Video: "Breakfast for Dinner" - JoJo & The Pinecones (World Premiere!)

I'm always happy to add a little jazz to my kindie mix, so I was pleased to find the New York City band JoJo and The Pinecones throwing their porkpie hat into the kids music ring.

The band is the daytime alter ego of Joelle and the Pinehurst Trio, featuring singer Joelle Lurie, which plays jazz across NYC's finer venues, but as most parents will tell you, 10 AM can be just as messy as 10 PM.

Lurie and fellow Pinecone Ben Gallina developed their debut kids' album Night & Day through a residency at Lincoln Center Education, and the album merges their solid vocal and instrumental jazz chops with songs more focused on kid concerns. The result is an appealing sampling of traditional jazz and pop standards (such as "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," "I Can See Clearly Now," and the title track) mixed in amongst some originals (including "It's Time To Wake Up," featuring Jazzy Ash, and "I Spy," a duet with Tim Kubart). And the whole things winds down with a string of slow ballads that will serve as a nice transition to nap time.

Their latest video, "Breakfast for Dinner," is definitely on the pop end of the spectrum, so you're not going to get many jazz vibes from this track, but the video is fun, and song itself has one of the niftier last verse "plot twists" you'll hear.

So I'm happy to premiere the video here. Night & Day is released on January 20. (Preorder on iTunes here.)

JoJo & The Pinecones - "Breakfast for Dinner" [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 July 2016

No new music playlist in June -- that's what happens when you post on May 31 -- but let's start July with a half-hour of new music for your family's listening pleasure. (If you want to catch that list from May, you can see that playlist 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 July 2016 (July 2016 Kindie Playlist) ****

"It Ain't No Fault of Mine" - The Hollow Trees

"Don't Knock It 'Til You Try It" - Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could

"Do You Talk to Yourself" - Dean Jones

"Diez Pajaritos (feat. Nathalia Palis)" - 123 Andres

"Phone" - Eric Herman and the Thunder Puppies

"Made to Fly" - Chibi Kodama

"Hole in My Bucket (feat. Jazzy Ash)" - KB Whirly

"Glitter Bug" - Animal Farm

"The Musical Cat" - Genevieve Toupin

A Decade of All Kindie Things Considered

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.

Video: "Ice Skates" - Jazzy Ash feat. Jennifer Gasoi (World Premiere!)

Maybe some of you don't need another reminder that it's still winter, but since it reached 90 degrees this week here in Phoenix -- that is waaaaaay too early (it set a record for the earliest the thermometer reached that point) -- I could use a few more reminders of winter.

So that's one reason why I'm happy to be premiering this brand new video from Jazzy Ash. It's for the song "Ice Skates" off her fine album Bon Voyage and features lots of shots of Jazzy Ash and Jennifer Gasoi walking around the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal and skating on natural pond ice. Ahhhh... cold weather! (and Canada!)

Another reason is that they have two of the loveliest voices in kids music and it's a treat to hear them trading verses and singing together on this simple, jazzy ode to ice skating. It might be more seasonlly appropriate now, but you might want to have this in your back pocket when the temperature reaches 85 and the humidity is even higher.

Jazzy Ash - "Ice Skates" (feat. Jennifer Gasoi) [YouTube]

Radio Playlist: New Music February 2016

I will admit that this February playlist is somewhat brief. That's mostly because January isn't necessarily a popular month for releasing music. (If you want to catch my list from January you can see that playlist here.) But what it might not have in length it makes up for in quality.

Check out the list here.

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

"Love Comes Back" - Jim Cosgrove and Jazzy Ash

"The Dog On the Bus" - Raffi

"There's a Little Wheel a-Turnin' in My Heart" - The Laurie Berkner Band

"Definition of Good" - They Might Be Giants

"Espejos" - Moona Luna

"Don't Drink the Water (Your Butt's Been In)" - Matt Heaton

"Just Be" - Kira Willey