***String Bean Jones***

Holy cow! How could I have missed this one?!? Every so often somebody will bring to my attention a CD that has been out for a while that they think should be heard, and sure enough, they were right on with this album. It was like coming across a stack of old 78s in a second hand store, full of music you've never heard before and won't hear anywhere else.

Jeff Harris, aka String Bean Jones, has released a reeediculous number of CDs with his Lefty Jones Band, all wonderful and all amazingly original. The music is sort of acoustic / electric / Neil Young & Crazy Horse / travelling through St. Louis via Vicksburg via Baton Rouge. Harris' first kids' album, String Bean Jones; Live From The Bathtub, continues the legacy of originality and eclecticism, with an emphasis on acoustic performances.

From the Mississippi blues of "Mudpie" to the tender "Babyman" to the rowdy "Peas Fell Hard", from the chugging piano of "Pickle Blues" to the sweet "Alone with the Lightning Bugs" to the silly "Stinky Ann", Harris' compositions and lo-fi production style ( did he really record it in a bathtub ?!? maybe! ) are instantly captivating, and thoroughly entertaining in a "wow - what the hell is this - i love it" kind of way.

Check out some of the clips from all 17 (17!) Lefty Jones releases over at CD Baby, go to iuniverse and browse through a few pages of Harris' "Smiley-Man Chronicles", then buy copies of all his music for yer kids, uncles, grandmothers, dogs, and various strangers. They'll thank you.

***2006 Top Fifteen Songs***

OK, say you wanted to put together a mix tape for a friend who had never heard any of the current group of kids' performers. Here are my top fifteen favorites from, roughly, 2006 that I would immediately have the uninitiated listen to. Why fifteen? That's about the length of a regular album, and, well, I'm too lazy to pick twenty. Check 'em out!

Number Fifteen : Tiburon - Josh Levine
from the CD Josh Levine for Kids
Classic Spanish-language cover song that will make your Toddlers go Salsa crazy!

Number Fourteen : Punk Rock Skunk - Farmer Jason
from the CD Rockin' In the Forest with Farmer Jason
Jason Ringenberg lets the rock and roll fly, while giving the music industry a playful nudge in the ribs.

Number Thirteen : Hold My Hand - Enzo Garcia
from the CD LMNO Music-Pink
The most joyful, singalongable kids' song written in 7/4 time you'll ever hear.

Number Twelve : Eleanor Gerbil - Monty Harper
from the CD Paws, Claws, Scales & Tales
The Rutles would be mighty proud!

Number Eleven : If You Listen - Elizabeth Mitchell
from the CD You are My Little Bird
There is a wonderful world of music that exists beyond the borders of yer run-of-the-mill kids' selection, as this beautiful and obscure cover song proves.

Number Ten : Jack was Every Inch a Sailor - The Hollow Trees
from the CD The Hollow Trees
The best drinking song for kids ever ... EVER!

Number Nine : Fascinating Creatures - Frances England
from the CD Fascinating Creatures
Music that sounds like Daniel Lanois producing the Sundays, with lyrics that urge us to be the most wonderful being we can possibly be.

Number Eight : Face the Facts - Jim Gill
from the CD Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times
Toddler Time activity song disguised as a German beer hall stein-raiser, if sung by Monty Python's Fred Tomlinson's Singers.

Number Seven : Surf's Up All Around the World - Mr. David
from the CD The Great Adventures of Mr. David
If Brian Wilson still recorded stuff like the Smile project, this is what it would sound like.

Number Six: Your Eel - Gustafer Yellowgold
from the DVD Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World
Format be damned: this DVD-only masterpiece is touching, bittersweet, and poplicious. Guaranteed to make you sing along with the chorus.

Number Five : Respect - Greg Loop
from the CD Stories from Duke Puddintown
An awesome slice of jangly pop music with equally awesome lyrics.

Number Four : Big Bad Wolf - Joel Caithamer
from the CD ACTIVATE!
This rockabilly scorcher tells the true story of that misunderstood ol' wolfie.

Number Three : The Moon Song - dog on fleas
from the CD When I Get Little
Lyrics that are simultaneously silly, cosmic, and full of pop culture references, woven into a song that The Band would have given their beards for.

Number Two : Bicycle - The Jellydots
from the CD "Hey You Kids!"
Pop music par excellence, joyful beyond belief, written in the voice of a child who looks at the world with eyes of wonder, and an adult who loves and appreciates the tiny magical moments of life.

Number One : For Those About to Walk, We Salute You - Daddy A Go Go
from the CD Eat Every Bean and Pea On Your Plate
The most full-on, kick-ass, rock & roll kids' song of the year! Crank this sucker up as loud as you can and thank Les Paul for givin' us the electric solid body guitar.

***Stephen Cohen***

A red-jacketed band of half-human, half-animal musicians comes marching down the street, accompanied by a couple of oversized birds ... what an awesome introduction to Stephen Cohen's Here Comes the Band! With a smoky-voiced delivery, vocal phrasing a little like Rickie Lee Jones, and an intimate coffee house presentation, Portland resident Stephen Cohen whams, tickles, and strums the strings of his guitar, which acts as much a percussion instrument as a keeper of melody, intertwined with the tinkles, knocks, and wobbles of his handmade musical gear. Rhythms are suspended and sometimes done away with entirely in several songs, tying together everything in a cohesive dream-like collection of thoughts put to music. Sound too heavy for a kids' album? Au contraire, my little ones, for that's the amazing thing about this CD: yer tiny kids can sing right along with every single song on the album, while grownups can bask in the glow of Cohen's musical inventiveness. Even though Cohen has been recording since 1979, Here Comes the Band is his first album specifically for kids.

Soon-to-be Toddler Time classics include the mantra-like "Give Me That Toy!", the boppity "Mr. Knickerbocker" and "Baseball, Baseball". The controlled chaos of "The Elephant Walk" mirrors, coincidentally, sounds produced by bands of the Elephant 6 collective (Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, etc.), while the ethereal "Rain, Rain, Rain" fully utilizes Cohen's self-created percussion inventions. The three-part thread "Here Comes the Band / There Goes the Band / Sleepy Dreams (of the Band)" that runs through the CD gives Cohen a chance to name check his old group, the Talk Talk Band. By using a few tunes culled from some of his grownup albums, real life and fiction and Many Hats, Cohen shows his trust in kids' taste and intelligence. He's not making music for children, but just making music.

Not only do you get Cohen's wonderful songs, the CD is also packaged with a lyrics booklet full of artwork by Christopher Shotola-Hardt, instructions on making your own instruments, and explanations of everyone's duties in the making of a CD ("The producer chooses the songs..."). Check out more of Cohen's work, it's pretty inspiring and amazing.

***Chucky Woodbine***

A classic reborn! Years ago, Auburn University's student radio station, WEGL, was adamantly anti-commercial. During my senior year, I remember hearing this lo-fi, herkity jerkity, melodic song called "Double Feature" about, I think, monsters and secret messages on cereal boxes. Now, that memory would have completely faded into the ether of collegehood if not for ... TAH DAH! ... the reissue of Chucky Woodbine's Misleading.

This quartet from Massachussets made a cassette-only version of Misleading back in the late-80s that included songs about woodland creatures, bullies, and some weird guy named Fred Villari. Throw in a couple of instrumentals and a punk song called "Roadkill" (chorus: "Roadkill! Roadkill!"), and you have an amusingly silly, inventive, do-it-yourselfer worthy of way more exposure than it got.

Is this kids' music? I dunno, is "Yellow Submarine", or pretty much everything Jonathan Richman ever recorded? My point is that kids are smart and have incredibly varied tastes, so anything that seems entertaining and is a little off the beaten path (i.e. - doesn't come with tie-in merchandise) should be readily introduced to kids. Go ahead, let them hear what's out there and they'll decide what they like. If your upper-elementary kid is into quirky music, is thinking about starting a band, or just likes to decipher sometimes impenetrable lyrics, he'll dig Chucky Woodbine.

***Rockosaurus Rex***

HELL YES!!! Tired of hearing toy piano versions of your favorite Toddler Time classics? Prepare your preschoolers to have their faces rocked off by "Wheels On the Bus"; "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"; and "This Old Man" as performed by our favorite prehistoric metal gods, Rockosaurus Rex!

All you grownups will probably get a bigger kick out of this musical project from Austin, Texas, than your young'uns, but hey! crank it up and see what they think. "All the Pretty Little Horses" is given a heavy dose of Metallica, while "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is all Anthrax'ed out. In fact, quit reading this and head for the Rockosaurus Rex website immediately, so the rockin' can commence. There are plenty of clips from The Big Bang! to which one can thrust one's fist into the air.

Make sure to read their bio, have fun with the whole concept, and unite the world through metal. Like the Rockosaurus Rex creed says, "They have come to rock the children of Earth". Amen.

***2006 Top Twenty Albums***

If anyone is interested, here are my picks for the top 20 kids' albums of roughly 2006. My criteria were:

1. Would I, as an adult, be willing to listen to this CD over and over?
2. Is this artist presenting anything new?
3. If there are cover songs on the CD, are they performed in a unique way?
4. Does it rock?

And here they are:


Number Twenty : Electric Storyland - The Sippy Cups
Number Nineteen : Every Word I Say is True - Daniel Schorr
Number Eighteen : Plays Well with Others - Uncle Rock
Number Seventeen : World - Teacher and the Rockbots
Number Sixteen : Prelude to Mutiny - Captain Bogg & Salty
Number Fifteen : Josh Levine for Kids - Josh Levine
Number Fourteen : Eat Every Bean and Pea on your Plate - Daddy a Go Go
Number Thirteen : Rockin' in the Forest with Farmer Jason - Farmer Jason
Number Twelve : LMNO Music-Pink - Enzo Garcia
Number Eleven : Best Friends - Ellen and Matt
Number Ten : Stories from Duke Puddintown - Greg Loop
Number Nine : Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times - Jim Gill
Number Eight : The Hollow Trees - The Hollow Trees
Number Seven : ACTIVATE! - Joel Caithamer
Number Six : You Are My Little Bird - Elizabeth Mitchell
Number Five : STARBOY Soundtrack - Lee Feldman
Number Four : The Great Adventures of Mr. David - Mr. David
Number Three : Fascinating Creatures - Frances England
Number Two : When I Grow Up - dog on fleas
Number One : "Hey You Kids!" - The Jellydots

***Jason Falkner***

What happens when a new baby comes into your life? Well, you stumble through your work day in a proud, drowsy stupor; you marvel at the awesomeness of your newly-constituted family unit; and you end up not giving a crap about stuff like kids' record reviews. So, after taking three weeks off when our son was born, and in the midst of another three as my wife goes back to work, I have fallen way behind on what's going on in the world of children's music.

An old bandmate recently reminded me of this CD, though, as he and his wife had a baby in September and wondered if I had reviewed, or even heard, the album. Now, as a band we collectively worshipped the Beatles and deeply admired the work of Jason Falkner, a musician I've mentioned a few times in past reviews. The combination of the two couldn't possibly miss, I thought, and I was right. BUT the resulting CD, Bedtime with the Beatles, released on Sony Wonder in 2001, sounded nothing like I had imagined. Falkner is somewhat famous for his "wall-of-sound" production, so I expected jaunty, finger-poppin' Beatles instrumentals. Falkner, however, decided to slow everything down, keep it all relaxed, and turn in a truly inspired lullaby album.

Most songs are pretty faithful to the originals, with material chosen from A Hard Day's Night, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, the "White Album", and Let It Be. But Falkner uses just the right amount of ambient sounds and personal touches in decorating his lovingly recreated instrumental versions of Beatles classics to make the songs unique. The clavinet runs during "Blackbird" and the small swells of strings at the end of "Michelle" will catch your ear; and at a lullaby's pace, you can really hear the beauty of the melodies in "And I Love Her" and "Here There and Everywhere".

Bedtime with the Beatles has been road tested, as well: my wife and I play the CD every night during our little one's bathtime, and he really digs it. It makes the whole end-of-the-night routine a very soothing experience for everyone (plus, it's hard not to sing along quietly to all the songs). A must have for all new parents (the CD is available in blue and pink), for Beatles fans, and for music lovers in general. Beautiful stuff.