Screenshot of doll with turntable from “Dance Party” video I’m a sucker for chocolate ice cream, cool t-shirt designs, and warm-hearted sitcoms with a touch of absurdity and/or acerbity. I’m also a sucker for a deceptively lo-fi kids music video with a well-placed California Raisin cameo. So, yeah, of course I liked the latest video from Portland, Oregon-based Triple Rainbow. The band is the combination of Jared Mees, head of local boutique chain/indie music label Tender Loving Empire, and his two under-10 daughters, July and Piper. They’ve got an album, You Are Magic, coming out next year an ..read more

For the record, I think muskrats are one of the cutest wild creatures, so when New York City musician Esther Crow reached out to share her new video “I’m a Muskrat,” I was already slightly biased in favor of it. And luckily, the mid-tempo rocker with an appealing bluesy feel had a video almost as cute as the muskrat itself. It features Crow and her son Vincent decked out in muskrat makeup, acting out the muskrat tendencies she outlines in the song. In the genus kids-song-about-animals, this is definitely one of the better ones. (And if your kids aren’t into being a Disney/Marvel character for ..read more

The Oot n’ Oots in front of a little Ponderosa pine. I know, many of us have been a little more casual in our day-to-day wear at some point in the past 18 months or so. So I think a video celebrating the most casual of casual clothing — the pajama (or “pyjama” depending on your portion of the English-speaking world) — would be appropriate. Enter British Columbia band The Oot n’ Oots. Their new track, “PJs All Day,” isn’t the first pajama-celebratory song in kids music, to be sure, but it might be the funkiest. And I guarantee you it’ll put a spring in your step. Maybe not as springy as the st ..read more

Whole Lotta Love album cover It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from the Southern California duo Renee & Jeremy. While both Renee Stahl and Jeremy Toback made music in the meantime, particularly Renee with a couple of well-received albums with a series of musical partners (including Toback) under the Renee & Friends moniker, it’s been nearly a decade since the duo last released an album together. But the memories of parents sitting in quiet rooms with their young ones don’t fade easily. Their first two albums in particular — It’s a Big World and C’mon — were in constant rotation in Li ..read more

Mike Phirman laughing in studio. Photo by Michelle Livingston Mike Phirman, like some (though certainly not all) kids’ musicians, didn’t start out intending to become a kids’ musician. Instead, he was a comedian who wrote some funny songs. But one of those songs, “Chicken Monkey Duck,” became popular on SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live (and, erm, with me?), and so it shouldn’t have been so surprising that after becoming a parent himself, he turned more directly to making music for kids. He’s releasing his second album for kids, an EP title Activity Books, on 8 Pound Gorilla Records this Friday, and ..read more

Genevieve Goings with umbrella (via her website) I will say that Genevieve Goings, in addition to being a very talented singer, songwriter and actor, has excellent timing. This is a very good week (if you’re on the East Coast) to release a song about using your imagination to pretend it’s summer while in the midst of, oh, a massive winter snowstorm. Lots of us kindie old-timers (well, comparative old-timers) recognize Genevieve from her long run in the Disney Junior series she co-created, Choo Choo Soul. But she’s been creating music outside of that series as well, and this new song, “Summer ..read more

A Mind of Your Own album cover Way more than a decade ago, I noted how kids music — at least a lot of the new music produced in the 21st century — hadn’t really taken emotional intelligence as a theme. Several years later, at least some such songs had been written, but it wasn’t a list that you could put on Spotify and listen to for days on end. I’m sure that list is out of date at this point, but there’s always room for more music that’s tuneful and meets kids where they are, emotionally. So I’m excited that the venerable Smithsonian Folkways label — who’s long included music in service of k ..read more

Frances England and her favorite Casio keyboard It has been a long time since San Francisco-based musician Frances England tiptoed her way onto the kids’ music scene with a homemade, handmade slimline CD titled Fascinating Creatures. Nearly 15 years, to be exact. It’s a little hard to remember just how… novel the album sounded at the time. It had a lo-fi sound, and there were just very few kids music artists who were merging a more personal lyrical approach with an indie folk sound. So taken was I that England was the very first interview on this site. Fast forward lo these many years, and En ..read more

Where Does the Mind Wander album cover Always, always happy for new music from kindie uber-producer Dean Jones. Jones’ music, be it with his main band, Dog on Fleas, or with any of his other musical partners, is sui generis — entirely unique. But I also love the way that Jones’ work and his enthusiasm for the genre binds together a lot of the musicians that have been making music for families, many of them for more than a decade. The latest effort from Jones is a album of songs with children’s book illustrator Jacky Davis. No fancy name for them, they’re just Dean Jones & Jacky Davis, and ..read more

You know how with the pandemic we’re all going back and finding shows to watch that have been around for a couple years or more? Well, creators sometimes do the same thing, too. Take, for example, this video for “Giant & Colossal Squid” from DC-area musician Marsha Goodman-Wood, leader of Marsha and the Positrons. The song was on their 2018 album Positronic. The video was actually filmed at about the same time the album was released — that’s why, you know, you have the oh-so-2018-vibe of a whole band dancing right next to one another. It just took a couple years for the proper combination ..read more