Itty-Bitty Review: Agreeably Loud!! - Baron von Rumblebuss

It's taken a little while, but the second kids album from North Carolina's Tray Batson, AKA Baron von Rumblebuss, Agreeably Loud, was released this spring and... wait? IS THAT A LOLCAT ON THE ALBUM COVER? OK, I suppose I could probably simply write that, yes, this is the album that has the wildly popular "Did You See (Where the Cat Threw Up, Cuz the Cat Threw Up Again)?," the best song about cat vomit ever recorded. (Yes, wildly popular -- not many kids' songs get fan videos.) It's three minutes of jangle-pop perfection with a hint (OK, a lot) of juvenile attitude. But you probably want a little more in a review, so I'll comply... While it's the best song on the album, if you like that formula, there are some other tracks that might be up your 6-year-old's alley, particularly the power-poppy "(It Wuzza) Boo Boo." I can do without the skits, but that's just me, your kids may appreciate the dorky humor. As for the album as a whole, there probably isn't a more power-poppy kids album out right now -- fans of Matthew Sweet or Big Star who want to share those types of sounds with their kids will find songs like "Skywriter" or "Ooh La La (Play Me That Song)" very much up their alley. The album's going to resonate most with kids ages 4 through 8. You can hear a number of songs from the new album at BVR's Reverbnation page. On Agreeably Loud!!, Baron von Rumblebuss is not just agreeable and loud (if you want him to be), but also catchy and funny. That's plenty for a single album. Recommended.

Review: Outside My Door - Lori Henriques

This review sort of felt like a Krzysztof Kieślowski movie in miniature, with randomness and chance affecting my life (albeit in a small way). I recently received a CD from Portland-based artist Lori Henriques which, while the packaging looked lovely on the outside, had a 2008 copyright date on it. Given my stack of CDs, a 3-year-old CD would not normally be placed at the front of the line. But in a random e-mail, I happened to mention that fact to Henriques, who pointed out that the copyright just applied to the songs themselves, not to the recording, which was, in fact, new. So: yay for chance! Because it meant I listened to this a lot sooner than I would have otherwise, which means I can tell you about it much sooner than I would have otherwise. Outside My Door: Songs for Children of All Ages is unlike any kids' CD I've heard in a long time. It's a throwback to 1970s piano jazz, nothing but Henriques' voice and nimble piano work. It's inspired by Sesame Street, though the lyrics especially are a bit advanced for the preschoolers who are that show's target audience. (Henriques also cites Dave Frishberg as an influence -- he wrote some songs for Schoolhouse Rock!.) It's a Broadway (or perhaps off-Broadway) musical waiting to be made, or perhaps the subject of the first kids' music-themed episode of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, or a Randy Newman album consisting of pleasant narrators. On a slightly more kid-music-related tip, the songs are a little reminiscent of David Tobocman and lyrically it reminds me a bit of Molly Ledford's lyrics for Lunch Money, with words like "ennui" (in "Something You Learn"), "plapable" ("It's Hard To Wait for Your Birthday"), and "Odysseus" ("Mean People"). Heck, it features the phrase "T.O.," which Henriques helpfully provides a Wikipedia reference for. All this eruditeness -- the fact that I'm using "eruditeness" in a review of the disk -- might make it seem very hoity-toity, but it's not. (And not just because she rhymes "goat turd" with "awkward.") The 29 minute album isn't going to cause a lot of dancing; in fact, it's got more melancholy in it than at least 95% of all kids' albums. But kids, if they sit down and really listen, will hear words that do indeed speak to them -- the difficulty of waiting for your birthday ("It's Hard To Wait for Your Birthday") or a secret desire to be a twin ("If I Had a Twin"). The 29-minute album is appropriate for kids ages 4 through 10. You can hear the whole thing here. Also of note: gorgeous packaging courtesy of Henriques' brother Joel Henriques, proprietor of my new favorite website Made By Joel. Another chance discovery. So there you have it -- an album that I said was unlike any kids' CD I'd heard for a long time is compared to maybe a half-dozen other artists. But Outside My Door is something quite remarkable -- an album of "piano jazz for kids" that isn't limited by any of the words in that phrase. A refreshing sound, and an absolute pleasure to listen to. Highly recommended.

Itty-Bitty Review: Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock

I could take a lot of time talking specifically about Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock, the fourth Gustafer Yellowgold DVD/CD set from musician/illustrator Morgan Taylor -- how it's another collection of mellow pop-rock tunes, alternately humorous and wistful, accompanying the slightly surreal adventures of our yellow friend from the sun, Gustafer Yellowgold. Or maybe how it features an honest-to-goodness narrative from start to finish. But what I'd rather do is spend a few words about what Taylor has done with Gustafer, and that's nothing less than create a totally immersive world of characters that Taylor could easily spend another ten, twenty, or thirty years exploring. Just as Dan Zanes has crafted his own niche of family music that never really delves into the specific lives of kids, with Gustafer Yellowgold Taylor has written "kids music" that has (seemingly) nothing to do with the specific lives of kids. After all, on this adventure (featuring Gustafer trying to find the toe-end of the titular sock), Gustafer visits a beehive to see an amazing bee-band ("Beehive") or visits an all-cheese clothing store (the very funny "Wisconsin Poncho"). These are not concerns of your typical 5-year-old. What this story and all the Gustafer Yellowgold stories are is Children's Literature, Fanciful and Fantastic Division. Gustafer is just as much the descendent of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are as it is the descendent of Harry Nilsson's The Point. Which isn't to say that kids might not learn lessons here (the interconnectivity of life, inherent value of all beings, the need to explore), but they're born out of Taylor's basic philosophy, not forced upon the watcher or listener, and they assume that kids are smarter than we often give them credit for. (Which is a pretty good assumption.) This DVD/CD set is appropriate for kids ages 4 through 10. You can watch video clips from the half-hour story here. Visually the DVD, as always, looks great -- minimally animated but distinctive. (The bonus features, including a mockumentary and guitar and drawing lessons, aren't essential but nice to watch at least once.) Current Gustafer Yellowgold fans will enjoy Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock no less than the previous DVDs, and for the rest of you, this is as good a place as any to start. Like the best kids' lit, your kids could still be buying new Gustafer Yellowgold DVDs when they become parents themselves. Definitely recommended. Disclosure: I received a copy of the DVD/CD set for possible review.

Review: The Family Garden - Billy Kelly

Just in time for Earth Day, Billy Kelly releases The Family Garden, an album of gardening-related songs designed to help kids better understand the impact they have on their planet... Just kidding. I mean, about part of it. It's the other part that, uh, isn't quite so true. But Kelly, whose line in song between truth and un-truth has never been very clear, probably wouldn't want me to tell you which is which. On this, his third album, Kelly eschews some of the production wizardry and elaborate wordplay of his first two disks for a rootsier sound. It's a deliberate choice sonically -- Kelly specifically mentions recording the songs live with his band, the Blahblahblahs. On songs like the title track, or "That Old American Flag," or his cover of "Coney Island Washboard," the roots/country sound matches up well with the songs' earnest nature. Those songs (as well as "We Could Be Pen Pals," his duet with Lunch Money's Molly Ledford) are songs you might find in a gigantic American songbook. Kelly's always had an earnest streak in his songwriting, but he hasn't forgotten the more surreal components, either. "It's Close Enough" continues Kelly's streak of writing songs about the songs he's writing about. "I'm Thinking of an Animal" is as close as he'll get to writing a standard "name the animal" song (which is to say, only about 80% of the way there). "The Invention of the Straw" doesn't reach the heights of "The Legend of Johnny Box" from Is This Some Kind of Joke?, but "Why Is the Moon Following Me?" is way better than Harold and the Purple Crayon. The album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can listen to clips from the 37-minute album here. If I had to recommend just one Billy Kelly album for someone's collection, I'd probably start with Is This Some Kind of Joke? -- I think his intricate wordplay and savviness fills an underserved niche for older-kids' kids music. But The Family Garden is a neat expansion of his sound. To some extent, this is a kindler, gentler Kelly. Whether or not we wanted a kindler, gentler Kelly you'll have to decide, but he's not bad to have around. That's all true, I promise. Definitely recommended.

Itty-Bitty Review: Planting Seeds - Maria Sangiolo

It is hard to make an "Earth Day"-themed album. Well, it's hard to make a good one, anyway, one whose musical enjoyment outweighs any "life lessons" the album hopes to teach (the teaching of which usually fails because the music fails.) I'm happy to report, then, that Maria Sangiolo's new album Planting Seeds is one of the few earth-themed albums families will want to listen to in April or even the rest of the year. This is partially the result of choosing good songs that happen to be about the planet we live on, and the plants and animals (including us) who reside upon it. It's only in that broader sense that putting Mark Erelli's version of the traditional folk song "The Fox" on an album "celebrat[ing] agriculture and sustainability" (to quote the back cover) fits. (Or the frustration with the bug world on Sangiolo's bluesy "Flashlights and Flyswatters" and Anand Nayak and Sienna Jessurun's "Noisy Cricket.") But it thankfully keeps the album from sounding like a lecture. The other thing that keeps it from sounding like a lecture is that the music is quite good. Sangiolo pulled in Nayak, who's part of Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, as producer, and like daisy mayhem's music, this album has a loose and relaxed feel, like a well-worn pair of jeans. Maybe the duet between Sangiolo and Nayak compatrior Steve Roslonek (aka SteveSongs) on Les Julian's participation song "Plant a Seed" took several tracks to record, but the genuinely humorous interplay between the two makes it sound like it was recorded live-to-tape in just one take. Sangiolo also is generous in sharing the album with many other artists beyond those already mentioned, include Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem on a couple tracks, Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen doing their best Pete Seeger on "Maple Sweet," and Alastair Moock and Lori McKenna on my favorite track on the album, "Didn't Know What I Was Missing." (Moock also co-wrote a number of the songs here.) The album is credited to "Maria and Friends," and the billing is apt. The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9. You can listen to samples here. Planting Seeds is a celebration of the earth on which we live, but it's also a celebration of community. Sangiolo's community of friends have put together a collection of songs worth listening to (and maybe, eventually, learning from). Recommended.

Review: A Life of Song - Ella Jenkins

It's not easy to review Ella Jenkins albums for a couple reasons. First, she is a legend. I know that people throw around the word "legend" too easily, but if you don't use that word for Jenkins, then you may as well not use the word at all, at least in the kids music genre. And it's hard to review a legend because their outsized reputation, no matter how well deserved (and it totally is in Jenkins' case), provides an odd context. The second - and trickier - reason is that her albums are not designed for listening idly to while zipping off to T-ball practice. Her albums generally feature Jenkins along with a group of kids -- Jenkins singing to the kids, the kids singing to Jenkins. It's like dropping in on a kindergarten music class with the recorder running. These sorts of albums are not the kinds of albums that a lot of casual listeners necessarily respond to. Jenkins' just-released album A Life of Song is her first album of new material in eight years. Over the course of almost 45 years and nearly 30 albums, Jenkins has been a mainstay of Folkways/Smithsonian Folkways recordings, and the new album is, in some ways, a retrospective of her career. Not in the sense of a greatest hits collection, because all the tracks here are new, recorded with elementary students enrolled in an after-school program. The album starts off with "Pick a Bale of Cotton," first popularized by another Folkways artist, Leadbelly. Ella tells a story in her gentle voice, and the kids trade off verses. You can hear Jenkins say, near the end, conducting the group, "A little softer," getting the kids' chorus to sing quieter as the song ends. Jenkins is a master of leading the kids, showing how sometimes it's better to talk quietly than loudly if you want to get kids' attention. And the kids enthusiastically respond in their call-and-response (they're kinda adorable singing out the names of various people in "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"). Your family will enjoy the album more if you sing along, or even more so if you take the songs here and lead your own song circle. Jenkins moves on from playground songs to spirituals to songs made popular in the civil rights era, even onward through the blues and Gershwin. It's a nifty, albeit brief, survey of songs important to African American (and frankly, American, no qualifier needed) culture. This is to be expected since the album is part of the African American Legacy Recordings series, co-produced with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. (This focus means that another important part of Jenkins' oeuvre -- bringing songs of diverse global cultures back to the States -- plays no part in this recording.) As the album progresses, the children's chorus makes fewer appearances, which gives Jenkins more of a chance to shine. Jenkins' voice is soft but effectively displayed on tracks like "I Want to Be Ready" and "Somebody's Talking about Freedom." And tracks like "Summertime" and "The Cuckoo," where she lends a little more expressiveness to her voice, are simply wonderful. Praise must also go to her fellow musician Rita Ruby, who accompanies Jenkins on guitar on many tracks and has a lovely voice of her own (she even gets an a capella turn on "Amazing Grace"). The 36-minute album will be most appreciated by kids aged 3 through 8. You can listen to samples from all the tracks this video if you want to understand how much other musicians and educators revere her.) On A Life of Song, Ella Jenkins shows that, even at 86, she can capture audiences spanning generations. This is an album hat encourages you to turn off the CD player and sing with others. Luckily, it's good enough to listen to that doing so might prove difficult. Essentially mandated for early childhood music specialists and definitely recommended for everyone else.