Family Values - Charity and the JAMband

Artist: Charity and the JAMband

Album: Family Values

Age Range: 4 to 8

Description: ​Don't let the peace sign on the album cover fool you.  Sure, the fifth album from San Francisco's Charity Kahn and her bandmates is filled with plenty of peace, love, and understanding -- heck, there's even a song titled "Flower Power."  But if you think that the music inside will be weak, you'd be wrong.  The aforementioned "Flower Power" has a muscular guitar chorus, and it's not the only track that begs to be played loudly out of a speaker (as long as the kids are wearing hearing protection headphones, right?)  Not all the tracks are as loud -- see "Grateful" or "Green Beans Everywhere" (which, full disclosure, I helped bring into existence) -- but Kahn and her bandmates take their JAMband moniker seriously.  You can hear the 48-minute album here (or via the widget below).  Family Values ​is a musically sprawling album with a compassionate message.  The combination of the two will resonate with a number of families.  Recommended.

​[Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the album for possible review.]

Because I Said So! - Big Bang Boom

Artist: Big Bang Boom

Album: Because I Said So!

Age Range: Ages 3 through 8

Description: Filling the niche in your family's kindie CD collection for kindie jam-band music you didn't even know you needed filled, Chuck Folds' North Carolina trio successfully translates its energetic live act to disk with a surprisingly heartfelt set of songs.  "Make Me" is a rocking plea from the point of view of a kid who occasionally messes up and wants (gentle) parental guidance; it's one of my favorite tracks of the year.  Is the band making fun of the "Hippie Mom" or is it affecting teasing coming from a place of love?  (I think it's the latter.)  The band's got more of an attitude than a lot of kindie bands ("Are We There Yet" owes its debt to the Beastie Boys in more ways than one), which sometimes doesn't feel quite right on an album that features a counting song, but is right down the alley of older kids.  Listen to almost all of the 28-minute album on the widget below.  (Watch "Make Me" here.)

The band took a big step forward with the album, it's their best yet.  Recommended.