Grammy Nominees React

So after posting the nominees in the two kids' categories for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, what's left to do except wait for the awards on Feb. 10?

Oh, well, maybe solicit reactions from selected nominees in the Best Musical Album category. (Note: now with Buck Howdy!)

Peter Himmelman (My Green Kite): "Perhaps the recognition I've received through this Grammy nomination in the children's field is a signal to me that writing songs that work to reclaim a sense of wonder and innocence is a worthy artistic direction to be headed in."

Don Sebesky & Janina Serden, producers (The Velveteen Rabbit - Love Can Make You Real): "Recording and producing The Velveteen Rabbit CD was a labor of love for me. When my daughters were little, I used to read the story to them and even made homemade tapes at their request... Let me say that finding our nomination on that GRAMMY web site was one of the most exciting moments of my life!" (Janina Serden)

Bill Harley (I Wanna Play) : "I was where I often am when I heard about the Grammy – in an elementary school with a bunch of kids – this time in Texas. It means a lot to me that other recording artists thought enough to vote for me. I’m in there with some pretty heady company. I like a lot of the other recordings, and am heartened that independent artists manage to sneak into the mix in our category. I know there are other artists just as deserving."

Buck Howdy (Chickens!): "BB and I were tickled to be nominated. I've always thought being nominated for such an honor would be life-changing. Unfortunately, the horses and other critters here at Buttercup Farm don't quite see it that way. Which means I'm still getting up at the crack of dawn to feed and water them - so much for life-changing!"

The Muppets (A Green and Red Christmas): "Arraggrgagraghha rar gagghh! Grammy!" (Animal)

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.

Review Two-Fer: My Best Friend is a Salamander / My Lemonade Stand - Peter Himmelman

In reviewing music here, I've tried not only to cover the latest releases from musicians familiar and not, but also filling in gaps from albums released - gasp! - more than a couple years ago, especially from significant artists. Consider this the missing pieces of my Peter Himmelman coverage, the other two albums for families I've not yet reviewed here.

My Best Friend is a Salamander, released in 1997, was Himmelman's first album for kids and families, and the first thing you might be struck by in listening to it is how it could have been released this year. Ten years later, and Himmelman's still taking socially exciting trips. What is different is just how... odd those first songs were. While on his excellent 2007 release My Green Kite he's singing about kites or feet --fairly recognizable subjects treated in mostly recognizable ways -- early on he had a much more skewed, Shel Silverstein-esque approach. He sings about his best friend... who's a salamander. In "Larry's a Sunflower Now," a dreamy adult-sounding pop tune, the narrator (who poured water all around the subject to help him grow) tells Larry's worried mom," Look at the bright side / There's nothing you can do / Larry's gettin' lots of fresh air / The sun is on his faces and / Birds are in his hair today." Himmelman's fascination with rhyming wordplay -- which continues today -- is most evident here on the gentle "An Ant Named Jane," though a number of other songs have the touch of spoken-word.

Seven years later and one album in the meantime...
... Himmelman released My Lemonade Stand in 2004. After the very-weird-at-times My Fabulous Plum (review here), My Lemonade Stand seems downright conventional. Listened to on its own, however, it's still got its fair share of only-in-Himmelman weirdness. The nine-year-old subject of the tinged-with-sadness "Beard Boy" grows a beard and all of a sudden reads the Wall Street Journal. "Murray Malone" is a trumpet-playing mouse (who does indeed play a pretty mean trumpet). And while Himmelman still indulges his fondness for rhymeplay, especially in extended outros, here he's crafting more direct pop tunes -- the summery title track, the revved-up gospel-tinged "That's No Lie," and my favorite track, the blue-eyed soul of "Willa," about an excitable little dog. And the album closer, "Love Can Travel," tells a story of two kids separated by a move who continue their friendship with a chorus that soars every time it's repeated.

Both albums are targeted for kids ages 3 through 9. You can hear samples and tracks at Himmelman's here.

Both albums are pretty good, though I think My Lemonade Stand is definitely the better album, particularly if you've enjoyed My Green Kite. They're both recommended, however -- your preference may primarily depend on your family's appreciation for Silverstein-style oddity.

"Podcast" Is Sort Of A Weird Word, Too

Peter Himmelman has recorded the latest version of the Land of Nod Nodcast Podcast. Himmelman, who ranks with the best in his enjoyment of words and his ability to look at familiar things from unfamiliar angles, is every bit as skewed -- in a good way -- on podcast as he is on record. The podcast includes three of the best tunes from his My Green Kite album, plus a couple others recorded live.

And in the small-but-burgeoning genre of songs-specifically-written-for-radio/podcasts, Himmelman's tune might just be the best.

Review: My Green Kite - Peter Himmelman

It is probably accurate, though way too simple, to characterize Peter Himmelman as a "singer-songwriter." Meaning, I've always thought of "person with a guitar singing very personal songs" when I think of "singer-songwriter," and while Himmelman does sing some very personal songs, "person with a guitar" is not at all a fair description of what Himmelman does musically.

One listen to My Green Kite, Himmelman's fourth album for kids and families, and his first for Rounder Records, will make that abundantly clear. The album, released tomorrow, continues Himmelman's wildly creative approach to both music and lyrics. But unlike, say, My Fabulous Plum, which had some strong songs, but was so all over the map that it was hard to get into the album, on Kite Himmelman has dialed back that anything-goes approach just enough to create an album of slightly-more-accessible songs. The result is fabulous.

More so than most kids' lyricists, Himmelman has a gift for putting a new frame on an old picture. On the opening track "Feet", for example, Himmelman creates a Sgt. Pepper's-like ode to, well, feet, encouraging the listener to consider their own feet. (In the liner notes, Himmelman says, "Sometimes people forget about their feet. They are so used to thinking about their eyes, or their ears, or their hair.") Himmelman asks the '80s-synth-pop question "Have You Every Really Looked At An Egg?" and, well, I probably haven't. (So thank you, Peter.)

Himmelman also tells fantastical and imaginative stories, such as on the great pop-rocker title track, about a kite that just keeps flying higher and higher. "Another Bite of Hay" is the best kids' song about that didn't make it on to Bruce Springsteen's early albums. (That it happens to feature a bull, a cow, and a mule seems incidental in nature.) But Himmelman doesn't ignore realistic lyrics either, nailing parental indecisiveness on the Van Morrison-like "Maybe Is A Bad Word" and penning a sweet tribute to his father on "My Father's An Accountant." (And the slow rap "Nothin' To Say" is just fun wordplay.)

I think kids ages 5-9 are most likely to respond to the song subjects and lyrics here. You can hear samples at any major internet retailer (it's good to have Rounder's distribution network!)

This is a fantastic album, chock-full of great tunes and production, with lyrics that sometimes speak directly to kids' daily lives and other times fire their imaginations. It'll make you smile and make you think. I know it's early in the year, but with My Green Kite Peter Himmelman has recorded an album on my short list of favorite albums for 2007. Highly recommended.