Review: Can You Canoe? - The Okee Dokee Brothers

I know, I already reviewed the album for NPR.  But it's always good to get a few more words in.

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It could have been -- it should have been -- a gimmick.  The Okee Dokee Brothers, the Minneapolis duo of Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing, heading down the Mississippi River in a canoe for a month, just the two of them, with the goal of producing an album's worth of river/exploration songs by journey's end.

But the resulting album, Can You Canoe?, exceeds all expectations in its breadth and scope, its heart and humor.  Their take on the traditional "Haul Away Joe," featuring The Band's Garth Hudson, tempts me to pull out every synonym for "joyful" in my thesaurus -- boisterous, rousing, or, perhaps most appropriately given the nautical theme of the album, buoyant.

In its boisterousness, "Haul Away Joe" is probably more the exception than the rule on the album, with songs tending more toward the contemplative, such as "Thousand Star Hotel," or "Small and Simple," featuring Elizabeth Mitchell.  The opening title track is the gentle invitation to exploration that serves as the throughline of the album.  What happens on the river doesn't stay on the river -- it sticks with you for a long time.  And it's not so much the big things as it is the small, such as the animals and bugs (see "The Bullfrog Opera" and "Rosita").  And while there's certainly a time and place for solitude in nature, one often needs companions to make that exploration work, a theme emphasized by "Haul Away Joe" and "Along for the Ride," which features Rachel Loshak.  Producer Dean Jones does a nice job directing traffic and filling out the Brothers' Americana sound.

Justin and Joe didn't actually canoe down the river by themselves -- they had a couple other folks along helping out and filming a DVD with interviews and music videos packaged with the CD.  There's nothing essential about the DVD -- if for whatever reason you prefer the digital mp3s, you and your family can probably get along with out it -- but it's certainly a step above most bonus DVDs.  (Most of the footage is now available on the band's YouTube channel.)

The album is most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9, but the album approaches Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell territory in terms of its being truly suitable for all ages.  Can You Canoe? is wide-eyed in the best sense, and easily one of the best kids albums of the year.  Highly recommended.

Video: "Blue Clouds" - Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower

It's not easy for a songwriter to stand out on an album with covers of songs written by Bill Withers and David Bowie among others, but on "Blue Clouds," the title track from her new album out today, Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower give the lullaby her husband Daniel Littleton wrote for their daughter a gorgeous reading that makes it possibly the most indelible song on the album.

That's really all the excuse you need to watch this video.

Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower - "Blue Clouds" [YouTube]

Introducing Z7: 7 Artists, 7 Songs, 7 Days. Lucky You.

I've been pondering how to improve the service I provide to you, dear reader, and like a bolt out of the blue, it hit me.  What you want, dear reader, is really good music for the whole family, delivered with just a click or two to your computer.  Oh, yes, make it free, please.

Done.

Introducing Z7, a set of seven songs from seven just-released or soon-to-be-released albums.  All the songs are top-notch, and the albums they come from are going to appeal to a lot of you as well.  What's more, these are exclusive downloads -- you won't be able to download them for free anywhere else during the seven days they're available.

Wait.  What do you mean, "seven days they're available."

Well, you didn't think they'd be free 'til the end of time, did you?  No, you've got exactly seven days to download the tracks before the files go away.

OK, how awesome are these tracks?

This awesome:

The Board of Education - "I'm Not Here Right Now"
Doctor Noize - "Noun Town" from Grammaropolis
Todd McHatton - "So Nice to Meetcha"
Elizabeth Mitchell - "Blue Clouds"
Elena Moon Park - "Poong Nyun Ga"
David Tobocman - "Escalator"
Vered - "Hands in My Mouth"

You're right, that is awesome.  Sign me up.

Well, I can't do that... but you can.  Simply sign up for the Zooglobble newsletter and if you do so by next Wednesday morning (October 24th), I'll make sure you get the links for this most recent offering.  And even if you stumble upon this after the 24th, sign up anyway -- November's offering is almost set!

Thanks to the artists for participating and to you for signing up.

A Grab-Bag of Songbags

OK, now that you've read Nerissa and Katrina Nields' excellent book about family music-making, All Together Singing in the Kitchen, perhaps you've been inspired to make more music, either by yourself or with others.

Where next?

Well, I've got a number of books filled with notes and words for singing along with.  Except as noted, all songs feature piano notation with chords for the guitarists (and ukulele-ists) among you.  I've listed some Amazon affiliate links for those of you interested in purchasing a copy -- in many cases, only used copies are left as some of these books are currently out of print.

What if you can only get one?  Well, it probably depends on who you are -- i.e., your musical background -- who your audience is (older? younger?) and where you plan to use it (schools? homes?).  Hopefully I've given you enough guidance to help you jump in.

And so we shall.

Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag [Amazon link] was first published in 1927.  Regular readers may be familiar with Dan Zanes' take on the poet's collection of American folk music (indeed, that's how I was first made aware of it).  My collection features an introduction from Garrison Keillor, and feels as much like a textbook as a songbook, thanks in part to its exhaustive 290-song collection and Sandburg's slightly more ethnomusicographical notes compared to the other books here.  In fact, that's probably a problem for most dabbling singers -- its breadth makes it too hard to find a hit on every page.  (One of the joys of the Zanes album is that he mostly shies away from popular songs and instead resurrects the unknown.)  But it's that breadth that can also give you months of discovery as you work your way through the text.

Ruth Crawford Seeger's American Folk Songs for Children [Amazon link] was first published in 1948 and is in many ways the kids' equivalent of Sandburg's collection (indeed, he writes a brief introductory note to the collection).  Seeger was a composer and tireless folklorist, not to mention Pete Seeger's stepmom (so her influence works in many, many ways).  Adults not used to singing with kids may be heartened by Seeger's lengthy preface.  Many of the roughly 70 or so songs are brief, somewhat unfamiliar (the collection is, after all, nearly 65 years old at this point), and designed as much for a school setting as a group setting, but there is beauty here.  (And if you don't believe me, ask Elizabeth Mitchell, who has repeatedly cited this book as a major influence on her work.)

Moving on to yet another era, John Langstaff's Hi! Ho! The Rattlin' Bog and Other Folk Songs for Group Singing [Amazon link] (1969) will be of interest to fans of the Nields because the sisters studied with Langstaff growing up in Washington, DC area.  Langstaff selected 50 songs "especially for their suitability for group singing" for all ages, representing many different types of traditional music.  Given the book's age, some of the songs that may have been familiar in the mid-60s are less so now, but I find the songs well-chosen

Nancy & John Langstaff's Jim Along, Josie [Amazon link] came out a year later, in 1970, as Langstaff and his wife compiled a selection of "folk songs and singing games for young children," as the book's subtitle promises.  The book includes 81 different songs, all definitely targeted at the younger set.  Given the number of songs in the collection, there are a number of songs you'll recognize, though obviously quite a few will be totally new to you as well.

Kathleen Krull's I Hear America Singing: Folk Songs for American Families [Amazon link] (1992) doesn't have the pedigree the previous books have, but it's a pretty decent collection of 62 songs, primarily from the (historical) folk tradition, but with a handful of newer songs (e.g., "Little Boxes" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" -- OK, "newer" is a comparative phrase) thrown in.

Finally, Peter Blood & Annie Patterson's Rise Up Singing [Amazon link] is sort of the graduate work of this program.  With words and chords to 1,200 songs, you won't ever be at a loss for words for singing.  What you may be at a loss for, however, are the melodies.  In order to fit 1,200 songs in less than 300 pages, you'll just see chords.  Which is great if you have a huge musical background, but flip to any random set of 2 pages, and you're likely just to see one song you're familiar with.  The advantage, however, is that there are some more modern songs -- Beatles tunes, etc. -- than what you'll see in the other books.  Its compact size and breadth make it a nice complement to the other books listed here, but it would not be my first choice.

Video: "Shoo Lie Loo" - Elizabeth Mitchell

Elizabeth Mitchell takes her time doing things, usually.  The fact that she's releasing not one, but two, albums this year (Little Seed last month, Blue Skies in October) is the exception that proves the rule.  More typical is this video for "Shoo Lie Loo," a song off her previous album, Sunny Day... released in 2010.  Don't get me wrong -- I really like the video, which captures the simple, sharing nature of the song (a favorite of mine from the album).  But I'm impatient -- I wish I'd seen it 18 months ago.

Elizabeth Mitchell - "Shoo Lie Loo" [Vimeo]