Can I Minor in Princess Studies?

See Jane has released another great study on gender portrayals in G-rated movies.

This one is called "The G-Rated Job Market: Occupational Aspirations for Girls and Boys in Children's Films," and it's a surprisingly easy read.

But be warned: Reading it may lead you to toss out all of your children's DVDs. According to the report, the top occupations for primary and secondary male characters in G-rated movies are:

White Collar - 18.9 percent
Blue Collar - 14.6 percent
Military - 14.3 percent
Entertainment - 13.6 percent
Royalty - 9.6 percent

And the top occupations for primary and secondary female characters in G-rated movies are:

White Collar - 19 percent
Entertainment - 16.2 percent
Royalty - 15.2 percent
Servant - 8.6 percent
Blue Collar - 5.7 percent

Not a terribly strong case there for a good, old-fashioned liberal arts education.

The report acknowledges that it's unrealistic to expect movies that are largely fiction/fantasy to align perfectly with real life, but also points out how "the occupational universe found in G-rated movies is often unrecognizable in the world that young viewers' parents inhabit, as well as the work world those children will inhabit when they grow up." The charts and graphs in the study illustrate this very clearly. Take a look.

We can all admit that it's generally more entertaining to watch a movie about princesses or rock stars than it is to watch a movie about accountants or small business owners, for viewers of any age. But how many princess movies do we need? (Okay, I will admit to being heavily influenced by the TV series "Fame" as a pre-teen, although around that same age, I was also influenced by "St. Elsewhere" and "Quincy".)

In reality (here in the US, anyway), 57 percent of women and 32 percent of men work in white collar jobs (defined in the article as clerical, managerial, or health services), while only a fraction of a percent of women or men have careers in entertainment. "Professional" careers (teacher, lawyer, doctor) are far under-represented by both male and female characters in G-movies. And royalty as a career choice? Although a whopping 15 percent of female G-movie characters take this career path, in reality (again, we're talking about the US here) there are currently no openings in that field.

It's no wonder so many girls are hung up on princess culture these days. But I've also begun to wonder if the attitudes of third-wave feminism, which likely encompasses a good number of 20-something parents these days, is another major reason for this. Any third-wavers care to respond?

Hooray for See Jane for bringing attention to this. (If you're not familiar with See Jane, be sure to check out a couple of my older posts about this organization.)

If, at this point, you are questioning the importance of studying gender roles in children's movies, just click here. Someone has thoughtfully ranked what he considers the top ten "hottest" animated Disney women. At the risk of sounding humorless, this struck me as slightly creepy and incredibly wrong. If an adult male is looking at children's movie characters this way, how do we think our kids see them?

Here...Try on This Yellow Shirt

The Wiggles have an opening. Your nominations?

See this piece in the Idolator: Australian-Music Powerhouse Set To Replace Lead Singer; Michael Hutchence Presumably Not Available (brilliant headline, by the way, where brilliant = tasteless + insensitive + hilarious).

Or this article from The Age (Zooglobble preferred their headline): Wiggle tipped to ditch yellow skivvy.

There's an opportunity here for The Wiggles to re-define themselves and bring in someone super-cool (and perhaps even super-talented) to fill the yellow shirt. Will they? Probably not. But it's fun to imagine.

A Long and Winding Review

Lesson 279 I have learned from writing this blog: If you have to tell me you're not like KidzBop, then you probably are like KidzBop.

I hear from a lot of artists and publicists who want to tell me that their record is not like The Wiggles or not like KidzBop or not like some other generally despised form of kiddie entertainment. And I've learned to be very suspicious of those who tell me more about who and what they're not than about who and what they are.

All Together Now: Beatles Stuff for Kids of All Ages, the first release from the new kiddie label Little Monster Records, claims that it is "not the slick Broadway belt-outs usually associated with pop albums marketed to kids." And the Barnes & Noble review of the album (it's a B&N exclusive until 2007) claims that, unlike other kids sing-along albums, All Together Now "boasts authentic, organic, and inviting vocals, with nary an overproduced intonation on a single track" -- that's a fancy music-critic-lingo way of saying the vocals are not overproduced.

While the kids' chorus on All Together Now is not as slickly done as KidzBop, and many of the songs feature lead vocals by established artists (like Steve Conte, the current lead guitarist of the New York Dolls, Marshall Crenshaw, The Bangles, and Jason Lytle of Granddaddy), it's still quite similar to KidzBop.

But that doesn't mean it's awful. In fact, my kids really liked it.

I've discussed KidzBop before, and I'm not as hard on it as many people expected me to be. Lots of kids (or kidz) love KidzBop, and that doesn't mean they are destined to living in a musical van down by the proverbial river as adults. The main appeal of KidzBop and similar recordings is the sound of a chorus of kids singing music that is somewhat familiar, whether it's Top 40, pop hits of the 80's, or Beatles songs.

All Together Now is an upbeat collection of 11 Beatles songs, most of which are so familiar and so much a part of the collective unconscious, your children will recognize them whether or not they've ever heard a Beatles record. "All Together Now" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" are as deep as the selections go. I was wondering how they missed "Octopus's Garden" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" but maybe there will be a Volume 2.

The sound is interesting -- definitely not as cheese-tacular as KidzBop, but also not terribly original. The covers are very faithful to the original recordings, which makes sense when you consider this album as a way to introduce kids to the songs of the Beatles. The Bangles' "Good Day Sunshine" is one of the high points, although there's not a single track on here that made us want to skip ahead. Another plus - the CD is packaged with a nifty little book that includes Beatles facts and poems.

So all in all, this is a good album for kids, especially for families that don't already have any Beatles in their music collection.

If you do have some Beatles around the house, chances are you're probably already playing them for your kids. We bought this album (Beatles One) for our older son earlier this year. Yes, a few of the songs may have lyrics that make subtle reference to drugs or sex, or are a bit dark, but that doesn't really matter. Do you want to know a secret? Most people listening to music don't understand all the lyrics. They misinterpret the words, the meaning, or sometimes both.

Let's look at just a few examples. Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" is often mistaken for a patriotic rock anthem, when it's actually a song about the difficulties Vietnam vets were facing in the early 1980's. I've been to weddings where someone sang "The Rose" -- a song about a female singer (loosely based on Janis Joplin) who died of an overdose. Lovely, huh? And the Today show sent off Katie Couric with "There She Goes" -- a song about heroin.

So don't get so hung up on lyrics when you play the Beatles, because your kids aren't going to entirely understand them. It's not as though the Beatles are throwing around the seven dirty words in their songs. And I doubt your 6-year-old (or even a 10- or 12-year-old) will be hip to the lysergic subtext of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds".

Lastly, who can guess my favorite Beatle?

Post-Thanksgiving-Weekend Sigh of Relief

Ahhhhhhh...we made it!! We treated our guests to a fabulous turkey dinner, made a brief attempt at shopping on Friday, took our family Christmas card picture, and - last night - made a big batch of turkey soup with some of our leftovers. I knew the weekend was a success when my sister -who was visiting from out of state with her family - asked, "Is your house always this clean?"

Of course it is. Hahahahahaha.

So here is a little post-Thanksgiving treat for you...a new song that I absolutely love from Charity and the JAMband called "Thank You" [download]. Read more and view the lyrics here.

And since today is "Cyber Monday", the day when corporate productivity plummets as many of you waste massive amounts of time shopping online at the office, here are a couple links to help you out:

The Pokey Pup is the best online retailer I have ever seen for kids media. They have all the kids music I love (including a section with the top albums from the 2006 Fids and Kamily Poll), plus grown-up music, DVD's, and books. It's definitely worth a look if you're in the market for gifts.

Cool Mom Picks has a fabulous Holiday Gift Guide with all kinds of ideas (more than just media) for teachers, in-laws, babysitters, friends, and (of course) kids. Check it out. The work can wait.

Welcome NY Times Visitors!

If you're here from the Times link, you've already read this article, but the rest of you may want to take a look. (A quick aside....The New York Times quoted me! Me!!! Excuse me while I make some calls to point this out to various high school nemeses, and my sixth grade teacher who made me re-write my paper on the Civil War - Mrs. Ludwick, when were you quoted in the Times? Ha!). Ahem. If this is your first time here, allow me to offer a quick tour. The Fids & Kamily poll is a project I worked on with two other kids music bloggers - Stefan from Zooglobble and Bill from Spare the Rock; my big list of kids music reviews is here; my interview with Dan Zanes is here; and here are a few other posts to give you an idea of what's going on around here.

X Marks the Spot

Now that the 2006 Fids and Kamily Music Poll is all wrapped up (and yes, Stefan and Bill and I are already talking about how to make it bigger and better in 2007), I've had a chance to look back on what a fantabulous year it has been for kids music. In doing so, something became much clearer to me: Generation X is changing parenthood in some big ways, and the kids music scene is just one part of that.

Because we (Gen X parents) are more media-savvy than any generation of parents before us, we are making intentional, intelligent choices for and with our children. Gen X-er's (especially the segment of our generation that is driving the media market and steering the popular culture) have dramatically changed the way parents look and act, and much of this may be interpreted as a reaction to or rejection of Boomer parenting.

Generation X has approached parenting differently. We (pardon the sweeping generalizations, please) have assimilated parenthood into our pre-parent identity, rather than re-inventing ourselves at this milestone. As parents, we are not trying to be Ozzie and Harriet or Ward and June Cleaver. We are not trying to be our own parents (and in many cases, we're trying really hard NOT to be them). We are trying to be ourselves. With kids.

But holding on to our tattoos and trendy clothes haven't kept us from taking parenting very, very seriously. In fact, we are highly conscientious about our children's safety, nutrition, and development, spending enormous amounts of time and money selecting car seats, breast pumps, and educational toys. Thanks to the Internet, Gen X parents have been able to obsess endlessly in our research on the best strollers and high chairs. We may be more willing than Boomers to expose our children to rock music, but we are going to extreme lengths to protect them from bumps on the head. And many of us are putting a great deal of time and money into our children's cultural development, as well.

That, I believe, is why we have seen such dramatic change in kids music in recent years, and why 2006 was such a watershed year for kids music. What impact will this have on our kids in years to come? That I'm still trying to determine.

A Very Jefito Christmas

UPDATED: I just fixed the mp3 links, so if you had problems downloading before, everything is now in working order.

Today's holiday music guest post is from Jeff at Jefitoblog. Also, be sure to click over to his place to check out his fantastic holiday mix. Enjoy!


Holiday music -- you've got to love hate listen to it three months out of the year. As an adult who makes every effort to celebrate neither Christmas nor Hanukkah nor Kwaanzaa nor Festivus, I find this stuff frequently crass and often irritating; as a music lover, however, I'm completely enthralled.

Christmas music is a lot like kids' music, in a way, because most of it is awful -- which means building a collection of either is often its own reward. The bad records can be entertaining, albeit not in the way their creators intended, while the good ones are to be prized like jewels. Over the years, I've assembled a library of holiday music that is a source of annual irritation for my wife, who -- like most people -- simply can't bear to hear it before December 23, and who is forced to put up with it more or less nonstop for a few days in early November, as I feverishly assemble our yearly holiday mix. (More on that in a bit.)

When your Lovely host got in touch with me regarding this guest post, my instinct was to write about some of the worst holiday albums I've owned, because that's much more fun. It would probably only be fun for me, though -- seasonal music is painful enough even when it's good -- so instead, here's a list, in no particular order, of some of my favorites.

(Now, more about that yearly holiday mix: It'll be featured at my blog, starting the day after Thanksgiving, and will be up 'til Christmas. Pay me a visit if you're so inclined. Hope to see you there!)


Various Artists - A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (1963)
purchase this album (Amazon)



Okay, so this is pretty much universally regarded as the Christmas album of all time, and including it on this list is pretty much a gimme, but whatever -- it's that good. You may think you don't need a Christmas record in which every song is surrounded by Spector's Wall of Sound, but you're dead wrong. Not only does it include such winners as The Crystals' "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" (download) and Darlene Love's "Marshmallow World" (download), but it's almost certainly the only classic holiday album shepherded into existence by a reclusive, pistol-packing lunatic. Guns, drugs, and rampant megalomania -- just like Christmas dinner at Grandma's house!


Various Artists - You Sleigh Me: Alternative Christmas Hits (1995)
purchase this album (Amazon)

This puzzling little oddity was quietly crapped out by Atlantic in the winter of '95, and now resides in the virtual cutout bins of finer online retailers everywhere. You Sleigh Me is perhaps most notable for featuring an array of heartfelt season's greetings from artists who -- with the possible exception of Everything But the Girl -- are no longer on the label's roster. Not everything here is great; Collective Soul's "Blue Christmas" is every bit as eggnog-binge-inducing as you'd expect, and despite what his more fervent fans might tell you, Daniel Johnston was not born to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." But it hits the mark more often than not: Billy Pilgrim's "The First Noel" (download), Donna Lewis' "Christmas Lights" (download), and Everything But the Girl's "25th December" (download) are just three of the highlights.


Various Artists - Christmas Time Again (2006)
purchase this album (Amazon)



Now on its second reissue, Christmas Time Again is perfect for the aging, jangle-pop-loving hipster in your life (and it sounds great, too). Beloved power-pop fixtures Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple (a.k.a. the dB's) are the nominal hosts of this party, which has been expanded to include appearances from such criminally overlooked songwriting geniuses as Marshall Crenshaw, who contributes "(It's Going to Be A) Lonely Christmas" (download), and Alex Chilton, who actually manages to successfully roast that stale, hoary old chestnut known as "The Christmas Song" (download).


Gary Hoey - Ho! Ho! Hoey! (1995)
purchase this album (Amazon)



He has since ground it into dust via a series of increasingly pointless sequels, but way back in '95, the idea of a Christmas album from guitarist Gary Hoey was a pretty cool idea. An underrated musician and a smart guy, Hoey knew what every dried up AC singer knows; namely, that Christmas albums are cheap and easy to make and keep on selling forever. So he did what every instrumentalist in a sub-Satriani sales tier should do: he dialed up the amps and put a fresh coat of paint on those tired old songs you're so sick of hearing. Skip volumes 2 and 3 and start here, with "Jingle Bells" (download) and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (download).


Various Artists - Festival of Light (1996)
purchase this album (Amazon)



Jewish tradition goes back like, what, a million years or something, so how come nobody makes any Hanukkah records? Every year, we're stuck listening to Adam Sandler doing his dumb shtick, but the pickings are pretty slim if you want to go elsewhere for your menorah music. That's part of why I love Festival of Lights so much. I'll be honest -- Western ears aren't liable to have much love for the traditional Middle Eastern sounds that take up a lot of this disc (and its sequel, Festival of Lights 2), but the whole album is worth buying just for Marc Cohn's cockles-warming take on "Rock of Ages" (download). A beautiful set of songs no matter what time of year you're hearing them.


Roomful of Blues - Roomful of Christmas (1997)
purchase this album (Amazon)



The last album the band cut with vocalist Sugar Ray Norcia, Roomful of Christmas is a terrific, warm set of unimpeachable holiday classics, given the trademark Roomful touch. If you've never experienced the joy of this band's music, you need to remedy this immediately; they've been elevating jump blues to an art form for several decades, and show no signs of stopping. Personally, I prefer the Norcia era, so Roomful of Christmas has a special spot in my holiday rotation every year. Give a listen to "Christmas Celebration" (download) and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (download).


Shawn Colvin - Holiday Songs and Lullabies (1998)
purchase this album (Amazon)



A curious stopgap release, Shawn Colvin's Holiday Songs and Lullabies is just that: holiday songs and lullabies, which makes it not really a true Christmas album, I suppose, but whatever. I still take it off the shelf every holiday season and bask in the cold, tiny glow of Colvin's wonderful voice. This is an album for wintry evenings, for curling up when the sky is gray and the furnace is running. It's good for putting your toddler to sleep, too. "Love Came Down at Christmas" (download) is one of my all-time favorite holiday songs by anybody, but the whole record is pretty wonderful. Try "Silent Night" (download) for good measure.


The LeeVees - Hanukkah Rocks (2005)
purchase this album (Amazon)



Made up of Guster's Adam Gardner and The Zamboni's Dave Schneider, The LeeVees are perhaps America's preeminent Hanukkah band, which is really not that hard to achieve, but worth noting nonetheless. Hanukkah Rocks is a terrific collection of funny, well-written songs about the Hanukkah experience, and there really isn't a bum number in the bunch, but it couldn't hurt to start off with "Goyim Friends" (download) and "Kugel" (download). Need to get a Hanukkah gift for someone on your list this year? You can't go wrong with this album. Trust me.

And there you have it: a Jefito's dozen holiday albums worth owning. I could go on, but you're probably already wishing for New Year's by now, and besides, what if I get invited back here next year? I don't want to run out of stuff to write about. Until then, don't be a stranger -- the annual Jefitoblog Holiday Mix went up November 24, but there's always something going on at the blog. C'mon over and say hi!

With God as My Witness...

...I thought turkeys could fly.

Here is a clip from the best Thanksgiving sitcom episode. Ever. Now stop reading blogs and go have some turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Full Report

So we saw the Dan Zanes concert on Saturday in Ann Arbor, and it was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! The new band was amazing, and if I didn't know about the recent changes, I never would have guessed that they hadn't been playing together for a good long time.

We got to meet Dan and the band briefly, and Walter got a few autographs. All in all, it was a huge success.

The venue wasn't the best for a family show like this -- it was a theatre with assigned seats. And because the crowd was mostly uptight, overly polite midwesterners, we all took the assigned seats thing pretty seriously. It took a LOT of encouragement from Dan and friends to get everyone up and moving around and dancing. The whole singing and dancing "with wild abandon" concept that Dan introduces at his shows was difficult to grasp for some of this audience. I will admit that even my thinking had to shift from "If I get up and dance, the people behind me won't be able to see" to "If I get up and dance, the people behind me will get up, too!"

Their concert Friday night at the Detroit Art Institute (see Dutch's post over at Sweet Juniper for an excellent first-hand account and great pictures) sounds like it was a much better space. I was glad to read that Dutch learned several things at the show:

1) kids are awesome dancers, especially very-excited little boys with bowl cuts; (2) you should use a quiet voice when talking about how easy it would be to steal Van Gogh's Portrait of Postman Roulin if you only had a Bugaboo stroller; (3) guys who write baby blogs shouldn't be too judgmental of guys who sing songs to dancing babies; (4) free Dan Zanes concerts are totally worth it; and (5) two of Dan Zanes' friends are kind of hot.

I totally agree with Dutch's points 1 through 5, although I would say "striking" rather than "hot" in number 5. The bass player was especially fun to watch -- she was petite and young and perky as all get out. Her stand-up bass kind of towered over her, but somehow she was still able to dance and wiggle and smile and make goofy faces at the drummer while playing.

As for my own revelations after the show, the big one was that Dan Zanes is totally himself on stage. There is no pretense, no persona. He is himself, and he is so comfortable in front of a crowd. And that is the kind of performer I love to watch.

About The Lovely Mrs. Davis

I'm a music geek and pop culture fanatic masquerading as a minivan-driving soccer mom of two young boys.

When I launched this site in October 2005, I planned to write mainly about "kiddie culture" and kids' media. Throughout 2006 and 2007, I focused quite heavily on kids' music, both because of the remarkable growth in this genre and because of my own interest and background in music.

In addition to kids' music, I also write about pop culture, youth culture, generational differences in parenting and media, and how media is marketed to kids and parents.

Contact me via e-mail at thelovelymrsdavis@gmail.com.

Holiday Music from Rebecca Frezza

It's time for another holiday music guest post -- this one's from Rebecca Frezza. We love seeing her videos on Jack's Big Music Show (especially this one), and now on PBSKids, too. Also, Rebecca will be on Spare the Rock this coming Saturday, so be sure to listen. More holiday music posts coming later this week!


Right about this time each year I open up my holiday music drawer and take stock of what I have and think about finding something new to add to the collection. I have a few favorites that have stuck with me through the years and then there are some that we listen to for one season and then never come back to.

Number one on my list of favorites is The Chieftains' Bells of Dublin. This album combines beautiful traditional Celtic music and classic holiday songs and includes a very cool version of "O Holy Night" sung by Rickie Lee Jones.

Another one that I've had forever is The Christmas Revels' In Celebration of the Winter Solstice. This is a recording of many of the carols, dances and poetry that are a part of concert I performed in when I was a kid back in the 1970's in Cambridge, MA. This was a true "Family Music" experience. There were adults and kids, all singing and dancing together in this joyful celebration. It's kind of a quirky CD, but fun if you're into choral singing and Morris dancing (which I totally was back in those days!).

I hate to admit it, but another one of my holiday staples is a compilation that I picked up at Starbucks back in 2002. It’s called Ornamental Holiday and it includes some great standards like Ella singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and Nat King Cole singing "Caroling, Caroling" as well as Aimee Mann’s beautiful version of 'The Christmas Song" and Diana Krall covering the Charlie Brown favorite "Christmas Time is Here."

The newest CD in my holiday collection is Emmylou Harris' Light of the Stable. I picked this one up last year and I know it’s a keeper. It's got this stellar group of musicians on it including Willy Nelson, Ricky Skaggs, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Rodney Crowell, Neil Young...the list goes on and on. As you’d expect with Emmylou, it's chock full of gorgeous harmonies (you know how I feel about those) and awesome arrangements.

Finally, no holiday season would be complete for my family without The Grinch. The How The Grinch Stole Christmas CD,narrated by Boris Karloff with all of its "Fah who for-aze" grinchy fun is a huge favorite for all of us.

I'm looking forward to hearing some great suggestions from fellow kids artists for new music to add to our collection!!!

Survey Says...

The Fids and Kamily results were announced yesterday on Spare the Rock. If you missed it, you can go listen to the awesome discussion Bill, Stefan and I had on the air, and check out the selections Bill played from some of the top F&K albums.

The F&K results are now posted here. And essays about all the top albums (plus a couple essays about kids music in general) are being added to the Fids and Kamily site, so keep reading!

And finally, to shop for any of the top albums from the F&K poll in one handy place, visit The Pokey Pup's special F&K page.

An Interview with Dan Zanes

When I first found out that Dan Zanes was coming to our neck of fly-over country on his fall tour, I was thrilled. The kids artists we've seen in concert so far have been excellent (Justin Roberts, TMBG, Ralph's World), but a Zanes show, from what I've heard, seems like the supreme experience in live music for families. So, now, a day away from seeing Dan Zanes and Friends live in concert, I am practically vibrating with anticipation.

I had the chance to interview Dan by phone earlier this week. There were so many questions I wanted to ask him about how he selects songs for his albums, how he approaches writing, why he didn't call me when he needed a new accordion player in his band (because I can totally rock out on the accordion -- well, kind of), and what's up with his hair. But most of my questions went in a different direction, into some very interesting territory, I think. And I asked one question at the end of the interview that had me shaking in my shoes, because a person not as kind and wonderful as Dan Zanes might have just hung up on me when hearing it. But he gave an incredibly thoughtful - and surprising - answer.

Since Dan and Friends are in the middle of a major tour, I started our discussion with a few questions about some of their recent performances. Their concert at Carnegie Hall came up first.

"It was like getting married again - people coming from all over the country for a big party," he described. "Everyone in the band had at least a half-dozen family members there. It was like a big party that just happened to be in Carnegie Hall."

He sounded incredibly positive about the current tour. "We're having more fun than we've had in a while," he said. "For some reason it's been really special this fall."

I asked about how they were received in Australia last month.

"The first 10 minutes of the first show, I was thinking we might be in for kind of a long week, because people just sat there watching us," he said. "We're so used to people singing along and dancing and getting right into it. I forgot that people there really didn't know us well yet. They were just observing for a little while. But by the end of the first show, everyone was on their feet....Then, I think word got around, and people loosened up."

Dan mentioned that Australia is just starting to see his Playhouse Disney videos, and went on to explain that television there is quite different than in the U.S. "It seems much more civilized...they're much more limited in their television options," he said. "It sounds like people just don't watch as much TV there as they do here - it's more of an outdoor culture. And Playhouse Disney is a younger channel there, too"

Then I entered some very interesting territory, asking Dan about working with Disney and making the transition from being on his own indie label to working with this big multinational corporation.

"It's a little weird, but it's good because of the people that I deal with at Disney - a woman named Nancy Kanter who runs the channel [Playhouse Disney] and Paula Rosenthal who runs their New York office. We just negotiated to develop a TV show - something I've really wanted to do for the last couple years. I would have dropped out of it months ago if it hadn't been for these two women."

He seemed genuinely excited about this aspect of his work. "It's not where I expected to end up. I'm really much more of a PBS kind of guy, but there's a lot about Disney that I really appreciate and respect," he said.

He went on to explain how his thoughts on television for kids have changed over the years. "When my daughter was born, my first inclination was to throw out the TV...but my wife won the battle on that one - or we kind of compromised. There is a certain tone on certain channels where people are barking at each other and grownups are treated like idiots. And if you're exposed to a lot of that I think it's really unhealthy. But [Playhouse] Disney's not like that. They have a sense of family unity, and the tone is more gentle. There's a lot about them that I like and that I can identify with it. There's a lot about it that's right in line with what I think."

As a parent, this was both fun and reassuring to hear. I shared with Dan that we've felt the same way about Disney, and that we were surprised to find that many of the messages in their shows were in agreement with our own values - not something we expected. And here, I have to add that when interviewing someone you admire, it's very difficult not to turn it into a "let's find all the things we have in common, because the more I have in common with this Great Person, the more of a Great Person that makes me" discussion. Very difficult.

Dan explained that working with Disney was a major change for him from the way things are done with Festival Five, his own label. And again, he credited the people at Disney for making this transition a smooth one. "We're so low to the ground, so quick, and so used to doing things the way we want to," he said. "The corporate world is a lot different than that. But if the people are cool, then the end result can be cool."

Disney is known for high production values, a quality that Dan really seems to appreciate. He discussed high production values in terms of the packaging for his own CDs. "My daughter would get so mad when we would get a CD for us to listen to, and she would take out the book, and there was nothing there for a 3-year-old. Just black and white pages with lyrics. We were thinking 'we can do a lot better than this' just in terms of the packaging."

So enough about Disney. The other thing I was most curious about with Dan was what the kids music scene is like in Brooklyn these days. Seeing so many kids and family artists coming out of Brooklyn, it seems like such a dynamic place. I asked Dan if there was much of a community in Brooklyn among kids artists.

"I think there is....Just to run into people and exchange a few friendly words gives me a feeling that we're all here together," he said.

I asked if he sees much of They Might Be Giants or other artists in the kids music scene.

"We're not having dinners together all the time, but we do see each other and because it's such a little world, we're aware of what everyone is doing. I get the feeling that we're all kind of in tune with each other. I see David Weinstone from Music for Aardvarks - his kids went to school right at the end of my street...and a group called Gilly Galoo, and Astrograss."

I was so glad he mentioned Astrograss. I had just noticed them on Bright Spaces 2 (playing with Dan on "Jump Up") and I was totally intrigued.

"They're such monstrous players," he raved. "They're kind of a newgrass group, or progressive bluegrass. They're just all-around enthusiastic guys. They rang my doorbell the other day just because they were walking by and they wanted to say hi."

I had been wondering if Brooklyn was the kind of community where kids artists run into each other at the grocery store. After hearing Dan's stories and perspectives, it sounded to me like it was.

"Yeah, it's very much like that," he agreed. "I love hanging around with other musicians - we love to make each other laugh....The other thing about it [Brooklyn] that's so exciting, is unlike Manhattan, which has become so expensive...the American dream is still alive in Brooklyn. There are people coming here from all over the world. This is what makes me crazy about our current administration. We need people coming here - their stories their food, their traditions. That's what makes America great."

We talked more about this when I asked about the time Dan spent in Iowa, as part of a visiting artists program sponsored by the University of Iowa. Since I was born and raised in Iowa, I've always thought of it as a really special place. (Again, a bit of the "let's find things we have in common" thing happening.) I asked what his impressions of Iowa were, coming from New York.

"I'm from New Hampshire, so I grew up in a situation that was much more like Iowa than New York, so for me it was really comfortable," he explained. "We were in nursing homes, libraries, schools, Rotary clubs, all of that, so I really got to meet people. I think I was kind of wondering, 'how do people feel about singing along and throwing themselves into it?' I'm always thinking about the old fashioned way, that music is something we make with each other. I'm much less interested in the performance aspect than the communal aspect of it. The more I can be like the Grateful Dead, the better....I learned a lot about how to get people singing along."

And then he shared his views on what's been happening culturally in some of the small towns in Iowa. "The other thing that really opened my eyes was going to towns that were 25 or 30 percent Mexican, where that had happened only in the last 10 or 15 years," he said. "Going from zero to 30 percent in your town, that's an incredible shift. I went to one town that completely embraced the change in the community, and it was so exciting and vibrant, and it felt like the beginning of this great new era. Then I went to this other town that couldn't get with this program at all, and there was such a division. It was difficult to be around it. I can see why it's hard for people, but at the same time, this is America...we're all in it together."

As we were about to wrap up, I tossed out one of my last questions: "What's your favorite Young Fresh Fellows song?"

He laughed. I (very nervously) laughed.

"Did you ever respond to their song 'Beer Money'?" I asked. This is where a less amazingly kind and wonderful person might have hung up on me. For those of you who aren't familiar with "Beer Money," it is a Young Fresh Fellows song that takes aim at Dan's old band, the Del Fuegos, for their musical appearance in a Miller Beer commercial in the early 1980's.

"I think I was just too humiliated at that point," he responded. "We realized we had made a terrible mistake. We thought, this is rock history. And since we did a beer commercial that debuted during Live Aid, our timing couldn't have been worse. Here were all these people gathering together to do something for Africa, and our role in it was to sell beer."

Dan's reaction was not what I expected. I hadn't realized until then that their commercial premiered during Live Aid, and I was surprised (and kind of sad) to hear that he still looks back on it as a "terrible mistake."

He went on to explain, "The climate was a little bit precious at that point, and we were the ones that took a lot of the flack. But it was a good lesson to learn. And the funny thing is that now people are crawling all over each other to have their music placed in TV commercials."

So there it is. We chatted a bit more about his upcoming shows in Michigan, and the current composition of his band. There have been some major changes recently, including the departure of accordion player Cynthia Hopkins, and the arrival of Barbara Brousal's baby (which means she is not touring until after the first of the year). Dan assured me that Charlie Faye, who has been filling in for Barbara, will not disappoint.

I can hardly wait.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Walter, our six-year-old, learned two rather notable things in the last week that I hadn't planned on him learning quite yet.

One was the middle finger gesture. He told me that when their teacher was out of the room, a couple of his classmates demonstrated the gesture for the rest of the class. While he didn't pick up on the exact meaning of the gesture (thank goodness), he figured out that it was something "not nice" that people could do to each other. He was almost apologetic when he told me about the whole thing.

"That's what you get for moving him to public school last year," you might say, if you were my mean and judgmental "friend" or family member. Or, "Kids these days just see and hear too much."

Yeah, well, I learned the same thing in Catholic school, quite likely around the same age back in the (cough, cough) mid 1970's when there were no such things as video games or cable television. (Edited to add: I take that back. There were some early video games in the mid-70's, as I have a very clear memory of playing my first game of Pong in second grade. But still.) So I don't blame the public schools, and I don't blame the media.

I totally blame the parents.

But I am not going to call the parents of these kids who taught my son's entire first grade class how to flip someone the bird. Even though I know who they are and where they live, I am not going to call and open up a can of judgmental high-and-mightiness on them. Because the other thing he learned - the other thing I wasn't ready for him to know yet - he learned from us. Yes, us. His parents.

He learned a tiny, itsy bit about one of the characters on South Park. Kenny, to be specific. As in, "You killed Kenny!"

All Walter knows about Kenny is that he talks in a mumbled voice (because his hood is fastened too tightly) and that he dies at the end of every South Park episode. Walter has never seen an episode of South Park, although he did see the opening sequence of the Emmy's earlier this fall, in which Conan O'Brien dropped in on numerous TV shows, including South Park and Lost. But the tiny bit that he now knows is enough to do a funny imitation of Kenny ("mrrhhh nnhhhbrrrrh hhzzm" with his hood strings pulled tight) or a funny imitation of any of the other characters ("You killed Kenny!"), and enough to suggest to anyone who sees this that we let our six-year-old watch South Park.

I am beyond horrified. But, at the same time, kind of laughing.

Let Me Check My Calendar

And now, a glimpse at some of the items on my personal calendar this coming week:

- Insurance forms due
- Doctor's appointment
- PTO meeting
- Interview with Dan Zanes

Wait a minute, you say. Really? An interview with Dan Zanes?

Squeeeeeeee!!!!!!! Ahem, yes. That's an interview with Dan Zanes, and a few days later we'll see him in concert in Ann Arbor.

Also, see that calendar in the picture there? That's the actual calendar I have hanging in my kitchen. Ughhh.....I know. And see all those stickers that come with it? They're for things like doctor's appointments, soccer practices, birthday parties, and play dates. There's not a sticker for an interview with Dan Zanes (or any kind of interview - not even a job interview). And there's not a sticker for a concert. The closest is "music recital."

I guess it's nice to know that, at least occasionally, my life is more interesting than the stickers that came with my calendar.

An Interview with Uncle Rock

photo by Laura Sandlin
Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity to talk with Robert Burke Warren (Uncle Rock), whose album Plays Well with Others is one of my favorites. My very first interview! Hurrah!! But this was actually more like a conversation between two parents who love music than an interview.

Before talking with Robert, I had worried that we would blow through my list of questions in about 10 minutes, then hit an awkward moment where we would run out of things to talk about. That didn't happen. We talked and talked, then talked some more. He answered the questions I had prepared, and he answered some questions that bubbled up during the conversation. And he even asked me a few questions. Here are some of the highlights:

You started performing music for kids when you began working at your son's pre-school….how did you progress to writing and recording children's music?

I worked there for a whole year before I brought my guitar in. I would play guitar at home, and at first my son couldn't stand it. Other musicians had told me similar things, that there was something about the music that would provoke emotions in your child that he would have a hard time with. Then he finally got used to it and came to love it. I had to find some way to engage him so we could do this together, so I started writing songs, but I still didn’t want to bring it into my job. My boss said, "Bring it in anyway." So I did.

I played Beatles songs and some Johnny Cash, and actually got in trouble for playing "Folsom Prison". I realized it just before I got to the line about shooting the guy to watch him die, so I sang, "I shot a man in Reno and I made him cry."

One of the first songs I learned for the kids was "Ghost Riders in the Sky". It was in a book of kids music – a very unusual song to find there. I knew Johnny Cash had done it. I thought "this will freak the kids out," but they were riveted. It's a strange ghost story about cows snorting fire, and ghost cowboys. It's a long song too, and really dense. But they would insist that I play the whole thing.

I think one of the first songs I wrote for the kids was the Mermaid song ["It’s a Mermaid" from his first album, Here We Go!]. I started making up a lot of songs at work….they would come pretty quickly. It was the first time in my life as a songwriter where I didn't have to write down the words – the words would just stay with me.

So the pre-schoolers were a good audience for you?

Everything in a kids' mind is firing with creative energy. The kids are going to go back to that to solve problems and creatively navigate their world. The creative aspect of kids needs to be engaged.

Some of your songs (like "Picnic in the Graveyard") are kind of dark. Did the pre-schoolers respond well to your darker material?

I'm a sucker for the shadowy elements of everything. What spurred me on was that I didn't see a lot of that in children’s music. I see it in literature and movies, and some in the older folk music. They hold onto the classic archetypes – Pixar Movies, Maurice Sendak books, Harry Potter, even Shel Silverstein. Kids really do think about a lot. The challenge is to bring that to the music and make it accessible. I have a whole list of songs I'd like to cover.

Does your son still like your music?

He's still really into it. Uncle Rock started as our father-son project. I had my students at school, but he was my first sounding board. I could tell if something was affecting him, or if it wasn't. There have been a few times where there was a song that he didn't like, but I did. He performed one of my songs at his school talent show.

I do see as he and his peers are going into third grade now, the culture is starting to change. Most of them are starting to get more affected by what they see on television and music they hear via tv and radio, they're getting more into MTV-type bands. He'll be singing a song he heard on a cartoon. Now music is getting out to kids through commercials and cartoons and tv shows. He has a pretty broad palette still. We don't fish, and we don't really camp, but Uncle Rock is something we do together.

Was there a certain artist that inspired you to try children’s music?

Dan Zanes is a big inspiration for me, and it wasn't that I thought that I could do anything better, it was that these things were coming very organically to me in my job and in my role as a parent. I didn't hear anything out there that was incorporating stuff that was interesting me. I'm a little more rock-and-roll and a little less folk, although I love folk and it informs a lot of what I do. Rock and roll and punk rock are really folk music with a little electricity. I just didn’t hear anything out there like what I was hearing in my head. Dan’s really good about inspiring people to do it themselves.

He [Zanes] is very astute about saying that we've become more of a culture of music consumers and not music makers, being fed ready-made ideas and ready-made images and stories. But with kids especially, music exists in the mind.

Where do you think kids music is headed? With so many new artists releasing kids albums in the last year, do you think the genre is getting too crowded?

I think that there's enough room for everybody. It's coming at a time when the way people consume music is changing. Everything's in flux, and the possibilities seem wide open. I know just from the checks that I've received from CDBaby over the last year that I've gotten more income (and we are NOT talking about a lot of money here) from downloads, and it's incrementally more every month. Now you've got internet radio, satellite radio, YouTube….the playing field is really leveled. I don't see it as a crowded thing.

How many guitars do you have?

I have two acoustic guitars, one electric, and one bass guitar, which I've had since I was 16 years old. If the house was on fire, and the family was safe, and the cat was safe, and I could only take one instrument, I would take the bass. But my workhorse guitar is a Martin.
___________________________________________

We talked more – about music and television and kids and parenting. It became more and more of a fun conversation and less of an interview, but I managed to capture a few other nuggets of brilliance in what he said.

On his vision for his own kids television show: I want it to be a cross between The Monkees, Mr Rogers Neighborhood, Zoom, and Martha Stewart.

On Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: Blue’s Clues is really a rip-off of PeeWee. Steve is the non-threatening man-child, and everything talks.

On KidzBop: The first time I heard it, I thought, "This sounds like a slumber party."

On performing: It's so satisfying to meet people who are listening to the CD and getting into it as much as their kids. That's the goal – to engage families, not just kids.

And more on writing: You write what you know, and this is my life.

Be sure to listen for Robert doing a live in-studio performance on Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child next Saturday, November 18!

Incongruous and Incoherent

Incongruous: Me taking a phone call from a writer who wants to interview me for an article on kids music while I'm microwaving a corn dog for my 6-year-old son's lunch. (Walter's school was canceled yesterday due to very heavy fog. Fog that had totally cleared up by 9:30 a.m.)

Incoherent: Me talking to this writer for 15 minutes, distracted by my son and the corndog and the microwaving and the terrible cold I've been fighting, and not remembering anything I said. My big chance to impart some great wisdom to the world, and I freeze up like Marcia Brady at her driver's ed test. "Uhhhhh, errrr, music good."

So before a quote appears in print anywhere, I'd like to issue an apology to all musicians, children, parents, corndog lovers, and -- most of all -- the troops.

Because I think it's quite possible that the quote from me that appears will read something like this:

"If you play cool music for your kids, they will do well in school and grow up to be smart. And if you don't play cool music for your kids, they will end up in Iraq."

Move Over, Bing -- Sufjan's Comin' to Town!

Today, I'm happy to bring you the first of the super-fabulous holiday music guests posts. This one is from Frances England, whose debut album Fascinating Creatures is one of my favorites. Enjoy!


I must admit that I don't have very eclectic taste when it comes to holiday music. In fact, the only holiday music we have at our house is the traditional stuff that everyone has -- Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra. I've always been content to just play these recordings over and over again each December because they are the songs I grew up with, the ones that leave me feeling nostalgic for home, my mom's Irish Christmas cakes, midnight mass, and hot apple cider. In fact, thinking back, I honestly don't think I've bought a holiday record in last decade. It's just not something I do. That is, until now....

On November 21, Sufjan Stevens is releasing Songs for Christmas, a five-disc box-set of holiday EPs recorded over the past five years. As the story goes, each December Sufjan and friends would gather round an old Readers Digest Christmas songbook, along with their banjos, oboes, flutes, guitars, a Hammond organ and sleigh bells and "concoct a musical fruitcake" as gifts for their family and friends. I've heard the first three volumes of the set and loved nearly every single track. Sufjan takes these traditional carols that many of us have heard hundreds of times over -- "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "We Three Kings," "Silent Night" -- and somehow creates something very new and beautiful. As on his previous albums, Greetings from Michigan and Illinois, the original tracks are often rooted in place -- both geographic and emotional. On "We're Going to the Country," Sufjan writes, "Find a tree and put it in your house / Put mistletoe upon your mother's blouse / If you see a woman dressed all in black / Give her a big song, then ask her for it back."

As if the songs weren't enough reason to buy this collection, the set also comes with Christmas stickers, extensive liner notes and short stories by Sufjan, an original Christmas essay by Rick Moody, an animated music video and comic strip, a Christmas songbook with lyric sheets and chord charts, and an original Christmas Family Portrait painting of Santa Sufjans. It's a steal for $18.99 available at Amazon.

So move over, Bing. Move over, Perry. I've finally got a new holiday album to play this year. Thank you, Sufjan!

Hey Ya

Dozens of big-name musicians have ventured into the world of music for children. Whether contributing a song to a compilation album, recording a soundtrack for an animated movie, or making an album of their own, a number of artists have impacted the children's music scene in important ways. Andre' "3000" Benjamin (the very stylish member of OutKast) wanted to reach kids, too, but he went about it in a different way, a big way. He went all-out in developing a TV series for kids that puts music front and center.

Class of 3000 premiered last Friday on Cartoon Network, and it was a big hit at our house. It's targeted to bigger kids, most likely the 7 to 12 age range. Benjamin was hands-on in many aspects of the show, from executive producing to writing the music to voicing the main character, Sunny Bridges, a big-time music star who returns to his hometown of Atlanta to teach music at a performing arts school for gifted students. Every episode features a new song/music video by Benjamin.

This review in Variety had nothing good to say about the show, and sees it mainly as a vehicle for Benjamin to recruit younger fans. Gasp! An artist trying to appeal to his audience? Trying to sell more records? How dare he! Of course he's trying to recruit younger fans. But what I love about this show is that he's not just recruiting them to be fans of his own music (which, yes, is featured quite prominently in the show), he's encouraging them to be fans of music in general, and fans of making music. The kid-characters in the show are student-musicians, and unlike characters in many other TV shows and movies, these kids are not portrayed as nerds, band geeks, or out-of-touch genius prodigies. They're regular kids who happen to be musically talented and dedicated. I love that.

The writing includes plenty of music and pop culture references, and encourages critical thinking about things like commercialization and fandom. It's great stuff. For a more positive review (much less cynical than the Variety piece), check out what the New York Times had to say.

One of the other reasons I love Class of 3000 is this game, Funk Box, on the Cartoon Network website (just ignore the gazillion ads), which lets players orchestrate and arrange their own songs with characters from the show. Walter is having a ball with this one. Okay, so am I.

And I'm also having a ball watching this. I wonder what Andre' thinks of it:

Rock the Vote

I've been busy at work on my ballot for the Fids and Kamily Music Poll (and busy doing many other real-life kinds of things), so it's been a quiet week around here. I'm sooooo looking forward to the announcement of the F&K results later this month! We have such an amazing group of judges, and there is SO MUCH music to consider. Oh my....

In other voting-related news, we've been bombarded here in Ohio with political ads, most of them negative. When he spotted one such ad last week, Walter told me, "There's a mean man on TV saying bad things about America." Eeeesh. I'm so relieved there are only two more days of this to go. This morning I found a helpful article over at Common Sense Media about how to help kids understand these ads. (The tips they offer would also be helpful to a lot of adults I know who have trouble distinguishing ideology from reality.)

Anarchy in the Pre-K

Many of us who are parents like to be reminded that there was a time in our lives when we were spontaneous, carefree, and perhaps even hip and trendy. A time when we were not concerned with nap schedules and potty training and booster seats.

And many of us like to think (whether it's true or not) that we've maintained some of that hipness and youthfulness, in spite of the responsible grown-ups we have become.

This, I believe, is why kids' artists like Jason Ringenberg are especially appealing to parents. Ringenberg's punk-country past as the front man for Jason and the Scorchers is an important element in his success as Farmer Jason, who recently released his second kids' album, Rockin' in the Forest with Farmer Jason.

While I was at first taken aback by Ringenberg's commitment to the Farmer Jason persona and the educational lyrics and segues, I found a lot to love about Rockin' the Forest. First of all, do not underestimate the title -- this album truly rocks.

Fans of Jason and the Scorchers will find the sound familiar -- alt-country with an edge. On top of the basic guitar-bass-drums combo, you'll hear occasional violin, trumpet, keyboards, steel and slide guitar. The arrangements and production were a bit heavy for me, but it was clear the musicians were having fun. The 11 tracks, all written or co-written by Ringenberg, are incredibly catchy and energetic. Check out some sample sounds here.

There are a few awkward moments, such as the introduction to "He's a Moose on the Loose", in which Farmer Jason declares, "Hey, look kids, it's famous folk singer Todd Snider!" and Snider uncomfortably participates in a brief "scene" with him. But once the music starts, the awkwardness is forgotten.

Farmer Jason performs spoken introductions to several other songs, and his sincerity is surprising. But this instructive tone in both the spoken parts and the lyrics is balanced with a sophisticated sound and occasional lyrical surprises like "a gnarly 100-year-old tree." In the introduction to "Opossum in a Pocket", Jason explains the word "marsupial" and describes the possum's habitat, then sings, "There's an opossum in a pocket and you really shouldn't knock it / When you see her in her momma's pouch / It's like a limousine looking low and lean / Like Elvis on a velvet couch."

The album does include a reference/homage to the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" in the track "Punk Rock Skunk" (and with a "Hey-Ho! Anarchy in the Pre-K" teaser on the CD package), which defies my recently-imposed ban on this song in kids' music, but I'm willing to give Farmer Jason a pass on this, since he is an actual punk rocker.

Overall, Rockin' the Forest is smart, energetic, musically distinct, and surprisingly instructive. It strikes a great balance in its appeal to both children and parents, and the grown-ups can also take pleasure in knowing Farmer Jason's punk rock alter-ego.