Listen To This: "Can't Wait" - Gustafer Yellowgold (World Premiere!)

Gustafer Yellowgold - The Minnesota Chronicles album cover

Let’s hear it for new music from Gustafer Yellowgold! Yes, it’s true, Morgan Taylor and one of kids music’s most indelible characters, Gustafer Yellowgold, is back with more audio earworms for your family’s listening pleasure with tomorrow’s release of The Minnesota Chronicles. It’s the second audiobook Taylor’s created for Audible — this story features Gustafer on earth trying to cure his “ultra-rare case of Ice-Cream-Cone-Heart,” but the heart of Gustafer for me, anyway, will always be the songs, as Taylor is particularly skillful at providing brief character sketches and occasionally surreal images wrapped in melodies inspired by the Beatles and ‘70s AM rock radio.

The first track is “Can’t Wait" has a particularly Beatles-y sound to my ears, and will sound familiar to longtime Gustafer fans and instantly appealing to those who haven’t discovered him yet. I’m pleased as punch to premiere the track here.

If you want to learn more about the audiobook, take a look at this YouTube teaser. (An artist originally known for his animated music videos creates audiobooks, which is then promoted via YouTube… we live in weird times.) And luckily, even if you “Can’t Wait” to hear the whole thing — you don’t really need to — the audiobook is out tomorrow.

Who knew that a visit to Minnesota would be even stranger than life on the Sun? Our tale begins where I'm from the Sun: The Gustafer Yellowgold Story leaves off. Emboldened from a putterbike race victory against his arch-nemesis, young sunling Gustafer Yellowgold heads to Earth to cure his ultra-rare case of Ice-Cream-Cone-Heart.

Listen To This: "Kutapira" - Oran Etkin (feat. Musekiwa Chingodza) (World Premiere!)

Album cover to Oran Etkin’s Finding Friends Far From Home: A Journey with Clara Net

The clarinetist Oran Etkin is well-traveled. Sure, he’s based in New York City, but his concert schedule takes him literally all over the world. He plays concerts for adults, while also making music for families, both through his early music education program Timbalooloo as well as through concerts in the U.S. and abroad.

His forthcoming album Finding Friends Far From Home: A Journey with Clara Net is the fruit of many of these travels, featuring collaborations with musicians from Zimbabwe, China, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. Sure, the structure of the album, in which Etkin’s friend “Clara Net” (go ahead — I think you can guess what instrument plays that role) meets children in the various countries, is intended to serve as an introduction to young listeners. But such an overlay means very little if the music itself isn’t fun and well-played.

Oran Etkin holding his clarinet. Photo by John Abbott

I guarantee that “Kutapira,” the track below, will get your day going right. It features Musekiwa Chingodza, a Zimbabwean Gwenyambira, or spiritual master of the mbira (thumb piano). Chingodza and Etkin (on the clarinet, of course) are joined by the girls choir of the Zimbabwe College of Music, Sam Mataure on drums, and Etkin’s bassist Marcos Varela.

What does “Kutapira” mean? Well, you can listen to this introductory track featuring Etkin and another mbira player, Irene Chingamba, who introduced Etkin to many of Zimbabwe’s mbira masters. But regardless of whether you listen to the intro track or not, I’m sure you'll agree that “Kutapira” is pretty sweet.

Finding Friends Far From Home: A Journey with Clara Net is out on August 30th, but is available on many digital streaming sites for “pre-order” today. (You can listen to “Kutapira” on Spotify right now.) Thanks to Etkin for letting me world-premiere the track!

Oran Etkin - “Kutapira” (feat. Musekiwa Chingodza) [Soundcloud]

Photo credit: John Abbott

Listen To This: "Halo-Halo" - Mista Cookie Jar feat. Little Miss Ann (World Premiere!)

Cover to “Halo-Halo” single by Mista Cookie Jar and Little Miss Ann

I am new to the world of Filipino ice cream, but I had some Magnolia guava ice cream a few months back and was so wowed that I threw in a gratuitous reference to halo-halo, a Filipino ice cream treat that’s like an ice cream sundae with ALL the toppings, into a post featuring a song by Mista Cookie Jar and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.

Fast forward 6 months, Trader Joe’s briefly had some awesome ube ice cream in their stores, and so it feels appropriate that Mista Cookie Jar is back, teaming up with Little Miss Ann to give the world an entire song about halo-halo, the dessert treat commonly served with a scoop of ube ice cream on top.

A serving of halo-halo

Both artists have Filipino ancestry, and in talking about the song, they both mentioned excitement about being able to share the treat with their families as restaurants like Jollibee and more locally-based places make inroads into America.

Most tracks featuring Mista Cookie Jar don’t bother limiting themselves with one genre, and this track, written by both artists, has a gentle folk vibe with some hip-hop swirled into the mix. In its mellow, mixed-up way, it’s a little scoop of halo-halo for the ears. I’m super glad to be world-premiering the track here today. It’s available in all the places you get your digital music, including via the link below.

Little Miss Ann and Mista Cookie Jar - “Halo-Halo” [Bandcamp]

Listen To This: "Le Grand K" - Pointed Man Band (World Premiere!)

“Le Grand K” single cover

Who’s in the mood for a jaunty song about the weight loss of a tiny Parisian cylinder made of platinum and iridium!?!?!

Believe it or not, YOU are.

That’s right, Dan Elliott and his allusion-dense chamber-pop-for-kids music of Pointed Man Band have a song for you based on this very topic. It is ten tons of fun, or, er, one kilogram of fun, or, er, ever so slightly less than one kilogram of fun.

Elliott wrote the song a number of years ago, around the time of Flight of the Blue Whale, but never recorded it. Now as he went into the studio to record new music earlier this year, he dug the song out and the result is the track “Le Grand K” below, a world premiere for you!

And, yes, there’s more new music from the Portland band on its way — Amongst the Tall Trees will get a release later this year, tentatively set for late spring. Until then, consider “Le Grand K” a bonus track for your edification and enjoyment.

Pointed Man Band - “Le Grand K” [Soundcloud]

Listen To This: "Where Do The Children Play? (feat. Ziggy Marley)" - Renee & Friends (World Premiere!)

Cover art for Renee & Friends album “Kindred”

A Renee & Friends release is cause for celebrating, or perhaps, more appropriately, settling into a comfy chair after running around all day.

So you can circle one month from today — April 12 — on your calendar, because that’s when Renee Stahl and cast of friends are releasing the next R&F album Kindred.

Like its predecessor Simpatico, Kindred features some of Stahl’s favorite artists in the kids music scene, including Elizabeth Mitchell, Lisa Loeb, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Jennifer Paskow, and Ziggy Marley. (More from him below.) Stahl says the theme of this new album is “empowerment, community and compassion.” Fans of Simpatico will certainly warm to the new tracks as well, and those fans seeking a little more Renee & Jeremy music will also be pleased to hear Jeremy Toback joining Stahl on the album’s leadoff track “Kindness.”

While there are a lot of well-known names lending their voices, there are some some voices much closer to home, including Stahl’s two daughters. She cites producer Tom Rossi as being “wonderful in providing for an easygoing, fun vibe for them to shine with their sweet voices.” As for what it’s like to have your kids on your own album, she admits, “I do have to say it was a little easier when I wasn’t in the room.“

I get the lucky task today of premiering one of Kindred’s tracks, a duet between Stahl and Ziggy Marley on the Cat Stevens track “Where Do the Children Play?” It’s from Stevens’ classic album Tea for the Tillerman, an album which Rossi says he must have listened to “every day in high school.” The comparatively simple arrangement lets the voices take center stage, an immensely warm and pleasing sound the result. Perfect for timeouts, in a comfy chair or wherever.

Renee & Friends - “Where Do The Children Play? (featuring Ziggy Marley)” [Soundcloud]

Photo credit: Paul Dektor

Listen To This: "Rock This World (feat. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo)" [World Premiere!]

“Rock This World” cover

Wednesday is always a good day for new music, especially from Mista Cookie Jar. MCJ’s music blends all sorts of genres together and his first 2019 release shows that he’s not changing that approach now. “Rock This World” mixes some EDM, some trap (without the darker undertones), and Mista Cookie Jar’s characteristically revved-up optimism into a song perfect for celebrating anyone who needs a little celebrating. And if that’s not enough, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo throws in a verse, the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae (or the scoop of ube ice cream on top of the halo halo).

I’m happy to be world-premiering this track. Listen below or wherever you and your family jam to digital music.

Mista Cookie Jar (feat. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo) - “Rock This World” [Bandcamp]