I've been mulling over a couple posts on how kids music has infiltrated my "regular" world. To begin, let's take a look at my iPod.
It's an iPod Shuffle, actually, the first generation, with -- OMG! -- a full 1 GB of storage, enough for maybe 300 songs if you like blissful (and short) pop songs for your 5:30 AM jogging or workout pleasure. At the moment iTunes says I have 313 songs on my "Workout" playlist, or about 1.03 GB. In assembling my playlist, I need to be cognizant of the fact that my wife will sometimes use my Shuffle. The upshot of this is that the playlist is devoid of Nirvana (wife: not really a Nirvana fan) and a lot of somewhat harder-edged tunes I might otherwise put on the playlist.
My playlist is, aside from that caveat and the absence of workout-unfriendly string quartets and Miles Davis, fairly representative of my overall collection -- 21 TMBG songs, 12 U2 songs, 11 Spoon tracks, 10 from R.E.M., and so on.
There are also in those 313 songs a total of 31 songs -- almost exactly 10% -- I'd classify as "kids music" (iTunes' categorization isn't the best -- it puts some Elizabeth Mitchell stuff in "Alternative & Punk," which is true, but I think you get my point). Frankly, if I were more assiduous about transferring my kids' music to iTunes, I'd probably have more songs here, but I'm happy with that list. Save for a couple tracks (e.g., Ben Folds on "Red Is Blue"), they're totally upbeat and put a grin on my face.
Which, when you're cruising on that fifth or sixth mile, is a nice bump. The list is after the jump. And feel free to suggest any other workout-friendly kids music tracks in the comments.
The Dorkiest Thing I'll Post All Week
I realize the week is early, and "dorky" probably covers a good third of my material here, but sometimes I get press releases that make me chuckle.
Your (and my) calendar might say that today is the first day of the month of September, but according to the folks at Sirius Kids Stuff, it's -- wait for it --
"Septem-Berkner!" Get it? Get it? Yeah, well, anyway, I laughed. Sometimes that's all it takes.
All month, the channel's featuring Laurie Berkner-related activities, including an in-studio performance. You can watch a video of "Victor Vito" here which makes me wonder if when Berkner's 60 she'll still have to play that song like the Rolling Stones are still playing "Brown Sugar" and "Satisfaction." I think I'd still rather watch Berkner.
Looking For CDs...
Not me personally (though, hey, if you've got something new, drop me a line), Princess Katie and Racer Steve. They're playing some charity gigs at hospitals this fall and are looking for kids music CDs that they can leave with the kids (or the hospitals) they play for. Good idea, that, so if you're a kids' musician, you may want to drop 'em a line. (Hat tip: Gwyneth.)
Chuck Cheesman, A Belated Appreciation
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.)
Barenaked in the Bathroom
Really.
OK, not really. Just Ed Robertson from the Barenaked Ladies restarting his "Bathroom Sessions" with 3 videos entitled "Bathroom Snacks" featuring songs from the BNL kids' album Snacktime, natch. I'm assuming these were recorded before Ed's recent plane crash, but maybe Ed's just an incredibly resilient person.
Barenaked Ladies (Ed Robertson) - "There's A Word"
I love the fact that the "word for that" actually appears on the screen. Oh, and if you want to learn the chords, you're totally able to do so thanks to the framing.
The other two videos after the jump.
Seven Sleepy CDs: A Whole Bunch of Lullaby Reviews
I get lots of CDs, of course, and just like sometimes you'll see a whole of TV shows suddenly appear with the same theme, earlier this year I got a raft of lullaby/sleeptime CDs. I've collected some of the more interesting ones from that rush, plus a few slightly older ones that got overlooked the first time around.
That's right, folks, seven CDs. At least one of them's gonna put you (or your kid) to sleep but in, like, a good way. The list starts after the jump.
