by chapters. If you're trying to limit a child's viewing time, trying to get to a particular song (and then play it from there for, say, 15 minutes) takes more work than it should.

But these are minor complaints. Excellent DVD.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a follow-up to their popular and critically-acclaimed children's CD No!, Here Come the ABCs is a bit of a let-down only in comparison to such a strong disc. Part of this is probably due to the deliberate narrowing of subject matter of the new disc. How many different ways can you sing songs about the alphabet, a subject whose signature song was written by Mozart? But the relatively abstract nature of the lyrics allow TMBG to run amuck across the musical spectrum: jaunty ("E Eats Everything"), prog-rockish ("Pictures of Pandas Painting"), sometimes within the same song (the ballad/British Invasion/"Leader-of-the-Pack"-ish "D & W").

Since this CD was created with a companion DVD in mind, some of the songs ("Can You Find It?," "Letter/Not A Letter," "Letter Shapes") seem deficient without any accompanying visuals (I'll address whether or not that's actually the case in an upcoming review of the DVD). And unlike No!, which used a few songs from TMBG's "adult" career, the songs on ABCs are definitely more targeted at kids (thereby increasing the likelihood of odd stares from co-workers should you take the CD to work).

But that's not to say there aren't some standout tracks. "Alphabet Lost and Found" is a electronica-lite song about well, lost and found letters. "I C U" has some great wordplay (or, rather, letter-play). "C Is For Conifers" is a fine entry in the long TMBG tradition of educational songs and covers ("Mammal," "Meet John Ensor," "The Sun Is A Mass (Of Incandescent Gas)"). And "Q U" is just cute (or "qute," I guess).

Can I envision sneaking this off to work like I did with No!? Probably not -- it's not as strong an album in total. But if you (or your children) liked No!, there's no reason to believe you (or they) won't find Here Come the ABCs enjoyable as well.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The band They Might Be Giants are elder statesmen of what has sometimes been called "geek rock." The band has been recording albums for close to 20 years, and for most of that time they aimed their records right at your typical rock-listening audience of high schoolers and those with high school in their rear view mirror. But if you see them live, you'll find something unusual for rock concerts -- little kids on their parents' shoulders.

In 2002 the band released No!, their first album specifically for kids. Some of the songs could just as easily have been released on an album for adults (indeed, some have been concert staples of theirs for years). Some of the songs are very simple, if somewhat skewed. "I Am Not Your Broom" and "I Am a Grocery Bag" are about, well, what their titles say. Other songs, however, are significantly more complex, both in instrumentation (full band!) as well as song structure. "The House At the Top of the Tree" has a Memento-like storytelling structure. (Oddly enough, that song is one of my 3-year-old daughter's favorites, and thanks to constant repetition, she's probably better at the lyrical intricacies than I am.) "Bed Bed Bed" is a 6-year-old's version of the Beatles' "Day in the Life" off of Sgt. Pepper's, complete with the sound of a placid ping pong game buried deep in the mix at the end.

I would recommend TMBG CDs to kids of all ages (they're the one rock band I don't have any problem playing for our daughter), but this CD is probably best for kids age 3 - 8. There are a number of wonderful songs on the CD -- the first three ("Fibber Island," "Four of Two," "Robot Parade") are particularly strong. The CD is interactive, with lots of games (sort of) you can play while listening to the songs. You can also go to http://www.giantkid.net for more TMBG kiddie-related goodness.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)