Monday Morning Smile: "Down by the Salley Gardens" - Yale Whiffenpoofs

Miss Mary Mack had her first school choir concert of the year last week. 90-odd kids singing with no small degree of talent. Hearing her sing in that choir made me happy for many reasons, not the least of which was that I'd heard her singing this song through the house for the past month and so I was glad to hear it in polished, choral form. My favorite song her choir sang was "Down by the Salley Gardens," which is based on an 1889 poem by W.B. Yeats with a vocal setting by Benjamin Britten:

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take life easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she placed her snow-white hand. She bid me take love easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

As you might expect, hearing these words from a bunch of middle schoolers put a different spin on the text. But Britten's setting (and his piano accompaniment) is so very lovely and made me smile. Wistfully, perhaps, but smile nonetheless. Also: so short -- totally memorizable. Now to track down chords. Anyway, this is one of the best versions I could find online. It omits the piano and so isn't quite the version I heard, but the melody is the same. Yale Whiffenpoofs - "Down by the Salley Gardens" [YouTube]

Monday Morning Smile: "Peggy Sang the Blues" - Frank Turner

Thank Bill for this one. It's from English singer Frank Turner, whose album England Keep My Bones will almost certainly end up in my top five albums of 2011 and who I was first introduced to by Bill. It's punk with a county/folk edge, or perhaps it's country/folk with a punk edge. Totally tuneful and joyful (except when he's not trying to be joyful) and an excellent live. Not all of the new album is appropriate for kids, and the lead single, "Peggy Sang the Blues," concerns a visitation in Turner's dreams by his dead grandmother. Which is fine by me, because it's got the best damn chorus of the year, including the lyrics "It doesn't matter you come from / it matters where you go / and no gets remembered / for the things they didn't do." I hope my own kids know that. Frank Turner - "Peggy Sang the Blues" [YouTube]

Listen To This: "Wesley Werewolf" - Skelly and the Punkins

Halloween is just a month away, so it's time to start rolling out kindie's 2011 Halloween tunes. This is a particularly nice cut from a group called "Skelly and the Punkins." The group, OK, it's a one-off track from the folks at Cordovan Music, but don't let that put you off. Your kids will pogo. You can ~~grab the tunes at Amazon's UK site (!?) or on eMusic~~ get the mp3 pretty much anywhere digital tunes are sold. Or just hit YouTube repeatedly. Skelly and the Punkins - "Wesley Werewolf" [YouTube]

Listen To This: Smile - Mike Park

I got an e-mail the other day from Mike Park, who, with some understatement, introduced himself as a "longtime musician in the punk world." This would be somewhat akin to saying Tom Brady is a "longtime player in the football world." Even I, not very tuned into the punk scene, recognized one of the bands he once played in (Skankin' Pickle) and a few of the bands he releases records for on his Asian Man Records label, bands like the Alkaline Trio and Smoking Popes. So I was pretty interested in hearing his new project, a kids' album called Smile. And you can hear it, too, over at Punk News. It's a short, sharp blast of punk married to preschool-friendly topics and lyrics. If you only have time to check out a track or two, I'd suggest perhaps "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... Drums" or "Everybody Loves to Jump." And welcome to the kids' punk world, Mike.

Listen To This: "Cousins" - Dean Jones, Grenadilla, Recess Monkey

Five things to love about this video for "Cousins," a song recorded a couple weeks ago in New York by Dean Jones, Grenadilla, and Recess Monkey. 1. Dean Jones 2. Grenadilla 3. Recess Monkey 4. The fact that these three groups got together to write and record a song. 5. The discussion of "homophone." Dean Jones, Grenadilla, Recess Monkey - "Cousins" [YouTube]

New Dan Zanes Album: Contradance (Music from the Pilobolus Dance Performance)

I spilled the beans about this last week, but it turns out that the new Dan Zanes album I stumbled onto shouldn't have been on Spotify just yet. It's so easy to flip that digital switch these days. But now it's officially here. It's called Contradance: Music from the Pilobolus Dance Performance, and it's, well, exactly that. Zanes had worked with the dance group Pilobolus to create a new show. It premiered last year. And now you can listen to (and buy) the eight tracks of the EP at Zanes' store. The album leans toward his American Songbag work, but if your family is a fan of Zanes' work in general, Contradance will be right up your alley. (Give extended samples a spin using the player on the right-hand side of the page here. Or use Spotify to listen to the whole darn thing.)