My Dog on Fleas cup runneth over this evening.
First, head on over to the band's Facebook page to give their new bonus track "Love" a spin. The word "love" makes up maybe 80% of the total lyrics, so it'll probably fit well on your kid's mix CDs they're making for their 2nd grade class for Valentine's Day. (What, they're not making mix CDs?)
Second, head on over to Jitterbug to watch a new video for "Cranberry Sauce Flotilla", the super-fun title track from the album of the same name. Lots of men in hats. But not Men In Hats.
Finally, I told you about the High Meadow Songs album about a year ago, and in January 2008, there was a benefit concert.
Luckily, someone captured Dog on Fleas, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Daniel Littleton doing "Jenny Jenkins" live. (Sadly, it took me a year to discover it.) Great version.
Review: Beautiful World - Dog on Fleas
Well, there's certainly no flies on New York's Dog on Fleas. Flies on fleas? Huh? What I mean by that is that their last album, When I Get Little, was a fabulous little piece of sun-kissed Dan Zanes-ian roots-pop, and it would have been very easy for the band to turn out another collection of free-range music.
But for whatever reason (including the departure of a couple band members to other things), the band has taken a somewhat different approach on this new CD. There's a lot of experimentation here, even more than you'd expect from a Dog on Fleas disk. Some of it sounds great -- "I Love Your Accent" is little more than the song title sung in falsetto and people reciting where they're from (from around the world), but it's lots of fun and very global in its worldview, obviously. "Unbirthday" is a raucous, occasionally distorted celebration of each person's other 364 days of the year. I was much less enthused by "Star Tonight" and "Do You Wanna Know My New Dance Step?," two funky tunes that didn't have that dancing spark Fleas tunes often have. My general feeling is that the second half of the album is less "experimental" and will be more familiar to long-time listeners.
There are a number of guest musicians on the album. Lorette Velvette takes lead vocals on the storytelling "Lima Bean," with Uncle Rock providing backup assistance. Frances England joins with Pia Ruissi-Besates on the gorgeous and mellow album-closer "Babies." (The song would have fit perfectly on the band's Dean Jones' lullaby(-ish) album Napper's Delight.)
As with most Dog on Fleas tunes, the 35-minute album doesn't quite have an age range, but let's say it's most appropriate for ages 3 through 9. You can hear samples at the album's CD Baby page.
Beautiful World isn't as fun as their last album, When I Get Little, and if you're new to the band, I'd recommend starting there first. And if you're a huge fan of that CD, it may take a while to get used to the new sounds here. But there are a lot of good songs and the lyrics are filled with love for the world and its inhabitants. There are many worse ways to spend 35 minutes dancing with your kids. Recommended.New Album From Dog On Fleas On Its Way...
While we're talking about new albums on their way, heads up for a new release from the fine folks in New York's Dog On Fleas. Dean Jones from the band mentioned to me that the band has "shrunk and changed flavors," indicating that a couple long time members (Debbie Lan and David Levine) have moved on and the sound has changed a little bit.
But the new album, scheduled for a mid-November-ish release, is filled as always with lots of different instruments and lots of different friends, including Frances England, Uncle Rock, and Lorette Velvette.
Here's the tracklist along with the lovely cover art which, as always, is by Cindy Hoose.
Review in Brief: High Meadow Songs - Various Artists
High Meadow Songs is a collection of tracks from artists in New York's Hudson Valley to benefit High Meadow Arts, a local non-profit providing arts education for children and families.
When getting a bunch of local musicians together for a benefit album, it doesn't hurt if your definition of "local musicians" includes Elizabeth Mitchell, Dog on Fleas, and Medeski, Martin & Wood. And if the CD just consisted of the tracks from those artists or collaborators, you'd have a pretty nifty 9-track album. Dog on Fleas turn in a very Fleas-ian (and local) "Buffalo Gals" and sound a bit like The Band on "Jenny Jenkins." Mitchell covers Jane Siberry's sweet "When Spring Comes," while MMW offer their reworking of "All Around the Kitchen" (accented with kids' voices) from their upcoming Let's Go Everywhere CD.
Luckily there are a number of other tracks worth it for someone who's not from the area -- for example, Rebecca Coupe Franks & Her Groovemobile offer an original jazzy instrumental, "Ella Skye," and Abby Hollander and a whole bunch of High Meadow students perform Mark Morgenstern's story-in-song "Hudson River Girl." The album isn't so much an album of "kids music" as much as it is an album of kid-friendly folk music, "folk" defined rather broadly, as the album also includes a song from a musical comedy based on Beowulf ("True True Friend") and a couple of tracks from drummers Fode Sissoko and Toby Stover. As with any benefit album, especially a 65-minute one such as this one, the quality (or interest) of the tracks is not uniformly high, but the high points outweigh the rest.
You can hear the first three tracks in their entirety here or listen to samples at the album's CDBaby page. It's probably most appropriate for kids ages 5 and up. High Meadow Songs will appeal most to fans of Dog on Fleas and Elizabeth Mitchell, but I think any listener (or family) who's a fan of folk music will find many pleasures here. It's a testament to one particular community's creative vibrancy. Recommended.Elizabeth Mitchell, Dog on Fleas, MMW on Benefit CD
I hear about a bunch of benefit albums. And a benefit album with tracks from Elizabeth Mitchell, Dog on Fleas, and Medeski Martin & Wood definitely piques my interest.
But any benefit album which includes songs like "True True Friend" from Dog on Fleas collaborator Debbie Lan with this description -- "This song was written for our musical last year (a collaborative piece, interpreted and adapted by Allison Uzzle and the 7th/ 8th graders – the challenge was to take the epic poem ‘Beouwolf’ and make it into a musical comedy!) and we needed a sweet song for four of our sweet girls, and so I wrote this for them. They did a sterling job. Thanks girls!! (Isabelle Lacedonia, Rebekah Underhill-Hval, Corin Mosack and Zoe Saridakis.)" -- well, I'm well beyond piqued.
Proceeds from High Meadow Songs benefits High Meadow Arts, Inc. a Hudson Valley non-profit organization "dedicated to providing excellent arts education to local children and families." Listen to 3 tracks -- Debbie Lan's soulful "I'm On Your Side," Dog on Fleas' typically Fleasian (that is, eclectic and fun) "Buffalo Gals," and the nifty "Hudson River Girl" from Abby Hollander, Lilly Morganstern & the Hudson River Girls -- here. The record release party is Sunday, Dec. 2 at 6 PM.
Review: Napper's Delight - Dean Jones
Though this is the best kids music album title (or at least most amusing to parents) since the Sippy Cups' "Electric Storyland," people who expect Dean Jones' Napper's Delight to be a traditional lullaby album or a goofy riff on a traditional lullaby album will be disappointed.
Surprise and, not infrequently, delight are more likely feelings here.
Jones is one of the ringleaders of the fabulous New York band Dog on Fleas. While it sells both this album and the band short, to call Napper's Delight a Dog on Fleas lullaby album is a good place to start in describing the CD. One of the chief attributes of a Dog on Fleas CD is its spirit of adventurousness, of lack of calculation in song selection and instrumentation. Such is the case here as well. There probably aren't many CDs that include both drum machines and traditional African instruments such as mbiras or the balafon, but they all appear here and neither of them really sound out of place.
I think it takes a few tracks to get into the CD -- the drum machine on the third track "Wheelin' and Dealin'" might not be everyone's cup of tea -- but by the time fellow New York musician Elizabeth Mitchell takes over the vocals on the fifth track, "Grow Little Flower," the CD has really started to establish a relaxed but not sleepy mood. The next track, "Bygones," struck me as a long-lost Vince Guaraldi Trio track, while the reworked 18th century folk song "Turtle Dove" gets a nice assist from fellow Dog on Fleas bandmate Debbie Lan and a couple fiddlers. By the time you get to "Hush Little Baby," which sounds like it's got a tiny calliope helping to provide musical accompaniment, you're sold. (I also adore "Filly and Dilly," a duet with Amy Poux which is a reworking of the traditional "Lavender's Blue.") The overall effect is definitely not one of a lullaby album, if only because many of the songs don't deal with unconditional love as many lullabies do. Rather, the CD creates a mellow mood that will work well as the soundtrack to many a lazy afternoon reading with the kids.
The 42-minute CD is fine for all ages, of course, but I think kids ages 2 through 8 will respond to it more. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page.
Napper's Delight isn't a traditional lullaby album -- it sounds nothing like it. Although it has echoes of Dog on Fleas, Elizabeth Mitchell, and the Innocence Mission, it doesn't really sound much like those, either. It is, as I said above, filled with surprises and delights. I'm not sure kids will necessarily run to pull this off the shelves. But I think a lot of parents (especially those who are regular readers here) will find this a soothing balm for family listening and, given five or six spins, will find this working its way into their brain. It did mine. Definitely recommended.
