the soundtrack of our lives

Happily, my collection of classical music has met its match in my beloved's collection of jazz and classic rock.  In our five years of parenthood, we've ventured into a new genre: kids' music.  As with any other genre, there's a lot of not-so-good stuff that is either mind-numbingly boring or simply insulting to the intelligence of any listener regardless of age.  But there's also a lot of really great kids' music being produced which appeals to the entire family.

Innumerable hours spent in a practice room hashing through one bar of music at a time yield a certain tolerance to hearing the same tune over and over again.  This comes in handy around here, when we get stuck on a certain favorite song and field requests for repeated playings.  (That said, I do have my limits.)  Fortunately, we've amassed a broad spectrum of favorite music, with a few key players on the most-oft-asked-for list.

Dan Zanes and Friends produce an eclectic kind of music that I can (and do) listen to for hours on end -- even if I'm the only one within earshot (not that I spend hours on end by myself, mind you; minute increments are more like it).  We have several most of their albums.  An informal poll of the five current family members ranks "Hello," "Smile, Smile, Smile," "Chi Chi Buddo," "I Can Do That" (from A Chorus Line), "Mango Walk," "Strike the Bell," "Daniel in the Den," "The Fine Friends Are Here," "A Place for Us," "I Don't Need Anything But You" (from Annie), and "Flying Machine" among the favorites, though their output is on the whole appealing to all ages.  We also have the two concert DVDs, and they're lots of fun.  Should DZ and friends ever play a venue nearby, we are *so* there.

A review I once read of Justin Roberts's output described him as "channeling his inner eight-year-old".  His usually funny, often insightful, sometimes touching, and in a few cases, water-works inspiring view of the various experiences of childhood, from the first day of school ("Giant Sized Butterflies" -- the one that spurred the water works for me when the elder lad was headed to preschool), to learning to "Tie Your Shoe," to planting a garden ("Little Raindrop"), to various aspects of sibling relationships ("My Brother Did It," "Meltdown") ring true so many ways.  The lads' current favorite is "New Haircut," from the latest album Jungle Gym, followed closely by "Obsessed by Trucks,"on the same album.  Other family favorites include "Not Naptime," "98.8," "Pop Fly," "She's A Yellow Reflector," "Yellow Bus," "From Scratch," and "Stay-at-Home Dad."  Here again, should he ever stop here on a concert tour, Mama will do her utmost to procure tickets for all of us.

Way before I even met my beloved, the two endlessly fun and funny ladies with whom I toiled in the trenches of orchestra lackey-ness and I happened upon Harry Connick Jr.'s Songs I Heard.  Harry puts his signature spin on familiar tunes from the Broadway and movie musicals Annie, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Our favorites are "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Do-Re-Mi," and "The Merry Land of Oz."

My Chicago aunties are ever-dependable sources of good ideas (and encouragement), and the music of Harry Belafonte is one such example.  Several summers ago we listened to "Day-O" and "Jump in the Line" (the one from Beetlejuice) over and over again when my soon-to-be high school freshman cousin was a wee lad.  Now these two tunes are in our "favorites" playlist on the iPod, along with "Matilda."

We like several of the songs by They Might Be Giants, mostly from their recent release Here Comes Science, especially "I'm A Paleontologist," "Meet the Elements," and "How Many Planets?"  "Electric Car" is catchy and tends to get stuck on repeat in my head.  We also like "Alphabet of Nations" from Here Come the ABCs.  The videos of these songs are fun every once in a while.  Most of them are available on YouTube for those of us who don't own the CD/DVD recordings (which we don't; what we have in our library is from iTunes). 

New on our radar screen is a band of three teachers from Seattle who call themselves Recess Monkey.  We haven't heard most of their output, though what we have heard is pretty fun.   Our favorites are "Knocktopus" and "Sack Lunch."  The lads also like "Centipede Pirate," "Ice Pack," and "Secret Agent Watch," all from the album Field Trip.

Then there are the classic rock singles that hold pride of place.  These include "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen, several songs from The Blues Brothers, "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins, "Volcano" by Jimmy Buffett, and many by the Beatles. 

While we queue up a diverse array of offerings from several genres, the soundtrack to accompany this season of our family life is comprised of the work of some talented, creative, and imaginative musicians able to speak to children (and parents) in a fun, compelling way.  Surely, this sets the stage for a life-long love for and interest in music, and who knows what good might come of that...