Today was the first full day of spring. In most places, it's time for the onset of spring fever, but in the Arizona desert, it's a warning that the good times will soon come to an end. Temperate weather will soon be a distant memory. Our front flower bed can only go downhill from here.
I tried to find some songs about spring in my collection, but pretty much came up empty. Winter has no shortage of songs, as snow and the [pick-your-religion-winter-celebration] lend themselves to songwriting. The other three seasons have fewer songs (I can only think of Laurie Berkner's "What Falls in the Fall?" from Whaddaya Think Of That? as a specifically autumn-related song), but spring I think is particularly deficient. What happens in the spring? Not much visibly, compared to autumn (falling leaves) or summer (general goofing off).
Here, then, is a list of spring-ish songs. Flowers and bugs and a little rain. Rain isn't necessarily for spring alone, but we've gone without much rain this winter and spring and so it's a bit of wishful thinking.
Raffi, "Robin in the Rain" (Singable Songs for the Very Young)
Elizabeth Mitchell, "You Are My Flower" (You Are My Flower)
Laurie Berkner, "In the Clouds" (Buzz Buzz)
Elizabeth Mitchell, "Ladybug Picnic" (You Are My Sunshine)
Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell, "Butterfly" (Catch the Moon)
Ralph Covert, "The Ants Go Marching" (from Songs For Wiggleworms)
Dan Zanes and Dar Williams, "Wild Mountain Thyme" (Night Time!)
Dan Zanes, "On the Sunnyside of the Street" (Rocket Ship Beach)
I suppose there's always XTC's "Grass" or the Talking Heads' "(Nothing But) Flowers," but those aren't really for kids for assorted reasons, now are they?
News: New They Might Be Giants Album This Spring
Via TV For Tots (which I've been following for awhile, and needs to be added to the sidebar soon) comes this article on music videos for kids.
I remember when "music videos for kids" meant "kids watching MTV." But I think we're probably way past that point, aren't we? (Remember A-Ha's "Take On Me?" I think I'd probably let my daughter watch that, even with the small bits of stylized violence. Maybe there's something on MTV or MTV2 today I'd be comfortable with. But that would require me to actually watch MTV or MTV2.)
In any case, besides the article itself, which is kind of interesting, there are a couple news bits buried within:
1) Yes, indeedley-doodley, Ralph's World has signed with Disney. Do I know how to read between the lines or what?
2) They Might Be Giants is preparing the follow-up to Here Come the ABCs entitled, naturally, Here Come the 1-2-3s. It'll be another CD/DVD combo.
News: Ralph and the House of Mouse
In a big development that has attracted, well, no attention whatsoever, Ralph's World latest album, Green Gorilla, Monster & Me, is now being released by DisneySound. You can buy it at Disney's shop and a glance here indicates that the album was rereleased by Disney about a month ago.
In fact, if you go here, you can see Ralph Covert described as "Walt Disney Records artist Ralph Covert from Ralph's World." The link mentions that he will pay "tribute to our silly old bear with a new Winnie the Pooh song." Pooh will be celebrating his 80th anniversary this year. Covert, who covered "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Things About Tigger" on his debut Ralph's World album, is a good choice. No word, however, on Kenny Loggins' reaction.
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: 2005 Grammy Nominations -- Children's Field
In the "better late than never" category (the nominations are, what, a month old now?), here are the nominees for the two categories in the Grammy's children's field:
Category 75 - Best Musical Album For Children
(For albums consisting of predominantly music or song vs. spoken word.)
Be Bop Your Best! - Red Grammer [Red Note Records]
Green Gorilla, Monster & Me - Ralph's World [Mini Fresh/Minty Fresh]
Scat Like That: A Musical Word Odyssey - Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer [Rounder Records Corp.]
Some Assembly Required - Tom Chapin [Razor & Tie]
Songs From The Neighborhood - The Music Of Mister Rogers - Various Artists (Dennis Scott, producer) [Memory Lane Syndications, Inc.]
Category 76 - Best Spoken Word Album For Children
(For albums consisting of predominantly spoken word vs. music or song.)
Harry Potter And The Half-blood Prince - Jim Dale [Listening Library]
Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long - Various Artists (Christopher Cerf & Marlo Thomas, producers) [Warner Strategic Marketing]
Pooh's Heffalump - Roy Dotrice [Walt Disney Records]
Raymie, Dickie, And The Bean: Why I Love And Hate My Brothers - Ray Romano [Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers]
A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning - Various Artists (David Rapkin, producer) [Harper Children's Audio]
An appearance by Ralph's World at the Grammy telecast on February 8, 2006 seems highly unlikely. Perhaps Ricky Skaggs (a performer on the Mister Rogers tribute album) will make an appearance, but that will likely be the extent to which nominees in this category will be seen.
Review: Happy Lemons - Ralph's World
By the time Ralph Covert recorded his third children's album, Happy Lemons, he pretty much had the Ralph's World formula down pat:
1. Start with some uptempo originals.
2. Scatter a few covers, children's and otherwise, into the mix.
3. Use a few different musical styles.
4. End with a sappy song that's kinda nice in spite of itself.
And so it is with Happy Lemons. Heck, on the peppy title track, which leads off the album, Covert shares songwriting duties with his elementary-aged daughter Fiona. (Of the two father-daughter penned tracks on the album, I prefer the midtempo rocker "Puddle of Mud," which, aside from the lyrical content, would sound OK on modern adult contemporary radio.) "Pony Boy" is a bit draggy for my tastes, but his version of "The Muffin Man" is very energetic, the best I've heard. "Clean Up" is a reggae song, complete with horn section. And "Riding With No Hands" is another standard-issue closing sappy song. Covert is by no means alone among kids' recording artists in ending his CDs with a slower, sweet song, but he may be the most shameless practitioner.
For me, a little something is missing from this album -- there's no absolute "you have to hear this one" song like there was on his previous CDs ("Eighteen Wheels on a Big Rig" still -- annoyingly -- runs through my brain). But all in all, it's another solid album, and if you like the other Ralph's World CDs, you'll like (or at least tolerate) this one. Best for ages 4 through 7. Found at most major bookstores and online purveyors of media. You know the ones. Recommended.
