Kids' music with a groove

Reviewed October 2010

Before Raffi began recording his family-oriented sing-along songs in the mid-'70s, children's music was usually infantile, with the adult performers singing down to their audience. Proving that there existed a viable market for smart, sophisticated music that talked to little ones and entertained (or at least didn't overtly annoy) their parents, Raffi opened the door for subsequent acts from Sharon, Lois & Bram to The Wiggles.

And, just as seemingly every rock and pop star who hits 60 now wants to record an album of jazz standards, so, too, are many mainstream musicians issuing children's releases. Having had children themselves, there's a grounding to new children's recordings from parents Ballew (a k a Caspar Babypants), Muldaur and Stanley "Buckwheat Zydeo" Dural Jr.

The third release from Ballew's Caspar Babypants alter-ego is a bright, fun mix of traditional covers and new songs, all delivered with an upbeat charm and sense of a birthday party in progress. Ballew's "The Legend of the Bone" is highly reminiscent of Raffi, not only in the fact that his voice sounds a lot like Raffi's, but in the call and response structure of the song with his backup singers inserting clever responses to his main lyrics.

But the rest of the album is equally charming even as it hews more toward the power pop sensibilities of his regular band, albeit with lyrics reflecting the interests and concerns of the pre-school set.

Muldaur and Buckwheat Zydeco's releases (both on the Music for Little People label) are neat because both of them employ unusual instrumentation likely to appeal to young children's innate sense of curiosity. Buckwheat Zydeco's own main instrument is an accordion, and he's got a washboard player in his band, too. Muldaur's album hearkens back to the early part of her career in the Jim Kweskin jug band – and on her album, one will hear everything from (naturally) a jug to a penny whistle, kazoo and washtub bass.

Muldaur's song selection also hearkens to her jug band days, with fun, off-the-wall songs from the 1920s through the present. Her voice isn't as strong as it once was, though – but she sounds like the kid-friendly grandmother down the street who'll entertain the neighoring brood by teaching them novelty songs.

Buckwheat Zydeco's release isn't much more than a kid-friendly version of one of his sets – he doesn't really change things up musically, and why would he? Instead of his typical zydeco song list, the tracks here are either familiar children's songs ("Loop de Loop," "Hokey Pokey") or covers of other accessible songs like "The Loco-Motion," "Walking the Dog" and "Twist and Shout" – all given a nice, zydeco twist. There's also a backing chorus of kids, whose candid interactions with the star provide humorous leavening.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).