KidVid: "Picnic in the Graveyard" - Uncle Rock

Hey, everyone, it's a kids' song about death!

Really.

Actually, this song is one of my favorites from Uncle Rock's Plays Well With Others album just because it's a disarming approach to the subject of death.

I'm not sure the "hey, lookie, it's your dead Aunt Petunia" part of the video will advance that concept with all but the most metaphorically advanced of kids (or with those who, well, believe in ghosts), but this is a great video to show how to put together a compelling video on what looks to be a relatively small budget.

Check out the glasses on the dad character -- I kept on expecting him to rip off the glasses and become Superman.

Or Uncle Rock.

The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time: Songs 26-30

We are finally completing the "Others Receiving Votes" section of The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time. Except, of course, unless Top 25 college rankings, we actually rank items 26 on down. (Somewhere 'round here I actually have an "others receiving votes" listing for song #s 51+.)

A few mid-majors with strong performances, a few songs close to not quite at the top of the major conference standings...

In case you're tuning in late, here are the previous entries:

Songs 31 through 35
Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

There is still time (but not so much) to enter the contest to guess the Top 5. Winner gets one million dollars a free CD.

30. "Buckeye Jim" - traditional: This is just such a delightfully weird song. "Way up yonder in the sky / A blue bird lived in a jaybird's eye" the song starts off, and the meaning gets no clearer. Wonderful imagery, though I'm not sure the original songwriter was in a completely happy place when writing. (Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Zanes do the song; so do The Hollow Trees -- click on track 17.)

29. "Marvelous Toy" - Tom Paxton: This is one of the few songs on this list that's old but not traditional -- Tom Paxton wrote it but Peter, Paul and Mary made it famous. John Denver recorded it, too. (And apparently it was the Chad Mitchell Trio's biggest hit, but, uh, I've never heard of them.) I like the mystery about the toy -- "It went "Zip" when it moved and "Pop" when it stopped / "Whirrr" when it stood still / I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will." Indeed. (Listen to Amazon's miserly 30-second clip here.)

28. "All the Pretty Little Horses" - traditional: Oooooh. A lullaby that's not in a major key! Despite that the fact that the narrator's basically bribing the baby to go to sleep ("Hushabye, don't you cry / Go to sleep, little baby / When you wake, you'll cake / And all the pretty little horses"), I sing this quite a lot. (Did you know Olivia Netwon-John recorded an album of lullabies? I didn't. Anyone care to tell us how good it is? Even just the "All the Pretty Little Horses" sample?)

27. "Hot Potato" - The Wiggles: Yeah, deal. It's simple enough for kids to master, it's got hand motions, and 4 guys from Australia built a freakin' empire on this song. Sorry that this song will now be in your head today while you have that meeting with Terry from marketing. (Ah, YouTube, what would we ever do without you?)

26. "This Old Man" - traditional: Yeah, you're probably bored of singing it, but in the best folk song tradition, change the lyrics. At least the first line... "Britney Spears / She played one..." "John McCain / He played one..." "Shaquille O'Neal / He played one..." (No, I am not going to find a sample for you. If, however, you can find one of the three people listed above singing it...)

Review in Brief: Phredderiffic - Phredd

Phredderiffic is the third album for kids from the uni-monikered artist whose six-letter name starts with the letter "P."

No, Prince does not have two other kids' albums.

This 2005 album is from Fred McNaughton, also known as, yes, Phredd. While there is no cover of "Starfish and Coffee" on the disk, there are a number of fun tunes here -- the sweet Beach Boys-esque lament for warm weather "Sled Dogs" and the countryfied "My First Haircut" (with the lament "Where in the world did they put all my hair?") in particular stand out. A number of songs also would lend themselves well to kids' movement, particularly the one minute of nonsense in "Zoobah Zoobah Diggity Zoom" or the silly Australian-accented (literally) "Stuffy Hunt." Other tracks do wear out their welcome -- I do not need to hear the reggae'd "Meet the Trolls" or the industrial "William Watermelon" ever again. (I would note for those of you with small collections of coffee-related songs, "If Coffee Smells So Good, Why Does It Taste So Bad?" is an amusing sea shanty.)

Without making too big of a deal of it, it's important that I point out track 5, "I Choose Love." This isn't the first album with religious references I've reviewed, and probably won't be the last, but since it's definitely an uncommon occurrence 'round here, I feel obligated to mention this. If you heard the disk without knowing anything about Phredd, you'd probably be a bit (or a lot) surprised to hear the phrase "God is love" woven into the chorus at the end of the song -- it's only a tenuous fit with the song itself, and nothing before (or after) really prepares you for it. If you're not prepared for it, it's a very "What the...?" moment that will have you scrambling for the CD packaging wondering if you missed something.

Kids ages 3 through 8 will probably enjoy this 39-minute album the most. You can hear samples at the album's CDBaby page or at his media page.

With his poppy tunes, silly lyrics, and skilled blend of programmed keyboards and real instruments (particularly the ukelele), Phredderiffic is a little bit Eric Herman, a little bit Steve Weeks, and an itty-bitty bit Veggie Tales. It's not a uniformly strong album, but fans of the above artists will likely find something to enjoy here.

Review: Did You Hear That? - Fox & Branch

All of you who still hold fond memories of the Jerry Garcia / David Grisman CD Not For Kids Only, pay attention.

Did You Hear That? (2007) is that album's sequel.

OK, technically speaking, the album was released recently by the Wisconsin folk duo Fox & Branch, not by Garcia & Grisman, but seeing as Jerry Garcia passed away many years ago, it was probably a bit much asking for a sequel from the originals.

What I mean is that the spirit of that first CD (nearly 15 years old now) is continued here -- genial renditions of folk classics, smartly rendered. The organizing theme of the CD is that it features 15 different instruments (one for each of its 15 tracks), resulting in what the band describes not inaccurately as a musical version of Where's Waldo?. While you could easily listen to 14 of the 15 tracks and not be aware of that theme, that educational impulse is found throughout the disk (explaining how to do the arm motions for Woody Guthrie's "Bling Blang" or describing what the "Hambone" is on the track of the same name).

The duo have a definite sense of humor, which is hit-and-miss, especially if the CD's stuck on "repeat." Sometimes their humor and their willingness to keep folksongs alive by adding new lyrics works quite well, such as on the rhyme-trading "There Was a Man." (That keeping-alive aspect is one of the duo's most appealing traits.) There are other times, however, when the interplay loses its sparkle after repeated listenings (an overly long "Green Grass, for example). It strikes me that that interplay would be lots of fun if you were hearing it for the first or second time live -- at times it just doesn't work so well on the repeated play of the disk.

My favorite parts were probably the two least kid-specific tunes, an uptempo "Georgia Camp Meeting" and the slow waltz "Skye Boat Song." It's those tunes that show off the instrumental skills of the duo and their guests the best, though even simple songs such as "Bought Me A Cat" have nice arrangements. The duo's vocals are more Woody Guthrie than Pete Seeger, but vocal preferences are highly variable, so you may have a different take.

The album's most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7 (they're the ones who might most appreciate the "find the instrument" aspect of the CD. You can listen to samples at the album's CD Baby page. If you like that, you may also want to hear samples from their first kids' album Mama Don't Allow, which is similar in tone.

Did You Hear That? is a solid album in the folk tradition geared for kids. As noted above, fans of Not For Kids Only will very much enjoy this CD, and those looking for a gently educational component to their music (especially libraries and schools) will find this CD a good addition to their collection.

KidVid: "Juice Box Rock" - Ellen and Matt

There's nothing about this video by Los Angeles-based Ellen and Matt that is particularly amazing. It's a live concert video of pedestrian video quality and decent editing. The song, however, is a catchy pop-punk tune. And the real reason to watch is the kids in the audience, who pogo hard. Those of you with kids will not be terribly surprised by the energy.

(Bonus amusing moment -- the kid with the spray-painted hair about 3:30 into the video. Looks like somebody removed his hair and put a big blob of cotton candy in its place.)