Itty-Bitty Review: Bear Hunt! - Josh and the Jamtones

Those of you who've seen Josh and the Jamtones in concert know that to call them high-energy is to underestimate the degree of enthusiasm they bring to a live gig.  The band Brings It.

You can hear a lot of that energy on Bear Hunt!, the third album from the Boston-area band.  The exclamation at the end of "Everybody Dance!" isn't window-dressing, it's a near command, and those kids who are still standing after that song probably won't make it through the next song, the just-as-energetic "Pirate's Life."  ("Snow Day" and the  similarly amped.)  The band gets an assist from occasional Dan Zanes collaborator Father Goose, an appropriate guest artist given the band's reggae and roots rock tendencies, on a couple tracks -- who knew "Swing Low" was a song about coming home from school?

I am not generally a big skit fan, and while Josh Shriber and chief musical collaborator Patrick Hanlin, generate quite a few laughs in their 4 skits that reenact in a skewed way the classic "Bear Hunt" song, devoting about 40% of their album's 44 minute run time to the skits takes away a lot of the energy generated by the songs themselves.  They felt more appropriate for live show banter.  (Judge for yourself, perhaps, by listening to the stream of four of the songs album, best for kids ages 3 through 7, below.)

Josh and the Jamtones are definitely a band to watch as their live shows have attracted a lot of attention.  The music on Bear Hunt!  doesn't try anything new, but is given a bit of flash and shine and if it doesn't make your family laugh, at the very least it's probably gonna make you dance.  Recommended

Note: I received a copy of the album for possible review. 

Review: Lishy Lou and Lucky Too - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

It is fun to see artists who initially just dip their toes into the family music pond dive in as they get more comfortable in their new waters. 

To extend the metaphor a little bit, when it comes to family music, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band have plunged in with scuba gear and a new houseboat.   Since releasing his debut EP Luckiest Adventure a little more than 3 years ago, Diaz has acquired a full-blown band, married dynamo Alisha Gaddis, and barely stopped to take a breath.

On their fifth and latest album, Lishy Lou and Lucky Too , the couple's energy is used to enliven the record's conceit, loosely structured around the "Lishy and Lucky Radio Show," which may soon be transitioning to a TV show.  The album features a cast of wacky characters (a time traveler, a traveling salesman, a nosy neighbor) united in their taste for bad puns.  The jokes told in the interstitial sketches may amuse your local kindergartner, but will likely generate groans in the adult set.

They sit somewhat uneasily here because they interrupt the true stars, the songs themselves.  Co-written by Diaz, Gaddis, and Michael Farkas, many of them are irrepressible pop hits.  "Thingamajig" is a top contender for the year's best kindie pop song, while "Pockets," about Farkas' character who only communicates via instrument, has a strutting feel.  (The theme song is pretty darn catchy, too.)  It's not solely uptempo -- "Goodnight My Love" is a tender lullaby with nifty guitar work from Diaz. 

The 35-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 8.  On one level, the album is an introduction to an actual TV show Diaz and Gaddis hope to make featuring all the characters on the album, and I think that concept will work better there than it does here.  But on another level, with songs about Jackie Robinson and Amelia Earhart, along with the fabulous album closer "When I Grow Up," ("When I grow up / I won't close my ears / to things I may not want to hear"... "When I grow up / I'm gonna dream / farther than my eyes can see") the album is also a celebration of dreamers and doers, of taking chances like Diaz and Gaddis are doing.  On that level, the album succeeds fabulously.  Definitely recommended.

Note: I received a copy of the album for possible review. 

Review: Lloyd H. Miller - S.S. Brooklyn

In the course of several albums with his band the Deedle Deedle Dees, Lloyd Miller (I'm sorry, I just can't get used to that "H." he's undoubtedly using to differentiate himself from the other Lloyd Millers making music) has indulged his taste for stories of people making an impact on the world -- Harriet Tubman, Mahatma Gandhi, Cool Papa Bell.  They're songs about famous historical characters, but they're primarily stories about characters.  The songs aren't about them because they're famous -- they're famous because they're interesting.

Although the Dees have had some success (and they're working on an album for release in 2014), Miller's primary musical expression has been his singalong classes throughout Brooklyn and for his first formal solo album, S.S. Brooklyn , Miller's gone to his singalong roots for some inspiration.  A song like "I'm a Duck!" has nothing to do with famous people and everything to do with waddling around a small space.  He turns Dees classics like "Henry (Hi Ya Ya)," "Do the Tub-Tub-Tubman," and "Honk Honk (Major Deegan)" into more intimate audience-interactive affairs.

Interspersed with these familiar songs are some newer songs, more intimate to the neighborhood -- personal history rather than history writ large.  "I'm Gonna Light Up the World" is a simple inspirational song that sprung out of Miller's trip to Haiti to visit a friend with a non-profit providing low-cost lanterns there.  "Working on a Bridge" (co-written with his daughter) is about metaphorical bridges, not about the many actual bridges in NYC (listen to ""Carroll Street Bridge" for that).  Meanwhile, songs like "Gowanus Canal" and "Brooklyn by Bike" celebrate the borough.

Dean Jones, who produced the Dees' last album, is back to produce this one, and he and Miller keep a light touch on the production -- few instruments, and somewhat raw, particularly tracks that are closest to Miller's singalong roots and those that feature kids singing.   I particularly like the closing title track, on which Miller in slightly rambling fashion fondly sings his memories of the community in Brooklyn and slowly builds until -- appropriately -- there's a big crowd singing the final chorus.  I was expecting to find more of a disconnect between the singalong stuff and the newer material, but surprisingly it flows together fairly well.

The album is probably most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7.  You can listen to the 47-minute album's first three tracks here.

S.S. Brooklyn is loose, a celebration of life right next door.  Miller's neighbors will find this album thoroughly enjoyable.  Those of you in the hinterlands of non-Brooklyn (folks like me), however, shouldn't be scared off by that description, though.  There's plenty for you to enjoy even if you don't know your Park Slope from your Gowanus.  Definitely recommended.

Note: I received a copy of this album for possible review. 

Itty-Bitty Review: Pioneer Lane - The Watson Twins

I love being surprised by new music I hadn't expected.  It doesn't happen as much as it used to -- the kindie scene has matured -- but it still happens.

I hadn't heard that the Watson Twins were recording an album of family-friendly folk-pop until Pioneer Lane was released this week.  I still remember one of their sets at SXSW a few years back as being fun, and, in the dimmed lights of a church sanctuary, somewhat mysterious.  On the basis of that set, I thought that the prospect of a kids music album from them could be promising.

This new album moves their folk/rock/alt-country sound out of the sanctuary and into a barn somewhere for a late-afternoon picnic that stretches into a moonlight night.  The whole effect is mesmerizing, the sisters' harmonies reverberating on both the slow and uptempo tracks.  The songs stay away from narratives that would restrict themselves to kids -- these are love songs, if in language more geared toward the kindergartener in your life.  Highlights include the uplifting "Stay True," the sun-drenched pop of "Hello Hello," the hypnotic "Sun Drips on Leaves," and the paddycake-based album closer "My Family."

The album is brief, clocking in at just over 22 minutes.  It's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7, but this is definitely one of those albums that the parents will mix into their own playlists.  Pioneer Lane  is a tiny jewel of an album that will give the listener a warm, fuzzy glow, proof that kids music can still surprise and delight. Definitely recommended.

Review: My Cup of Tea - Heidi Swedberg

On her first album Play!, Heidi Swedberg gave us a celebration of the ukulele, playing (for the most part) simple songs designed to get uke-enthusiasts to play along.  The songs and arrangements were playful to be sure, and definitely more than somebody strumming the ukulele, but its ambitions were modest.

Move forward three years, and her follow up My Cup of Tea reveals Swedberg's true ambition -- to be the vaudevillian Dan Zanes of family music.  Yes, that cover photo, with family and friends playing roles of Civil War reenactors, Frida Kahlo, and barechested strongmen (to name a few), is a nice visual complement to the album's contents.  From the Jazz Age zip of the original title track which leads off the disk with a good dozen instruments and nearly as many voices to Swedberg's vocally dramatic take on Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat," if you're looking for an album with a single, distinctive groove, please move along.

The songs here are varied, and not in the "one song reggae, one song rap" approach that kids albums sometimes take.  After that Edward Lear song, the traditional folk tune "Little Birdie," perhaps the simplest song on the album, segues into the uptempo Panamanian tune "Al Tambor."  And while on a lot of albums, "Duermete," a Spanish lullaby, might be the album closer, Swedberg's duet with Cesar Bauvallet subtly turns into a Cuban-tinged raveup.  It's in these wild leaps from song to song that Swedberg and her collaborators -- primarily Daniel Ward and John Bartlit -- shine instrumentally.

Of course, given the wide-ranging musical interests, not everything succeeds -- there is no love lost between me and "Boogie Man," which takes a cheesy boogie theme and cranks it up to the point of clicking fast-forward.  And while I liked her more dramatic takes on "The Owl and the Pussycat" and "Istanbul" (made famous once more by distant cousin John Linnell in They Might Be Giants), some listeners might be put off by that musical playacting.  YMMV.

In true Zanes-ian fashion, there is very little here that could be pegged at a specific (non-adult) age range, so I'll call it ages 3 and up.  You can hear a sampler here.

You can appreciate My Cup of Tea  as a straight-up album of music from folk and world traditions played with verve and imaginatively arranged.  But I think you'll get more out of it if you think of it as a variety show without the banter, skits, and sponsor thanks.  In fact, somebody please get Ms. Swedberg a gig hosting her own variety show, pronto.  Signed, the Universe.  Definitely recommended.

Note: I was given a copy of the album for possible review. 

Itty-Bitty Review: Frog Trouble - Sandra Boynton

I'm a Sandra Boynton fan from way back, mostly for her simple and brilliantly funny illustrated books for young (pre-)readers, but also for some of her albums of family-friendly music.  She's tackled Broadway, rock, and retro on previous albums, and for her fifth collection of songs she's gone Nashville.

On Frog Trouble, Boynton and her musical partner, the arranger Michael Ford, offer up another dozen songs of often surreal and animal-based nature.  Take the unreliable narrator of "Frog Trouble" (or don't), or the meta-approach of "CopyCat"  (I think you can probably guess how a song with that title gets meta).  But a number of the songs, some of them the album's strongest, play it mostly straight -- Alison Krauss' lovely take on "End of Summer Storm" and Ryan Adams performing "When Pigs Fly," which takes that absurd premise and turns it into something beautiful.

Of course, the key for Boynton and Ford is finding the right artists for the songs.  They return to Krauss and Mark Lanegan, who've sung on previous Boynton albums, and many of the other choices are inspired, if not always totally country -- I'm not complaining that Ben Folds ("Broken Piano") and Fountains of Wayne ("Trucks") are on the disk by any means, and Brad Paisley is a good sport on "CopyCat."  Also: Kacey Musgraves singing anything is a good thing.  It's most appropriate for kids ages 6 and up.  You can find the 34-minute album anywhere and also in book form should you desire whimsical illustrations and sheet music.

One need not be a country fan to enjoy Frog Trouble ; a kid-like sense of humor and occasional taste for the absurd will suffice.  It's my favorite Boynton-Ford album.  Definitely recommended.

Note: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review.