Sonia De Los Santos and her band, sometimes in front of America's most potent nineteenth-century symbol the Statue of Liberty, sing Woody Guthrie's classic song from the twentieth century, refashioned for the twenty-first.
Sonia De Los Santos - "Esta Es Tu Tierra (This Land Is Your Land)" [YouTube]
JoJo and the Pinecones
I'm always happy to add a little jazz to my kindie mix, so I was pleased to find the New York City band JoJo and The Pinecones throwing their porkpie hat into the kids music ring.
The band is the daytime alter ego of Joelle and the Pinehurst Trio, featuring singer Joelle Lurie, which plays jazz across NYC's finer venues, but as most parents will tell you, 10 AM can be just as messy as 10 PM.
Lurie and fellow Pinecone Ben Gallina developed their debut kids' album Night & Day through a residency at Lincoln Center Education, and the album merges their solid vocal and instrumental jazz chops with songs more focused on kid concerns. The result is an appealing sampling of traditional jazz and pop standards (such as "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," "I Can See Clearly Now," and the title track) mixed in amongst some originals (including "It's Time To Wake Up," featuring Jazzy Ash, and "I Spy," a duet with Tim Kubart). And the whole things winds down with a string of slow ballads that will serve as a nice transition to nap time.
Night and Day album cover
Their latest video, "Breakfast for Dinner," is definitely on the pop end of the spectrum, so you're not going to get many jazz vibes from this track, but the video is fun, and song itself has one of the niftier last verse "plot twists" you'll hear.
So I'm happy to premiere the video here. Night & Day is released on January 20. (Preorder on iTunes here.)
JoJo & The Pinecones - "Breakfast for Dinner" [YouTube]
Lemonade album cover
Not enough kangaroo-themed songs in kids music, in my opinion. Who doesn't love kangaroos, right?
Sure enough, Justin Roberts has got me (and you, fellow kangaroo friend) covered with his latest video, for "Me and My Kanagaroo" from his Lemonade album. A sweet song, a good friend, and even a bit of a laugh track.
P.S. Justin -- let me know if you ever want to play Ticket to Ride! Love that game!
Justin Roberts - "Me and My Kangaroo" [YouTube]
OK Go is the official artist of "Monday Morning Smile." This latest video hit the internet just before Thanksgiving, and at least twice over the holiday break I went down the rabbit hole with the family with all the other incredibly elaborate videos they've done.
For "The One Moment," they took 4.2 seconds of incredibly precisely calibrated motion and activity, slowed waaaaaaay the heck down and created something really beautiful (and something that just about demands a repeat viewing once you've seen it the first time. (My kids and wife did, and so did I, anyway.) "This Too Shall Pass" is still my favorite video of theirs, but this is a close second.
OK Go - "The One Moment" [YouTube]
Katie Ha Ha Ha plays guitar in video still
Katie Ha Ha Ha plays guitar in video still
As we approach the end of 2016, it's tempting to look ahead to 2017 and try to discover what new music awaits us, but, hey, there's still new music left in this year! Don't write it off yet.
These Things Go Together album cover
One new album that gets its release this weekend with a 2016 date stamp is These Things Go Together, the debut kids album from Katie Mullins. Mullins is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter who's got a couple albums for adults under her belt, but even though she's been making music with kids as "Miss Katie" for more than 8 years, These Things is her first full-length under the project name Katie Ha Ha Ha.
The album is simple in lot of places -- Mullins' vocals, a guitar on many tracks-- but seeing as she worked with kindie uber-producer Dean Jones, there are a few flourishes [waves hello to the toy piano and kalimba] that elevate the collection of pre-K originals and classics above your standard vocals-and-guitar recording. It's not necessarily reminiscent of Raffi, but it's definitely Raffi-adjacent.
While the title track is one of those vocals-and-guitar tracks and a bit of percussion thrown in, it's energetic -- a bit punk, even -- and features lyrics that will most certainly amuse your novelty-primed preschooler. And it's got a video that features dancing, rocks, and an ill-fated cake. The video below is worth a spin, as is the album when it gets a full release.
Katie Ha Ha Ha - "These Things Go Together" [Vimeo]
No tiny dinosaurs here.
The latest (and greatest? yes, greatest) video from Oklahoma's Sugar Free Allstars goes life-size in its song about crankypants of all ages. The video for "Grumpopotamus (and the Crankosaurus Rex)" from their most recent self-titled album features the title characters, who seem like they should be mascots for a minor-league baseball team somewhere, (gently) expressing displeasure and general raucousness to the tune with a killer singalong chorus.
Crankosaurus Rex's arms seem to be slightly longer than his (or her) older brother Tyrannosaurus, for what it's worth, dinosaur experts.
Sugar Free Allstars - "Grumpopotamus (and the Crankosaurus Rex)" [YouTube] (h/t: Geekdad)
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