News: Ralph and the House of Mouse

In a big development that has attracted, well, no attention whatsoever, Ralph's World latest album, Green Gorilla, Monster & Me, is now being released by DisneySound. You can buy it at Disney's shop and a glance here indicates that the album was rereleased by Disney about a month ago.

In fact, if you go here, you can see Ralph Covert described as "Walt Disney Records artist Ralph Covert from Ralph's World." The link mentions that he will pay "tribute to our silly old bear with a new Winnie the Pooh song." Pooh will be celebrating his 80th anniversary this year. Covert, who covered "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Things About Tigger" on his debut Ralph's World album, is a good choice. No word, however, on Kenny Loggins' reaction.

Whose Noggin Is That?

We recently received a copy of Brady Rymer's latest CD, Every Day Is A Birthday, and the first thing my wife said when she saw the CD was,

"Wow. Do we have any other kids' CDs with the artist's actual picture on the cover?"

This amused me, because it was the exact same thought I had the first time I saw a picture of the cover.

And, really, if you think about it, most children's music artists do not have a particularly large presence on their album covers. Ralph's World? Even on his latest CD Green Gorilla, Monster & Me -- Ralph is a tiny, animated man. Dan Zanes? Slightly less tiny, slightly less animated. Laurie Berkner? A little less tiny than Dan, a little less animated. And that's pretty much where the progression ends. (I guess Laurie's DVD has her featured a little more prominently.)

Progress in the children's music world is typically on the level of Justin Roberts' Meltdown! CD, in which the animated child on his fifth kids album now looks much more Justin-like.

Frankly, this probably doesn't matter much. This industry is probably significantly different than "adult" CDs, in which mass marketed CDs almost always come with the artist's picture prominently displayed (think of rap or country CDs, or U2 or the Rolling Stones). And even though the faces aren't there, there's often a graphical consistency to the cover art.

But with the increasing folding in of "serious" children's music artists such as Berkner, Zanes, and Covert into major record distribution, it wouldn't be surprising to see more faces and fewer cartoons on CD covers.

News: 2005 Grammy Nominations -- Children's Field

In the "better late than never" category (the nominations are, what, a month old now?), here are the nominees for the two categories in the Grammy's children's field:

Category 75 - Best Musical Album For Children
(For albums consisting of predominantly music or song vs. spoken word.)

Be Bop Your Best! - Red Grammer [Red Note Records]
Green Gorilla, Monster & Me - Ralph's World [Mini Fresh/Minty Fresh]
Scat Like That: A Musical Word Odyssey - Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer [Rounder Records Corp.]
Some Assembly Required - Tom Chapin [Razor & Tie]
Songs From The Neighborhood - The Music Of Mister Rogers - Various Artists (Dennis Scott, producer) [Memory Lane Syndications, Inc.]

Category 76 - Best Spoken Word Album For Children
(For albums consisting of predominantly spoken word vs. music or song.)

Harry Potter And The Half-blood Prince - Jim Dale [Listening Library]
Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long - Various Artists (Christopher Cerf & Marlo Thomas, producers) [Warner Strategic Marketing]
Pooh's Heffalump - Roy Dotrice [Walt Disney Records]
Raymie, Dickie, And The Bean: Why I Love And Hate My Brothers - Ray Romano [Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers]
A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning - Various Artists (David Rapkin, producer) [Harper Children's Audio]

An appearance by Ralph's World at the Grammy telecast on February 8, 2006 seems highly unlikely. Perhaps Ricky Skaggs (a performer on the Mister Rogers tribute album) will make an appearance, but that will likely be the extent to which nominees in this category will be seen.

Review: Happy Lemons - Ralph's World

By the time Ralph Covert recorded his third children's album, Happy Lemons, he pretty much had the Ralph's World formula down pat:

1. Start with some uptempo originals.
2. Scatter a few covers, children's and otherwise, into the mix.
3. Use a few different musical styles.
4. End with a sappy song that's kinda nice in spite of itself.

And so it is with Happy Lemons. Heck, on the peppy title track, which leads off the album, Covert shares songwriting duties with his elementary-aged daughter Fiona. (Of the two father-daughter penned tracks on the album, I prefer the midtempo rocker "Puddle of Mud," which, aside from the lyrical content, would sound OK on modern adult contemporary radio.) "Pony Boy" is a bit draggy for my tastes, but his version of "The Muffin Man" is very energetic, the best I've heard. "Clean Up" is a reggae song, complete with horn section. And "Riding With No Hands" is another standard-issue closing sappy song. Covert is by no means alone among kids' recording artists in ending his CDs with a slower, sweet song, but he may be the most shameless practitioner.

For me, a little something is missing from this album -- there's no absolute "you have to hear this one" song like there was on his previous CDs ("Eighteen Wheels on a Big Rig" still -- annoyingly -- runs through my brain). But all in all, it's another solid album, and if you like the other Ralph's World CDs, you'll like (or at least tolerate) this one. Best for ages 4 through 7. Found at most major bookstores and online purveyors of media. You know the ones. Recommended.

Review: At the Bottom of the Sea - Ralph's World

With his first, self-titled Ralph's World album, Ralph Covert immediately set the standard for 21st century kids' music -- musically diverse and lyrically targeted at kids while winking at their parents.

It is not a criticism of his second kids' album, At the Bottom of the Sea, to say that it's just like the first CD, only more so. At the Bottom of the Sea is even more musically diverse than Ralph’s World, from the country stylings of “Honey for the Bears” to the faux-Beach Boys sound of “Surfin’ in My Imagination” to the pirate chanty “What Can You Do with Your Baby Brother?” The parents will probably bob their heads happily during the “Banana Splits” theme song; my wife especially appreciates “The Coffee Song,” which obviously bears the imprint of having been created waaay too early one morning (a wild guess on my part which Covert has confirmed in subsequent interviews). Even his rendition of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" has enough subtle humor to keep the parents amused while maintaining a simplistic approach to the song that will hold the attention of the very youngest.

Given that Covert’s daughter is probably a couple years older than when he wrote the songs on Ralph’s World, the songs on this album are targeted mostly at kids between 3 and 8. Covert's popularity means that if any non-Disney CD is to be found at a Best Buy, it's his; otherwise, the usual online suspects are the place to go.

If you liked Covert's other Ralph's World CDs, you'll like this one. Recommended.