I Hear The Kids (Music Artists) Love This MySpace Thing

Did you know Gustafer Yellowgold has his own MySpace page? And blog? Who knew he was a Ween and Sun Kil Moon fan? And does he have latent cheese anger? (The blog, while not inappropriate, is really for the adults, not for the kids.)

You can also check out his music page, from which you can stream 3 songs, including a new track, "Rocket Shoes," which is a sparse, melodic track reminiscent of the first DVD's songs. Stills from the upcoming DVD are also available.

Incidentally, the Hollow Trees also have a MySpace page. But it's not quite as... different... as the Yellowgold pages.

Songs for Moms

Here's a list of songs for mothers or songs about mothers, in no particular order. I've avoided lullabies (songs by moms, typically), as well as songs about general parentual units, or songs about moms and dads.

If a song isn't on the list, it's because of one of the three "O"s: Oversight (I knew about the song and just forgot), Omission (I knew about the song and chose to exclude it), or Obtuseness (I didn't know about the song at all). I expect the third category to be fairly large, so feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section. And most (if not all) of these CDs are reviewed here, so if you're not familiar with a CD, look at the review sidebar to the right.

(By the way, Fran had the same idea and got there first, but between the two of us, I think we ought to come up with a decent mix CDs.)

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"Mama Don't Allow" -- numerous versions; try Brady Rymer's version off of Every Day Is a Birthday
"Mama Hug" -- Brady Rymer, Every Day Is a Birthday
"Mama Is Sad" -- Justin Roberts, Yellow Bus (it's a song about divorce, so I'm guessing it's not gonna go on too many mix tapes)
"Five Little Ducks" -- try version on the Old Town School of Folk Music's Songs For Wiggleworms
"Thank You Mommy" -- The RTTs, Turn It Up Mommy!
"The Coffee Song" -- Ralph's World, At the Bottom of the Sea (not really about moms specifically, but it was the first song that came to my wife's mind when I mentioned the topic of the post)
"Hush Little Baby" -- try version on the Old Town School of Folk Music's Wiggleworms Love You, though it's just as often that Dad is the person buying baby that billy goat
"Mother and I" -- Bill Thomas (and a Circle of Friends), Time Can Be So Magic

Review: I Am Your New Music Teacher - Parker Bent

With many children's music albums struggling to crack the 30-minute mark, defining the length of a children's music EP is a tricky proposition. At just under 19 minutes long, the 2005 debut album from Los Angeles-based musician Parker Bent is either a long EP or a really short full album. Still, Bent packs a surprisingly diverse group of songs into the short runtime.

Bent is a preschool music teacher in Beverly Hills, California, and his subjects -- the alphabet, numbers, or pets, for example -- will be very familiar to preschoolers or their parents. One of my favorite songs on the album is the gentle pop-rock tune "I Wanna Go Home," about a preschooler who's reached his or her sensory limit, is tired, and just wants to go home. My other favorite track is "Count On," whose melody and fuzzy-guitar-and-handclap instrumentation reminds me of the rootsier "Tuesday Night Music Club"-era Sheryl Crow.

The vocal harmonizing on the brief acappella leadoff track "AAA" is totally different from the the above songs, but a nice bit of musical styling nonetheless. The humorous storytelling stylings of "I Am Your New Music Teacher" may be over the heads of the 3-year-olds in the audience, but with Bent playing the role of a controlling music teacher, his snarled lyrics, "We will not have any singing / We will not have any dancing / Instead I thought we'd spend / The entire music class / With everybody sitting in timeout" made me smile. The entire album has a gentle, albeit sly, sense of humor.

The album will probably be of most interest to kids age 3 to 6. You can hear samples of the CD and purchase it at Bent's CDBaby page. It's also available on iTunes Music Store.

Regular readers of this website will probably find at least one or two tracks worth checking out on the album. Even with its short length, the album shows Bent's promise as a children's songwriter and musician. Should Bent ever decide to release a double album (at, say, 38 minutes in length), it could be very, very good.

New Ralph's World Song Streaming Online. Sort Of.

What do you get when you cross Piglet (Winnie-the-Pooh's best friend) with a snippet of the new Ralph's World song for Winnie the Pooh? Sniglets, of course!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

In any case, the website runs a clip of the new Winnie-the-Pooh song from Ralph's World. To me, it sounds a little more like the early Ralph's World stuff (in particular, "Animal Friends" off his debut).

Oh, and the page gives confirmation that the new Ralph's World DVD/CD set will be released this fall. I'd heard/seen that elsewhere, but it's nice to get confirmation on that.

Hat tip to the Semi-Official Ralph's World Message Board for the pointer.

This Week: Coast to Coast to Coast

This week at Zooglobble, we're going from LA to New York (with a review of Dan Zanes' Catch That Train!) and back again. See -- we exhibit both East Coast and West Coast Bias! (I can do the Chicago thing -- Justin Roberts and Ralph's World -- only so often. Though there are more reviews coming from those two, too.)

Also, it's been just over a month since the NPR interview that sent many of you here. Thanks again to everyone who's read, commented, e-mailed, or linked here. Also, many thanks to all the artists who have sent me their CD or DVD. I'm still working my way through them all, and while I won't review all of them here, I've got a lot of reviews (and other things) lined up in the weeks ahead.

Finally, here are links to a few posts in case you missed 'em the first time around.

Frances England's Fascinating Creatures -- review, interview
Lunch Money's Silly Reflection -- review
Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome (The Seeger Sessions) -- review
Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World DVD -- review
Anne Hathaway's "Great Big World", from the Hoodwinked Soundtrack -- review. Goodness, there are lots of people wanting lyrics and mp3s for that song. (Too bad I don't actually have the lyrics or mp3s.)

Thanks again for reading.