Listen To This: "Free Bubbles" - Mista Cookie Jar (feat. Father Goose!)

"Free Bubbles" single cover

Good to have Mista Cookie Jar back to offer us more kindie music from about 15 minutes in the future.  This brand new track "Free Bubbles"  might make you feel a little irie, thanks to two of the most positive kids musicians -- that's saying something in this genre.  It's the L.A.-based MCJ himself, teaming up with his New York-based cross-country doppelganger Father Goose.

There's a little more (OK, a lot more) Auto-Tune on this track celebrating free bubbles (soap bubbles, but also more metaphorical bubbles) than Father Goose probably experiences when he plays with frequent collaborator Dan Zanes, but that's just the way that Mista Cookie Jar rolls.

Now, you may have already heard this song getting some airplay on your favorite radio/satellite radio/podcast, for a limited time, starting this first day of summer, you can download the track for name-your-own-price (including free!).  Just follow the link below, and even if you stumble upon this later this summer or the midst of winter, give it a spin for more summertime vibes.

Listen To This: "Colander Sun" - Lard Dog & The Band of Shy

"Colander Sun" single cover

So there's song about colanders and... well, that's all I really need to say, because, c'mon, do you really need to hear yet another song about puppies or holidays or friendship when you can hear an ode to colanders?  The number of kids' artists I figure as being up for a song featuring colanders is pretty small, and Lard Dog & The Band of Shy is definitely amongst them.

"Colander Sun" is part of the band's "Song-of-the-Month" project where they're releasing one song each month, given for free for the price of an e-mail address.  The song is, according to the band "in honor of Lard Dog's ancestry and in appreciation for this shiny, often over-looked option for a hat choice."  Yes, that's weird, but that's par for the course for the band, prepping its next full length album, Dreamers, out September 22.  Even ignoring the lyrical subject matter, it's got a nifty, blues riff on the guitar, and some fabulous vocals in the second half of the song from Sharaé Moultrie.  It's good for your spleen, or, at least, will cause no damage whatsoever.

Lard Dog & The Band of Shy - "Colander Sun" [Soundcloud]

Summer Road Trip Playlist!

Swing Set album cover

Beth Blenz-Clucas, proprietor of Sugar Mountain PR, has, for a number of years, compiled a summer road trip playlist featuring tracks from her clients.  This summer is no different, and there's a bunch of new and excellent tracks for your listening pleasure, including music from as-yet-unreleased albums from Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band, Danny Weinkauf, and Jazzy Ash, whose album Swing Set comes out July 21.  That's the very playful cover art over there.  (There's also music from artists like Lisa Loeb, Justin Roberts, and more.  Peep the list below.)

And while there's nothing definitively "road-trip-y" about the set (only Jazzy Ash's "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and Weinkauf's "Transportation") specifically suggest travel, it's an entertaining set nonetheless.  For the next week you can download it for free, but you can listen to it all summer.

Free Music for Valentine's Day (2017 Edition)

I haven't tried to put together a list of kids songs for Valentine's Day, mostly because songs about love, while not necessarily 85% of all songs like it seems music for adults can be, make up not a small portion of kindie output.

Luckily, Beth Blenz-Clucas with Sugar Mountain PR has put together a list of songs appropriate for Valentine's Day which have the added bonus of being free for the downloading for a limited time.  That's right, through Valentine's Day itself, next Tuesday, you can gather for your family a nice selection of tracks from artists like Justin Roberts, Recess Monkey, Little Miss Ann, Frances England, Raffi, Lucky Diaz and more.

You can play the entire playlist below, and, through Valentine's Day, click through to get the free download.

Christmas and Holiday Kids Music 2016

It has been a comparatively slow season this year for Christmas and general holiday-themed kids music, at least compared to previous years.  But that doesn't mean we've been left with coal.  Hanukkah and Christmas are only a week away, so let's jump in!

First, there's the first holiday song from Charlie Hope -- she's released a jolly and bright rendition of "Up on the Rooftop."  For the moment, you can still download it for free via the Soundcloud widget below!

Charlie Hope - "Up on the Rooftop" [Soundcloud]

Lard Dog and the Band of Shy - Rudolph cover

If Hope's track offers a simple reminder of youthful anticipation, the following track from Lard Dog and the Band of Shy serves up a blast of Christmas rebellion.  It's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," but a version unlike you've ever heard before, mixing in "Wild Thing," the Ramones" and even "Dreidel, Dreidel" into the holiday classic.  I really like both Hope's and Lard Dog's tracks, but they are toooootally different strains of Christmas songs, y'all.  Anyway, grab the free download at Lard Dog's website.

And while I would not have expected "hard-rocking" to be the most prevalent holiday song type, with Annie Lynn's "I Kept Your Present," that is, in fact, the case.  What to do when you find the perfect gift... for you, not for the person you bought it for?  This song has the answer.  You can stream it on Soundcloud, but the better version by far is her video.  The hands slay me.

Annie Lynn - "I Kept Your Present" [YouTube]

I'm sure I've missed some of this year's holiday music made specifically for kids -- let me know if I have [Ed: I did! Thanks, Sagan, for the reminders and heads up!]

A modern, electronic take on some holiday music comes from the Bay Area's Liz DeRoche, AKA The Singing Lizard.  There's not much on her Holiday Party EP that is specifically kid-focused, but the arrangements are fresh and worth exploring, even if you don't happen to have any little ones around.

The Singing Lizard - Holiday Party [Bandcamp]

Speaking of modern takes on Christmas music for kids, Minnesota's Uncle Dox features some fast but laid-back rhymes on "Santa."  There's been some really good hip-hop music for kids, and some good Christmas and holiday music for kids, but I'm hard-pressed to think of many hip-hop holiday music for kids.  This fits in that small Venn diagram intersection for sure.

Uncle Dox - "Santa" [Soundcloud]

A mellower take on some Christmas songs comes courtesy of Father Goose, who gets Dan Zanes, Sonia De Los Santos and others to help out "Irie Christmas." As you might suspect from the title, his take on a few Christmas classics gets mashed together with a reggae beat.

Father Goose - "Irie Christmas" [Spotify]

While we're on the Spotify edge of the world, how about something new from Colorado's Steve Weeks?  It's been a while, right?  Well, if you're looking for a tender ode to family togetherness or the meaning of the season, whatever your spiritual persuasion, you won't find it here.  Unless, of course, "Decorate the Cat" is how you celebrate the solstice.  Maybe it is.  I'm not judging.  In any case, this is a pretty amusing song.  (Again, unless, you're very much anti-cat-decorating.)

Steve Weeks - "Decorate the Cat" [Spotify]

Moving on, then, back to videos and something slightly more sincere.  The video below comes courtesy of Sara Lovell.

It's for "Wake Up It's Christmas Time," and it's one of those Christmas songs that celebrates the Christmas season mostly cultural and not spiritually, but makes an effort to celebrate the "spirit of the season," as it were in a most welcoming and non-exclusionary way.

The video itself is pretty simple -- Lovell strumming her (tenor?) ukulele in the woods -- but as a vehicle for the song itself, it works just fine.

Sara Lovell - "Wake Up It's Christmas Time" [YouTube]   

You'll notice that these features have been very much in the Christmas realm, albeit secularly and culturally.  Luckily, we have at least one entry this year full-on celebrating Hanukkah, which, unbeknownst to me, is now 25% more festival-ly.  Let the Macaroons explain in their animated video for "10 Days of Hanukkah."

The Macaroons - "10 Days of Hanukkah" [YouTube]

Finally (he says, not sure what else might come down the pike), there's the latest Caspar Babypants album, Winter Party!.

Winter Party album cover

I'll be honest -- I totally forgot about this album.  I mean, I got it in, what? July? August?  It's, like, 110 degrees here then, and, well... I really have no excuse, but now we're here in December and we're smack-dab in prime holiday-listening music time.

Winter Party is every bit as delightful and whimsical as you'd expect a Caspar Babypants holiday album.  You can stream the entire album via YouTube below, but above that, how about his take -- nature focused as always -- on "The Twelve Days of Christmas?"

Caspar Babypants - "The Twelve Days of Christmas" [YouTube]

Anyway, the songs are a nice mix of traditional songs (including folk songs reworked so that they are holiday songs) and a few originals.  Having said that, the Christmas songs are reworked lyrically so that they're not specifically Christian in the spirit of inclusiveness, but that could throw people who are used to the original lyrics of, say, "Silent Night."

If that doesn't bother you, you'll find Winter Party to be lots of fun (and, frankly, even if you do, you'll be able to skip the couple tracks on which that happens).  I think it's definitely recommended.

Caspar Babypants - "Winter Party" [YouTube]

Video: "Time to Make the Donuts" - Recess Monkey

Novelties album cover

For adults of a certain age, the phrase "time to make the donuts" will probably ring a certain set of bells.  Our kids, though?  That phrase will be linked with Recess Monkey.

That's because for their brand new album Novelties! (their thirteenth, and first for Amazon Music), they've got the catchy track "Time to Make the Donuts," and a video whose choreographed swooping and strutting seems like something out of an early OK Go video.  Jack sings while Drew and Korum step in and out of the frame with all manner of donut-related equipment in Seattle's own Top Pot Doughnuts' kitchen.  The video, filmed by Aaron Horton, is thoroughly charming.

By the way, for the next week (through June 23rd), you can grab a copy of "Time to Make the Donuts" for free right here.

Recess Monkey - "Time to Make the Donuts" [YouTube]