Video: "Who Got the Baby in the King Cake" - Johnette Downing

The twelfth day of Christmas, known as Epiphany, is the kickoff to a whole season of “King Cake” baking in New Orleans. During Carnival season, folks bake this ring-shaped pastry with brioche dough, with a plastic baby hidden inside. The lucky person who finds the baby is “king” for a day… and, in some traditions, is obligated to host the next party. It’s a virtuous, party-giving circle, all the way through Mardi Gras.

Johnette Downing has recorded many albums featuring the music and traditions of the New Orleans area she calls home, not to mention having written and illustrated a number of books as well. Her latest book, Who Got the Baby in the King Cake?, recounts the tradition.

To go along with the book, Downing and her husband Scott Billington recruited a trio of Crescent City heavy hitters for a horn front line (trumpeter Kevin Clark, trombonist Craig Klein, and clarinetist Tim Laughlin) to record the book’s accompanying musical track. It grooves and struts sounds classically New Orleans. (The track is from Downing and Billington’s forthcoming album Swamp Romp.)

Anyway, there’s a video to go along with it, which also features Downing’s vibrant illustrations. It’s a bunch of fun. Here’s hoping you find the baby in at least king cake this season.

Johnette Downing - “Who Got the Baby in the King Cake” [YouTube]

Listen To This: "Slumberjack" - The Okee Dokee Brothers (World Premiere!)

It was time for the Okee Dokee Brothers to try something new. After a trio of Grammy-nominated albums the band dubbed their “Adventure Album Series,” including the Grammy-winning (and all-everything-winning) Can You Canoe?, what could they do as a follow-up?

Turns out, Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing, childhood friends from Colorado, now headquartered in Minnesota, know a little bit about winter. And so on their forthcoming album Winterland, the band sings songs about the season. Lest you think this is their “holiday” album, however, you won’t hear a bunch of songs featuring a jolly fat man in a red suit. Instead, the songs celebrate snow, family, and the passing of time. It’s fun, to be sure, but this album is slightly closer in tone to, say, George Winston’s December than Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

When I asked Mailander and Lansing what inspired them to take winter as the subject of their next album after the Adventure Album series, they said:

Our other albums have all been set in warm weather seasons and settings - canoeing, hiking, and horse-packing. As proud Minnesotans, we felt like we could no longer ignore the beauty and inspiration found in winter. We also knew that many people only associate winter music with the holiday season, and we wanted to the challenge that. We wanted to provide a soundtrack for the season that focused on subjects beyond the standard holiday themes. That challenge and the beauty of winter, made this album a natural next step for us. 

It’s not often that I can say this phrase and literally mean it, but it’s true — with “Slumberjack,” one of the songs on the new album, you can hear the Okee Dokee Brothers as you’ve never heard them before: a capella! Talking about the song, the band says, they drew inspiration from the songs and shanties of Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

“We had never recorded an acapella song and wanted to show kids that you don’t need instruments to have a good sing out. All you need is some stomping, a strong chorus, and a good story. The story came from bedtime legends like ‘The Sandman’ but we gave it some North Woods flair.”

It’s about as celebratory a lullaby as you’ll ever hear. Lots of fun, and I’m pleased as punch to give the track its world premiere.

Winterland is out October 19th.

AND! Don’t miss the band’s list of favorite — and least favorite — things about winter after the track below.

What is your favorite (and least favorite) aspect of winter?

Favorite: Playing in snow

Least favorite: Driving in snow

Favorite: Cozying up by the fire

Least Favorite: Cabin Fever

Favorite: First Snow 

Least Favorite: Last Snow 

Favorite: New Snow

Least Favorite: Old Snow

Favorite: Sledding

Least Favorite: Broken tailbone

Favorite: Warm boots

Least Favorite: Wet boots

Favorite: Sliding on ice on purpose

Least Favorite: Sliding on ice accidentally

Photo credit: Alex Johnson of Alex Johnson Photography

Video: "Zui Zui Zukkorobashi" - Elena Moon Park and Friends (World Premiere!)

It's been a while since Elena Moon Park released Rabbit Days and Dumplings, her all-ages album featuring East Asian songs from a variety of cultures and languages -- about six years, in fact.  I know, it surprised me, too!  It seems much more recent in my memory.

Like all of us, Park's been busy in the interim -- one of her current gigs is serving as the Artistic Director of Found Sound Nation -- but she's not done yet with her Rabbit Days music, as indicated by the existence of this Brand. New. Video!

The video is for "Zui Zui Zukkorobashi," a Japanese-language nonsense song featuring a very hungry mouse.  The animated lyric video from Jordan Young at Fort Psych captures the absurdity of the lyrics and the ever-increasing klezmer-with-a-touch-of-surf-guitar energy of the music.  (The latter comes courtesy of Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet and Dan Zanes on guitar.)

I still think of Rabbit Days and Dumplings fondly, glad of its existence, and I'm happy that Park is still finding ways to share its music with the world.  I'm also happy that we get to world-premiere the video here -- enjoy!

Elena Moon Park - "Zui Zui Zukkorobashi" [YouTube]

Listen To This: "All The Sounds" - Lucy Kalantari and the Jazz Cats (World Premiere!)

All the Sounds album cover

Big weekend for New York's Lucy Kalantari this weekend -- she's appearing on the Kidzapalooza stage at Lollapalooza today (and yesterday), which, frankly, would probably be enough to qualify anyone's weekend as "big."

But on top of that she's also releasing her new album All the Sounds today, ten songs featuring Kalantari's warm voice and a broad range of jazz styles nimbly interpreted by her backing band The Jazz Cats.  (There's also a guest spot by Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, who blends in quite nicely.)  The album's mostly uptempo, but the closing track, which is also the title track, is a lullaby emphasizing the album's theme of listening to the world around you and the desires inside you.

I'm happy to be offering the world premiere of "All the Sounds" -- the track, and the rest of the album, are available to the world today.

Listen To This: "Carefree" - Frances England (World Premiere!)

Everything about this album cover makes me happy and excited.  Let's start with the name at upper left - Frances England!  The San Francisco artist is one of Zooglobble's original favorites, and the fact that she's still making music more than a dozen years later after the tiny hand-crafted jewel of Fascinating Creatures pleases me greatly.

And then the title - yes, it's new music.  Blue Skies and Sunny Days is the successor to the fabulous, Grammy-nominated Explorer of the World, and in just over a month it'll be released to the world.  More music from Frances is always a good thing -- this new album is co-produced by her and Dean Jones (who's produced a number of her albums).  It also features a lot of collaboration with Dan Lebowitz of the band ALO.

And finally, Lisa Congdon's cover art is so Frances-like that I wouldn't have been surprised to hear that England herself had done it.  Congdon's colors (that sun!) and mix of field and town capture the organic mix that Frances' music has had from the beginning.

While the leadoff track "Carefree," a song celebrating a relaxed road trip, is perhaps a little more elaborate than the music Frances England was making a decade ago, it is instantly recognizable as one of her tracks.  I'm happy to world-premiere it here!

Blue Skies and Sunny Days is out August 17. 

Listen To This: "Free Bubbles" - Mista Cookie Jar (feat. Father Goose!)

"Free Bubbles" single cover

Good to have Mista Cookie Jar back to offer us more kindie music from about 15 minutes in the future.  This brand new track "Free Bubbles"  might make you feel a little irie, thanks to two of the most positive kids musicians -- that's saying something in this genre.  It's the L.A.-based MCJ himself, teaming up with his New York-based cross-country doppelganger Father Goose.

There's a little more (OK, a lot more) Auto-Tune on this track celebrating free bubbles (soap bubbles, but also more metaphorical bubbles) than Father Goose probably experiences when he plays with frequent collaborator Dan Zanes, but that's just the way that Mista Cookie Jar rolls.

Now, you may have already heard this song getting some airplay on your favorite radio/satellite radio/podcast, for a limited time, starting this first day of summer, you can download the track for name-your-own-price (including free!).  Just follow the link below, and even if you stumble upon this later this summer or the midst of winter, give it a spin for more summertime vibes.