Take Me Outside - Jessie Farrell

Album: Take Me Outside

Age Range: 3 through 7

Description: A few years back, I thought that country music would be the next genre to receive the full kids music treatment. There were a couple artists that took that approach and then... it all faded away. Today there's virtually nobody making what I'd think of as straight-ahead country for the younger set.

Enter Canadian musician Jessie Farrell, who's recorded four albums of country music for adults and has now released this new album for kids. The album title suggests songs celebrating nature and the outdoors, and sure enough, that's what we get. The gentle "Wind," the messy "Marvellous Mud Pie," the earthy "Bugs and Slugs" (all about, yes, bugs and slugs). The production features Farrell's warm voice with a hint of twang and enough fiddle and acoustic guitar to place this firmly in the country music camp. While I didn't care too much for the songs that tried to make a point (in "Feeling Free," a kid begs the parents she loves to take her outside), songs like "Morning Song," which are more brief sketches, are more effective.

I still wonder why the lyrics-driven and production-focused genre that gives us artists like Kacey Musgraves and Eric Church hasn't produced more music for families. Take Me Outside is a good first step -- artfully done, and an album I'd recommend for any families who wish their family music collection had a little more twang.

Sleep Softly - L'Ensemble Agora (The Secret Mountain)

Artist: L'Ensemble Agora (The Secret Mountain)

Album: Sleep Softly: Classical Lullabies by Brahms, Schubert, Satie, Debussy...

Age Range: 0 through 3

Description: The latest book/CD combo from Canadian publisher The Secret Mountain turns to music decades -- OK, mostly centuries -- old to produce a classical lullaby album. L'Ensemble Agora is a French sextet known for setting children's literature to music, so they know their way around playing for kids, though one would hope that in a concert setting they're trying to engage their audience, rather than put them to sleep.

There are dozens -- hundreds? -- of classical lullaby albums, so what's distinctive about this one? Well, these are mostly short pieces (in some cases mere excerpts, I believe), and many of them are specifically lullabies (as opposed to relaxing pieces of classical music). It's also distinctive in that it's a book, though the book is geared more towards the adult than the 18-month-old who just won't fall asleep -- Elodie Nouhen's detailed, dream-like illustrations will be appreciated more by older kids and adults, and the explanatory notes are definitely for adults. I suppose that's not surprising, as that target audience of 18-month-olds can't read, so why provide kid-focused liner notes? But in its chief task, of calming and reassuring the child (and, to some extent, the parent), Sleep Softly succeeds -- everything else is just bonus. Recommended.

Animals - Jonathan Mann

Artist: Jonathan Mann

Album: Animals

Age Range: 5 through 10

Description: Jonathan Mann is best known for recording and releasing a song a day, every day, for more than 6 years. So when he came up with the idea of revisiting and rerecording some of his best songs, he clearly had a large batch to choose from. Animals is, as you'd surmise, a collection of animal-related tunes that, while not specifically a kids' album, is definitely kid-friendly. (Mann notes that while he was thinking of this as his "kids album," none of the songs were written as kids songs.)

The poppy and synth-assisted songs themselves are pretty silly -- "Penguins Having a Party" and "Kittens in Space" lead off the album, and they're about exactly what their titles suggest. The songs generally tend toward the fanciful (another song: "Steve, the Hippo with Multiple Personalities") and so while there's some factual information, that's not the purpose of these tracks. Because of their origins -- hey, you try writing a song a day every day -- some of the songs are pretty brief and feature a single idea. When it comes to kids' songs, though, that can be a feature, not a bug. ("Deer Licks the Cat" is a gloriously dorky singalong focused on a chorus basically consisting of the title... and it won't. leave. your. brain.)

You can stream and purchase the digital album here. It's a light album, catchy and happy. Slide some of these into your next playlist. Recommended.

Backyard Garden - Earthworm Ensemble

Artist: Earthworm Ensemble

Album: Backyard Garden

Age Range: 4 through 8

Description: The Los Angeles group refines their alt-country indie-rock but keeps the eco-sensibility on their second album, the follow-up to their 2010 self-titled debut. As a person who has heard more kids music than 99.999% of parents (99.99999%?), I don't need to hear songs like "Compost" or "Reduce Reuse Recycle," which take a more instructional view of encouraging a greater awareness of the natural world (and our impact as a part of it), though I was amused by the Beach Boys homage midway through the latter track.

More subtle, but still vivid, are songs like the alt-country pop of "Ladybug" or the Beck-ian shuffle of "Bees Make Honey." Telling the story of the predator-prey relationship between moles and coyotes Rashomon-like in two songs -- the bluesy "Mole vs. Coyote" (from the mole's point of view) and the driving "Coyote vs. Mole" (the coyote, natch) -- is particularly innovative.

The 46-minute album features a large cast of guests joining the heart of the band with the resulting songs given a nice sound -- ramshackle when called for, but mostly well-polished. Listen to three songs from the album here. Lots of albums celebrating the natural world can feel stiff and didactic, but Backyard Garden avoids those traps for the most part. It's an album your family would conceivably listen even if it's not the week of Earth Day. Recommended.

Trees - Molly Ledford & Billy Kelly

Artist: Molly Ledford & Billy Kelly

Album: Trees

Age Range: 5 through 9

Description: I could probably write a thousand words reviewing this album from Lunch Money mastermind Ledford and the Pennsylvania-based Kelly. Instead, I decided to review the album on NPR. Trying to fit sound clips, host intro and extro, and narrative into about 3 minutes and 15 seconds tends to cut down on the number of words one can squeeze in. Having said that, let me just say that I love this album -- the interplay between Ledford's sweeping palette and Kelly's precise and often humorous views, the interplay between Ledford and Kelly themselves, ably assisted by producer Dean Jones. Kids will dig different songs for different reasons.

You can stream the entire album here. I hope there isn't an album as good as this one this year, because I'm not sure my heart could take it. Get it. Highly recommended.

The Incredibly Spaced-Out Adventures of Jupiter Jackson - Eric Herman

Artist: Eric Herman

Album: The Incredibly Spaced-Out Adventures of Jupiter Jackson

Age Range: 6 to 10

Description: The Washington-based Herman is best known for his music (including one undeniable classic), so his latest album, a concept comedy album, is a bit of a departure. Not too much of one, as Herman's always had a higher laugh ratio than most kids albums, but in recording an album of comedy sketches, he definitely steps further out on that limb.

There's a supposed theme to the album -- it's an hour of radio broadcasting from the XYZPDQ Satellite Radio Network -- but it's unimportant. This is humor for your favorite 8-year-old of varying degrees of sophistication. Don't be deceived by some of the titles -- "Monday Science" and "Archaeology Hour" are probably the two most immature (in a good way) sketches. "Monster League Baseball" is particularly pun-filled. There's also a pleasing thoroughness to the album as a whole with phrases repeated in different sketches, and the "ads" and public service announcements having a certain... circularity. (You can listen to preview clips here.)

The album won't erase the memory of the classic comedy albums of your own youth, but it's amusing, and also serves to emphasize how comparatively rare albums like this - audio comedy targeted at the mid-elementary school crowd - are these days. Recommended.

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

Wishin' Volume 1 - Liz, Holly & the Jolly Lollies

Artist: Liz, Holly & the Jolly Lollies

Album: Wishin' Volume 1

Age Range: 2 through 5

Description: Based in the Charlotte area, Liz Seegers and Holly Lorette are early childhood music teachers, so it's little surprise that their debut EP stays safely in that preschool age range. Songs about transportation ("I Wish I Were an Airplane"), feeling OK when things go bad ("We All Have Bad Days"), a "Freeze!" song ("Wiggle Freeze") -- these are familiar topics for albums for this age range.

But there's something about this album that elevates it above a lot of the music I hear for this age range. Maybe it's the slightly handmade sound, so it's not overproduced. Maybe it's Seegers' and Lorette's voices, which are sweet but slightly nasally and sound lovely in harmony. Maybe it's the fact that they offer up "Storm," which is more tone poem than song. Maybe -- probably -- it's all three of those things. Whatever, it just works.

You can listen to clips and one full song from the 16-minute album (hey, I said it was an EP!) here. The duo is currently raising money via Kickstarter for Volume 2. Based on the evidence from Volume 1, I'm looking forward to hearing more. Recommended.

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

Spaghetti Eddie and Other Children's Songs Volume 4 - Brendan Parker

Artist: Brendan Parker (aka Spaghetti Eddie)

Album: Spaghetti Eddie and Other Children's Songs Volume 4

Age Range: 2 through 6

Description: The Oklahoma-based Parker released his latest collection of preschool-friendly pop over the new year. Like volumes 1 through 3, a lot of the music on Volume 4 tackles educational topics (defined broadly), like animals at the zoo ("Zoo Song") or more socio-emotional topics like sharing ("What's Mine Is Yours") and self-acceptance (the ba-ba-da-ing "I Am Me"). Adults may find some of the sillier songs ("Dance!," "Robot Ralph," and "Yawns Are..." chief among them) have more replay value precisely because they're not as overtly educational.

But Parker's refined his songwriting over the years -- in the course of this 26-minute album, he offers up more than his fair share of alternative pop hooks. Fans of artists like SteveSongs and the Flannery Brothers will find themselves in familiar, and probably appealing, territory here. Recommended.

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