-
-
-
Search
-
Recent Posts
- Kryptowährungen Handeln Test – Wo sind kryptowährungen verboten?
- Sichere Krypto Börse – Kryptowährung wovon abhängig?
- Kryptologie Uni Ulm | Welche kryptowährungen haben potenzial?
- Scalping Kryptowährung – Wie viele kryptowährungen gibt es bei coinbase?
- Margin Trading Kryptowährungen Yahoo Finance – Warum steigen kryptowährungen so stark?
Blog Archive
October 2025 M T W T F S S « Aug 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Categories
- Activities With Kids
- Adolescence
- Adulthood
- Aging
- Anger Management
- Apps
- Arts Education
- Babies
- Blog
- Books
- Boys to Men
- Breastfeeding
- Camp
- Cars
- Celebrity Dads
- Charity
- Child Development
- Children's Music Reviews
- Columns by Family Man
- Contests
- Creativity
- Dating Dad
- Death
- Divorced Dads
- Education
- Ethics
- Family Communication
- Family Man in the News
- Family Man Recommends
- Family Music
- Family Music Reviews
- Father's Day
- Featured Moms & Dads
- Film
- Food
- Free Stuff
- Friendship
- Gender
- Graduation
- Grandparents
- Halloween
- Health
- Helping Kids Understand Loss
- Holidays
- Humor
- Internet Safety
- LifeofDad.com
- Love and Courtship
- Marriage
- Morals
- Mother's Day
- Movies
- Music
- Newborns
- Over-parenting
- Parenting Stress
- Perspective
- Pets
- Politics
- Protecting Children
- Safety
- School
- Sex Ed
- Siblings
- Single Fathers
- Social Action
- Special Needs
- Sports
- Sweepstakes & Promotions
- Talking About Disasters
- Teens
- Top Ten Lists
- Travel
- Traveling With Kids
- TV
- Tweens
- Uncategorized
- Values
- Vasectomy
- Video
- What Dads Need to Know
- Work-Family Balance
Recent Comments
- Beth on The One That Ends With Hope
- Judi Feldman on The Brass Tacks of Music Education
- Fran Keer on A Road Well Traveled
- norman edelson on A Road Well Traveled
- Justin Rogan on The Gift of Boredom
- © 2025 - Gregory Keer. All rights reserved.
Laura Veirs – Tumble Bee
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
We end this wild and crazy calendar year with a recording that wraps the listener in an organic fibered blanket of folk music goodness. Tumble Bee is the progeny of Laura Veirs’s decision to slow down a bit after eight grown-up albums and the birth of her first child (with husband and producer Tucker Martine). Veirs and Martine culled through countless songs before settling on 13 gentle gems that were recorded in the comfort of the couple’s home.
For this disparate collection of folk songs, Veirs sings with the help of a sparkling array of folk and rock musicians, including Bela Fleck, Colin Meloy (The Decembrists), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and Brian Blade (who drums for Bob Dylan). Among the many tracks worth noting are “Little Lap-Dog Lullaby” for his gorgeous harmonies, “Tumblebee” for its Arcade Fire meets kid-music sensibility, “All the Pretty Horses” for its quiet gorgeousness, “Jump Down Spin Around” for its lively arrangement, and “Jamaica Farewell” for the mere fact that it’s one of my all-time favorite tunes and Veirs does it wonderfully.
In a season requiring crackling fires and hot chocolate, this album does the job of both with its warmth and richness.
www.lauraveirs.com – $13 (CD) – Ages birth to 100
Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks for November
With a little extra family time over the winter holidays, here are some FMR: Quick Picks for car rides and afternoon lazing-about sessions.
Things That Roar marks the debut of Papa Crow, aka Jeff Krebs, a Michigan-based mutli-instrumentalist with an easy-going style that clicks with young listeners (and older ears, too). Layered with Krebs’s straightforward folk vocals and his ukele, guitar, and banjo-playing, there’s much to crow about, including such songs as “Baby Makes Three” (with a kazoo solo at the end!), “The Peek-a-Boo Waltz,” “Polar Bear in a Snowstorm,” and “When I Grow Up.”
Rocknoceros presents its fourth album, following such clever discs as Pink! and Dark Side of the Moon Bounce, and it’s full of catchy melodies and animal facts. Colonel Purple Turtle (also available with a companion book) ranges over musical styles, from Latin/Calypso (“Harry Elefante”) to to pop-rock (“Echolocation’) to jazz (“Truman Coyote”).
For preschool kids, the new Jim Gill release, Music Play for Folks of All Stripes, is an impeccably crafted piece of edu-tainment. In teaching kids about the connection between music and play, Gill covers a diverse landscape that’s incredibly user-friendly. Sample “Beethoven’s Five Finger Play,” “The Onomatopoeia Pizzeria,” and “Habanera La La La,” among others.
From Russia with love comes Sand Castle, the elegant creation of dad-composer Sasha Bondarev. Nine songs reflect Bondarev’s background in Russia (there’s a classical-music feel to some of the songs, here) as well as his adopted home of America (where he has lived for the past 10 years). Try “Masha and the Rain,” “Little Pirate,” and “March of the Toy Soldiers.”
The Deedle Deedle Dees – Strange Dees, Indeed.
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
Calling themselves “America’s Ultimate Teaching Band” only tells part of the story, but it’s a pretty big chunk of what makes The Deedle Deedle Dees a revelation of a band. These tenaciously talented Dees have a new album that is offbeat, a little strange, and super smart — a combination that is surprisingly effective. It’s a little like They Might Be Giants for an older crowd of kids.
The disc has 19 songs, each of which touches on such topics as historical figures, philosophical concepts, and folkloric tales. Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live currently has the opening track of “Ah Ahimsa” playing frequently, largely because of its exotic sound and message about nonviolence (with references to Gandhi). “The Golem” uses klezmer-style strains along with its explanation of the mystical creature created to save the Jewish people from harm in 16th century Prague. Employing a late-‘70s rock sound (a bit of Joe Jackson and Queen), “Sacagawea” offers details of the Lewis and Clark guide from the grateful perspective of William Clark.
The Brooklyn-based band consists of leader/songwriter Lloyd Miller (who goes by Ulysses S. Dee), mandolin/guitar player Ari Dolegowski (Moby Dee), multi-instrumentalist (largely keyboards) Chris Johnson (Booker Dee), and percussionist Ely Levin (Otto von Dee). With the direction of producer Dean Jones (of Dog on Fleas), this recording is as musically potent and assured as it is educationally engaging. More highlights of the project range from the soaring story-song of African American pioneer “Sojourner Truth” to the quirky “Birds of America Don’t Care-Oh,” which offers a view that birds might have of the portraits Audubon painted. Two tracks also worth noting take on New York history: “Mayor LaGuardia’s Stomach” (about Moby Dee’s grandmother bumping into the legendary politician of NYC) and “Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way? (which mixes history about the 17th century explorer and the tale of “Rip Van Winkle”).
Because the lyrics offers so much enlightenment, it’s well worth calling up the group’s Web pages explaining the content of the songs’ words (http://teachddd.blogspot.com). There are even reading recommendations for adults. Strange Dees. Indeed. is an endlessly entertaining and instructive package of music. It makes the top 5 of my picks for 2011.
www.thedeedledeedledees.com and http://teachddd.blogspot.com – $10 (CD) – Ages 4 to 11
Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks for October
This month’s FMR: Quick Picks is headlined by the latest offering from the legendary Smithsonian Folkways label, Chip Taylor & The Grandkids – Golden Kids Rules. Best known as the songwriter of “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning,” Taylor trades rock and pop for the quieter appeal of folk-based songs sung with his own grandchildren. Sample “I’m Just Thinkin’ About You,” “Magical Horse,” and “Kids to Save the Planet,” among others.
Boston folk-scene staple Alastair Moock follows up his terrific 2009 debut family CD, A Cow Says Moock, with the equally fine These Are My Friends. HIghlights include the knee-slapping “Feets Up” (with Rani Arbo), the delightfully mixed up “CBAs and a Twinkle Baa,” and the catchy and nonsensical “From Me to You.”
Last but hardly least is the new Beethoven’s Wig release, Sing Along Piano Classics. Richarl Perlmutter, the multi-award-winning mind behind this wacky yet educational series of CDs dips into his bottomless well of tongue-twisting lyrics that accompany the classical originals. Lend your ears to such tracks as “Poor Uncle Joe” (based on Chopin’s “Funeral March”), “A Piano is Stuck in the Door” (Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”), and “Voyage to the Moon” (Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”).
Dan Zanes and Friends – Little Nut Tree
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
To see Dan Zanes in concert is to witness a musician so comfortable in his skills and on-stage presence that it appears he’s playing for a few friends on a Sunday afternoon. Zanes stands as one of the pioneers of contemporary family music that captures all maturity levels with a depth of richness and an air of playfulness. The wild-haired, rockin’ dad who played with the popular ‘80s band the Del Fuegos follows up his 2007 Grammy-winning album Catch That Train with this multicultural, festive recording.
Zanes sings and plays a variety of instruments with earthy ease throughout the 16 tracks on Little Nut Tree, but he’s well supported by an all-star cast of musicians. “Jim Along Josie’s” folk-blues benefits from Zanes’s frequent collaborator Father Goose, who lends a Jamaican flair to the backing vocals. Innovative string-instrument player and singer Andrew Bird joins the band leader on “I Don’t Need Sunny Skies,” a bright-messaged tune about being inspired by someone who lifts your spirits no matter what the clouds might say. On “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy,” Zanes grooves along with the marvelous Joan Osborne (of “What If God Were One of Us?” fame) while an organ, guitar, and horn section inflect the soulful sound.
This album is as consistently upbeat as it is sonically diverse. From the party feel of “In the Basement” and the Bob Marley-esque title track played with the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars to the welcoming strains of “Salaam” and the delicate “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere,” Zanes travels the world for exotic sounds and fits them all into his American roots foundation. Little Nut Tree is not only one of the year’s stand-out albums, it will likely be on my list as one of the best in the last decade.
www.danzanes.com – $14 (CD) – Ages 3 to All Grown Up
Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks in Word, Image, and Sound
Celebrate Jewish Lullabies – Volume 1, featuring project producer Craig Taubman, fits any night of the year, but seems especially appropriate with the Jewish High Holy Days coming up this and next month. Check out soothing songs by the likes of Taubman, The Pop Ups, and David Broza.
More goodies come in the form of Sing Along, the new album from Caspar Babypants (the kid-music monicker for Chris Ballew, who had pop success with the Presidents of the United States of America). These are tunes for the baby to preschool set that are alternatingly funny, smart, and sweet. Guests include “Weird Al” Yankovic, Frances England, and Recess Monkey.
Family music legend Trout Fishing in America created a storybook and CD pairing for Chicken Joe Forgets Something Important. Musicians Keith Grimwood and Ezra Ildet are joined by illustrator Stephane Jorish for this witty and rousing project about a cat who sleeps in a henhouse but dreams of music rather than dinner.
Party Day! is The Laurie Berkner Band’s first DVD of new videos.The strumming and singing family music superstar (who is often featured on the Nick Jr. channel) delivers 12 videos and a five-song bonus CD, with the song “My Family” as a highlight.
My last recommendation for this FMR: Quick Picks edition is ScribbleMonster, a group I’m just catching up with as I just did with Look Both Ways, their tribute to Sesame Street. Sample such songs as “What Babies Are Called” and “Just Happy to Be Me.”
The Jimmies – Practically Ridiculous
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
If you take in all the crazy fun details on the I Spy-like CD packaging, you’ll find a line on the bottom right of the back cover saying, “May contain tracks of nuts.” While this new album careens over multiple musical styles, leader Ashley Albert and her crackingly good musicians make it all come together like the best party on a CD platter your kids could try this year.
There are 13 cuts on this album, the follow-up to the successful Make Your Own Someday, but I have to call out “Mini Van Hot Rod” has my favorite songs. Maybe it’s my need to reinvent myself as a cutting-edge minivan dad, but the tune revs high, with Albert singing like Gwen Stefani as she hip-ifies the ubiquitous family vehicle. Staying lyrically colorful, the Jimmies swing out, big-band style on “Fine Art,” which celebrates kid creations.
The everyday drudgery of keeping clean gets the hip-hop treatment on “Wash Up” while “Every Day’s a Holiday” goes edgy country to talk about making the daily activities as festive as a winter holiday. A reggae sway, with an Auto-Tune effect, puts a cool breeze into “Career Day” and “Kids Wanna Rock” provides air-guitar delight in a song about letting kids do their thing.
Albert, who composed or co-wrote all the tunes in addition to singing, built a career performing on commercial jingles and voicing characters for cartoons. She puts all that experience in capturing people’s attention into this candy store of an album for kids. This one will be on many top 10 lists for the year, including my own.
www.gimmejimmies.com – $14.99 (CD) – Ages 3 to 9
Guest Blog: 3 Most Common Parent-Kid Fights and How to Stop Them
By Vanessa Van Petten
When I was a teenager it felt like my parents and I got in the same fights over and over again. After working with thousands of teens and parents I have realized that there are several common fights parents have with their teens. Below, I have described these three fights and offered some solutions for stopping the argument cycle.
1. The “It’s Not Fair” Fight
Examples:
– Older brother gets to stay out late with his friends. Teen finds this grossly unfair.
– Parent gets to have soda, child does not. Teen finds this grossly unfair.
– Teenager cannot buy new outfit for dance because it is too expensive. Teen finds this grossly unfair.
Emotional Intent: When you hear a teen talk about how unfair something is, what they are often feeling is, “I am not important or special enough.” If you feel like your teenager is constantly arguing about justice or fairness, they are most likely feeling like they are not being heard or cared about enough to get what they want. Of course, this is usually not the case. In the examples above parents would be worried about safety, health and money, while teens feel like they are not as important as their sibling, that their parents do not understand how important the dance is, and so on.
Solutions: The best way to stop the “it’s Not Fair” fight is to address the emotional intent. The best way to do this is for parents to push into the “it’s not fair” feeling from their children instead of pushing against it. For instance in the new outfit example a parent might say to their teen, “I hear you think this is unfair, will you tell me why?” A teen will most likely respond, “You buy stuff for yourself all the time,” or “But I deserve this dress.” These answers are important because it will show the parent the emotional intent behind the upset and feelings of injustice. If a parent addresses these by saying something like, “I could see how you feel like us not buying this for you is about you not feeling worthy. But the truth is we are trying to save for the big vacation we are taking this summer—which is for all of us. I know how important this dance is for you. Maybe we can get you a new pair of shoes or…” then the fight is stopped.
2. The “Treat Me Like A Grown-Up” Fight
Examples:
– Teen wants to be able to stay out late with friends. Parents say no. Teen thinks they are being treated like a child.
– Teen wants to go away for Spring Break, parents say no. Teen thinks they are being treated like a child.
Emotional Intent: Most fights during the teen years are actually based in this ‘treat me like a grown-up’ motivation. The earlier you can catch and address it the better it will be. It derives from the fundamental pulling away that comes with a teen trying to assert their independence.
Solutions: It is very important for parents to discuss reasons for decisions that are making a teenager angry. This way teens are sure to understand the real reasons for a parent’s choice. Another great way to help teenagers get less upset in fights surrounding their maturity is for parents to help teens feel mature in other ways. For example, perhaps parents do not want their teen to go away for the whole Spring Break because they want to have family time. A great way to address this with teens is to say clearly, “We really want to have family time with you, but we know you are getting older, so how about you do a weekend camping trip with your friends for one of the weekends.” This teaches teens you trust them, but it is all about balancing needs.
3. The “We Are a Different Person” Fight
Examples:
– Parent wants their teen to join band, teen doesn’t want to.
– Parent expects higher grades and when teen doesn’t do well, a huge fight ensues.
– Teen does not keep room tidy, parent gets upset when guests come over.
Emotional Intent: Often times teenagers tell me that they will purposefully keep their room dirty or choose unapproved hobbies just so they can be different from their parents. Parents frequently misinterpret room cleaning or bad grades for laziness, when something deeper might be going on. Teenagers often will ‘misbehave’ or fight with parents simply to show them that they are their own person—even if it gets them into trouble.
Solutions: First, it’s important to make sure that you do want your child to be their own person. Be careful not to push expectations or your own goals onto your kids. Second, make sure teenagers know that some of the requirements you have for them (good grades a tidy room for guests) are not to make them feel less like an individual, but for them to have more choices in their future and to present a nice home to guests. I recommend parents being very direct with teenagers about their need to be ‘their own person’ you might be surprised what common fights are actually based in this emotional intent.
Overall, fighting can be stressful, but teenagers often tell us that ‘fighting’ with their parents is their way of discussing issues. Look at fights as a way of getting to know a new aspect of your teens and be open with them about hoping to stop harmful cycles.
Vanessa Van Petten is one of the nation’s youngest experts, or ‘youthologists’ on parenting and adolescents. She now runs her popular parenting website, RadicalParenting.com, which she writes with 120 other teenage writers to answer questions from parents and adults. Her approach has been featured by CNN, Fox News, and Wall Street Journal. She was also on the Real Housewives of Orange County helping the housewives with troubled teens. Her new book, Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I’m Grounded?, was just released in September 2011 with Plume Books of Penguin USA.
Posted in Adolescence, Blog, Books, Child Development, Family Man Recommends, Teens, Tweens
Leave a comment
Too Many Cookes – Down at the Zoo
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
Although Mick Cooke took his own sweet time to join the Scottish pop group Belle and Sebastian — he started with their third disc, 1998’s marvelous The Boy With the Arab Strap — the origin of that band is somehow linked to the work Cooke has done for his new album. It seems that B & S based their name on a 1960s French children’s book. Indeed, Belle and Sebastian have maintained an air of playfulness in their melding of classic and cutting-edge pop, and the same can be said of Cooke’s Down at the Zoo project.
While most kid albums are geared to the elementary-school crowd — and their parents who are looking for grown-up touches in the music — Down at the Zoo plays to the heart of the birth to preschool set. Filled with fantastically catchy tunes, the recording takes children on a musical tour of the zoo. Starting with “The Zookeeper’s Song,” kids are treated to a counting ditty that has a decidedly UK flair, including the Scottish-accented narration (by Richard Colburn, the drummer of B & S) and Gilbert and Sullivan-esque melody. “We Are the Tigers” is one of the most fun tracks with its B-52’s (think “Rock Lobster”) sound and the line,”We like to roam around/And eat chocolate pie.” “Yvette the Vet” uses wordplay to teach young ones about a key professional in the zoo world.
Cooke and his players borrow some tricks from the Dixieland jazz genre on “Playtime for the Penguins.” “Cecil the Saddest of Snakes” gets the lounge-act treatment in this song about a reptile who needs some cheering up. The album is never short on humor, as evidenced by “The Crocodile Synchronised Swimming Team” (a New Wave-y song about some shape-making snappers) and “The Monkeys Are Breaking Out the Zoo” (a popular track that appeared on Colours Are Brighter, the children’s album Cooke assembled with music by the likes of B & S, Franz Ferdinand, and Snow Patrol).
Down at the Zoo, already a hit in the UK, gallops, flies, and swims to our American shores with 14 tracks of preschool rhythm and rhyme. Take a break from the Wiggles and Raffi and visit this Zoo.
www.wearethetigers.com – $7.99 (download) – Ages birth to 5
Posted in Child Development, Family Man Recommends, Family Music, Music
Comments Off on Too Many Cookes – Down at the Zoo
“Rockin’ Babies” Contest
Got a cute baby? Enter pix to win cool stuff! I’m helping to judge a contest to help get the word out about Rockin’ Babies, the fun and funny new board book written by Dr. Jenn Berman and Cynthia Weil, with illustrator Galia Bernstein. Dr. Jenn is one of my very favorite parenting writers and a marvelous psychologist and on-air expert. Her most recent book is Superbaby. She wrote Rockin’ Babies with her mom, who has co-composed, with her husband Barry Man, classic rock songs such as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”
Laura Veirs – Tumble Bee
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
We end this wild and crazy calendar year with a recording that wraps the listener in an organic fibered blanket of folk music goodness. Tumble Bee is the progeny of Laura Veirs’s decision to slow down a bit after eight grown-up albums and the birth of her first child (with husband and producer Tucker Martine). Veirs and Martine culled through countless songs before settling on 13 gentle gems that were recorded in the comfort of the couple’s home.
For this disparate collection of folk songs, Veirs sings with the help of a sparkling array of folk and rock musicians, including Bela Fleck, Colin Meloy (The Decembrists), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), and Brian Blade (who drums for Bob Dylan). Among the many tracks worth noting are “Little Lap-Dog Lullaby” for his gorgeous harmonies, “Tumblebee” for its Arcade Fire meets kid-music sensibility, “All the Pretty Horses” for its quiet gorgeousness, “Jump Down Spin Around” for its lively arrangement, and “Jamaica Farewell” for the mere fact that it’s one of my all-time favorite tunes and Veirs does it wonderfully.
In a season requiring crackling fires and hot chocolate, this album does the job of both with its warmth and richness.
www.lauraveirs.com – $13 (CD) – Ages birth to 100
Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks for November
With a little extra family time over the winter holidays, here are some FMR: Quick Picks for car rides and afternoon lazing-about sessions.
Things That Roar marks the debut of Papa Crow, aka Jeff Krebs, a Michigan-based mutli-instrumentalist with an easy-going style that clicks with young listeners (and older ears, too). Layered with Krebs’s straightforward folk vocals and his ukele, guitar, and banjo-playing, there’s much to crow about, including such songs as “Baby Makes Three” (with a kazoo solo at the end!), “The Peek-a-Boo Waltz,” “Polar Bear in a Snowstorm,” and “When I Grow Up.”
Rocknoceros presents its fourth album, following such clever discs as Pink! and Dark Side of the Moon Bounce, and it’s full of catchy melodies and animal facts. Colonel Purple Turtle (also available with a companion book) ranges over musical styles, from Latin/Calypso (“Harry Elefante”) to to pop-rock (“Echolocation’) to jazz (“Truman Coyote”).
For preschool kids, the new Jim Gill release, Music Play for Folks of All Stripes, is an impeccably crafted piece of edu-tainment. In teaching kids about the connection between music and play, Gill covers a diverse landscape that’s incredibly user-friendly. Sample “Beethoven’s Five Finger Play,” “The Onomatopoeia Pizzeria,” and “Habanera La La La,” among others.
From Russia with love comes Sand Castle, the elegant creation of dad-composer Sasha Bondarev. Nine songs reflect Bondarev’s background in Russia (there’s a classical-music feel to some of the songs, here) as well as his adopted home of America (where he has lived for the past 10 years). Try “Masha and the Rain,” “Little Pirate,” and “March of the Toy Soldiers.”
The Deedle Deedle Dees – Strange Dees, Indeed.
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
Calling themselves “America’s Ultimate Teaching Band” only tells part of the story, but it’s a pretty big chunk of what makes The Deedle Deedle Dees a revelation of a band. These tenaciously talented Dees have a new album that is offbeat, a little strange, and super smart — a combination that is surprisingly effective. It’s a little like They Might Be Giants for an older crowd of kids.
The disc has 19 songs, each of which touches on such topics as historical figures, philosophical concepts, and folkloric tales. Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live currently has the opening track of “Ah Ahimsa” playing frequently, largely because of its exotic sound and message about nonviolence (with references to Gandhi). “The Golem” uses klezmer-style strains along with its explanation of the mystical creature created to save the Jewish people from harm in 16th century Prague. Employing a late-‘70s rock sound (a bit of Joe Jackson and Queen), “Sacagawea” offers details of the Lewis and Clark guide from the grateful perspective of William Clark.
The Brooklyn-based band consists of leader/songwriter Lloyd Miller (who goes by Ulysses S. Dee), mandolin/guitar player Ari Dolegowski (Moby Dee), multi-instrumentalist (largely keyboards) Chris Johnson (Booker Dee), and percussionist Ely Levin (Otto von Dee). With the direction of producer Dean Jones (of Dog on Fleas), this recording is as musically potent and assured as it is educationally engaging. More highlights of the project range from the soaring story-song of African American pioneer “Sojourner Truth” to the quirky “Birds of America Don’t Care-Oh,” which offers a view that birds might have of the portraits Audubon painted. Two tracks also worth noting take on New York history: “Mayor LaGuardia’s Stomach” (about Moby Dee’s grandmother bumping into the legendary politician of NYC) and “Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way? (which mixes history about the 17th century explorer and the tale of “Rip Van Winkle”).
Because the lyrics offers so much enlightenment, it’s well worth calling up the group’s Web pages explaining the content of the songs’ words (http://teachddd.blogspot.com). There are even reading recommendations for adults. Strange Dees. Indeed. is an endlessly entertaining and instructive package of music. It makes the top 5 of my picks for 2011.
www.thedeedledeedledees.com and http://teachddd.blogspot.com – $10 (CD) – Ages 4 to 11
Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks for October
This month’s FMR: Quick Picks is headlined by the latest offering from the legendary Smithsonian Folkways label, Chip Taylor & The Grandkids – Golden Kids Rules. Best known as the songwriter of “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning,” Taylor trades rock and pop for the quieter appeal of folk-based songs sung with his own grandchildren. Sample “I’m Just Thinkin’ About You,” “Magical Horse,” and “Kids to Save the Planet,” among others.
Boston folk-scene staple Alastair Moock follows up his terrific 2009 debut family CD, A Cow Says Moock, with the equally fine These Are My Friends. HIghlights include the knee-slapping “Feets Up” (with Rani Arbo), the delightfully mixed up “CBAs and a Twinkle Baa,” and the catchy and nonsensical “From Me to You.”
Last but hardly least is the new Beethoven’s Wig release, Sing Along Piano Classics. Richarl Perlmutter, the multi-award-winning mind behind this wacky yet educational series of CDs dips into his bottomless well of tongue-twisting lyrics that accompany the classical originals. Lend your ears to such tracks as “Poor Uncle Joe” (based on Chopin’s “Funeral March”), “A Piano is Stuck in the Door” (Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer”), and “Voyage to the Moon” (Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”).
Dan Zanes and Friends – Little Nut Tree
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
To see Dan Zanes in concert is to witness a musician so comfortable in his skills and on-stage presence that it appears he’s playing for a few friends on a Sunday afternoon. Zanes stands as one of the pioneers of contemporary family music that captures all maturity levels with a depth of richness and an air of playfulness. The wild-haired, rockin’ dad who played with the popular ‘80s band the Del Fuegos follows up his 2007 Grammy-winning album Catch That Train with this multicultural, festive recording.
Zanes sings and plays a variety of instruments with earthy ease throughout the 16 tracks on Little Nut Tree, but he’s well supported by an all-star cast of musicians. “Jim Along Josie’s” folk-blues benefits from Zanes’s frequent collaborator Father Goose, who lends a Jamaican flair to the backing vocals. Innovative string-instrument player and singer Andrew Bird joins the band leader on “I Don’t Need Sunny Skies,” a bright-messaged tune about being inspired by someone who lifts your spirits no matter what the clouds might say. On “Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy,” Zanes grooves along with the marvelous Joan Osborne (of “What If God Were One of Us?” fame) while an organ, guitar, and horn section inflect the soulful sound.
This album is as consistently upbeat as it is sonically diverse. From the party feel of “In the Basement” and the Bob Marley-esque title track played with the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars to the welcoming strains of “Salaam” and the delicate “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere,” Zanes travels the world for exotic sounds and fits them all into his American roots foundation. Little Nut Tree is not only one of the year’s stand-out albums, it will likely be on my list as one of the best in the last decade.
www.danzanes.com – $14 (CD) – Ages 3 to All Grown Up
Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks in Word, Image, and Sound
Celebrate Jewish Lullabies – Volume 1, featuring project producer Craig Taubman, fits any night of the year, but seems especially appropriate with the Jewish High Holy Days coming up this and next month. Check out soothing songs by the likes of Taubman, The Pop Ups, and David Broza.
More goodies come in the form of Sing Along, the new album from Caspar Babypants (the kid-music monicker for Chris Ballew, who had pop success with the Presidents of the United States of America). These are tunes for the baby to preschool set that are alternatingly funny, smart, and sweet. Guests include “Weird Al” Yankovic, Frances England, and Recess Monkey.
Family music legend Trout Fishing in America created a storybook and CD pairing for Chicken Joe Forgets Something Important. Musicians Keith Grimwood and Ezra Ildet are joined by illustrator Stephane Jorish for this witty and rousing project about a cat who sleeps in a henhouse but dreams of music rather than dinner.
Party Day! is The Laurie Berkner Band’s first DVD of new videos.The strumming and singing family music superstar (who is often featured on the Nick Jr. channel) delivers 12 videos and a five-song bonus CD, with the song “My Family” as a highlight.
My last recommendation for this FMR: Quick Picks edition is ScribbleMonster, a group I’m just catching up with as I just did with Look Both Ways, their tribute to Sesame Street. Sample such songs as “What Babies Are Called” and “Just Happy to Be Me.”
The Jimmies – Practically Ridiculous
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
If you take in all the crazy fun details on the I Spy-like CD packaging, you’ll find a line on the bottom right of the back cover saying, “May contain tracks of nuts.” While this new album careens over multiple musical styles, leader Ashley Albert and her crackingly good musicians make it all come together like the best party on a CD platter your kids could try this year.
There are 13 cuts on this album, the follow-up to the successful Make Your Own Someday, but I have to call out “Mini Van Hot Rod” has my favorite songs. Maybe it’s my need to reinvent myself as a cutting-edge minivan dad, but the tune revs high, with Albert singing like Gwen Stefani as she hip-ifies the ubiquitous family vehicle. Staying lyrically colorful, the Jimmies swing out, big-band style on “Fine Art,” which celebrates kid creations.
The everyday drudgery of keeping clean gets the hip-hop treatment on “Wash Up” while “Every Day’s a Holiday” goes edgy country to talk about making the daily activities as festive as a winter holiday. A reggae sway, with an Auto-Tune effect, puts a cool breeze into “Career Day” and “Kids Wanna Rock” provides air-guitar delight in a song about letting kids do their thing.
Albert, who composed or co-wrote all the tunes in addition to singing, built a career performing on commercial jingles and voicing characters for cartoons. She puts all that experience in capturing people’s attention into this candy store of an album for kids. This one will be on many top 10 lists for the year, including my own.
www.gimmejimmies.com – $14.99 (CD) – Ages 3 to 9
Guest Blog: 3 Most Common Parent-Kid Fights and How to Stop Them
By Vanessa Van Petten
When I was a teenager it felt like my parents and I got in the same fights over and over again. After working with thousands of teens and parents I have realized that there are several common fights parents have with their teens. Below, I have described these three fights and offered some solutions for stopping the argument cycle.
1. The “It’s Not Fair” Fight
Examples:
– Older brother gets to stay out late with his friends. Teen finds this grossly unfair.
– Parent gets to have soda, child does not. Teen finds this grossly unfair.
– Teenager cannot buy new outfit for dance because it is too expensive. Teen finds this grossly unfair.
Emotional Intent: When you hear a teen talk about how unfair something is, what they are often feeling is, “I am not important or special enough.” If you feel like your teenager is constantly arguing about justice or fairness, they are most likely feeling like they are not being heard or cared about enough to get what they want. Of course, this is usually not the case. In the examples above parents would be worried about safety, health and money, while teens feel like they are not as important as their sibling, that their parents do not understand how important the dance is, and so on.
Solutions: The best way to stop the “it’s Not Fair” fight is to address the emotional intent. The best way to do this is for parents to push into the “it’s not fair” feeling from their children instead of pushing against it. For instance in the new outfit example a parent might say to their teen, “I hear you think this is unfair, will you tell me why?” A teen will most likely respond, “You buy stuff for yourself all the time,” or “But I deserve this dress.” These answers are important because it will show the parent the emotional intent behind the upset and feelings of injustice. If a parent addresses these by saying something like, “I could see how you feel like us not buying this for you is about you not feeling worthy. But the truth is we are trying to save for the big vacation we are taking this summer—which is for all of us. I know how important this dance is for you. Maybe we can get you a new pair of shoes or…” then the fight is stopped.
2. The “Treat Me Like A Grown-Up” Fight
Examples:
– Teen wants to be able to stay out late with friends. Parents say no. Teen thinks they are being treated like a child.
– Teen wants to go away for Spring Break, parents say no. Teen thinks they are being treated like a child.
Emotional Intent: Most fights during the teen years are actually based in this ‘treat me like a grown-up’ motivation. The earlier you can catch and address it the better it will be. It derives from the fundamental pulling away that comes with a teen trying to assert their independence.
Solutions: It is very important for parents to discuss reasons for decisions that are making a teenager angry. This way teens are sure to understand the real reasons for a parent’s choice. Another great way to help teenagers get less upset in fights surrounding their maturity is for parents to help teens feel mature in other ways. For example, perhaps parents do not want their teen to go away for the whole Spring Break because they want to have family time. A great way to address this with teens is to say clearly, “We really want to have family time with you, but we know you are getting older, so how about you do a weekend camping trip with your friends for one of the weekends.” This teaches teens you trust them, but it is all about balancing needs.
3. The “We Are a Different Person” Fight
Examples:
– Parent wants their teen to join band, teen doesn’t want to.
– Parent expects higher grades and when teen doesn’t do well, a huge fight ensues.
– Teen does not keep room tidy, parent gets upset when guests come over.
Emotional Intent: Often times teenagers tell me that they will purposefully keep their room dirty or choose unapproved hobbies just so they can be different from their parents. Parents frequently misinterpret room cleaning or bad grades for laziness, when something deeper might be going on. Teenagers often will ‘misbehave’ or fight with parents simply to show them that they are their own person—even if it gets them into trouble.
Solutions: First, it’s important to make sure that you do want your child to be their own person. Be careful not to push expectations or your own goals onto your kids. Second, make sure teenagers know that some of the requirements you have for them (good grades a tidy room for guests) are not to make them feel less like an individual, but for them to have more choices in their future and to present a nice home to guests. I recommend parents being very direct with teenagers about their need to be ‘their own person’ you might be surprised what common fights are actually based in this emotional intent.
Overall, fighting can be stressful, but teenagers often tell us that ‘fighting’ with their parents is their way of discussing issues. Look at fights as a way of getting to know a new aspect of your teens and be open with them about hoping to stop harmful cycles.
Vanessa Van Petten is one of the nation’s youngest experts, or ‘youthologists’ on parenting and adolescents. She now runs her popular parenting website, RadicalParenting.com, which she writes with 120 other teenage writers to answer questions from parents and adults. Her approach has been featured by CNN, Fox News, and Wall Street Journal. She was also on the Real Housewives of Orange County helping the housewives with troubled teens. Her new book, Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I’m Grounded?, was just released in September 2011 with Plume Books of Penguin USA.
Posted in Adolescence, Blog, Books, Child Development, Family Man Recommends, Teens, Tweens
Leave a comment
Too Many Cookes – Down at the Zoo
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
Although Mick Cooke took his own sweet time to join the Scottish pop group Belle and Sebastian — he started with their third disc, 1998’s marvelous The Boy With the Arab Strap — the origin of that band is somehow linked to the work Cooke has done for his new album. It seems that B & S based their name on a 1960s French children’s book. Indeed, Belle and Sebastian have maintained an air of playfulness in their melding of classic and cutting-edge pop, and the same can be said of Cooke’s Down at the Zoo project.
While most kid albums are geared to the elementary-school crowd — and their parents who are looking for grown-up touches in the music — Down at the Zoo plays to the heart of the birth to preschool set. Filled with fantastically catchy tunes, the recording takes children on a musical tour of the zoo. Starting with “The Zookeeper’s Song,” kids are treated to a counting ditty that has a decidedly UK flair, including the Scottish-accented narration (by Richard Colburn, the drummer of B & S) and Gilbert and Sullivan-esque melody. “We Are the Tigers” is one of the most fun tracks with its B-52’s (think “Rock Lobster”) sound and the line,”We like to roam around/And eat chocolate pie.” “Yvette the Vet” uses wordplay to teach young ones about a key professional in the zoo world.
Cooke and his players borrow some tricks from the Dixieland jazz genre on “Playtime for the Penguins.” “Cecil the Saddest of Snakes” gets the lounge-act treatment in this song about a reptile who needs some cheering up. The album is never short on humor, as evidenced by “The Crocodile Synchronised Swimming Team” (a New Wave-y song about some shape-making snappers) and “The Monkeys Are Breaking Out the Zoo” (a popular track that appeared on Colours Are Brighter, the children’s album Cooke assembled with music by the likes of B & S, Franz Ferdinand, and Snow Patrol).
Down at the Zoo, already a hit in the UK, gallops, flies, and swims to our American shores with 14 tracks of preschool rhythm and rhyme. Take a break from the Wiggles and Raffi and visit this Zoo.
www.wearethetigers.com – $7.99 (download) – Ages birth to 5
Posted in Child Development, Family Man Recommends, Family Music, Music
Comments Off on Too Many Cookes – Down at the Zoo
“Rockin’ Babies” Contest
Got a cute baby? Enter pix to win cool stuff! I’m helping to judge a contest to help get the word out about Rockin’ Babies, the fun and funny new board book written by Dr. Jenn Berman and Cynthia Weil, with illustrator Galia Bernstein. Dr. Jenn is one of my very favorite parenting writers and a marvelous psychologist and on-air expert. Her most recent book is Superbaby. She wrote Rockin’ Babies with her mom, who has co-composed, with her husband Barry Man, classic rock songs such as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”