Listen To This: "Waiting for the Elevator" - Laurie Berkner (World Premiere!)

Laurie Berkner Waiting for the Elevator cover

It's always nice to see new music from Laurie Berkner cross my desk, so when her latest single, "Waiting for the Elevator," popped in my e-mail inbox, I clicked "play" without reading anything about it.  It starts out simply, as Berkner songs often do, with an ear-wormy melody, Berkner's clear voice, and lyrics about riding up in an elevator.  Aside from the fact that she sings about riding up to the first floor (are we in Europe now?), it seemed like it was an appealing, albeit fairly conventional, song.

And then it got a little strange.

Not Inception strange, or in any way inappropriately, but what I'm saying is, listen to the whole thing.  (Your preschoolers will make you, anyway.)  I'm happy to be world premiering the track today right here, but you can also listen at your other favorite places (iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify).

Laurie Berkner - "Waiting for the Elevator" [YouTube]

Video: "Dame una A" - 123 Andres

It's Cinco de Mayo as I type this, and while 123 Andres' new album Arriba Abajo gets its official release a month from now, this is as a good a week as any to release a brand new Spanish-language kids music video.

The video is for "Dame una A" ("Give Me an A") and its simple celebration of vowels ("vocales") is well-served by an incredibly cute quartet of animated animals, characters, and, er, vowels.  I'm guessing this is not the last we will see of them.

123 Andres - "Dame una A" [YouTube]

Video: "Siete Elefantes" - Mister G (World Premiere!)

Los Animales album cover

Over the past few years, Massachusetts-based Ben Gundersheimer -- best known to the under-6 set as Mister G, has released a number of albums partially or even predominantly in Spanish, and he shows no sign of stopping that trend.  He's just released Los Animales (the album title's a pretty good clue as to the album's theme and primary language) and to celebrate, the album's first video for its title track, world-premiered here!

Mister G teams up with the same folks who created the animated video for "Cocodrilo" -- director Leo Antolini and animator Andrea Cingolani.  This one's every bit as charming as that one, a rainbow of animals.  Non bastante!   More, please!

Mister G - "Los Animales" [YouTube]

Itty-Bitty Review: 123s and ABCs - Ella Jenkins

Let's begin as we must always begin when talking about Ella Jenkins -- she is a legend.  The Chicago-based musician released her first album for Folkways Records (later Smithsonian Folkways) in 1957, and she's recorded for Folkways ever since.  Jenkins turns 90 years old later this year, but she's still playing live around the country.

This latest album follows up on 2013's Get Moving with Ella Jenkins with another collection of previously-released material.  As you might guess from the album title, this album features songs about counting and the alphabet, presented with empathy and without a trace of irony and hipness.  That's not a putdown -- one of the great joys of listening to and watching Jenkins perform live and on record is hearing and seeing how in sync she is with her audience.  She's not playing to the adults in the back of the room -- she's playing to the kids in the front.  (She wants to get the adults involved, too, but that's usually not at issue on recordings.)  She's leading and teaching them, and the kids adore her for it.  Once your kids have already mastered their letters and numbers, they probably won't want to listen, and you might not want to listen to the album on repeat regardless, but again, it's not for you.

You can listen 3 tracks from the 31-minute album here.  Recommended if you've got preschoolers, and as always, if you yourself sing to preschoolers on a regular basis, regardless of whether you're in a classroom setting or not.

Video: "One Fat Frog" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Always good to have another Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke video.  This one's for "One Fat Frog" off their much-beloved Rise and Shine album.  The fat frog is by far the most sane and low-key animal in this motley collection of lightly animated sketches.

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "One Fat Frog" [YouTube]

An original counting song written and performed by Key Wilde & Mr Clarke. Illustration and animation by Key Wilde