Stacey Peasley is an emerging children’s musician, a good friend, and a wonderful mom. Her debut kids’ album is titled Together and all the songs are about playing and just being a kid. She sings from the heart and from the perspective of a mom, so her songs are full of love and sweetness, too.

Our favorite song on the CD is probably the title song, Together. The song starts out with upbeat horn flourishes and gets you ready to dance and hop along to the beat. The lyrics encourage kids to hold hands and dance together, play games together, and just be happy with each other. What a wonderful ice breaker!

Another great one is Dance Party. Yep, you can guess what this song asks you to do! Like Together, this song is upbeat and full of pep. It’s a wonderful way to get kids to move and follow directions.

And I know a little boy who can’t stop singing the super catchy Soapy Bubbles. This is a wonderful debut album and I can’t wait to see what Stacey comes out with next!

Did you know that Caspar Babypants is now writing kids’ books? It’s true!

I’m sure you’ve noticed that all of Caspar’s album covers are beautifully illustrated with paper cut out pictures. All of those adorable little creatures were created by Caspar’s, that is Chris Ballew’s, real wife, Kate Endle.

So doesn’t it make perfect sense that they would team up to create a couple of bright, colorful, and fun-to-read books for kids? Of course it does!

With Kate illustrating and Caspar writing, these two new books are perfectly balanced and delightfully beautiful. Bunny Rabbit in the Sunlight is a simple board book for little guys and My Woodland Wish is a longer book for bigger guys.

Both are adorable and both follow a similar theme: pictures of cutey pie wild animals and rhymes about what those animals do (and how much we want to play with them).

Plus, each book comes with a FREE Caspar Babypants song that you can download at Caspar’s website.

And speaking of all things cute, bunny, and Caspar Babypants… have you seen the video for Mister Rabbit?

I don’t get to post much, so when I do you know it’s about something truly awesome. We’ve been listening to two new albums that we are really enjoying and would love to recommend to all our friends!

Alastair Moock’s newest album for kids, These are My Friends, is an absolute delight. When an artist debuts with an amazing CD (like A Cow Says Moock) I sometimes worry that maybe, just maybe, they used up all their good material in that first album. Will the next one be as good? Will we be disappointed?

Alastair has answered my fears with a simply perfect collection of songs delivered in his singular (and lovable) gravely voice and style. But he didn’t do it alone. He’s invited lots of wonderful friends, like Vanessa Trien, Rani Arbo, Anand Nayak, and Mike Erelli. Really an all star cast!

I love Feets Up and the title song, These are My Friends, but I can’t get over how much the old Sesame classic Ladybug’s Picnic gets to me. It’s so cute to hear that song with electric guitar!

Our other favorite is the new live album from Ben Rudnick & Friends, Live in Lexington: Under the Copper Beech. Yes, these are mostly songs you’ve heard before, but to have them recorded live is such a treat!

Have you ever heard BR&F play Sally Salamander followed directly by Juicy Black Fly? Don’t you just love that? Plus, this performance included both their accordion player Mark Yacovone and Rob Lee on saxophone. Yes, their rendition of Hava Nagila on this album is extraordinary!

There are some new covers on this album too, like Jambalaya and Hey Good Lookin’. All in all you’ll be amazed that they were able to fit twenty-five songs on one CD!

Caspar Babypants is preparing to release his fourth awesome kids album, Sing Along, on August 16th.

Is this one really good just like all his others? Why, yes it is! Caspar has a great approach to kids music: keep it simple so little kids can sing or bounce along, but make it interesting for grown ups, too. What a concept!

You’ll see this approach in songs like Ba Ba Black Sheep and Ring Around the Rosie, songs everyone knows but that get a new twist on this album. He also takes subjects even the littlest listeners can relate to, like Crawling, and turns them into fun songs!

But one of my favorite things about Caspar Babypants is that he seems to be friends with just about everyone in the music industry (he must be a nice guy) and they all want to help him out with his albums. Weird Al Yankovic plays accordion on Long Long Dream and has created an amazing accordion solo, plus the beautiful Frances England helps out on a couple songs too, my favorite being Sun Go.

But the very, very best song on the album without a doubt is Rachel Loshak’s Baby Cloud. Caspar describes it as “haunting.” It’s just perfect. Go listen to it now.

Caspar says he makes music “to help families sing together and relax and open up and endure stressful times with humor and grace.” You’re doing it, Caspar. Keep up the good work!

Sing Along will be available August 16th.

One of my favorite bands is Belle and Sebastian and one of my all time favorite albums is Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Yes, I suppose that is music for grown ups, but my son loves this album, too!

Anyway, when I heard that Mick Cooke of Belle and Sebastian was creating kids’ albums I just had to check it out! Recording under the name Too Many Cookes, Mick’s newest album is Down at the Zoo and it’s just lovely.

The album is all about animals and their antics in the zoo. Elephants, monkeys, alligators… they’re all here. The lyrics are simple and wonderful fare for preschoolers and toddlers. Easy to sing to and full of life and imagery.

But what I really like is the quality of the music itself. The horns are tremendous throughout the album and it’s fun to talk to your kids about the different instruments you can hear in each song. My favorite song on the album has to be Sarah the Seal. Just so happy and free!

Check out the new album on the Down at the Zoo Facebook page and listen to one of the songs from the album here: We are the Tigers.

By the way, did you know that tigers like to eat chocolate pie?

One of our favorite artists, Maria Sangiolo, has gotten a bunch of her friends together to create a new album all about farms and gardens.

The resulting project, Planting Seeds, is an amazing compilation of songs about the earth, gardening, and eating right.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this CD is also going to benefit the good work of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

This album is both beautiful and fun and not at all preachy. Maria and her friends (including Rani Arbo, Alastair Moock, and SteveSongs) teach kids all about nature and growing your own food. My favorite song on the album, Didn’t Know What I Was Missing, a duet between Alastair and Lori McKenna, really gets to the point. Until you’ve had a tomato you’ve grown yourself, you just don’t know how good a tomato can be. And I can attest to that since we planted our first vegetable garden last year!

We’ve got plans for a HUGE garden this year. We’re planting tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, radishes, spinach, zuchini… and what ever else we can fit! This could be a great project for your family, too. Listen to the songs on the album and begin planning your garden now. By the time you’re ready to get your hands dirty in May you’ll know all the songs by heart!

Here’s to a prolific garden Dancin’ in the Breeze!

Maria, Alastair, and Lui Collins will all be at Passim on Sunday, March 20th at 4:30pm to celebrate the release of Planting Seeds. It’s going to be a great show!

I’d like to introduce everyone to Thelonious Rockwell, the newest member of the Boston Children’s Music team.

I’m very pleased to announce that Thelonious will be doing some writing for this website and that he is excited to listen to lots of new kids’ music and tell you all about it! I’m still getting to know the little guy myself, but as you can see he clearly has an interest in music.

So stay tuned for more from Thelonious as he lets you know about new kids’ releases and cool children’s music. And if you’d like your CD reviewed by Thelonious, just let us know!

In the meantime, be sure to visit our calendar of events to find great live music shows in your area. Winter time is the perfect time for a concert!

That yellow freckle-faced kid from the sun is up to new adventures in Morgan Taylor’s latest Gustafer installment, Gustafer Yellowgold’s Infinity Sock.

I feel like I have to assume that you’re fully aware of the Gustafer saga by this point: He’s yellow, he comes from the sun, he lives in a house in the Minnesota woods, he has a pet eel, he eats pinecones… you get the picture.

Like all the Gustafer albums before this one, Infinity Sock comes as a CD/DVD set so you can either listen to the songs alone or watch them with their animated videos. Unlike previous Gustafer albums, this one tells a complete story.

In Infinity Sock Gustafer finds a long, long, long sock and decides to follow it to it’s end. Where will it take him? What will he find? How will he be changed by the journey? Along the way we meet favorite characters and learn more about them. Forest Applecrumbie’s tabby cat, Cheddar, has a song devoted to her, as do the Mint Bee and his band.

Gustafer songs are often silly verging on the absurd, but also posit larger universal themes, which is why they appeal so well to both kids and grownups. One of the themes that you see throughout Gustafer’s repertoire is that everyone has value.

Gustafer has a way of seeing little things, like erring ants, and recognizing their beauty. In the new song, Snake Proms, Gustafer learns that one of his favorite foods, snakes, actually has personality and wit. I think Gustafer may now be a vegetarian.

Gustafer’s also the perpetual student, always seeking, observing, and learning. I love the new song Question Marks about how there is never an end to understanding. There’s always something new to see.

Gustafer Yellowgold’s Infinity Sock will be released on March 1st and it’s a must see/listen. Plus, you have to check out the bonus features for the Gustafer Guitar Lessons where Morgan shows you how to play some of his favorite songs. It’s really very cool.

For more teasers and some clips from the new album, check out www.gustaferyellowgold.com/infinity.html.

You know we get a lot of CDs sent to us. Some are instant hits, some grow on us, and some… well… let’s just say not everyone gets a mention on the site.

Here are three that we’ve been listening to that we’re really enjoying.

Zak Morgan’s new album, Suzy and Joe in the story of the Candy Machine, is a joint effort with Dela (David LaBruyere). Unlike most kids’ albums, this one is a concept album that tells a real story.

Suzy and Joe go on a long and twisting adventure through rough seas, past Hillbilly Mermaids, and on to Sugar Island. It’s the sort of CD that you can pay close attention to, pick up each word, and follow the story… or just listen to the music and enjoy the melodies. Either way, it’ll take you on a fun ride.

It’s also the sort of CD that really, really should be animated! It’d be so cool as a full length animated film. I hope someone else is thinking this, too!

Do you know the words to Oh Susannah? What about the second verse to You are My Sunshine?

We can all hum along to Grand Old Flag or Down by the Riverside, but so few of us actually remember the words to any of these songs. Why is that?

Daria’s Grandchildren’s Delight tries to remedy this by bringing us classic folk songs that we used to sing as kids with our grandparents but have since forgotten. Who’s going to teach these songs to our kids? We are!

The instrumentation on this CD is also well worth listening to with your kids. I love the fiddle on Over in the Meadow, but can’t get enough of the clarinet on Grand Old Flag. I love that sound!

Local artists Carrie Rowan and Oen Kennedy have teamed up to release a new CD titled Just Like the Stars. Many of the songs are sweet and mellow, perfect for cuddling, while others, like Mr Rhinoceros, will get you up and dancing. There’s really something here for everyone!

My favorite song on the CD has to be Quiet Night on the Moon. It sounds like a lullaby, but really it’s an exciting adventure song about flying to the moon and having a party with all your friends. I mean really, why do we always associate the moon with lullabies? Dancing and floating on the moon would actually be pretty exciting!

You can listen to these songs and purchase the MP3s on Carrie Rowan’s site. Just click on the “music” tab and check out her Nimbit store. Just Like the Stars is the second album in the store.

Do you hear what I hear? It’s holiday music and Christmas cheer! Despite all the stress, I still absolutely love the holidays, and one of my favorite things about the season is all the happy music. Here are some new CDs and songs that we’re enjoying this year….

Ben Rudnick & Friends are about to play their 9th Annual Holiday Extravaganza Concert at the Regent Theatre on December 11th. It’s always a wonderful show full of Christmas and Chanukah songs all wrapped up in that unique BR&F style.

And every year people ask if they have a holiday album… and every year they have to say no, but maybe next year… Until now!

They finally did it! And it was well worth the wait! Their new album, It’s Santa Claus, features eight classic Christmas songs, from Frosty the Snowman to Jingle Bells, and one super cool original song, It’s Santa Claus!

Of course, now they need to put together a CD of all their fun Chanukah songs. OK guys, that’s your assignment for next year!

Daria’s Songs for Merry Multicultural Mirth is a sweet collection of songs from around the world. We’ve always loved the song Ocho Candelikas, a traditional song sung in Ladino, the language of the Sephardic Jews. What I love about Daria’s version is that she’s added an English verse, too, so we can sing along. Spanish speakers will enjoy seeing the similarities and differences between Spanish and Ladino.

Daria does such a great job of bringing different cultures together! This CD also feature songs in Spanish (Feliz Navidad), German (Ihr Kinderlein Kommet), and English (Rockin’ Jingle Bells). Check out the liner notes to the album where you can read more about each song and download the lyrics.

Speaking of Christmas celebrations around the world, Phil Cooke from Australia has just released a new album, Christmas Time is Coming! Is that Santa surfing on Christmas day? Of course! In Australia it’s summer time during the holidays, so why not?

One of my favorite songs on this album is No Worries Mate (Santa Claus He’s a Surfie). It’s fun and playful—like all of Phil’s songs. Did you know Rudolph once forgot to put sun screen on his nose? How do you think he got that burn?

I am of the opinion that Renee & Jeremy can do no wrong. Everything they do is brilliant! So of course their new cover of Little Drummer Boy is instantly my favorite version of this song ever. Period.

Combine this song with the beautiful art work by Hsinping Pan that always graces their albums and you’ve got perfection. I love the colors and joy displayed on this CD.

And speaking of art work, have you seen the video for Renee & Jeremy’s It’s a Big World? It’s shockingly beautiful.

Another fun Christmas single comes from DidiPop this year. Let’s Make Santa Claus Happy Tonight is simply adorable. Didi sings along with her kids who are soooo excited about Santa stopping by during the night.

The song is upbeat and playful and reminds us adults about how much fun Christmas Eve is and how hard it is to wait for morning.

And is that an ukulele I hear in the song? That reminds me of Didi’s newest album, DidiPop Goes to Hawai’i, set for release on December 14th. You don’t want to miss it!