Six Little Ducks Across the Pond (Readers Who Need Readers)

It's time once again for kids music's most irregularly scheduled feature -- that's right, it's time for Readers Who Need Readers. Readers Who Need Readers is that wonderful post where becuase I'm unable to provide a fully useful answer to a correspondent, I open the floor up to you, dear readers, to fill in my knowledge gap.

This time we're answering a request from a Belgian resident who's says...

I'm trying to find good (English) music for my children of 1 and 3...and it's really hard to find anything else than noisy BBC "head, shoulders, feet & toes" type CD's. So I've started searching the net and have read already several of your reviews, thanks! But for various reasons I'm also looking for a source/reviews for British/UK based groups and musicians. No offence meant to you or American artists though!!!

There have been some good UK albums, but they've all been from "adult" artists making one-off albums (Colours Are Brighter collection, Saint Etienne, etc.). And although I've come across a few UK-based kids' musicians, none of them have particularly interested me.

So help a bloke out -- any suggestions, either for Zooglobble-UK sites or for particular artists/albums you and your family particularly enjoy?

Musicians Who Need Readers: Parents' Choice Awards (and others)

I got an e-mail a week or two ago from an artist who asked me:

"Do you know you if applying for the Parents' Choice Awards is worth the application fee?"

Well, as someone who spends a whole bunch of time thinking about the relative merits of hundreds of CDs suitable for kids and families, I'm probably not the best person to ask that particular question. I don't need the Parents' Choice Awards. It's like asking the staff of Film Comment if launching an Oscar campaign is worthwhile.

But lots of artists (and authors and manufacturers) do submit their stuff, paying the fee ($225 for CDs) to submit their product for consideration, even though you might end up not getting any recognition at all. (See this post from Amy for a not entirely complimentary view on the matter.)

So I have two questions, one for the artists out there, the other for the parents, librarians, and general consumers (which might just include some of the artists).

Artists: So is the Parents' Choice entry fee worth it? Is there some other award or recognition that's particularly useful in terms of driving sales?

Parents/librarians/consumers: Do you care about what type of Parents' Choice Award a CD or artist has won, if any? Is there some other award or recognition that's a really good guide for you?

Now, I'm perfectly happy if the artists just want to respond anonymously -- I understand if you'd rather not have your name attached to any comments. And I guess in general, anybody who's reading (and commenting) here probably isn't a typical family music consumer, but I think the comments would be valuable for the artists reading.

Finally, I'm not attacking Parents' Choice here -- I'm honestly curious as to the responses I hope you'll provide. There's an artist (and probably many more) who needs you.

Readers Who Need Readers: Help Identify This Album

A request from a reader who is disdainful of capitalization (but that's ok, i am too sometimes):

i am hoping you can help me put a name to a musician i remember from
my childhood... here are all the details i can remember:
> early 70s
> it was on a cassette tape (possibly from sears)
> the cassette had a face on it, with the reel holes being eyes
> folk songs interspersed with short narration about the songs
> the only songs i can remember for sure: someone's in the kitchen, jimmy crack corn, something about flies (shoo fly ple?)
> mostly (if not all) guitar and maybe banjo

A brief Google search on my part turned up nothing -- I think this is going to have to rely on a reader with a long memory. Any suggestions? Leave 'em in the comments.

Readers Who Need Readers: Tom Glazer

A reader has sent me this request:

"As a kid my sister and I had many of Tom Glazer's records ("Music Ones and Twos", "Let's Sing Finger Plays" and a few others) but I have been unable to find any CDs by Tom Glazer for my twin daughters. I know he is dead now. But who owns the rights to his old recordings and are they available?"

I really only knew Tom Glazer as the performer on three of the Singing Science records from the late 1950's/early 1960's. (If you are a They Might Be Giants fan, you must immediately click on the link above.)

I've ordered a couple of the disks off eBay, and got something which was, well, it didn't look like it was a fully authorized version. (Whether it did or did not pass intellectual property requirements I will leave to other, more qualified kids' music writers to determine.)

This guy may be able to help the reader, but how about you... any thoughts?

(Bonus link: Time magazine's recommendations for the best in kids' music... in 1960.)

Readers Who Need Readers: Upbeat Passover Music

Readers. Readers who need... readers.

Are the luckiest readers... in the world.

Got a request from a reader as follows:

I'm looking for some upbeat Passover Song and Dance Music for children between the ages of 6- 12. Something we can beat tambourines too and for the most part has English lyrics but a Hebrew tone.

I don't think the Why Not Sea Monsters? discs are quite what this reader is looking for, and other than that I don't have any good ideas.

But I'm sure you do. E-mail me or just go ahead and share them in the comments. Thanks.