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Fids and Kamily Music Awards for 2011
This year, I was once again happy to join some 29 other family music reviewers who contributed to the Fids and Kamily Music Awards poll. In rating a huge number of albums for this term — November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011 — the final calculations put Recess Monkey’s fantastic Flying! ablum as #1. To see the whole list of the top 10 as well as the runners up, click over the to poll’s home page. Special thanks to Stefan Shepherd of Zooglobble, who invited me to be a part of this award-nominating group. Many of the honored recordings made my own rundown of the year’s favorites, so keep your eyes peeled for that next month.
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.”
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
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
Sunshine Collective – Wanna Play?
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
What’s in a name? If your moniker is Sunshine Collective, then the expectation is that you’ll be full of warmth, brightness, and togetherness. Yep, that accurately describes this summer-appropriate band and its album bursting with happy sounds.
A classical introduction segues into “I Just Wanna Play,” a tune that could be the musical daughter of “I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates” in its ‘70s feel-good vibe. Vocalist and co-songwriter Stephanie Richards has a sophisticated foundation in her skills while letting loose with her playful side on this and other tracks.
The Sunshine Collective, led by the Los Angeles-based husband-and-wife team of Richards and Brian Arbuckle, liberally borrows from bygone eras to season its songs, including the jazzy “Love Makes Life So Sweet” (check out that Stephane Grappelli-style violin) and “Mad About You,” a charming, Dixieland brassy piece about how one good person can make the pitfalls of a day easier.
The positive themes and lyrics of this recording are more open-ended than child-specific (though Richards and Arbuckle have two young daughters), which makes it a true treat for an adult who might want to sit alone with the iPod, especially for a song such as “Fun, Fun, Fun,” with its simple message of being with someone who makes you happy.
One of the other delights of the CD is that you can actually hear the instruments on each track. Produced by group co-leader and multi-instrumentalist Brian Arbuckle, the sound is pure and clear, allowing young listeners the chance to focus on how a piano or violin should come through, without heavy engineering. “A Thousand Notable Things” isolates various instruments, including Richards’s voice, in an uplifting and luxurious way.
For its fine musicianship and genial disposition, this is a recording you should play for your kids, for yourselves, for anyone who could use a bit more sunshine.
www.sunshinecollective.com – $11.99 (CD) – Ages 3-100
4th of July Songs for Kids
Music maven Dave Sloan has posted his picks for a 4th of July playlist. It includes some unexpected (no surprise with Dave) selections from Violent Femmes, the Pogues, and more. For kids, there are plenty of patriotic songs worth cranking up while you fire up BBQs. Some more conventional but worthwhile choices include Ray Charles’s “America the Beautiful,” Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom,” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is My Land.” Every year, someone (I believe it’s the invaluable TCM cable channel) airs Michael Curtiz’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical biopic of Broadway legend George M. Cohan, with James Cagney in the title role. I highly recommend this classic for its unabashed positivism and patriotism about the man who wrote such songs as “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There.” Make sure to catch the black-and-white version if you can. What are some of your favorite 4th of July songs?
Fids and Kamily Music Awards for 2011
This year, I was once again happy to join some 29 other family music reviewers who contributed to the Fids and Kamily Music Awards poll. In rating a huge number of albums for this term — November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011 — the final calculations put Recess Monkey’s fantastic Flying! ablum as #1. To see the whole list of the top 10 as well as the runners up, click over the to poll’s home page. Special thanks to Stefan Shepherd of Zooglobble, who invited me to be a part of this award-nominating group. Many of the honored recordings made my own rundown of the year’s favorites, so keep your eyes peeled for that next month.
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.”
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
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
Sunshine Collective – Wanna Play?
Reviewed by Gregory Keer
What’s in a name? If your moniker is Sunshine Collective, then the expectation is that you’ll be full of warmth, brightness, and togetherness. Yep, that accurately describes this summer-appropriate band and its album bursting with happy sounds.
A classical introduction segues into “I Just Wanna Play,” a tune that could be the musical daughter of “I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates” in its ‘70s feel-good vibe. Vocalist and co-songwriter Stephanie Richards has a sophisticated foundation in her skills while letting loose with her playful side on this and other tracks.
The Sunshine Collective, led by the Los Angeles-based husband-and-wife team of Richards and Brian Arbuckle, liberally borrows from bygone eras to season its songs, including the jazzy “Love Makes Life So Sweet” (check out that Stephane Grappelli-style violin) and “Mad About You,” a charming, Dixieland brassy piece about how one good person can make the pitfalls of a day easier.
The positive themes and lyrics of this recording are more open-ended than child-specific (though Richards and Arbuckle have two young daughters), which makes it a true treat for an adult who might want to sit alone with the iPod, especially for a song such as “Fun, Fun, Fun,” with its simple message of being with someone who makes you happy.
One of the other delights of the CD is that you can actually hear the instruments on each track. Produced by group co-leader and multi-instrumentalist Brian Arbuckle, the sound is pure and clear, allowing young listeners the chance to focus on how a piano or violin should come through, without heavy engineering. “A Thousand Notable Things” isolates various instruments, including Richards’s voice, in an uplifting and luxurious way.
For its fine musicianship and genial disposition, this is a recording you should play for your kids, for yourselves, for anyone who could use a bit more sunshine.
www.sunshinecollective.com – $11.99 (CD) – Ages 3-100
4th of July Songs for Kids
Music maven Dave Sloan has posted his picks for a 4th of July playlist. It includes some unexpected (no surprise with Dave) selections from Violent Femmes, the Pogues, and more. For kids, there are plenty of patriotic songs worth cranking up while you fire up BBQs. Some more conventional but worthwhile choices include Ray Charles’s “America the Beautiful,” Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom,” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is My Land.” Every year, someone (I believe it’s the invaluable TCM cable channel) airs Michael Curtiz’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, a musical biopic of Broadway legend George M. Cohan, with James Cagney in the title role. I highly recommend this classic for its unabashed positivism and patriotism about the man who wrote such songs as “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There.” Make sure to catch the black-and-white version if you can. What are some of your favorite 4th of July songs?