It's November, which in my mind is the month featuring two great things worth celebrating: 1) bountiful harvests and gratitude (tip o' the cap to my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving), and 2) kids music.
This was the sixth year for the Fids and Kamily Awards, and this weekend the list of the top kids and family music of the year was announced, led by Recess Monkey's win for FLYING!.
Every year it's hard for judges to pick out their individual ten favorite albums of the year, but I heard that complaint more so this year than ever. It's one of the reasons I came up with the idea for F&K -- ask me tomorrow what my ten favorite albums of the year were, and you're liable to get a different answer than what I gave in my F&K vote. But crowdsourcing the thing helps even out those ups and downs and personal idiosyncratic preferences. F&K's 29 judges this year (the largest judge pool in our history) listen to a lot of music and the list that resulted is a great list to share with friends who aren't yet completely clued in to this kids music resurgence.
Thanks as always to my fellow F&K coordinators Bill Childs and Gwyneth Butera and of course to all the judges. Thanks, too, to Jeff Bogle for updating the F&K logo. It was fun -- let's vote next year, OK?
Complete list of winners after the jump.
1. Recess Monkey - FLYING!
2. Dan Zanes and Friends - Little Nut Tree
3. Frances England - Mind of My Own
4. Caspar Babypants - Sing Along!
5. Lunch Money - Original Friend
6. Brady Rymer - Love Me for Who I Am
7. The Deedle Deedle Dees - Strange Dees, Indeed
8. The Jimmies - Practically Ridiculous
9. Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - Oh Lucky Day!
10. Gustafer Yellowgold - Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock
Honorable Mentions (unranked next ten):
Cat and a Bird - Cat and a Bird
The Hipwaders - The Golden State
Charlie Hope - Let's Go Play!
Ella Jenkins - A Life of Song
Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights - What a Zoo!
Todd McHatton - Galactic Champions of Joy
Alastair Moock - These Are My Friends
The Not-Its - Tag, You're It!
Papa Crow - Things That Roar
Chip Taylor and the Grandkids - Golden Kids Rules
