Listen To This: "Jumping Through Hoops" - The Bright Siders (feat. Zara Bode & Gabe Witcher) (World Premiere!)

A Mind of Your Own album cover

Way more than a decade ago, I noted how kids music — at least a lot of the new music produced in the 21st century — hadn’t really taken emotional intelligence as a theme. Several years later, at least some such songs had been written, but it wasn’t a list that you could put on Spotify and listen to for days on end.

I’m sure that list is out of date at this point, but there’s always room for more music that’s tuneful and meets kids where they are, emotionally.

So I’m excited that the venerable Smithsonian Folkways label — who’s long included music in service of kids as part of their catalog — is releasing the debut album from the new duo The Bright Siders. The band consists of singer-singer Kristin Andreassen (charter member of “Crayola Doesn’t Make a Color For Your Eyes” Fan Club here) and Brooklyn-based child psychiatrist Kari Groff, MD.

Their album, A Mind of Your Own, is released next week, on January 21, and it’s a whole album inspired, as they put it in the liner notes, “from our shared desire to connect with children through music, and to spark meaningful conversations between adults and children about growing up and all the emotions that go with it.”

On the track I’m world-premiering today, “Jumping Through Hoops,” the duo turns over singing duties to Zara Bode and Gabe Witcher, two of many artists Andreassen and Groff bring on board for the project. Groff says that the song is a tribute to all those New York City kids who do so much to handle the intensity of a big, hot crowded city and is “intended to inspire all children to have courage and perseverance, especially during tough times.” The song itself is a loping bit of positivity with a sweet bit of fiddle.

Times are tough at the moment — perhaps you need this, too.

Anyway, I’m happy to world-premiere this track — you can find it in all the usual places.

Andreassen and Groff in front of a colorful building (Credit: Jefry Andres Wright)

Smithsonian Folkways · The Bright Siders - Jumping Through Hoops (feat Zara Bode and Gabe Witcher)

Photo credit: Jefry Andres Wright

Listen To This - "If You Want a Song" - The Okee Dokee Brothers (World Premiere!)

If You Want a Song single cover

I don’t know if people are necessarily looking for “happy” entertainment these days, but I do suspect that people are looking to increase the percentage of “uplifting” stuff as part of their family’s entertainment diet. (That diet is probably larger than it used to be.)

May I suggest a recommended daily allowance of Okee Dokee Brothers music? I doubt the FDA would give it its stamp of government approval, but you know I’m right. And also singing. Singing daily is also highly recommended. Pete Seeger would tell you that straight out.

Singing Okee Dokee Brothers songs? Doubly recommended. The Minnesota duo had planned to release their double album Songs for Singin’ in the middle of summer, but taking a look at the weird new world they (and we) find themselves in now, they’re going to release this album full of singalong originals two months early, on May 1. (Two disks! That’s a lot of music!)

The Okee Dokee Brothers playing banjo and guitar

You can hear one of the songs early right here, today.. “If You Want a Song” is rousing singalong that, OK, it’s a little bit about singing, but it’s a lot about other stuff too. But it sounds great whether you blast out the lyrics all on your own or engage in a little call-and-response with whoever happens to be where you are right now.

About the album itself, Joe and Justin say that they got to see Pete Seeger perform live a few years before he passed away and the performance “always stuck with them as an example of how a strong song and a dedicated songleader can get a room full of people singing with spirit.” If you hear echoes of social and political engagement, that’s not an accident. “Life is a conversation,” they say, “a back and forth, a call and response.”

So I’m tickled to be premiering this song today. Whether you’re the songleader or follower, I hope you’ll sing along with this at least once.

Photo credit: Nate Ryan Photography

Listen To This - "What Is a Leader?" - Alastair Moock (feat. Rani Arbo & some smart kids) [World Premiere!]

Massachusetts-based musician Alastair Moock couldn’t have imagined the sort of world he’d be releasing Be a Pain: An Album for Young (and Old) Leaders into. I mean, sure, the year 2020 will feature a United States Presidential election, not to mention many other down-ballot elections — questions of leadership would have been front-of-mind for many adults and probably not a few kids as well.

Alastair and a group of kids

But [practicing physical distancing, gesturing broadly from his home office] this?

Yeah. Not the way most musicians would want to introduce their brand new album to the world.

As I think about it, though, we’re probably thinking even more about leadership and grappling with how a society decides what’s best for all of us. They’re not easy questions — if they were, elected officials and the public wouldn’t be having so many discussions about the best way forward.

In putting together his last album, Singing Our Way Through: Songs for the World’s Bravest Kids, recorded in the wake of his 5-year-old daughter Clio being diagnosed with cancer, Moock says that although he loves putting “words and music together in a harmonious way… you can’t solve every puzzle for every listener.” Moock goes on to say:

When it came to difficult subject matter like life and death, and dealing with fear, my natural instinct to try to offer solutions fell short time and time again. I wanted to tell kids, "everything will be OK." But I knew I couldn't honestly offer that assurance. Instead, I had to learn how to let things lie: ask questions, plant seeds, let the listener meet me halfway with their own experience.

I brought that experience to the also-challenging political material on Be a Pain. This time I went into the project knowing that I wouldn't be able to provide all the answers. I would need to frame songs in a way that kids and parents could do some of the problem-solving on their own –– and, hopefully, also together.

That openness is heard most directly on the album’s opening track, “What Is a Leader?,” which is given its world premiere here. For obvious reasons, a lot of kids music answers questions, but this track mostly just poses questions. Moock comments:

I wondered if, rather than telling kids what it means to be a leader, I could ask them to tell me. I wrote a bunch of musical questions about what a leader might look like, talk like, and do. I thought I might leave the song there, but then it occurred to me: why not ask actual kids to tell me what a leader is and record their responses? That's what my producer, Anand Nayak, and I spent a few months doing. Eventually we ended up with a stockpile of fantastic, varying answers from kids aged 4 to 14 which we were able to weave into the song.

I’m glad I get the chance to share this song right now. In times of great uncertainty, asking the questions and thinking about the answers is one of the most important things we can all do, young and old. Be a Pain is released on April 3; you can also watch Moock live weekly on Facebook and YouTube.

Listen To This - "Just Another Finger" - Mista Cookie Jar [World Premiere!]

Call me the thumb

Sometimes people need some simple entertainment to take their minds off - ahem - more weighty topics. Those weighty topics are suuuuper important, but if we don’t take an opportunity to enjoy ourselves, even for 3 minutes at a time.

Or even just 2 minutes and 48 seconds. That’s the length of the latest release from the steadiest of kids’ musicians, Mista Cookie Jar. It’s a new-yet-old track from the SoCal troubadour — “Just Another Finger” was originally a Dog on Fleas track, but a few years ago MCJ and Dog on Fleas’ ringmaster Dean Jones combined to produce a most righteous mashup. In terms of social importance, an ode to the noble thumb might not be the highest on the list, but a little silliness can be just the trick, even if only for a little while. Dance a bit, if you can, to this release, out today on all the various digital places. Let your fingers (and/or your thumb) take you there…

Mista Cookie Jar - “Just Another Finger” [Bandcamp]

Listen To This: "I've Got The World (for You)" - Justin Roberts (World Premiere!)

Justin Roberts’ “Wlid Life” album cover

You had me at “Justin Roberts.”

One of the kids musicians whose music has been part of our life since our first kid’s toddlerhood,, Justin Roberts, has a brand-new album coming out in just a month. It’s called Wild Life, and of course we’re very excited for it here at Zooglobble HQ, even though we’re long past the first year of parenthood, which is Roberts’ inspiration for his latest album.

With a name like Wild Life, you might think that the album is full of revved-up rave-ups — Roberts is pretty good at those — but tracks like “I’ve Got The World (for You)” are a little more reserved. Think “Wlid Life” as in messed up, tousled hair rather than anything disastrous. Roberts’ lyrical warmth and ear for hooks remains as sharp as ever, even as he plays more in the key of Paul Simon (hello, Graceland!) than Paul Westerberg.

I’m happy to feature a world premiere of “I’ve Got The World (for You)” for your listening pleasure. I’ve got a feeling this and the whole album will feature in a lot of parent-infant time in the year ahead.

Wild Life is out on February 28th — preorder or pre-save the album at your family’s favorite listening place here.

Listen To This: "I'm an Optimist" - Dog on Fleas (World Premiere!)

Album cover for Dog on Fleas’ “I’m an Optimist”

One way I think about the New York band Dog on Fleas is as kindie comfort food with a twist — japaleno mac ‘n’ cheese, perhaps, or an orange chicken burrito. Kindie music uberproducer Dean Jones and bandmates John Hughes and Chris Cullo produce music that families want to settle down with all comfy-like but with a musical (or lyrical) perspective that’s ever-so-slightly askew from the standard.

Dog on Fleas have a brand new album titled I’m an Optimist coming out on November 8th. (That’s the cover art to the side, done by Cindy Hoose in collaboration with Jacinta Bunnell and Michael Wilcock.) A dozen tracks of Fleas goodness/weirdness. (Check out the video for “Doppelgänger” for an excellent example of “goodness/weirdness,” more so on the lyrical side of the equation.)

I am super-happy, then, to offer you the world-premiere stream of the title track, “I’m an Optimist.” The song is about leaning towards thinking about positive things, but if you think it’s going to be a sappy message song, you’d be wrong. The music takes the lead, a horn-filled R&B track that is really hard not to smile and bop along with. Let’s just say that when the (light) message kicks in, the brain is in a very receptive mode to hear that message. The family’ll enjoy this one.

Dog on Fleas - “I’m an Optimist” [Soundcloud]