The high point in my list of the best kids music of 2011 is this, my list of my favorite kids music albums of the year.

By "year," again, I mean albums with Nov. 1, 2010 through Oct. 31, 2011 release dates available to the general public. That means albums like Laura Veirs' Tumble Bee, with a Nov. 8, 2011 release date, have to wait another 12 months before appearing in this list. (I would be shocked -- albeit incredibly delighted -- if there were 25 albums better than that particular one in the next year.)

I do use the word "favorite" advisedly. I receive something approaching 300 family music albums every year. I review maybe 20% of those. Last year I picked out 20 albums, and cutting off this list this year at 20 just seemed cruel. But, as it turns out, increasing the number on the list to 25 didn't make things any easier. Albums from folks like Laura Doherty, Chip Taylor, Todd McHatton, and ScribbleMonster -- albums I genuinely liked -- didn't make the list. That's what happens when albums in the top 10% of everything I heard this year can't fit into the number of slots available; I had probably about 40 albums I was seriously considering for this list. So the difference between what goes in this list and what stays off is as much about personal preferences as it is about "objective" quality. (That's why I came up with the idea for Fids and Kamily, thinking that the personal preferences of many folks would be a much better approximation of "best.")

In any case, here are those 25 albums, ranked from most favorite to a little less most favorite, that I (and we) most appreciated this year. (As always, the top 10 reflects my Fids and Kamily ballot.)

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

Continue reading "Best Kids Music 2011: Top 25 Albums" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, yeah, we had fun last weekend with Chuck Cheesman as part of the series at the Children's Museum of Phoenix.

Chuck's had years of experience playing younguns at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and around Arizona, so he's really good at getting the preschoolers and young elementary-aged kids up and moving around. The CMOP was no exception.

Here he is playing the title track from his new album Dancing With No Shoes On...

Chuck Cheesman - "Dancing With No Shoes On" (Live) [YouTube]

Continue reading "Concert Recap: Chuck Cheesman (Phoenix, October 2011)" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like all good (or is it bad) scary movies, my original Halloween music post for 2011 spawned not just one sequel, but has, with this post, become a full-on trilogy.

Chuck Cheesman has offered up his Halloween song "Halloween Freak Out!" from his latest album Dancing With No Shoes On as a free download for the next few days (and, really, who would want to listen to it on, say, Nov. 2nd?). Note: actual freaking out during the song is minimal. The download is available at the the top of this page.

Baze and His Silly Friends are offering up a free download of their 2009 song "Scare Me, Scare You."

Number of times "scary" is in the title = 2. Actual level of scariness = 0.1 (but that's OK!)

Download the track here or via the widget below.

Continue reading "Even More Halloween Songs and Videos" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't think that Jeff Krebs and Chuck Cheesman are the same person. Having said that, I've never seen the two bearded guitarists in the same place at the same time, and some of the similarities on their new albums leave the question open in my eyes.

The kindie world is very focused on rock and pop and sometimes other genres at the moment, which leaves the folk music that for many years was the backbone of the genre somehat pushed to the background. As a result, these two albums stand out more than they might have ten or twenty years ago.

I've long been a fan of Chuck Cheesman, a former Old Town School of Folk Music Wiggleworms teacher who now lives in the pines of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. His first album for families, A Family Handbook, was a solid record of mostly traditional tunes, and his just-released second kids' album Dancing With No Shoes On is just as solid.

It's an occasionally goofy, occasionally heartfelt, always warm collection of songs. It's folk music that draws no small amount of inspiration from Woody Guthrie (see "Seafood Song" or "A Big Dog Ate My Homework," perhaps). Given his longtime experience playing for kids, he's got a good sense of what kids will respond to, songs like the banjo-aided "Chocolate-Covered Brussels Sprouts" and the bluesy (natch) "Milkstache Blues." It's a mostly upbeat, sunny approach -- something to play in the summer, or maybe a warm Northern Arizona fall. The 35-minute album (which includes 4 songs heard on his first album) is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7; you can hear song clips here.

If Dancing with No Shoes On is a sunny, almost summer-y folk album, Things That Roar, Jeff Krebs' (aka Papa Crow) first album for families is a little more hushed, a Michigan winter to Cheesman's Arizona mountain summer.

Nothing is being reinvented here (OK, maybe the beat loops on "High Up on a String" are a little new), but the 14 originals are put together with care. It's not just a guy and a guitar -- it features (among other things) accordion, banjo, sleigh bells, and a couple nice duet turns by Kerry Yost. Krebs has an appealing voice himself and shows off some nifty guitar and ukulele work on songs like "Polar Bear in a Snowstorm" and "Ukulele." And if "Chicken Lips" doesn't become a minor radio hit, I'll be sorely disappointed. Kids ages 2 through 7 will most appreciate the songs here. You can hear some songs from the 32-minute album at the Papa Crow ReverbNation page.

When I mentioned this as one of my favorite new albums of the fall, I deliberately included Crow along with Dan Zanes, one of his inspirations. Things That Roar is a gentle breath of fresh air, and maybe my desire for cooler weather caused me to prefer that to Dancing With No Shoes On, but they're both fine albums. Chuck Cheesman is one of those artists who, if they were in a larger market, would be much better known; Dancing With No Shoes On is just an excellent collection of new and folk music. And while Papa Crow's got a ways to go to reach the heights of Zanes or Elizabeth Mitchell or Frances England, artists who've inspired him, but Things That Roar is a small delight and fans of those artists will probably find in Papa Crow someone they want to hear more of as well. Both albums are definitely recommended.

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

Another fun set of shows at the Children's Museum of Phoenix this past weekend, this time featuring Flagstaff's Chuck Cheesman. The set we saw was a nice mix of originals, familiar tunes (Woody Guthrie, the Beatles, Joel Frankel), and movement stuff appropriate for preschoolers. To avoid copyright concerns, Chuck and I decided not to post covers. Unfortunately, that's usually when I happened to push "record" on my Flip. Little Boy Blue deleted another video, leaving me with this. It's not that I don't like this particular song (the last time we saw Chuck, we said "Ahoooooooy, mateys. Arrrrrgh!" for, like, a month). It's just that it doesn't quite show off his wonderful voice to best effect. Anyway, those of you in preschool (OK, and those that mind them) will appreciate this.

For Arizona-area folks, Chuck's playing (as is Laura Freeman) at the Pickin' in the Pines festival up in Flagstaff this weekend. Weather should be awesome.

Chuck Cheesman - "The Pirate Song" [YouTube]

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've tended not to talk much about the Phoenix shows I've been putting on, given the more national focus of the site, but a quick heads up for anyone from the Phoenix area who isn't on my e-mail list or didn't hear about this through Facebook and the like. Tomorrow (Sunday) there will be two different shows set up with my assistance. First up, the Children's Museum of Phoenix continues its 2009 series of concerts with a pair of sets from Flagstaff-based artist Chuck Cheesman. Chuck played in the famous Wiggleworms program at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music and I've seen him a number of times here in Arizona. If you've got preschoolers, this'll be a fun show for them. The show is free with museum admission. Shows are at 10:30 and 12:30 and require tickets, which I believe are sold out, but as people move in and out of the shows, you'll probably be able to get in even if you don't have a ticket and are willing to wait just a little bit.

Second, Church of the Beatitudes here in Phoenix (which just so happens to be my church) is starting a full season of Not Just For Kids Concerts (we kicked it off last season with Randy Kaplan and Justin Roberts) and the first show will feature Todd Baio playing his ukulele with songs for young and old. The show starts at 2 PM and is free. I will get around to talking about the Not Just For Kids Concerts soon enough 'round here because we're going to have 6 or 7 shows this season and it's going to be pretty darn cool...

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our family was on vacation a while back and while doing so in Northern Arizona, we ran into Chuck Cheesman not once, but twice. It made me think that I haven't talked nearly enough about Chuck here. Why, I don't know. Maybe it's just the familiarity -- he's one of the very few artists that we can see (or hear) on a regular basis, and it's easier for me to get excited about a band or artist doing something brand new.

Chuck's A Family Songbook is one of those really solid collections of traditional songs geared at preschoolers that I've just not worked my way around to reviewing. Maybe it's just because families probably only need or one two of those types of albums, and they probably already have them. There's no particular reason that a family in, say, Pittsburgh would need a copy of A Family Songbook if they've already got a couple CDs of traditional songs they like.

It only goes to prove just how important that local connection is between artists and their audience, particularly in this genre. Because if you do live in Arizona (and in particular up in Flagstaff), I'd consider A Family Songbook fairly essential. It's recommended, at the very least.

Finally, this isn't really a kids' song -- Chuck said he was working more on his instrumental playing skills than on writing music, kids or otherwise -- but it's a sweet song to his kids. You can download of a live radio recording of "Unconditional" here. (Oh, and by the way, he's playing with past-and-future Family Music Meltdown veteran Laura Freeman at the Pickin' in the Pines Festival in a couple weeks in Flagstaff.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are many reasons why the Phoenix area is not a hotbed for children's and family music and to delineate them all would require a long essay filled with suppositions, sarcasm, and half-truths. And while I am no stranger to any of those, it seems a fairly negative topic for so early in the year.

So let us turn our attention to Chuck Cheesman, an honest-to-goodness Arizona kids and family musician. In a time-honored Arizona tradition, we can claim Chuck as an Arizona musician because we got him to move here from someplace else. Chuck lived in Chicago, taught at the Old Town School of Folk Music and even sang on three tracks on their Wiggleworms Love You CD until the call of the beautiful pines of Northern Arizona drew him and his family to Flagstaff.

This weekend, Chuck made his first foray to Phoenix for some kids' shows (he'd been here before, I believe, for his more adult-oriented folk shows), and my daughter and I caught him at a local bookstore. Cheesman played mostly traditional kids songs, accompanying himself on guitar. He clearly had many years of practice entertaining the small fry, memorizing the kids' names and trying to draw them into the performance. (I liked the hand motions Cheesman's family, who was in attendance, had for "Bling Blang.")

My daughter, who can be shy in new situations, spent most of the performance sitting behind one of the bookshelves. But she listened, sometimes singing to herself, and I enjoyed watching her peer between the shelves trying to catch a glimpse of something new Cheesman was doing.

Cheesman has a voice slightly reminiscent of James Taylor, clear and sweet. His first family release, A Family Songbook (2003), has a nice mix of Wiggleworms standards with newer songs (a fun "Rubber Duckie," a very bluesy "Big Blue Dog"). He's by no means reinventing any family music wheel on the CD, but it's a very well-done CD with the occasional track filled out with additional instruments. (You can find out more about the CD here.)

Of course, in a bookstore, you can't bring more than a guitar, but Cheesman has an engaging performing personality. There weren't many kids in attendance, but he's blazing a trail down here. When he comes through again (hopefully with a new CD, still in the works), I'll spread the word here -- he should definitely have a lot more people listening and singing along.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)