One of my favorite kids' books is Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, which simultaneously manages to capture the mindset of a three-year-old and permits that same three-year-old to yell "No!" repeatedly. It's a safe rebellion for the child, while also allowing him or her to exert control. (It's also now a musical, apparently, but that's a whole different subject.)
The musical equivalent is the traditional "Mama Don't Allow," which allows the listener to do all sorts of things mama (a particularly strict sort) don't normally allow: hand-clappin', foot-stompin' -- you get the idea if you somehow have never heard the song before.
Brady Rymer has a nice version of the song on his latest album, Every Day Is a Birthday. It's uptempo, full of energy, but the part that I really dig (and I why I'm mentioning it here) is when Rymer sings, "Mama don't allow no backup-singin' 'round here," and, sure enough, the backup singers chime in. It's a nice, slightly meta-, slightly humorous moment in a fun version of the song that could easily be no different from countless other versions of the song.
Reminds me a little bit of They Might Be Giants' "Fibber Island," off of -- appropriately enough, given the start of this post -- No!. "Here on Fibber Island / No one sings along," and then the backup singers (or whatever the squeaky voices are) chime in "no one sings along." Just as with Rymer's version, it's a meta-moment that challenges the listener and gives them a little bit of excitement when they figure out what just happened.
You can hear Rymer's version of "Mama Don't Allow" here. And, while we're sending you to CDBaby, you can hear TMBG's "Fibber Island" here.
Whose Noggin Is That?
We recently received a copy of Brady Rymer's latest CD, Every Day Is A Birthday, and the first thing my wife said when she saw the CD was,
"Wow. Do we have any other kids' CDs with the artist's actual picture on the cover?"
This amused me, because it was the exact same thought I had the first time I saw a picture of the cover.
And, really, if you think about it, most children's music artists do not have a particularly large presence on their album covers. Ralph's World? Even on his latest CD Green Gorilla, Monster & Me -- Ralph is a tiny, animated man. Dan Zanes? Slightly less tiny, slightly less animated. Laurie Berkner? A little less tiny than Dan, a little less animated. And that's pretty much where the progression ends. (I guess Laurie's DVD has her featured a little more prominently.)
Progress in the children's music world is typically on the level of Justin Roberts' Meltdown! CD, in which the animated child on his fifth kids album now looks much more Justin-like.
Frankly, this probably doesn't matter much. This industry is probably significantly different than "adult" CDs, in which mass marketed CDs almost always come with the artist's picture prominently displayed (think of rap or country CDs, or U2 or the Rolling Stones). And even though the faces aren't there, there's often a graphical consistency to the cover art.
But with the increasing folding in of "serious" children's music artists such as Berkner, Zanes, and Covert into major record distribution, it wouldn't be surprising to see more faces and fewer cartoons on CD covers.
News: Other Releases, Releases-To-Be
I hear you saying, "You and your "news." You're all Justin Roberts Meltdown this, and Laurie Berkner Starbucks that! How 'bout mixing it up for a change?"
And you're right, I have neglected other artist news recently. My bad. So here you go, three (mostly) fresh tidbits of info for ya...
1. Brady Rymer's 4th album has been out for a month now. Every Day Is A Birthday was released on February 10, 2006 and in addition to the regular songs, the album also includes what is intriguingly referred to as a "collection of brain-teasing, creative musical activities at the end of the album." Sounds like it'd be not-so-hot shuffled on an iPod, but kinda cool with the kids. (Also, Rymer's website is really cool.)
2. Eric Herman is preparing his 3rd album Snow Day for a late spring/early summer 2006 release. Go to the link above for info on pre-orders. His site also has some computer games, which I hear are all the rage these days.
3. Finally, Monty Harper also has an album coming out this summer -- Paws, Claws, Scales & Tales will have songs revolving "around the themes of pets and reading." Though lyrics are available, I think I'd rather be surprised to see how many songs deal with reading pets.
So there you go.
