My Favorite Kids and Family Albums of 2007

It's time once again for me to list my favorite kids and family albums from the past year or so.

As I noted in last year's list, I don't put tremendous stock in individual "best of" lists, because taste is idiosyncratic. (Please note the title here is "favorite," not "best," a deliberate choice of words.) The idiosyncracies of taste are one reason why I came up with the idea for the Fids and Kamily Awards. The fact that I think Recess Monkey's Wonderstuff is one of the year's best CDs might be more easily dismissed if it weren't for the fact that a good number of 19 judges happened to agree with me.

As for my list, the top 10 below reflects my Fids and Kamily ballot. But as with last year, limiting a list of favorites to just 10 albums would leave off a number of very, very good albums. In fact, as a whole, 2007 was even stronger than 2006, making this year's decisions even more difficult. Although I lost count some time ago, I'd guess that I probably heard 250 to 300 new albums this past year -- even at 20 albums, I've left off some great music from this list.

So without further ado...
1)Play - Various Artists: Joyous and raucous, this compilation from DeSoto Records proves what sort of music artists can make when they play with the energy of a kid and the brains of an adult. (Or, sometimes, the brains of a kid and the energy of an adult.) Georgie James' "Grizzly Jive," Soccer Team's "I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again," and Visqueen's cover of "Centerfield" -- all awesome songs, and there are plenty more where those came from. It's my favorite album for kids and families of the year.
2) If You Ever See An Owl - Terrible Twos: Given a proper release earlier this year after being sold only at the shows of the band's adult alter ego, the New Amsterdams, this album is full of fabulous poppy and Americana melodies and lyrics born of the knowledge of being a kid -- and parent. So, so glad it's gotten the wider audience it deserves.
3) My Green Kite - Peter Himmelman: In the category of pure kids' pop, this album wins the title, hands down. Which isn't to say that Himmelman's songwriting doesn't have its small (and big) pleasures for the adult ears, too, just that the album is particularly attuned to the attitudes of kids. And anyone who can make us reconsider feet deserves some sort of award.

4) It's A Big World - Renee and Jeremy
4) Napper's Delight - Dean Jones
Two different lullaby albums, different from each other, and just about anything else that came down the pike this year. Even on first listen, it was clear that Renee and Jeremy's album was destined to become a CD that would be gifted to many a new parent, calming and soothing with new lullabies. Jones' take on the genre was one not so much for sleeping but for relaxing, but even so was more exhilerating than most albums twice as loud and twice as fast.

6) Wonderstuff - Recess Monkey
6) Have You Never Been Yellow? - Gustafer Yellowgold
6) Freedom in a Box - Deedle Deedle Dees
I tend to think of these three albums as signifying just how adventurous artists in the kids and family music genre can be right now. Recess Monkey didn't just put together another album with the creative input of about 100 kids -- it put together a full-fledged pop-rock double-album musical with a bunch of great songs. Gustafer Yellowgold's indie-pop would be pretty adventurous even without its illustrations, but with them the character might just be the standard-bearer for the kids new wave. And the Dees -- their energy, their love of history manifested in glorious musical flower here, and their determination to take their music across the country wherever they can serves as an inspiration to lots of other artists wondering if they can make their own kind of kids music.

9) It's A Bam Bam Diddly! - Father Goose
9) Make Your Own Someday - Jimmies
Sorry -- I can't draw any links between these two albums other than the artists spend most of their time in New York City. But Father Goose serves as the ringleader on an album of Caribbean and dancehall songs that will get the kids' heads (and sometimes their feet) bopping in style, making me think he's got a lot more great albums in him. And the Jimmies' Ashley Albert is a star entertainer in the making, guaranteed to make your seven-year-old laugh silly at least a few times. Wait a minute, maybe there is a link here...

11) Dark Side of the Moon Bounce - Rocknoceros
11) Get Up & Dance! - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang
Could these two have easily been tied for 9th instead of 11th? Sure, but I had to draw the line at some point. Both these albums were probably the best of the year for preschoolers. Rocknoceros' kid-pop focused a bit on songs about space, but all the songs were solid; Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang have honed their songwriting (and production) to a fine point. Both excellent albums -- maybe next time they'll hit it lucky.

13) Dos Ninos - Sugar Free Allstars
13) Educated Kid - The Hipwaders
Both albums here tickled my pop-rock fancy. SFA's sub-30 minute album was a perfectly brief, keyboard-drug confection, with surprising stylistic breadth and subject depth. The Hipwaders took a major step forward with their latest album, crafting the power-pop album of the year without entirely shedding their occasional educational nugget, lyrically.

15) Mommy Says No! - The Asylum Street Spankers: Not every parent will love this, the first kids' CD from the Asylum Street Spankers. It walks on the edge of what a parent might tolerate in a kids' CD. But there's no denying the huge heart that's worn on the (album) sleeve here. It might cross the line, but you still love the kid.

16) What Did You Do Today, Stephen Scott Lee? - Steve Lee: A day in song and story, melding the ambition of Wonderstuff with just a hint of the Spankers' snarkiness. Lee brought in a whole bunch of Nashville musician friends to record a personal CD with some incredibly strong songs.

17) Class of 3000, Vol. 1 (Soundtrack) - Andre 3000: I'm not sure what's more surprising -- that Andre 3000 released an album for kids or that it didn't attract more attention. I think it's the latter, because it's a fine and often funky CD that deserved a wider audience. Proof that cartoony voices don't make a bad kids' CD if done well and with verve.

18) All Together Singing in the Kitchen - The Nields
18) Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vol. 2 & 3 - Various Artists
The Nields put out the best folk album for kids this past year, singing songs their father taught them with their father, and passing them down to a new generation. Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music didn't put out a kids album, but this value-priced 2-CD set has a ton of great renditions of American classics old and, well, less-old, that kids should know....

20) For the Kids Three! - Various Artists: Number 20 on the list, and, yeah, I could probably have put a half-dozen other albums here depending on my mood. But this definitely deserves to be here, too -- a bookend to Play's ranking at the top. The distance between that compilation and this one is pretty small -- there are fine songs here and your family is bound to find a favorite or four.

Interview: Gwendolyn (of Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang)

With her dress and pigtails, the uni-monikered Gwendolyn has a lot of fans amongst the preschool set in the Los Angeles area. Of course, she's got a bunch of fans amongst those preschoolers' parents, too, as her music manages to be targeted directly at the young'uns while still appealing to the oldsters' ears.

Now, with Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang's first East Coast Tour really getting going this weekend (updated tour dates here), if you're in the neighborhood, you should definitely stop by a show.

And even if you're not in the neighborhood, you should read the interview below with Gwendolyn, who kindly answered questions this week. Read on for her musical influences, how recording her second and most recent kids' CD, Get Up & Dance!, differed from recording the first, and exactly how many hours of yoga a good show for the kids is worth.

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What are your earliest musical memories?
Family hootenannies in the living room. My dad would play guitar and my mom would join him and sing songs. They had a nice repertoire of Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, The Incredible String Band and the like.

Who were your biggest musical influences growing up?
Aside from my siblings, who are both excellent songwriters, I would name Thom Moore, a childhood friend of mine who plays now in The Moore Brothers. They just opened for Joanna Newsom in Europe. He was a great influence growing up, a Robyn Hitcock of sorts. I love songwriters, storytellers and innovative artists like Nick Drake, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan...

I didn't listen to much children's music growing up - but I loved artists that embraced a child-like perspective, like Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, Jethro Tull and early Pink Floyd - Syd Barrett, really wonderful stuff. My dad had a pretty decent record collection that inevitably became his children's.
"Freedom of the Heart" was written for the movie "Chuck & Buck." How did you segue from that into writing songs for kids?
"Freedom of the Heart" was a hit with the cult movie fans. Many of the films' reviews mentioned the song as a big part of the movie's charm. But it didn't occur to me to write songs for children until a friend suggested it. (He had just been laid off from his music industry job and was looking for something to pitch. He thought he could get me a record deal!) So, I wrote a few more songs and recruited my percussionist Brandon Jay to help produce the tracks.

As it turns out, my friend didn't have much luck selling the idea to record companies but Brandon and I passed out the 5-song CD to various preschools around our neighborhood and the kids went nuts. We got such a great response, we decided to write a few more songs, create an album and put it out ourselves. We recruited a few friends of ours to perform the songs live and started playing shows around LA. This was back in 2003. Since then we've released two more albums and a concert DVD. We've even produced a few music videos, one of which aired on Noggin.

Oh yeah, and I married Brandon!

Did you find it easier or harder than writing music for adults?
All songs come through a special channel. It seems effortless to write when you're dialed in... sometimes the muse is with you, other times - it sleeps.

How was recording Get Up & Dance! different from recording the debut?
When Brandon and I produced the debut album, we played many of the instruments ourselves - we didn't have a band yet. In fact, at the time, we didn't even know any kids!

"Get Up Dance!" reflects a lot of what we've learned performing music for families throughout the last few years. The songs are a bit more interactive and the band members played on the recording this time.

Do you ever segregate your "adult-music-writing" time from your "kids-music-writing" time, or do you just write music and at some point figure out which audience you're writing for?
I guess it depends on my frame of mind. I don't ever say, "OK now it's time for children's music..." or "Now I'm going to sit down and write an obtuse love ballad mourning the non-planet Pluto."

Songs come when they want to. I don't decide what's what… It’s usually pretty obvious!

The songs I write for kids come from a very specific place in my imagination. I know it's my inner-child expressing herself and wanting to help create something special.

[Ed. note: You know, I need to stop asking this question, because the answer is inevitably, "what, are you crazy? When you write, you write."]

Your music pulls off a tricky balancing act -- being earnest for the kids without turning off the adult listener. Is that something you have to work at refining on paper, in the studio, on stage, or has that been easy for you?
Relating to children is a natural talent I've been happy to discover I have. It's fun for me! I have blast doing it and as long as that remains true, I'll continue creating opportunities to relate to children. The fact that the parents love it too, is an added bonus! Perhaps they are connecting to that part of themselves that enjoys being a kid.

What's your favorite part about performing for kids and families?
Happy upbeat rock 'n' roll does a good job of putting you right with the world. The unabashed energy exchanged between the band and an audience of 3-year-olds - there's really no beating it! And the hugs I get after each show are so sweet. Normally, I would have to do 5 hours of yoga to feel this good!

What's the hardest part about performing for kids and families?
Lugging gear at 7am for an early morning show.

How -- if at all -- has writing and performing for families affected your non-kids' work?
When the Good Time Gang performs out of state, I always try and play a grown-up show, too. I'll be playing a couple shows on this trip - Wednesday (10/24) at Banjo Jim's in New York, Thursday (10/25) at The Underground in Philly, and Thursday (11/1) at Sound Fix Records in Brooklyn.

In my attempts to be creative everyday and self-produce material for children I've learned so much about what it means to be a working artist. It's opened so many doors and introduced us to a whole new audience. Having accomplished what we have over the years, I’ve grown confident that I can lend my experience to others by way of producing and composing music for film/TV.

Brandon and I are currently composers for Showtime's comedy "Weeds" (parents beware: a very grown-up show) -- this opportunity actually came to us through playing in the Good Time Gang. The creator/producer Jenji Kohan and her husband have three young kids and are big fans of the band. When they were looking for composers for the show, our named came up and through our audition we landed the job.

We just finished scoring our first feature film starring Jay Mohr and other projects are on the horizon - so, it's an exciting time for us as grown-ups... all thanks to playing music for kids!

Besides the East Coast tour, what's next for you and the Good Time Gang?
We're returning home Dec 1st to play a Holiday show for the kids in LA and will begin recording our fourth album next year. We're also developing a TV show we hope will be a lot of fun for the kids.

Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang Doin' Their Part to Eliminate East Coast Bias

I tend not to report on single-artist tours, but a note from Gwendolyn of Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang made me realize that we're starting to see more cross-country tours here. I mean, sure, Dan Zanes is like the Bob Dylan of kids' music, playing anywhere they'll have him, and Ralph's World and Justin Roberts are racking up the frequent flyer miles, too. (Laurie Berkner would as well, but she's not touring much, period.)

But now we're seeing slightly less familiar artists making the trek across the country. Brooklyn-based The Deedle Deedle Dees are heading out to Texas, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Melissa and Ellen & Matt, both LA artists, recently trekked out to the New York area (they popped up on Spare the Rock last week. (The The Sippy Cups are playing everywhere in between, too.)

And now Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang are putting together an honest-to-goodness East Coast tour. If you're in the neighborhood of the following venues at the following times, do stop by...

Sat/Sun Oct 21 & 22
Children’s Museum of the East End - Bridgehampton, NY

Sat Oct 27
11am: PB & Jams at World Café – Philadelphia, PA

Sun Oct 28
10am: Citibabes Annual Halloween Bash - Manhattan, NY
2pm: Brooklyn Botanic Garden – Brooklyn, NY (“Ghouls and Gourds” festival)

Mon Oct 29
4 pm: Brooklyn Central Library, Dweck Center - Brooklyn, NY

Tue Oct 30
4 pm: Bay Ridge Library - Brooklyn, NY

Wed Oct 31
6:30pm: Mamalu – Brooklyn, NY (Halloween show)

Thu Nov 1
10 am: Williamsburgh Library - Brooklyn, NY

Fri Nov 2
9:30am: Elephant Steps - Norwalk, CT
6 pm: Borders Books - Simbsbury, CT

Sat Nov 3
2pm: The Children’s Art Museum – Shelburne Falls, MA

Sun Nov 4
11am: First Act – Boston, MA
3:30pm: Brookline Music School – Boston, MA

Review: Get Up & Dance! - Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang

Talk about double lives -- Los Angeles-area-based Gwendolyn Sanford spends some of her time scoring the second season of the Showtime series Weeds, while simultaneously performing music for preschoolers as the uni-monikered Gwendolyn in Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang.

It is very much to Gwendolyn's credit that her second album for kids, Get Up and Dance!, released late last month, is entirely irony-free. Somehow, though, the songs are eager without turning off the parents. For example, kids will enjoy her exhortation to "bounce and bounce and bounce" (ad nauseam) "around" on the leadoff title track, while parents will smile wanly at the recognition of the fact that this, yes, is exactly how their child moves. But somewhere in the course of the song, the music opens up, adding handclaps and becoming sonically interesting (without losing the kids). The rest of the album is like that, too -- the super funky "Eensy Weensy Spider," the disco freeze-dance of "Red Means Stop," and the best song never recorded for Grammar Rock!, "I Can Read." The listing of vegetables "Out in My Garden" is reminiscent -- in a good way -- of their debut album's "My Anatomy." I also appreciate the fact that the album doesn't end with a typical kids-album-closer slow song, but instead with the peppy "Sunny Day." It fits perfectly here.

She's having fun performing her songs, which are targeted right at 3- and 4-year-olds, and it shows here (you can almost hear the laughter on a couple of tracks). The band's sound has expanded since their self-titled debut album, and, like their Northern California counterparts The Sippy Cups, are especially mining the sounds of 30 to 40 years ago for inspiration. The band (which includes her Weeds scoring partner Brandon Jay) sounds great. Nowhere to be found are the "characters" from the first CD (which is A-OK by me), though Gwendolyn's high-pitched voice and occasional spoken-word intros may turn off a few exceedingly finicky listeners.

The 27-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 2 through 6. You can hear samples either at Gwendolyn's Listen page or at the album's CDBaby page.

Save for a track or two, this is probably not an album you would listen to by yourself. But Get Up & Dance! will be one of those albums you'll be happy to pull out at your kids' request. They'll think it's great, and the energy and enthusiasm on the album will pull you in, too. Definitely recommended.

And the Winner of the Gwendolyn CD and DVD is...

Boy, did we ever have a lot of interest in our contest to win a copy of Get Up & Dance! the latest album from the faboo LA troupe Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang, plus a copy of their Live in Grandma's Living Room DVD. Pigtails aplenty, that's for sure.

Our winner, picked at random, is...

"DL," who says that "We think Gwendolyn's ponytails are the 'swing-iest' ponytails we've ever seen (courtesy of Rachel, 3 yrs) and they are 'just like mine and Emily's!'"

Congratulations to DL, and many thanks to Gwendolyn for sharing her new CD (and her DVD) with the readers here!