Fids and Kamily Awards -- the Best Kids Music of the Year -- Announced for 2019

Last month, the 14th edition of the Fids and Kamily Music Awards were announced. The annual survey of kids music writers, programmers, librarians, and other enthusiasts from across the country produced a list of their favorite kids music albums of the year (late 2018 through most of 2019) — a dozen ranked winners plus another 13 honorable mentions, a full 25 honorees. The winner in this year’s awards was the excellent don’t-call-it-a-holiday-album Winterland by The Okee Dokee Brothers, but you should go check out the entire list of recognized albums.

For what it’s worth, here’s my own personal ballot for this year’s F&K Awards. They’re not ranked because I gave them all equal weight in my ballot for this year’s awards. So, in alphabetical order by band:

Alegria - Sonia de los Santos

Finding Friends Far From Home - Oran Etkin

I’m from the Sun - Gustafer Yellowgold

Baby on the Subway - Camille Harris

Shake It and Break It - Randy Kaplan

Growing Up - Josh Lovelace

Buenos Diaz - The Lucky Band

Winterland - The Okee Dokee Brothers

A Cheerful Little Earful - Diana Panton

Backstroke Raptor - Story Pirates

This year’s process was bittersweet for me as F&K co-founder Bill Childs and I decided that this year’s awards would be the last. We wrote up our thoughts in this post, but the TL;DR is basically that kids and families aren’t listening to albums as much as they’re listening to streams these days, and there aren’t nearly as many people writing about albums, either. (It’s been awhile since this here website has tackled an album review, to provide a very pertinent example.) Bill and I have been clear that there will be no more Fids & Kamily Awards (though the website will live on for many years), but we are both hopeful that there will be something that replaces F&K in some way — we are both ready to participate in whatever might take its place.

I look at my list above and while I think it’s a solid list of ten excellent albums, I also see how I could’ve listed different albums who brought joy in other ways. And so I always enjoyed F&K because while it was based on people’s personal lists of favorites — personal lists that certainly were affected by each judge’s personal experience and tastes — by combining those lists, I thought it more closely arrived at something like a consensus. I don’t know if the idea of consensus is worth pursuing anymore, but for more than a decade, I hope the awards shined more light than there otherwise would be on albums popular and insufficiently noticed.

Listen To This: "Kutapira" - Oran Etkin (feat. Musekiwa Chingodza) (World Premiere!)

Album cover to Oran Etkin’s Finding Friends Far From Home: A Journey with Clara Net

The clarinetist Oran Etkin is well-traveled. Sure, he’s based in New York City, but his concert schedule takes him literally all over the world. He plays concerts for adults, while also making music for families, both through his early music education program Timbalooloo as well as through concerts in the U.S. and abroad.

His forthcoming album Finding Friends Far From Home: A Journey with Clara Net is the fruit of many of these travels, featuring collaborations with musicians from Zimbabwe, China, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. Sure, the structure of the album, in which Etkin’s friend “Clara Net” (go ahead — I think you can guess what instrument plays that role) meets children in the various countries, is intended to serve as an introduction to young listeners. But such an overlay means very little if the music itself isn’t fun and well-played.

Oran Etkin holding his clarinet. Photo by John Abbott

I guarantee that “Kutapira,” the track below, will get your day going right. It features Musekiwa Chingodza, a Zimbabwean Gwenyambira, or spiritual master of the mbira (thumb piano). Chingodza and Etkin (on the clarinet, of course) are joined by the girls choir of the Zimbabwe College of Music, Sam Mataure on drums, and Etkin’s bassist Marcos Varela.

What does “Kutapira” mean? Well, you can listen to this introductory track featuring Etkin and another mbira player, Irene Chingamba, who introduced Etkin to many of Zimbabwe’s mbira masters. But regardless of whether you listen to the intro track or not, I’m sure you'll agree that “Kutapira” is pretty sweet.

Finding Friends Far From Home: A Journey with Clara Net is out on August 30th, but is available on many digital streaming sites for “pre-order” today. (You can listen to “Kutapira” on Spotify right now.) Thanks to Etkin for letting me world-premiere the track!

Oran Etkin - “Kutapira” (feat. Musekiwa Chingodza) [Soundcloud]

Photo credit: John Abbott

Itty-Bitty Review: Radio Jungle - The Pop Ups

Radio Jungle album coverHas any kids' act in the modern, kindie era raised such a ruckus with their debut album as the Brooklyn duo The Pop Ups with Outside Voices?  You remember that album, right? So did everyone else.

Expectations are high, therefore, with the release of Radio Jungle, the follow-up up to that 2010 album.  Can they meet them?

Pretty much, yeah.  At their very best, nobody makes better modern pop for preschoolers than the Pop Ups.  Leadoff singles "Connect the Stars" (featuring Shine and the Moonbeams' Shawana Kemp on vocals plus Oran Etkin on tenor sax) and '80s throwback "Box of Crayons" should rule kindie radio airwaves through fall.  And if that's enough, "Pop Up City" (with hints of Prince and Springsteen) and the flamenco'd tune "The Bat" there to extend the band's dominance through 2013.  These songs should be blasting out from every lemonade stand and driveway art show.

The rest of the album, starting with "Math Rock," isn't as pure pop joy as those first four songs, but do have their own charms.  All these songs are probably part of the forthcoming Pop Ups puppet show, but it's more obvious with these latter tracks, such as the counting on "Math Rock," the color matching on "Color Wheel," and the phonetic spelling of words on "Elephant."  These last six songs are more Broadway than Brill Building.  (OK, off-Broadway.)

The 38-minute album is most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7.  You can hear the album at the band's Bandcamp page (or stream below).  Radio Jungle is a solid follow-up to, and equal of, its storied predecessor.  It's a little more showtune-y than Outside Voices, so your family's personal preferences may vary, but you'll probably still swoon over most of these tracks, too.  Highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of the album for possible review.