Video: "New Accordions" - Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could (World Premiere!)

While I can't agree with Disneyland and Target, who start decorating for Christmas, Hanukkah, and the rest of the December holidays while Halloween is barely in the rear view mirror (if at all), I'm willing to occasionally make an exception here to my "no celebrating Christmas 'til after Thanksgiving" rule if the song or video is fun enough.

Consider this an exception. It's the world-premiere of a brand new song from Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could. The song's called "New Accordions," and it's from Revvin' Up the Reindeer, Rymer's first holiday album, and in particular the song features a whole bunch of accordion work from not one but two of the Little Band That Could, Claudia Mussen and Seth Farber.

The video is every bit as energetic as the song, bright colors, fast movement, and the briefest of holiday medleys. (Side note: accordions are guaranteed party generators. I still remember an Oktoberfest party many years ago where a coworker brought her accordion and played, much to the delight of the youngsters and oldsters in attendance.) It's a holiday song that won't make you tired of holiday songs, and I'm happy to be world-premiering it.

AAAAANNNDDDD make sure to scroll past the video itself for some comments about life with an accordion from Claudia Mussen herself!

Josh Lovelace Sings a Song For His Kids, With Sharon & Bram

Doing something meaningful for your kids, that makes you feel good.

Doing something with longtime heroes of yours, that makes you feel good.

Josh Lovelace got to do both at the same time.

As a member of the band Needtobreathe, the Tennessee-based Lovelace is no stranger to the big rockstar life, but even big rock stars sometimes just want to hang with their kids. With his new album Young Folk, out next month, he sings songs of, well, singing songs. And family, and silliness, and love. It's a heartfelt, organic, celebration of those things -- think Dan Zanes if he'd tried to make a more directly preschool-focused album, or the Okee Dokee Brothers if they'd ever stop touring the entire United States and just spend a few weeks in the living room.

Lovelace also recruited a bunch of friends to sing along on some of the tracks, including Canadian kids' superstars Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison -- aka two-thirds of Sharon Lois & Bram. Lovelace grew up listening to the trio, met them several years ago, and now Sharon and Bram sing on one of the album's most heartfelt tracks, "Sing a Song For Me." It's a very come-full-circle moment for Lovelace, and I'm glad to be able to premiere the track today.

But that's not all. I caught up with Lovelace in Wyoming while he was in the midst of a tour with Needtobreathe, and talked to him about memories, making music with Sharon and Bram, and what it's like to make music with your heroes. So give "Sing a Song For Me" a spin, then read on!

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

Josh Lovelace: I grew up in a musical family... my mom played the piano, my dad the trumpet. My mom's parents were singers, and my dad's father was a songwriter... They would teach folk songs -- Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie. I was drawn to storytelling songs -- I was inspired by someone who could stand at the front of the stage and lead people in song. It got to the point that I wanted to be up there. [I remember] my mom would set me on top of copy paper boxes to perform for office coworkers.

How did your collaboration with Sharon and Bram come about?

I grew up listening to their Elephant Show Record, their show was on in Canada, then aired on Nick a few years after... The love and joy in their face was mesmerizing. I continued collecting their albums [as I got older].

[In 2011] Needtobreathe was touring with Taylor Swift and played in Toronto for the first time. I wanted to reach out to them and invite them or their grandkids to the Taylor Swift concert. Sharon couldn't make it, but we met for coffee the next morning, and we talked for 3 hours. My son is named Henry Bram, so they're important to me.

When I started working on this project, it was kind of accidental. I knew what I liked, and I'd think [about a song], "Would this work on a Sharon, Lois & Bram record? A Raffi record?" This song "Sing a Song For Me" has a line that references Woody and Pete, and I thought "That's so Bram."

They are legends in their market, but they're also very kind people. They're very aware of how they're perceived by kids, or by parents.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity, and we're planning on doing some events together for the album release.

What's it like to do things with your heroes? Not just random things, but the very thing that those heroes did and inspired you to do those same types of things.

It's insane. I've been doing this for so long, and when you meet a legendary person, [it's nice to be able to] talk to them as a peer, find a common thread.

With this album, I got to do things with friends, who said, we can do something for you.

A song can change someone's life... and I want to live moments that are going to outlive me.

What do you hope families get out of the album?

The album started as a conversation with my kids, and introduces genres.

This music can be enjoyed together -- these days, people have iPhone or iPod personal playlist. But it's a human experience, being together, and as a parent, [I know] that parents all want something they can do together.

Sharon would say that the biggest compliment they'd get [for their music] is when somebody would put on [their music] when dropping the kids off at school, then leave it on afterwards.

We're doing an album release show in Knoxville, and I plan to do some shows, not a lot. I want to sing, hear the crowd singing back.

Photos by Mary Caroline Russell

Monday Morning Smile: SpongeBob SquarePants, The Musical

SpongeBob SquarePants Musical cast album

There are optimists, and then there is the Eternal Optimist, SpongeBob SquarePants. Indefatigable in nature, filled with energy, if there's anyone who doesn't need "Monday Morning Smiles" because they're already smiling each and every Monday, it's SpongeBob. The Nick cartoon, which has been airing for more than 18 years, has been turned into a feature-length movie, and now it's been turned into a feature-length musical.

The musical opens on Broadway later this year, but the original cast album is released this Friday. Unlike a lot of musicals, the producers went to a variety of artists to write songs for the musical (with a single person, Kyle Jarrow, writing the "book"). NPR premiered the album late last week, and Linda Holmes wrote the review so I don't have to. Of note is "I'm Not a Loser" by They Might Be Giants (no strangers to kids music). But the highlight for me is absolutely killer "I Wish"-type song from Jonathan Coulton -- the song that introduces characters and their wishes which will be filled (or not) in the two hours to come -- it's called "Bikini Bottom Day," and it'll put a smile on your face as wide as SpongeBob's I'm sure.

Go here to listen, if only for 6 minutes.

Video: "Baconstein" - Gustafer Yellowgold

There are many pleasing things about the word of a new Gustafer Yellowgold album, but the news from a few weeks back that the forthcoming track "Baconstein" would be getting a video was among the most pleasing. "Baconstein" is a spiritual if not literal sequel to "Cakenstein," which, while not the most typical of Gustafer songs, is one of the funniest tracks in the Gustafer canon. "Baconstein" tells another story of food run amok, a "Bacon Chucky Norris" with an attitude. (As technology is for Wallace & Gromit, so food is for Gustafer Yellowgold, apparently.)

And now the video for "Baconstein" is here, so you can hear about (and see) Baconstein's six-pack abs. And more. Gustafer Yellowgold's Brighter Side is out Sept. 8.

Gustafer Yellowgold - "Baconstein" [YouTube]

Video: "Shine" - Alphabet Rockers (World Premiere!)

The community of musicians making hip-hop for kids is small but dedicated. The Bay Area's Alphabet Rockers have, over the course of their career, gradually refined their sound and their audience, moving from preschool-targeted topics to a somewhat older crowd.

Just a glance at the title of their upcoming album -- Rise Shine #Woke, out this Friday, September 1 -- suggests that Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Shepherd continue their journey as songwriters into the world at large. (The band cites Lauryn Hill's classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as a template for the album.) Don't get me wrong, I love me some "Shape Rap," but I'm also glad to see them tackle broader social issues as well -- Pete Seeger, after all, sang about bugs and the labor movement.

You can read as much or as little politics as you want into this new tune "Shine," but the video, with footage from a recent concert at the local Oakland Museum, features lots of beaming, dancing kids, along with lyrics celebrating kids' smiles, skin color, and self-expression, is worth pressing play.

Alphabet Rockers - "Shine" [YouTube]

Alphabet Rockers at Oakland Museum concert

Photo credit: Marcus Salinas

Video: "Mundo Verde/Green World" - Mister G (World Premiere and Interview!)

One of the kids musicians who most successfully employs a bilingual approach in his music is the Massachusetts-based (most of the time) Ben Gundersheimer, or as lots of kids know him, Mister G. Over the course of seven albums, his music's become more complex, taking on the flavor of Latin American sounds and rhythms. Lyrically, he easily moves between English and Spanish (and back... and back again).

On his forthcoming eighth album for kids, Mundo Verde / Green World, Mister G takes those multicultural rhythms and lyrics in service of environmental concerns. All of which could be dull, but watch this new video for the album's title track, filled with a bunch of skilled instrumentalists who happen to be animals and slick kinetic typography, and I'm pretty sure your mood will lift as you bop along. (The illustrator in charge? Marcos Almada Rivero.)

After you watch the video, make sure you scroll down further for a quick, bonus interview with Mister G about the motivation for the album, memories from recording it, and more about his upcoming book series with Penguin Random House!

Mundo Verde / Green World (the album) is out September 15, 2017.

Mister G - "Mundo Verde/Green World" [YouTube]

Zooglobble: What motivated you to make a “green”-themed album now?

Mister G: Mundo Verde/Green World is my eighth album for children and families, but I've been writing about nature and eco-activism from the beginning. My first CD actually had several songs with explicit environmental themes ("Don't Waste Stuff" "Mister Chubby Pants" "Squirrels"). To me, there is no issue more important than working together to protect this one and only planet we share. Now more than ever, I think it's important that we inspire kids and families to enjoy the beauty of nature, but also to do all we can to insure a healthy green world for future generations.

Any favorite memories from the recording process?

That's a tough one! I was incredibly fortunate to record with so many phenomenal Latin musicians all over the world on this project. If I had to pick one experience, it would be recording the song "Gozar/Enjoy" in the Dominican Republic with the great merengue band, 440. It was an unforgettable experience to work with these great artists (and wonderful people) in their studio in Santo Domingo.

How do you pick animators for your videos?

We love working with our talented friends from different parts of the world. Many of our videos ("The Bossy E", "Cocodrilo", "Siete Elefantes") have been done by a great husband/wife team of Argentinians who are based in Barcelona. The "Mundo Verde/Green World" video was made by our friends in Oaxaca, Mexico. The illustrator, Marcos Almada Rivero, created the beautiful art for our last two albums, "Los Animales" and "Mundo Verde/Green World."

What can we expect from the books you’re creating?

The books we have coming out through Penguin Random House are based on my songs. In each case, I adapted the original song and created more of a narrative. The first book, "Señorita Mariposa," is about a monarch butterfly who is flying from the US to her winter home in the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico. Happy to announce that Marcos Almada Rivero is illustrating the book!