Radio Playlist: New Music October 2016

Near the end of October, and there's a whole bunch of music as the Grammy window comes to a close.  I've probably missed a few, in fact, but that just means next month's list might also be full of stuff.  (As for last month's list, you can list to that here.)

As always, it's limited in that if an artist hasn't chosen to post a song on Spotify, I can't put it on the list, nor can I feature songs from as-yet-unreleased albums.  But I'm always keeping stuff in reserve for the next Spotify playlist.

Check out the list here (or right here in you're in Spotify).

**** New Music October 2016 (October 2016 Kindie Playlist) ****

“Heroes” - Ted Leo

“Countdown Kids with Lucky” - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

“I’ve Got So Much To Give” - The Laurie Berkner Band

“Live in Colour” - Marlow & the MIX

“Bottom of the Ocean” - Todd Downing

“Zoo ’n’ Doo Dah” - Valerie Smalkin

“Aint Nothing Like a Friend” - Mauro Magellan

“You’ve Got Me” - Sara Lovell

“Dissolve” - The Deedle Deedle Dees

“Round and Round We Go” - Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys

“Hello Moon” - Jennifer Paskow

“Farm Animals” - The Alana Banana Show

“Senor Opuesto” - Nathalia

“Rolling Down the Hill - Justin Roberts

“How Can You Tell If It’s Going To Rain” - Andrew & Polly

Interview: Justin Roberts

Some of my favorite power-poppy songs for kids ("Recess," "Trick or Treat," My Imaginary Rhino") have come from kids music superstar Justin Roberts, but on his just-released album Lemonade, the Chicago-based musician took a slightly different songwriting approach.  For Lemonade, Roberts wrote and performed the music using the ukulele and took a more stripped-down approach to arranging it on record.

As a ukulele noodler, the idea that a longtime musician would pick up the ukulele as a new instrument and proceed to craft an entire album intrigued me.  In the interview, Roberts talk about which longtime kids duo got him into the ukulele, what it's like to write an album with a uke, and whether he'll be playing it in his upcoming fall shows (for example, in Albuquerque in November and New York's Symphony Space on December 10th).  Also, find out whether Roberts, like me, finds strumming to be the hardest ukulele skill to master.

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Zooglobble: What are your first ukulele memories?

Justin Roberts: Well, I always wanted to play the ukulele and I'd been talking with Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer for years about their amazing Uke Fest in Maryland. I was also getting advice about which ukulele to buy. About a year and a half ago, Cathy and Marcy were staying with me while they played shows in Chicago. I was trying out Marcy's personal uke and said "I think I'll just buy one of these." It was her Kala signature model. And she said, "You can keep it!" This was the ukulele that she had been playing and recording with for years and Cathy and I were a bit shocked. But after I realized she was serious, I knew I would have to actually learn to play. It turned out to be in the inspiration behind most of the songs on Lemonade.

You said you wanted to take a different approach in writing Lemonade than your other recent efforts -- why is that?

I decided I wanted to try to write somewhat simpler songs with a little more space and not as much wall of sound production as I'd done in the past. I wanted it to be welcoming like hearing people play on a front porch. My songs from the first several records are usually 3 or 4 chords and I love songs like that. I just made that my goal when writing songs for this record. Now, you will hear songs that could have been on Recess ("Dodgeball," for example), but we recorded it with upright bass and cardboard box snare instead of with a giant rock band. 

How did you decide to make the ukulele a central focus of your writing?

It was hard writing Lemonade after making a musical ("Hansel & Gretel") where all the content was handed to me.  I'd been writing mainly on my computer since "Meltdown," and I still did it that way this time around, but I tried to start with a song I could simply play on  the uke alone without a million other instruments. That sort of simplicity continued to be the theme as we recorded.  The goal of simplicity also helped me define the musicians we ended up asking to perform on the album (Robbie Fulks, Nora O'Connor, etc.).

How is writing or crafting music on a uke different from how you’ve written music before?

Since I only knew a few chords and sometimes didn't even know what chords I was playing as I moved my fingers around it was like returning to the simplicity of just learning a new instrument.

Justin Roberts Lemonade album cover

This might be a difficult question, but how do you think the music on Lemonade turned out differently as a result of how you wrote the music?

Well, I wasn't thinking of a five-piece rock bank when I wrote the songs and when I recorded the demos. So, I was more like, "Let's add a few notes of piano here or a hand clap there," rather than starting with bass and drums and adding guitars and ten vocal harmonies. I just tried to give the songs what they needed to make them interesting without sticking to a power pop band formula.

What was the hardest thing for you to master on the ukulele -- fingering, strumming, or something else?

I'm still trying to master the strumming. It's hard to not mimic holding a pick when you play with your fingers. But some of it came very naturally like the riff in "Long As I Got You." Every time I picked up the uke, that melody got played.

Are you planning to play the ukulele live?

I already am. It's so fun. I love to change between that and guitar.

Any secret ukulele-playing tips to share?

There are a lot of secrets on the internet. Whenever I was looking for a chord or wanted to learn something new, I turned there. You can also take lessons from Marcy Marxer, the master herself, on sites like TrueFire, Peghead Nation and others. That's a great way to learn.

hoto credit: Todd Rosenberg

Video: "Lemonade" - Justin Roberts

Justin Roberts Lemonade cover

Yay for new music from Justin Roberts!  In the wake of a successful PledgeMusic campaign, his brand new album Lemonade will quench the thirst of families wanting more of his folk-pop goodness.  (I swear, that's the only drinking-related pun I'll be making here.  Today.)  The album is formally released on October 14, but your family can watch the amusing video for the title track right here, right now.

The two kids playing the main characters are cute, but if I'm honest, the lemons-as-puppets steal the show.

Justin Roberts - "Lemonade" [YouTube]

Intro to Kindie: Stefan Shepherd

It has been a long time since I've posted an "Intro to Kindie" list, such a long time that even if you're a regular reader, you'd probably need a reminder of its purpose.  (Here you go: Folks like me who are immersed in the genre provide a one-hour introduction to the genre for people who are unfamiliar with it.  It's the mixtape equivalent of an "elevator pitch.")

There are a lot of reasons for that, mostly having to do with PEOPLE BUSY ALL THE TIME.  And I'd always been planning on doing one of my own, but of course, PEOPLE BUSY ALL THE TIME.  Still, I felt like this post -- my post -- in particular just kept slipping further down off the list, and maybe that's because I thought that putting a list down "on paper" would make this list more permanent that it needs to be.

I would note that this isn't a list of the 20 best kids' songs of all time, or my 20 favorites, or my family's collective 20 favorites, or the 20 most important songs or artists.  Certainly some of these would appear on all such lists, but the purpose for me of this list is something more modest -- simply introduce an unfamiliar listener to kids' music to such music, perhaps with an emphasis on more modern music, but at least a good overview.

So as you look at (and listen to) this list of songs that I think make for a good introduction to kids music past, present, and future, keep in mind that what makes up the past, present, and future is always changing.  (It's changing as I write this.)  I'll still always think these songs are great and important, but my perspective, and kids music generally, will continue to evolve.

Without any further ado -- after all, this has been delayed long enough -- here is my intro to kindie, arranged roughly in alphabetical order:

Ella Jenkins - "Miss Mary Mack"

Pete Seeger - "Skip To My Lou"

Raffi - "Mr. Sun"

Laurie Berkner - "Moon Moon Moon"

Dan Zanes and Friends - "Pay Me My Money Down"

Elizabeth Mitchell - "Little Liza Jane"

They Might Be Giants - "Seven"

The Hipwaders - "Educated Kid"

Medeski, Martin & Wood - "Where's the Music?"

Lunch Money - "A Cookie As Big As My Head"

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - "Gotta Be Me"

Recess Monkey - "Sack Lunch"

Caspar Babypants - "Stompy the Bear"

The Okee Dokee Brothers - "Can You Canoe?"

Justin Roberts - "Recess"

The Pop Ups - "All These Shapes"

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - "Piñata Attack"

Jazzy Ash - "Hide and Seek"

Mista Cookie Jar - "Gratitude"

Frances England - "See What We Can See"

Radio Playlist: New Music August 2016

The summer new release doldrums plus some vacation on my part (read: can't listen to much new music) means that this month's list of new music for your family's listening pleasure is a bit shorter than usual.  (If you want to catch July's slightly longer list, you can see that playlist here.)  But just because it's short doesn't mean it's not good -- this is 18 minutes of premium music.  (And just wait 'til the September list!)

As always, it's limited in that if an artist hasn't chosen to post a song on Spotify, I can't put it on the list, nor can I feature songs from as-yet-unreleased albums.  But I'm always keeping stuff in reserve for the next Spotify playlist.

Check out the list here (or right here in you're in Spotify).

**** New Music August 2016 (August 2016 Kindie Playlist) ****

"Botany" - Danny Weinkauf

"1-2-3-4-5-6-7 a Song" - Doctor Noize

"Miss Mary Mack" - Ella Jenkins

"Secret Superhero" - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo

"Willy Was a Whale" - Justin Roberts

"Byke" - Baron Von Rumblebuss

A Decade of All Kindie Things Considered

Meltdown album cover

Exactly ten years ago today, I had what was at the time a very weird experience -- I heard my voice on the radio.  That's because my voice was hitting the airwaves as part of an interview with Melissa Block about kids music on NPR's All Things Considered.  Over the course of five minutes, Block and I chatted about Dan Zanes, Brady Rymer, Laurie Berkner, and Justin Roberts, my kids, a philosophy of kids music, with a slight diss of the Beatles -- a band I really like! -- thrown in for good measure.

The whole process actually started a couple weeks before when I received an e-mail from Block herself asking for some more information about me.  Fast forward a couple weeks, and after some discussions with Block and an NPR producer -- no doubt to make sure that I had something to say and could say it without sounding like an idiot -- I went to a local studio (not my NPR affiliate) and chatted about the various albums.  I have no memory of how long the conversation went -- I'm sure it wasn't for much more than 30 minutes -- but the next day I got an e-mail saying that they'd edited the piece together and it would be airing later that afternoon.

I don't remember if I had an actual "driveway moment" listening to that piece, I don't even remember where I heard that piece (in the car, maybe, or at home).  But I'm guessing that the piece generated quite a few driveway moments across the country, because eight months later, I found myself back on the air, talking about some more kids music.  Three more times, Block and I chatted, and then starting in 2009, I started writing and recording honest-to-goodness reviews.  My first NPR kids music review was for Lunch Money's Dizzy in 2009, and it remains one of my most favorite pieces of audio I created for ATC.

Since that review, I've done 20 more kids music pieces for ATC, featuring 24 albums.  (Oh, and a commentary on the sound of a lawnmower.  Yeah, I know!)  It has been an absolute blast writing, editing, and recording these reviews, and working with the amazing folks at NPR who, if they've ever been frustrated with my written product or slow starts in warming up my voice ("a little more Shatner"), never mentioned it to me.  I learned quite a bit about writing and editing for radio.  And of course it's been a thrill to be able to bring serious (and fun) consideration of an oft-maligned musical genre to a broad national audience.

Having said all that, the worlds of public radio, of music consumption, of music promotion -- these have all changed significantly over the past decade.  People can argue about the value of criticism, but it is hard to argue that the perceived value of criticism has faded over the past ten years.  All Things Considered has not been immune to those changes, either, and the amount of reviews they've run from any genre of music, particularly over the past six months, has dropped dramatically.  I do not think that will change significantly in the future, and so I'm not sure when I'll next appear on All Things Considered.  (If I do, I'm not sure it'll be in the standard 3:30-ish review format I've honed over the past 6-7 years.)

I would be sad about that possibility, were it not for the fact that the past decade has just been so damn fun.  I've never ever taken for granted the gift I was given with a short e-mail from an NPR host titled "Who are you?" a decade ago.  So I just think it's an appropriate time for me to say "thanks" to everyone at NPR who have let me share that gift with all the wonderful musicians I got to talk about.  I hope this piece on Jazzy Ash's Bon Voyage isn't the last piece I record or write for NPR, but if it is, I'd be cool with that.