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| What you're about to read is a collection of pointers to some of the music I've discovered on the iTunes Music Store, music I like enough that I want to share it. If you're an iPod owner and an iTunes fan (and if you aren't, what are you doing here?), maybe you'll find something new. Click on any of the CD covers to bounce over to the store and sample a few tracks. And then maybe stop by my other blog for a few well chosen words (and maybe a random snark or two). | 
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| Have some music to recommend? I can always use a few pointers. Use the comments link at the bottom of the page. | ||||||
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Mon, 26 Mar 2007 |
| Catch the Moon / Elizabeth Mitchell &Lisa Loeb | |
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Not sure I'm qualified to review an album of children's music, not
that a lack of qualification has slowed me down much in the past. But
there's a real question here: do I try to put myself in the place of an
impressionable and unsophisticated child, which I once was and, if you
leave out the "child" part may still be; or do I listen with the more
experienced ear of an adult and consider what Ms. Mitchell, Ms. Loeb and their
collaborators have done with a mix of children's classics, foreign
folk songs and a few originals? Luckily for me, the answer appears to
be the same in both cases. There's a cleverness, a subtlety and, yes,
a little bit of sexiness that will appeal to the grownup, all, I
suspect, without getting in the way of a kid's pleasure in simply
listening to the words and the tune.
On the other hand, this one might be a score for the world of hard goods; the CD version includes a book, where on the iTunes Store you don't even get a lousy PDF. Not that I think an online book is any substitute for holding one in your hands. Especially when you're first learning to appreciate the written word. I say go for the hardcopy; there'll be plenty of time to ruin your eyes on computer screens. |
| [ Category: Children's Music | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 29 Mar 2006 |
| Kiddie Songs / The Tinseltown Players | |
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Speaking of Peter Gunn, as I was in
my last review, I noticed
that there are suddenly a whole bunch of new albums on the iTMS from a
record (and I do mean record) label called Crown. They're mostly
covers, and look (and sound) like they came from 60s vinyl. I hope
nobody picks up one of these discs thinking they're getting the
original of
Ode
to Billie Joe, or
Harper
Valley PTA, or the aforementioned
Peter
Gunn theme. Accept no substitutes! Unless they're really
good, of course.
Which brings me to this disc of |
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| [ Category: Children's Music | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Mon, 20 Feb 2006 |
| Sing-a-Long With the Three Stooges / The Three Stooges | |
| Apple files this one under Children's Music. But do children even know who The Three Stooges were? Or are the only children for this music the folks who were children back in the day, when all our shows were in glorious black and white and all that pretend violence was just another part of growing up? |
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| [ Category: Children's Music | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Wed, 25 Jan 2006 |
| For the Kids / Various Artists | |
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If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may remember my fondness for cover songs. And if by some chance you share that fondness, you too may be a regular listener to the biweekly Coverville podcast. Which sometimes comes up with real surprises, as it did in a year end top 40 countdown that included a wonderful rendition of Mahna Mahna, made famous by Jim Henson and his Muppets but rendered here by the remarkable Cake. Interestingly, may I even say startlingly, Coverville host Brian Ibbott explained that Mahna Mahna wasn't a Muppet original; it actually got its start on the sountrack to an Italian porn film in the 60s! There's something deeply subversive about porn themes being fed to children. Or not. But taken on its face, Cake's version is sublime. As is Sarah McLachlan's take on The Rainbow Connection, a song that really did start out life with the Muppets and not some Eurotrash skin flick. Unless there's something else they aren't telling me... |
| [ Category: Children's Music | 1 comment | Link ] | |
Fri, 19 Aug 2005 |
| The Best of Shel Silverstein: His Words His Songs His Friends | |
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I first encountered Shel Silverstein in the pages of Playboy, which
included his poetry among its range of literary offerings. (I can't
claim to have read Playboy for the articles, at least not with a
straight face. But I did read the articles. At least the short
ones. But I digress.)
Actually, I ran into Shel even before I worked up the nerve to buy Playboy. Unbeknownst to me, he'd provided the lyrics to some favorite novelty songs. Remember The Unicorn? Some Irish guys may have performed that little bible lesson, but it was this bald Jewish imp who gave them the words. And, as miraculous as it is that Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show could produce intelligible sounds, it was Shel again who introduced them to Sylvia's Mother and put them on The Cover of The Rolling Stone. The iTMS puts this collection under Children's Music. Guess it's just as well I never grew up. |
| [ Category: Children's Music | Add a comment | Link ] | |
Take me home: 
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