***Heidi Swedberg***

Gotta admit, this CD had three things going against it from the start: kids' music by a famous person (Swedberg played George's fiance on Seinfeld), children's voices in the songs (tends to make tunes too cutesy), and venturing into classic folk territory (beloved material often gets too modernized or shined up to within an inch of its life). Not so with Heidi Swedberg's PLAY!

Swedberg and The Sukey Jump Band run through a veritable greatest hits of classic folk tunes on the L.A.-based ukulele teacher/enthusiast's debut album PLAY! From long-lost classics like "Paw Paw Patch," "Japanese Umbrella Song," and "Cricket's Lullaby" to well-known tunes like "Muffin Man," "Buckeye Jim," and "Dream a Little Dream," Swedberg infuses each song on PLAY! with warmth, joy, playfulness, and, most importantly, ukuleles!

PLAY! includes a couple of medleys: "Skip to My Shoo" joins "Skip to My Lou" and "Shoo Fly," while "Train Medley" ties together folk favorites "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "Rock Island Line," and "Freight Train." Swedberg also performs a nice cover Chubby Parker's version of "Froggy Went A-Courtin'" (remember that "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O" refrain?).

The most unique tune on PLAY!, though, has to be the Frank Zappa-meets-Spike Jones and His City Slickers version of "Pop Goes the Weasel," as a simple ukulele verse of the familiar rhyme is followed by a discordant, percussion-filled middle section.

Don't forget to check out the booklet insert, where you'll find a short background story for each song, as well as ukulele chords and finger placements. If you're a fan of Laura Doherty or Elizabeth Mitchell, you'll dig Heidi's quiet but fun-loving, sweet but not syrupy style on PLAY!

Best Kids' Music of 2009: #1 Here I Am! by Caspar Babypants

This is modern folk music at its best, and some of these tunes are destined to become classics. Chris Ballew, formerly of the indie rock band The Presidents of the United States of America, delivers a debut children's album that's full of witty, wordy, silly, gentle, quietly acoustic new traditional tunes. Here I Am!, recorded under the guise of Caspar Babypants, is an endless string of catchy, quiet, and imaginative songs that'll put a smile on your face. It's easy to see that Ballew didn't force the songs, that he didn't set out to write a "children's album:" these are images, tunes, and thoughts that might pop into a real kid's head, making Caspar Babypants' Here I Am! the best kids' music CD of 2009.

Number 1: Here I Am! by Caspar Babypants

Best Kids' Music of 2009: # 8 Family Photograph by The Dreyer Family Band

Family Photograph is a remarkable collaboration between East and West Coast members of the Dreyer family, who pull together musical influences from across time and around the world to create their impressive kids' music debut, some of the best kids' music of 2009.

Number 8: Family Photograph by The Dreyer Family Band

***Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem***

This here's what gives credence to the fact that music for kids and their families is a force to be reckoned with: kids' bands are now playing tunes by other kids' bands. Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem cover not one but two family favorites on their latest CD, Billy Jonas' "Bear to the Left" from his 2002 album What Kind of Cat Are You?!, and the title track from Renee & Jeremy's 2007 album It's a Big World. But I digress...let's take a listen at Ranky Tanky.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem have been making "new roots music" together for a decade, with three previous CDs of fiddle-driven, harmony-filled tunes under their belt. The Middletown, CT-based quartet are adept at their frontporch, old time, loose-jointed but tightly-played style, no matter what song they attempt, and that's what makes Ranky Tanky work. Most of the album consists of covers, including "Tennessee Wig Walk," made famous by Bonnie Lou (Mary Joe Kath), also covered by Dan Zanes on House Party; "Kee-mo, Ky-mo," found on June Christy's "kids' album" The Cool School; New Folk artist John Gorka's "Branching Out;" Malvina Reynolds' "Morningtown Ride," one of The Seekers biggets hits; and "Bushel and a Peck" from the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls.

But despite the wide range of sources, all the songs sound like daisy mayhem tunes. Lots and lots of kids' musicians and bands attempt a "stylistic showcase" of sorts, especially on debut albums. Rather than attempt a rockabilly style here and a folk style there, followed by the obligatory reggae misstep, Rani Arbo and band maintain their own unique, cohesive sound, even on covers of well-known tunes like Cat Steven's "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out", The Meters' "They All Ask'd For You", Sheb Wooley's "Purple People Eater", and Tom Petty's "Wildflowers."

Great organic Americana music for the whole family. Let's hope we hear more from Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem in the future.

Happy Labor Day!

Since this holiday was originated by America's labor movement in the late 1800's, let's commemorate the date with a review of Ella Jenkins and a Union of Friends Pulling Together. This 1999 Smithsonian Folkways album, nominated for the 2000 GRAMMY Award for Best Musical Album for Children, is one of the best, if not only, true "concept albums" for kids.

Jenkins skillfully weaves songs, spoken word pieces, and call and response tunes about labor unions into an overall theme of togetherness, including songs about family, friends, and our nation. Kids will recognize favorites like "The More We Work Together," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Skip to My Lou," while historically significant songs like "Solidarity Forever," "Which Side Are You On?" and the powerful "Keep Your Hands on the Plow" are great discussion starters for families and schools. And compare this album's version of the Populist song "The Farmer is the Man" with the more rockin' version on Dog On Fleas' Cranberry Sauce Flotilla.

Check out this great collection of historical singalongs, perfect for both the classroom and the living room.

***Phil Rosenthal***

Phil Rosenthal, along with wife Beth, daughter Naomi, and son Daniel, created a great collection of old-time music, classic folk songs, traditional tunes, songwriter favorites, and Rosenthal originals for his 1995 album, The Green Grass Grew All Around. The project was produced and engineered expertly by Rosenthal, giving the songs a warm and inviting sound, neither overdone nor underdone.

Rosenthal takes care of most of the instrumentation himself, with a little help from his family. Also pitching in musically are Kate O’Brien on violin, Stacey Phillips on dobro, Walter Wakeman on harmonica, and Jeff and Synia McQuillan on percussion and harmony vocals.

On The Green Grass Grew All Around, Rosenthal performs traditional tunes like the story song “Frog Went A-Courtin’,” the call-and-response “What’ll I Do with the Baby-O?” the swaying shanty “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” and the nursery rhyme-like “I Had a Little Nut Tree.” On the original LP, Side 1 came to a rousing end with the cumulative folk favorite “The Green Grass Grew All Around,” and Side 2 finished up with the equally upbeat “Hey Lolly.”

Other highlights include Woody Guthrie’s nonsense song “Jig Along Home,” a simple banjo/vocals version of Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna,” and Lydia Maria Child’s Thanksgiving classic “Over the River and Through the Wood.” Rosenthal also performed several original songs like “Neighbors,” a throwback to the call-to-unity vibe of the ‘70s; the cheerful “Sleepy Eyes,” which encourages the listener to wake up and see what the new day will bring; and the warm and cozy “The Train Song.”

Fans of Dan Zanes, The Dreyer Family Band, or folk songs in general will really dig this easy-to-sing-along-with classic from Phil Rosenthal and Family, originally released on, and still available from, Rosenthal's own American Melody Records label.

***Laura Doherty***

Dig this new CD from Laura Doherty, the Early Childhood Music Program Director at Chicago's famed Old Town School of Folk Music. Kids in the City is full of breezy urban folk tunes featuring the Natalie Merchant-like vibe of Doherty's vocals. She had musical help from Scott Besaw on drums, Amalie Smith on upright bass, Rob Newhouse on lead guitar, Susan Marques on banjo, Barb Burlingame on trumpet, Skip Landt on harmonica, and Rick Rankin on percussion and melodica, who also produced, recorded, and mixed Kids in the City.

Doherty's album is a musical tribute of sorts to The Windy City: elevators and escalators, the zoo, public transportation, the farmer’s market, traffic, and hot dog stands all get a shout out on Kids in the City. "I Spy" references Lake Michigan and taxis, "Hot Dog" celebrates sport peppers and celery salt, the a cappella "Wheels in the City" catalogs things that roll around big city sidewalks, and "El Train" is a self-explanatory tune about Chicago's famous clickety clackin' mode of transportation.

Kids in the City is full of the sights and sounds of preschoolers' lives: "I Spy" explores the colors all around us, "Farmer's Market," with its simple vocals and banjo arrangement, has fun with names of fruits and vegetables, while "Rockin' at the Zoo" catalogs the animals you might see and hear there. And check out the wonderful melodies of "Hello Hippopotamus," "I Spy," and "Kitty Cat" (which is vaguely reminiscent of The Chordettes' "Lollipop").

Doherty's album contains a couple of future kids' classics, too. "Uncle Ukulele's Band" has instruments represent members of the family, and sounds as if it could have been featured on The Muppet Show, while the very Ella Jenkins-like “Wheels in the City” is a call-and-response, a cappella tune, with overlapping melodies and vocal lines.

And Kids in the City includes two covers I’ve never heard on a children’s album before: a quiet and tender rendition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” and a chooglin’ version of Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago."

Laura Doherty's Kids in the City is a great example of modern urban folk. Now I gotta go get a Chicago dog and a chocolate malt.

***Caspar Babypants***

Wait, who is Caspar Babypants?

***Peter, Paul and Mary***

Let's revisit a classic today! Peter, Paul and Mary's 1969 kids' album Peter, Paul and Mommy was a groundbreaker of sorts, because it was the first instance of a major pop star or band making an album specifically for children. The trio covered Tom Paxton's "The Marvelous Toy" and "Going to the Zoo," Shel Silverstein's short and silly "Boa Constrictor," and Gilbert & Sullivan's "I Have a Song to Sing, O!" from Yeoman of the Guard.

The album included performances of the traditional tunes "Leatherwing Bat," "All Through the Night," and "Mockingbird," as well as Peter Yarrow's amusing "Make-Believe Town." Peter, Paul and Mary also covered themselves on "It's Raining," originally peformed on their 1962 debut album Peter, Paul and Mary, and, of course, their classic "Puff the Magic Dragon," a re-recording of a tune first heard on their 1963 album (Moving). Peter, Paul and Mommy also introduced two new PP&M gems, Peter Yarrow's "Day is Done" and Paul Stookey's "Christmas Dinner."

Peter, Paul and Mommy is, for the most part, a subdued acoustic affair, so the album would make a perfect backdrop to a rainy afternoon or a summer sundown.

***Shāna Barry***

Somewhere between Kimya Dawson's wordy stream-of-consciousness songs and Nick Drake's whispery dream fever tunes lies Shāna Barry's first album for kids, A Pink Whale and a Very Tall Tree.

The Frances England-sounding eight-song EP contains a group of very visual songs: close your eyes and let the lyrics tell you stories about the special secret island of fōf, described in great detail on "Around the Island" and "The Great Mystery;" and about the adventures of a curious fōfer named Otamo who encounters and befriends "The Pink Whale" named Guinivere and climbs a very tall tree to "Cloudland."

Like any normal kid, Otamo loves to talk about "The Day I Learned to Ride My Bike," but then gets philosophical with "Some are Green," an ode to diversity and acceptance. The short album is rounded off with a lullaby and an instrumental. Barry performs the songs with just her voice and guitar, and an occasional ukulele. The stark musical background is a perfect palate for lines like "I hop from rock to rock and peer into tide pools," and "The rogue wave passed us by," and "Who wants a humdrum earth when it can be vibrant and grand," and words like chicory, anemones, cumulonimbus, and centripetal.

A beautiful, quiet, mysterious album that honors kids by challenging their perceptions and vocabularies. Kudos to Shāna Barry.

***Johnny Bregar***

Yet another warm, comfy CD of country/folk/Americana from Seattleite Johnny Bregar! His first, Stomp Yer Feet!, is one of the best albums for the 2-to-6 year old set you'll ever hear, and his second, Hootenanny, features a balance of originals and traditional tunes. It would have been difficult for anyone to follow up those two solid collections, but Bregar does it with his third CD for kids, Dragonfly.

Check out the nifty artwork by Kelly Angelovic, and Bregar's can't-miss covers of John Brim's "Ice Cream Man," Guy Wood & Sammy Gallop's post-WW II hit "Shoo-Fly Pie," and Sanford Faulkner's hillbilly Vaudeville fiddle tune "Arkansas Traveller." Other highlights include the pro-Maine bluegrass jam "Christmas Cove," the feel-the-sun-on-your-face feel good vibe of "Two Thumbs Up," the sweet pop of the title tune (already a hit on XM Radio's Kids Place Live), the banjo waltz/science lesson of "Honey Bees," the Memphis groove of "What Do You Do?" and the absolutely beautiful "Blue Canoe" (hey, pair this with Frances England's "Blue Canoe" from Fascinating Creatures!).

Seattle is fast becoming a hotbed of high-quality kids' music, and Johnny Bregar is one of the reasons why. The fact that his albums keep getting better is an indicator that he's here to stay, and that we should expect even greater things from him in the future. Dragonfly soars.

***Betsy Stern***

Minimalist kids' music at its best! Betsy Stern, a Berkeley, California native, uses her voice and one instrument per song to create a collection of jazzy, earthy, quiet tunes for the whole family.

On her debut children's album, Foyo, Stern plays acoustic guitar, upright bass, and requinto guitar (a smaller-scale guitar), to make "world music" in the most global sense possible: Foyo features songs from France, Spain, Australia, and Haiti, as well as traditional American Folk tunes, all performed in Stern's unique style.

Foyo includes familiar kiddie songs like "Fooba Wooba John" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep," as well as traditional classics like "Crawdad Song," "Mouse on the Hill," and "Cindy." But you haven't heard "This Old Man" until you hear it performed with only vocals and an upright bass.

Check out Stern's stellar fretwork on the title tune, a patois French song from Haiti. The tune was also included on the soundtrack of the 1962 South African musical Wait a Minim! Other standouts are Will D. Cobb and Ren Shields' 1906 dancehall ditty "Waltz Me Around Again Willie;" "Jamaica Farewell," made famous by Harry Belafonte on his 1956 album Calypso; the French folk tune "Câdet Rousselle;" and a couple of classics from Down Under, "Kookabura" and "Waltzing Matilda."

Betsy Stern's Foyo is a great introduction to obscure gems and unique reworkings of familiar tunes. Quality music for young and old alike.