Dad Jokes (Billy Kelly's "My First Comedy Album")

Kids music is filled with funny people, probably because the ability to make kids laugh is vital to survival in dealing with kids all day long.  (Also probably because the ability to make yourself laugh is also vital to survival in dealing with kids all day long.)  But in a world of funny people, only one person has earned the title Funniest Person in Kids Music, and that would be Billy Kelly.

Thank You for Joining the Happy Club cover

From the very first track of his very first album for kids ("This Is the First Song" off of 2009's Thank You for Joining the Happy Club), Kelly has amused listeners with his deadpan humor and occasionally meta-fictional takedowns of songwriting tropes.  Over time his humor has swerved a bit from earnest to dark (something which he readily admits), and his albums have contained varying amounts of humorous and non-humorous material.

Is it possible to chart his albums on a matrix with those two axes?  Yes.  Will I do that for you here?  No.  Instead, I will use words in lieu of graphs, even though I love myself some graphs.  (I honestly do.)

Is This Some Sort of Joke? cover

Is This Some Sort of Joke?, his second and most comedy-heavy musical album, required serious attention to process all the levels of humor being laid on the listener's plate.  It was also in parts his darkest album (comparatively speaking -- it's still kids music) as it featured not one but two songs about the potential end of the planet and the human race.

The Family Garden cover

Kelly's third album The Family Garden was his most earnest, a correction, or possibly overcorrection, to the joke-filled and dark approach on Joke?.  It's not devoid of humor, but with songs celebrating gardens, American flags, and pen pals ("We Could Be Pen Pals," which featured Molly Ledford), it was definitely a detour from what Kelly's fans -- at least this one -- had grown accustomed to based on his previous two albums.  The album does, however, underscore Kelly's basically optimistic nature, a nature that, while present on the first two albums (he sang a song with the Monkees' Davy Jones about the joy of getting a new haircut, after all, on Joke?), could be buried under the jokes and cleverness.

Again! cover

For my tastes, I think the two albums that followed -- 2013's Again! and his Grammy-nominated effort with Molly Ledford from the band Lunch Money, the 2015 album Trees -- were probably the high points thus far of his output.  With Again!, Kelly melds the silly ("Ode to Butter") with the sweet ("There's Nothing Like My Town"), with nothing too mend-bending, except for "Don't Tell Me That I Don't Know What I Know (When You Know That You Don't Know What I Know That I Know)," which I'm still trying to work through the logic of.

Trees album cover

And the universally-loved Trees finds Kelly's silly songs like "The National Tree of England" and "(It's Just a) Dumb Ol' Stick" nestled in amongst Ledford's earnest and tender rockers.  Ledford, in fact, basically inserted herself into the album after Kelly had been talking about recording such an album for years.  And it's amusing to hear Ledford's drier wit make Kelly laugh, like on the gentle putdown Ledford uses on "Coniferous Trees," a joke that it takes Kelly 4 or 5 seconds to hear ("I just got that," he chuckles while trying to continue to sing his verse.)

Welp album cover

From there, Kelly's 2016 Welp (oh, that title -- that's a dad word, for sure) covers the same tonal ground that Again! covered, perhaps a little more comedic, and with slightly less of a poppy sound.  The narrators on tracks like "If I Could Have Your Attention," "My First Protest Song," and "You Remember Steve," which lead off the album, sound like clueless buffoons, which isn't necessarily an approach your hear on a lot of kids music -- you hear buffoons, sure, but they're rarely the ones singing the music.  But of course he does have earnest tracks, like "Might It Be Love?" (though I'll admit to probably preferring an earlier, robot-attacking, self-sabotaged attempt at the track).

But on his most recent album, Kelly decides to go all in with the comedy and go where no kids' musician has gone before -- the standup comedy club.  The album titled My First Comedy Album is a misnomer, because most of his albums have been comedic at their core, but it is his first attempt at recording a show in a comedy club.  (With a two juice-box minimum?  Unclear.)

Billy Kelly is hardly the only artist to provide a healthy dose of humor on their albums for the single-digit set.  Recess Monkey, for example, have been on the jokier end of the musical spectrum, and wrote an entire song ("Knocktopus") revolving around the first jokes most preschoolers learn -- knock-knock jokes.  Josh and the Jamtones did an entire album called Bear Hunt that was essentially a long set of riffs loosely connected by songs that eventually became a movie, as if one of those two-guys-talking-in-front-of-a-microphone podcasts became an animated production.  The latest Michael and the Rockness Monsters album Funny Faces features a handful of silly songs that harken back to the era of novelty songs.  Cory Cullinan and Richard Perlmutter use comedy to carve an entrance for kids into classical music.  And Eric Herman did an entire sketch and music comedy album titled The Incredibly Spaced-Out Adventures of Jupiter Jackson.

One thing you might notice scanning down that list is that it's made up entirely of males.  And my perception is that guys tend to be given more leeway to do silly things in kids music, which means that female artists like Joanie Leeds, Sirius-XM's/Wow in the World's Mindy Thomas, or the much-missed-in-kindie Ashley Albert of The Jimmies who traffic in broader humor like their male counterparts above are more the exception.  (And women such as Molly Ledford who use humor sometimes more subtly are often overlooked.)  It's a little disappointing, to be sure.

Both lists above also highlight the fact that comedy crafted specifically for kids is pretty hard to find.  Find someone to animate your jokes and craft a 6-, 11-, or 22-minute story around them, and you too can get your own development deal.  But sketch comedy for kids, especially audio-only sketch comedy for kids, is reaaally hard to find.  As best I can tell, the only folks doing that full-time are The Listies, who are based in Australia, so even though they tour a lot, it's probably too much to expect that they just criss-cross the United States week after week.  (Note: I very much recommend listening to The Listies.  Maybe they'll change their minds about the States.)

Into this void, then, jumps Billy Kelly, father of two, purveyor of dad jokes, whose puns earn groans from the audience (when was the last time you heard that on a comedy album?).  And Kelly certainly does take a few opportunities to speak directly to the kids who are sitting in his mixed age audience, noting that he got them into the [comedy] club and noting that kids do, in fact, catch a break.  Like, a lot.

But for the most part, Kelly trains his eye on more absurdist topics, like deciding to forego bird-watching for bird watcher-watching.

He eschews the often dense wordplay and allusion-filled approach of his music for a more laid-back take, like Steven Wright with a higher-pitched voice.  (No complaints about airplane food or relationship woes, thankfully.)  Kelly plays with the conventions of standup, humor which might work a little better with the adults who know when he's slightly subverting the form.  And some bits like "Auditordium" start out sounding like they're just mistakes until you realize that they're well-plotted jokes.

Only once does he break down and turn to music as a frame for his comedy, and that's on the cut called "Dictionary."  It's actually a recycled bit from Welp.  The music isn't necessary at all for the basic structure of the jokes, though the structure of the song -- whereby the spoken jokes essentially fill the role of verses, and the wordless do-do-do-dooooos the chorus -- probably helps the listener process the jokes themselves, which require a little thinking.

The whole album requires a little thinking, actually.  While there are definitely some simpler jokes on the album, this is not something that will amuse your kindergartener.  Rather, it requires a level of attention and smarts that may even be out of the range of your second-grader.  Unlike the Listies, Kelly offers no fart jokes.  This is neither good nor bad, just noting that fart jokes are the fastest method known to science for getting a second-grader, especially a boy, to laugh.  In some ways, My First... is most reminiscent of Is This Some Sort of Joke?, his most comedic album up 'til now and the one that needed the highest level of listener attention, though the humor is lighter in tone on this new album.

There are a ton of jokes on the 45-minute-long My First Comedy Album and with it Billy Kelly safely retains his title of Funniest Person in Kids Music, unlikely to give it up until he chooses to retire as GOAT.  I hope that there's a second album of standup or pure comedy from him (current odds of him naming it My Second Comedy Album: 50/50?).  But I like what happens when he works with artists like Ledford who pushed back on "Coniferous Trees" or with other musicians generally.  So I also hope he continues working with others to produce funny stuff as well, because I think that feedback makes the humor sharper.  Dad jokes work even better if there's an occasional mom or group of dads to offer up some eye rolls... or make an even worse dad joke.  And if other dads and moms want record their own albums of comedy just for the kids and their adults, I think it's time it becomes an actual field.

Billy Kelly on stage

Joanie Leeds Loves Cities, Especially Brooklyn

Miami-raised, Brooklyn-based Joanie Leeds has seven albums for kids and families under her belt, and one month from today (May 19) she's releasing her eighth, Brooklyn Baby.  The title's got layers -- Leeds moved to Brooklyn a few years back from Manhattan, she's raising a kid there now, and there are approximately eleventy-billion preschoolers in the borough -- but it's also a celebration of the many parts that go into making her adopted home, home.

Given the themed nature of the album, I thought it'd be fun to talk with Leeds about Brooklyn and the meaning of "home."  So while you listen to a world premiere stream of Leeds' bluesy track "Subway" from the forthcoming album (including a totally unintelligible track announcement), read on for Leeds' thoughts on "home," the changes in Brooklyn, and tourist advice in NYC and Miami.

Subway

Joanie Leeds & The Nightlights

Zooglobble: What does “home” mean to you?  How has that changed as you’ve grown older, become a parent?

Joanie Leeds: Home is comfort. Home is where you can put your feet up on the coffee table and snuggle up on the couch without feeling like you are intruding or acting too casual. My true home will always be Miami, where I was born and raised. However, the landscape has changed a lot since I grew up there.

My current home is Williamsburg, Brooklyn and after living here for six years, it's starting to feel more like home now that I have a daughter. We have a ton of mommy friends with kids the same age and see many familiar faces when walking outside. It's a nice community! My daughter isn't yet two, but when we walk down the street I can let go of her hand on the sidewalk, and she points to our building and says "home" and walks right up the steps. While "home" can be a bit fuzzy for adults, home is very clear to her. She feels safe and comfortable there and that's so important.

Did you have the idea to do a “home”/Brooklyn-themed album first, or did you have some songs that you noticed were coalescing around that theme and wrote some more?

The theme came first. Actually, I had the album title long ago and wrote the songs around the title. I rallied around the idea of a Brooklyn-themed album after watching our neighborhood go from abandoned industrial warehouses to endless scaffolding covered sidewalks to a co-op infested neighborhood speckled with families and dogs virtually overnight. When I first moved from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Williamsburg, it took some getting used to. I would walk around for days without seeing a child. Just hipsters, graffiti on every building, and pockets of the neighborhood that were just holding onto their culture before many homeowners sold their properties to real estate investors. It was all planned by our previous Mayor Bloomberg, to revitalize our neighborhood, but no one knew it was going to happen as fast as it did.

It was a shock, even to me. With change (and gentrification) comes good and bad. The streets are safer and cleaner for my daughter, and there are a ton of families now, but the neighborhood has lost some of its flavor as a result. I wanted to tell the story of the good and the bad. The amazing melting-pot culture, how people get along no matter where they are from and no matter what language they speak. I wanted to paint the picture of sitting on the stoop and eating a slice on a typical Sunday afternoon. Explain hipster culture (and maybe make fun of it a little, too). Taking the East River Ferry is the most beautiful way to see the city, and Brooklynites love libraries, farm-to-table non-GMO eating, pizza, Yiddish phrases, taking the subway, and bagels. I wanted to explain it all to the world and give it my twist.

Why was it important for you to do this type of themed album?

A few years ago I made an animal-themed album called What A Zoo.  It is one of my best sellers, so I wanted to write another collection of songs. It didn't take long to pick Brooklyn. It's the fastest growing city in the country, right up there with Oakland, California and there is a reason people are migrating from Manhattan (and all over the world) to the Brooklyn borough. It is more than getting priced out of other places, it's the hip, cool Brooklyn mentality. Brooklyn has become a brand. 

Brooklyn Baby album cover

Tour buses packed with people from all over the world now come through my neighborhood searching for the recognizable spots from Broad City, Girls, High Maintenance and tons of movies too. The megaphone-toting tour leaders point to hipsters, and Europeans take pictures of them against painted walls. I give directions to confused tourists on a daily basis. There are lines around the block for the rainbow bagels that swept the nation just a few blocks from my apartment. Now I can't get in the door to buy a bagel!  All these Williamsburg folk have procreated over the past few years, and now there are little “Hipsters in the Making” taking over the neighborhood. It is inspiring, funny, and interesting, and I wanted to share these stories with the rest of the wondering world.

Do your NYC audiences get a big kick whenever you sing a city-themed song?

New Yorkers ALWAYS love talking and singing about their city. The familiarity of the landmarks, stores and neighborhoods I mention draws in an audience and creates common ground. I try to visually paint the picture through the lyrics so listeners can really feel like they are inside the song.

You do a fair bit of touring -- what do you appreciate more (or less) about Brooklyn after seeing other places around the country?

Touring is the best. I love meeting our fans all over the country and getting to know the people, small towns, and cities in which we get to perform. As foodies and coffee lovers, eating and seeking out the greatest coffee shops is a big part of touring, too. We love farm-to-table food and try our best to eat organic, staying away from GMOs. In Brooklyn I practically trip over some of the best restaurants and coffee shops within two blocks of leaving our apartment. In other cities and towns, we have to do some research, so we are constantly asking the people we meet for advice. We also Yelp a lot and read reviews like it’s our job. As BBQ lovers, touring the south and midwest is always welcomed :) I find we take better advantage of going to parks, museums, and hiking while on the road, too, because when we are home, even if the day is free, it's usually filled with work. This makes Brooklyn my work place and the rest of the country my playground.

Whats one place should families from out of town visit in Miami, Manhattan, and Brooklyn to understand what it’s like to live there? 

If you have kids, in Miami I'd say a bike ride to Matheson Hammock Park through the twisted, drinking mangroves to the beach. It's a beautiful view and very kid friendly. I went there with my parents when I was a kid and just recently took my daughter there for the first time in December. Wynwood wasn't a thing in Miami when I was growing up, but we spend a lot of time there now visiting the Lynwood Walls and the shops surrounding the walls. It reminds me of Williamsburg. 

Joanie Leeds in a sparkly dress

In Manhattan? Obviously Times Square. JUST KIDDING. Don't go there! I'd say Central Park. You can get lost there (in a good way), and you can see everything from crazy dancing roller skaters to concerts. Bring a blanket and have a picnic or count the statues and fountains. I love the Ramble and the beautiful row boats upon the lake.

Brooklyn is massive so I'll list a few spots. On a nice day, Prospect Park is the perfect place to visit and set out a blanket, toss a Frisbee, or monkey around at the playground. The best place to see music is with Rock and Roll Playground at Brooklyn Bowl. The Brooklyn Public Library is not to be missed, and don't forget to take the East River Ferry from North Williamsburg down to Brooklyn Bridge Park for pizza and ice cream, then visit and ride the beautiful antique carousel overlooking the water.

Photo credits: Shervin Lainez

Songs for Groundhog Day

Exactly a decade ago, I published a list of songs for Groundhog Day.  "List" is a little overstating things -- it was exactly three songs long.

But now I've expanded the list by more than 100%!  It's now seven songs long.  [Ed.: With a few suggestions below and on social media, we're up to double-digits!]  Which, to be frank, is probably reasonable for the relatively minor holiday that is Groundhog Day.  But there's some good stuff here.  Unfortunately my very favorite groundhog-themed song, "I Hog the Ground," isn't available on Spotify, but the other six tracks are.

If you've got further suggestions, let me know in the comments.  But do it quick before Punxsutawney Phil is called upon!

---

"I Hog the Ground (Groundhog Song)" - Steve Burns / Steven Drozd (watch here)

"Oh Groundhog" - Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell

"Groundhog" - Red Yarn

"Shadow" - Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights

"The Groundhog Song (How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?)" - Daria

"How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?" - Danny Adlerman and Friends

"Groundhog" - Sam Hinton

"A Shadow" - Gustafer Yellowgold

"The Groundhog's Lament" - Mr. Richard and the Pound Hounds

"Groundhog Day" - John McCutcheon

"Staten Island Chuck" - The Rock-A-Silly Band

Review: Meshugana - Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights

Joanie Leeds and the NIghtlights Meshugana album cover

With Christianity still the majority religion in the United States, most of those with a different or no religion still probably get a pretty good idea of the basic contours of the Christian rituals, at least Christmas and Easter, even if only through music.  But what about those other religions?  Where are the songs that might share those rituals with a wider audience?

There are a number of artists who've recorded albums that present Jewish culture and traditions for a kid-centered audience, so Joanie Leeds is hardly the first.  In fact, her latest album, Meshugana, isn't even her first attempt at an album celebrating those Jewish rituals (though it is her first with her band The Nightlights).

It is, however, one of the most successful I've heard as a non-Jewish listener at conveying that culture both 1) with a modern sound, and 2) in a way that might bring those Gentiles like me a little bit closer.  About half of the songs are tied to specific Jewish holidays, but the rest are more applicable year-round.  The album's strongest track, the tender "Hello, Goodbye, Shalom," neatly weaves together the Hebrew word "Shalom" (meaning "hello," "goodbye," and "peace") into a gentle Beatles tribute that succeeds on every level.  "PJ Party" celebrates reading with a soaring sing-along chorus and just a handful of Hebrew words mixed in.  And the title track is about as revved up and mixed-up as you might expect a song about a "crazy person" (the meaning of "meshugana") might be.

As a non-Jewish listener, the songs that are more tied to specific holidays were not as compelling to me, but Leeds definitely tried to keep them accessible -- "Honey and Apples," tied to a ritual for Rosh Hashana, was my favorite of these.  As with the rest of Leeds' work, the songs (all original -- even "Wade in the Water" gets a Passover reworking) are mostly funny, occasionally tender, and feature a range of rock styles from folk-rock to indie-pop, even a hint of country.

The 35-minute album will be most appropriate for kids ages 4 through 9.  You can stream the album here.  For those of you wanting lyrics, yes, the physical copy includes those in the liner notes.

We're not Jewish, so I can't see our family breaking out this CD often, but I could certainly envision spinning selected songs in playlists throughout the year.  And for those families (or classrooms) who want to share a little more about the Jewish culture and faith -- or for those families who want to celebrate their faith with some 21st-century pop sounds -- Meshugana will make for a nice addition to their collections.  Recommended.

Note: I was given a copy of the album for possible review.

Itty-Bitty Review: Hello My Baby - Vered

Hello My Baby

A good part of Vered's second album, Hello My Baby (subtitled Songs to Bond You and Your Baby) doesn't sound much different from its predecessor, her debut album Good Morning My Love.  The folk-pop songs are very tightly arranged, with Vered's lyrics often requiring her to sing, or almost rap, them quickly (see, for example, "Gotta Go").  And like its predecessor, the subjects and lyrics for most of the songs are designed to, well, bond parent and baby, so the song helps explain the child's perspective to the parent, and/or gently remind the parent the consequences of actions like being on the phone too much ("Phone").

If there's a big change from the first album, it's in the songs that speak much more directly to the parents.  "More of a Baby" is a duet with the Okee Dokee Brothers' Justin Lansing that recognizes the value of a baby's attitude toward the world.  "Something Other Than a Mom" reflects the voice of a mother trying to take back some of that personal identity she had before becoming a mom.  With a cello helping to underscore the frustration and sadness that can be mixed into life as a parent, it's rawness one doesn't hear often in kids music; rawness about parenting just isn't heard much in music, period.  And if that track is wistful, the album closer "All I Want" features the year's most memorable kindie chorus, with a handful of kindie musicians (album producer Dean Jones, Joanie Leeds, Rachel Loshak, Jon Samson, and more) singing "All I Want / is to sleep / seven hours straight / all I want / is to sleep."  Compared to most of the other tracks, this song is loose, letting all the emotion flow and spill out.

The album is most appropriate, as you might expect, for kids ages 1 through 5 and their new parents, natch.  (You can listen to samples of the 43-minute album -- soon -- here.)  To the extent that Vered sought to create an emotional dialogue between parents and their infants and toddlers, Hello My Baby succeeds.  For those parents, it's definitely recommended.

Note: I received a copy of this album for possible review.