Review: New Orleans Playground (Putumayo) - Various Artists

It's safe to say that the fine folks at Putumayo Kids aren't putting together a collection called, say, "Phoenix Playground," or even "Chicago Playground." Phoenix has a decent musical history for a city so young, and Chicago's musical history is tremendous, but New Orleans is probably the only American city with a musical background robust enough to provide so many songs to choose from while offering a distinct-enough sound to make the mix-tape at which Putumayo excels sound good.

While touching on many strains in New Orleans music, New Orleans Playground (to be released on Tuesday) relies most heavily on the side of rhythm and blues. With a number of classic songs on the collection (most notably Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya" and Fats Domino's "Whole Lotta Lovin'"), the adults may be forgiven for thinking that they've accidentally turned on the radio and "KOOL 97, Classic Oldies!" (See also Dr. John's bouncy-yet-mellow "Row Row Row Your Boat" and Buckwheat Zydeco's massive reworking of "Skip To My Lou" into "Skip To My Blues" for familiar voices.) But there are enough much less familiar artists and songs to make the collection not feel stale. I particularly liked Charmaine Neville's "Second Line," a fun tribute about New Orleans' brass band tradition. Credit goes to Putumayo for not always picking an obvious artist -- it was nice not to hear a more-famous Neville brother on the collection, and they chose the unknown-to-me Hack Bartholomew for a rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In." It's too bad, however, that the collection mostly ignores New Orleans' strong jazz tradition -- while it's hinted at on some of the more brassy tracks, this collection needed a jazz track from the birthplace of jazz.

If you didn't have the familiar Putumayo illustrations, you wouldn't necessarily know that this collection was targeted at kids (only one or two tracks are really kid-focused), but let's say that kids ages 3 through 9 are most likely to enjoy it. You can hear some samples at Putumayo's album page.

This collection is a gentle if incomplete introduction to New Orleans music. Expertly compiled and arranged, both parents and kids will enjoy it. Recommended.

About Time

The one downside to The Terrible Twos' excellent If You Ever See An Owl? You couldn't get it except for at New Amsterdams shows or the occasional Terrible Twos' show. I felt kinda bad telling everyone about it, really.

Well, my guilt (such as it is) is near an end, because the band announced late last month that the album would be released in January 2007 by Kid Rhino / Paquito Records. About time that the rest of the world got a chance to hear these infectious tunes.

And for those of you who've managed to snag a copy and are thinking, so what, the band also announced it'd be recording a couple new songs for a "Christmas EP." Methinks "Caroline," the story of a child who's birthday's just a little too close to Christmas for her taste, would also make an appearance on the EP...

Review: Songs For Family, Friends & Frogs - Mr. "S"

I've received a lot more kids' music this year than I have time to review here on the site. There are many reasons why I don't review something -- it's absolutely awful, it's too far past its expiration date, it's not really kids' music -- all reasons that I'm willing to throw out the window at any time, I should note. But what about those albums that I'm, well, only lukewarm about?

Case in point: this album.

New York-based Mr. "S" (aka Ed Stankewick) recorded for several indie rock labels before becoming a schoolteacher and, eventually, releasing Songs For Family, Friends & Frogs, his 2006 kids' music debut.

I really wanted to like the CD, but being a hopeful person I really want to like just about every CD I listen to. And there are components of the album that I did like, especially the solid musicianship of Stankewick and his Burnt Bottom Cookie Band. When they grab ahold of a good song, like the "everybody's a hero" pop-rocker "Superhero," the resulting energy is fun to listen to, as it is also in the gently insistent "Frankie the French Fry." The bluesy cuts ("Itchy Little Toe," for example) tend to be the strongest songs.

But for the most part the songs just weren't that memorable to me. Some went on too long ("Take Your Medicine"), some were just a little too cheesy ("My Dog Sings the ABC Song"), and some... It's not that the songs were bad -- believe me, I've heard plenty of bad kids' songs, and these weren't it -- but they just left little impression on me, no compelling desire to go back and hear it again (even though I did so several times for the purpose of this review).

The songs have a slightly goofy lyrical sense that would be most appropriate for kids ages 5 through 9. You can hear several cuts at the Mr. "S" website. Which I recommend doing, because maybe I just ate something bad, or I haven't been getting enough sleep, or something. And that's why I will sometimes review albums that just don't speak to me, especially if there's something worthwhile in there that could serve as the core for someone else's serious enjoyment. Whatever the case, while I could appreciate the musicianship on Songs For Family, Friends & Frogs and look forward to hearing what else Mr. "S" comes up with in the future, this album didn't speak to me.

"Part Yellow, Part Gold, All Gustafer"

News that Gustafer Yellowgold, or at least his nifty creator Morgan Taylor, has been signed to V2's new kids' imprint Little Monster Records comes amid changes at Gustafer's Myspace page.

That's right, folks, he now has 710 friends, the most important of which seem to be from "Sesame Street," primarily.

Oh, and there are a couple new tracks streaming there for your listening pleasure. "Cooler World" is sort of an introductory song, OK, but nothing special. "Birds," however, is a blast of Beatles-ian (or, if you're younger and/or hipper, XTC-ian) pop confection. ("Rocket Shoes" is also new, but has been streaming on the site for many months now.) Could "Mellow Fever" be the working title for the next DVD or CD following the rerelease of Wide Wild World?

In addition, there's an amusing video promo for Gustafer which includes news that Taylor's working on the next DVD (Have You (N)ever Been Yellow) -- which I think I knew, or maybe that was just a falling-on-cake-inspired reverie -- and an illustrated book (natch) called The Inifinity Sock, which was news to me. (Love that title, in spite of or perhaps because it makes no sense whatsoever.)

But the best part is that the first half of the video is done as if it were a preview for some awful Michael Bay flick.

"Part yellow, part gold... all Gustafer." I'm still chuckling.

In Case Justin Roberts Is Looking For Album Ideas...

Eric Herman's blog has been both consistent and consistently entertaining since its inception. All that's missing is mp3 sound clips.

Oh, wait, now he's taken care of that, too.

Eric's recent post on where ideas for some of his songs came from was a particularly fun read. The music geek in me likes to read about the process of songwriting and being a musician, and the post has that in spades (plus lots of sound clips).

If that weren't enough, the post has, without a doubt, the best Photoshop creation I'm likely to see on a kids' music-related website this year. Go there just to see the picture (and read the whole thing to figure out what it's supposed to be).

If 2005-2006 was the year of the "Wolf" bands, 2007 should be the year of the Sock album. Go for it, Eric.