Review: Folk Playground (Putumayo) - Various Artists

"Folk Playground is neither 'folk' nor 'playground' -- discuss."

The Putumayo label got its start a number of years ago putting together mix tapes for use in its clothing store. They have since abandoned the clothing store, focusing solely on music, and have developed a kids' music label, Putumayo Kids. The latest entry in the Putumayo Kids series of CDs is the 2006 release of Folk Playground, to be released on Tuesday.

The 33-minute CD may confuse folk purists while also confusing some parents new to the children's music scene. The key component in the definition of "folk" seems to have been whether or not acoustic guitar was included on the track. The "playground" songs -- "This Old Man," "Froggie Went A Courtin'," -- aren't necessarily "folk music" in execution (or, if they are, it sort of stretches the definition.) The term "Folk Playground" is marketing and stretches the definition of what's actually on here.

Now, if you are a devoted children's music listener, you may already have half the songs (or at least half the artists) already in your collection. The problem with the selections from the more familiar artists is twofold. In some cases, the selections are not very representative of the artist's work (Justin Roberts' "Roller in the Coaster," while a nice little song, is a less common type of song for him, compared to the rave-ups; Laurie Berkner has made a name for herself for her originals, not covers. Neither would be considered folk artists.) In other cases, the songs are more representative of the artists' overall work, but not necessarily a highlight from their catalog (Dan Zanes' "Hop Up Ladies," Trout Fishing in America's "Fill It Up," Elizabeth Mitchell's "Crawdad"). These songs are perfectly fine, but I could probably have come up with a half-dozen songs each that I'd've preferred to see on here. (I do think Brady Rymer's "It's All How You Look At It" is pretty good, though.)

Of the less familiar artists (kids' related -- Leon Redbone is hardly an unfamiliar artist), the clear standout song on the CD is Zoe Lewis' "Sheep," about her musings while seeing sheep from far above in an airplane ("I wonder what are you thinking as your little pink lips go round and round and chew / Does night time bring you dreams of spring, mutton, mint sauce, leg of lamb or stew? / (Sorry, sheep)"). It's a sprightly melody, sung with whimsy, and mixed with tin whistle, among other instruments. Forget about the less familiar artists -- it's the best song on the CD, period.

The album is probably most appropriate for kids age 2 through 8. You can download lyrics and listen to sound samples at Putumayo's page for the release.

In the end, after listing all my criticisms, you might be surprised to read that I like the CD. It's a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Putumayo's history as a mix-tape creator serves it very well here as Folk Playground is a CD which will serve as a very pleasant soundtrack to a session of coloring or game-playing. While there are few standout tracks here, the overall listening experience is nice.

Review: Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang

Released in 2003, the debut self-titled CD from Los Angeles' Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang had its genesis in the 2000 movie Chuck and Buck.

Movies about stalking childhood friends 15 years later don't typically serve as the inspiration for forming a children's music band, but Beck drummer and music producer Joey Waronker asked unimonkered LA folk-rock singer Gwendolyn to contribute a song to the movie soundtrack -- out of that grew this entire album.

The entire album has the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon or kids' variety show. Gwendolyn sings with a somewhat high-pitched and nasally-pinched voice. In addition, there appear to be "characters" singing along on many of the songs (there are characters pictured on the CD case but the liner notes aren't clear). The entire thing just screams, "CUTE!"

As someone who tends to react allergically to cartoony voices and cuteness in general, I mentally prepared myself to actively dislike the album. It's a testament to the strength of the melodies and musical production that I can look past the characters' voices and focus on the melodic hooks.

Some of those hooks have lodged in my brain, and may never come out. "Anatomy" isn't much more than a spoken-word recitation of a whole bunch of body parts and their purpose, but the poppy chorus, "It's your anatomy," repeated nearly ad nauseum, is running through my head right now over and over. "Farm Animal Friends" has a nice loping country song feel to it. The song from Chuck and Buck, "Freedom of the Heart (Ooodily, Oodily)," isn't necessarily a kids' song, but it's got a kid-like feel and a very '70s pop sound and a chorus that goes "Oodily oodily oodily oodily oodily oodily fun fun fun." (I assure you, it's head-bopping.) The song "Little Monkey," for a character which appears to be an Elvis impersonator, has a suitably '50s Elvis-like sound. In addition to being catchy musically, the band (seven members in total) sounds good, too.

Lyrically, the 26-minute album deals squarely with typical preschooler concerns -- manners, sharing, washing, and bugs, among other things. The lyrics are direct ("Please" -- "When you say things with a smile / A little tiny inch becomes a mile / You can go far when you're cheerful / Because nobody likes someone who's tearful"). The earnest lyrics don't leave a lot of room for adult humor, but some sneaks in. (In the aforementioned "Anatomy," Gwendolyn mentions, "Hair / Everybody has hair / Well, except for my dad.")

Given the show-like approach of the music and lyrics, the album is most appropriate for kids aged 2 through 6. You can hear samples of music from their two albums and a full download of "Farm Animal Friends" here. You may want to double check that the characteristics of the CD I could see past you can see past, too. The album is available through their website or the usual online suspects.

Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang had all the hallmarks of being a CD I wasn't going to like at all, but very quickly it wore down my defenses. It's a fun little CD with great melodies that's likely to engage your kids. Recommended.

Review: The Hollow Trees - The Hollow Trees

The Hollow Trees are a Los Angeles-based band who released their debut self-titled album in December 2005. Led by Greg McIlvaine and Laura Steenberge, the Hollow Trees drew inspiration from Dan Zanes in looking for ways to make family-inclusive music, making Zanes Pete Seeger to their Bruce Springsteen.

The Hollow Trees owes a debt to Zanes in a couple ways. Most noticeably is the inclusion of two songs covered by Zanes on his CDs -- "Polly Wolly Doodle" and the album closer "Buckeye Jim." Less noticeably perhaps, but more importantly, is the feeling of "let's get together and make a CD, and why don't you invite your friends" that permeates the disk. Now, Zanes clearly has more musically famous friends than the Hollow Trees (there's no Sheryl Crow on the Trees' version of "Polly Wolly Doodle.") But that doesn't make the Trees' version less fun. Indeed, my favorite cut on the album, their rollicking version of "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor," sounds like there are about 15 people crammed into a living room with a microphone and would sound just great on a Zanes album. Songs like that, uproarious and boisterous, are where the Hollow Trees shine.

The rest of the album are faithful covers of other folk and bluegrass standards (some more familiar to me, others less so) done with care and competence. The originals (only 4 of the album's 17 tracks) are a mixed bag -- I liked "Forest Melody," which has a very 50's folk-rock sound to it and "Nelson," but found "Bunny Hop" to be a bit repetitive.

Like many folk/bluegrass albums, the notion of age-appropriateness is much less relevant than for other CDs, but I think that kids aged 2 through 7 would like this album the most. You can hear complete tracks from the CD at the Hollow Trees website, as well as order it there or from CDBaby.

The Hollow Trees is a fun album of folk and bluegrass for the entire family. If you don't care at all for folk and bluegrass, this album won't appeal to you. But for the rest of us, we'll enjoy the album just fine. Recommended.

Review: I Am Your New Music Teacher - Parker Bent

With many children's music albums struggling to crack the 30-minute mark, defining the length of a children's music EP is a tricky proposition. At just under 19 minutes long, the 2005 debut album from Los Angeles-based musician Parker Bent is either a long EP or a really short full album. Still, Bent packs a surprisingly diverse group of songs into the short runtime.

Bent is a preschool music teacher in Beverly Hills, California, and his subjects -- the alphabet, numbers, or pets, for example -- will be very familiar to preschoolers or their parents. One of my favorite songs on the album is the gentle pop-rock tune "I Wanna Go Home," about a preschooler who's reached his or her sensory limit, is tired, and just wants to go home. My other favorite track is "Count On," whose melody and fuzzy-guitar-and-handclap instrumentation reminds me of the rootsier "Tuesday Night Music Club"-era Sheryl Crow.

The vocal harmonizing on the brief acappella leadoff track "AAA" is totally different from the the above songs, but a nice bit of musical styling nonetheless. The humorous storytelling stylings of "I Am Your New Music Teacher" may be over the heads of the 3-year-olds in the audience, but with Bent playing the role of a controlling music teacher, his snarled lyrics, "We will not have any singing / We will not have any dancing / Instead I thought we'd spend / The entire music class / With everybody sitting in timeout" made me smile. The entire album has a gentle, albeit sly, sense of humor.

The album will probably be of most interest to kids age 3 to 6. You can hear samples of the CD and purchase it at Bent's CDBaby page. It's also available on iTunes Music Store.

Regular readers of this website will probably find at least one or two tracks worth checking out on the album. Even with its short length, the album shows Bent's promise as a children's songwriter and musician. Should Bent ever decide to release a double album (at, say, 38 minutes in length), it could be very, very good.

DVD Review: Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World

An innocent wandering through the world is hardly an original concept for a story. The Who's Tommy, for example, or countless first novels.

To say that Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World borrows the concept, then, is no knock on this "Musical Moving Book," as it's called. The concept may be borrowed, but the execution is quite unique and wonderful.

Gustafer Yellowgold is the brainchild of New York-based songwriter and illustrator Morgan Taylor. Taylor has previously self-released several CDs but here has combined his songwriting talents with his illustrating skills to produce a concert which combines live music from Taylor and a small band of musicians with illustrations projected on large screens. It's the music and illustrations behind this live "moving book" which are captured here on the 24-minute DVD. There isn't much of a plot; it's more of a series of character sketches.

Gustafer is an alien from the sun who tells his story of life on the sun in the opening song "I'm From the Sun." It's an uptempo number which shows exactly how difficult life can be on the sun. ("No snowflakes on the tongue" is one of the complaints.) It's a jangle-pop tune with bongos, giving it a little Guster-like feel. The best song on the DVD is the concluding "New Blue Star," which is about, well, a new blue star, but could just be easily interpreted as a love song -- it's a gentle midtempo rockersworthy of Matthew Sweet in his less guitar-focused work (think Blue Sky on Mars without all the synthesizers). Another one of my favorite tunes is "Pterodactyl Tuxedo," a friend of Gustafer's who may be exasperating at times but is also a true friend ("He's always had the time / To pick up the phone / When you're calling way too late / He's always been the kind / To help you pickin' bones / When your faith begins to fade.") The music is hard to peg, but besides the bands listed already, there are hints of the Beatles (in the slow songs), World Party (yeah, a Beatles tribute band, virtually), and the Flaming Lips.

The lyrics here make it sound rather serious, and there's an undercurrent of sadness in Gustafer's story. His eel Slim ("Your Eel") will leave one day. The "Mint Green Bee" is sad and cries. But that sadness is leavened by the whimsical illustrations. This isn't really animation; particular animations are moved around the screen to give a primitive sense of animation. It might not sound compelling, but it's quite engrossing. It's used to particularly good effect in the surreal, vaguely They Might Be Giants-like "I Jump On Cake" ("I jump on cake from up above / I step on pie so warm and lovely / It's mine to punt, vanilla bundt / All freshly baked, I'm on your cake"). A picture of Gustafer moves (with blinking eyes) from up above onto a tempting cake. Pies explode like fireworks.

I'm always one to find nits to pick, and the only thing I can come up with here is that it's a DVD only. Perhaps in the future they'll consider bundling the DVD with an audio-only CD. Other than that, it's great. The album is probably best for kids age 3 through 8. You can see (and hear) video clips from "I'm From the Sun" and "Your Eel" here. You can purchase the DVD from the Gustafer website. Of note as well is the ability to sing along with the video, karaoke-style -- not sure how popular that will be, but since the videos all have the words on the screen, it's not inconceivable that it'd be used.

Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World is a work of great creativity, visually and musically. It's definitely worth your time to check it out.