Music » Children's Folk Music

Raffi sings 17 songs, both traditional and new, Numbers, Rhumba, Wheel On The Bus, He's Got The Whole World, etc. CD

Cada Nino/Every Child, a collection of songs for children, is more down-to-earth than Tish Hinojosa's other 1996 release, the overblown Dreaming from the Labyrinth/Sonar del Laberinto. Her lovely soprano delivers such simple, appealing songs as Carl Martin's "The Barnyard Dance" and her own "Simply for Love" in both Spanish and English, making this an invaluable aid in bilingual situations. Less successful is Hinojosa's decision to have children play shaky solos and sing cloying harmonies on several numbers. --Geoffrey Himes

Release Date: 1993-03-09, Audio CD, Warner Bros / Wea

If you've heard Shel Silverstein's bawdy Freakin' at the Freakers Ball, your notion of the man who wrote Where the Sidewalk Ends might've been skewered. Silverstein was nothing if not a tad twisted. But his twists and turns in world of children's arts were well considered and infectiously charming. When he recorded poems and rhymes from Sidewalk, the book was nearly a decade old. But he brought the words to life, albeit a funky, sometimes nasally delivered, sometimes abruptly jolted life. Silverstein knew that his changes in voice pitch, his quickly dashed mixes of spare guitar and pinched singsong delivery, and, most of all, his rhythmically fetching words were ideal for hearing. Sidewalk, which took home a 1984 Grammy for best children's album, still stands boldly above (or at least apart from) so much of what's recorded for kids. One should expect nothing less than pretzeled genius from the guy who wrote such pop hits as "The Unicorn," "A Boy Named Sue," and "On the Cover of Rolling Stone." And that's what comes through on this expanded Sidewalk, with its 11 newly added snippets (including "Hector the Collector," "Hungry Mungry," and "If I Had a Brontosaurus"). If it's a rhyme you're after, look no further. --Andrew Bartlett

A danceable, magical bunch of songs with a-peel! Includes printed lyrics.

For over 50 years Pete Seeger's music has included songs on labor, civil rights, peace, and the hope for a better world. This CD contains 24 tracks selected from hundreds released on Folkways Records in the late 1950s and 1960s and 2 new songs recorded especially for this collection. Pete plays the 5-string banjo and the 12-string guitar, and appears on some tracks with Almanac Singers and his grandson Tao Rodriguez. Booklet contains detailed notes by Mark Greenberg and a complete discography of Pete Seeger on Folkways. 71 minutes.

Release Date: 1994-07-05, Audio CD, Trout Records

Array

Every photo included in Big Wide Grin's booklet has Keb' Mo' looking just as pleased as punch. The material on his fifth album is likewise overwhelmingly cheerful, a series of upbeat meditations on family life that, while occasionally idealized, are usually refreshingly realistic. It's this realism, the implicit understanding that families are frequently assembled out of far-flung components rather than adhering to some nuclear ideal, that makes Grin such a winner. That principle informs songs such as "I Am Your Mother, Too," addressed to an adopted child, and "Color Him Father," about the entrance of a stepparent into a family. The whole album is, in fact, a family affair, with members of Mo's family occasionally pulling background-vocal duty. Big Wide Grin is a summertime album for those still young enough to have the summer off. Fortunately, there's just enough bittersweet mixed in to keep the result from Pollyanna-hood. After all, what's the point of being reminded to count your blessings if you don't realize that that's what they are? --Genevieve Williams

Raffi celebrates childhood with the moving One Light, One Sun, the silly Apples and Bananas and De Colors - a beautiful ballad en espanol. Includes printed lyrics