The debut CD from Wee Hairy Beasties is a rousing collection of 15 back porch blues, ragtime, and folk inspired tunes. Featuring two members of the seminal punk-rock band The Mekons, Wee Hairy Beasties music is good old fashioned toe-tapping fun.

Animal Crackers features songs about squirrels, worms, flies, ducks, and turtles, accompanied by some marvelous steel guitar, harmonica, and clarinet. I especially like the 16 second song called ‘A Newt Called Tiny’:

I’ve got a newt called Tiny,
I call him Tiny because he’s my newt.
I haven’t had him long, I found him by the pond,
breathing through exterior fronds.

‘Animal Crackers’ will be released on October 24th. It’s available for pre-order at Amazon, and the Bloodshot Records site has the full version of the first track, called ‘Wee Hairy Beasties’, available for download. Bloodshot Records artists are featured on eMusic, so there’s a good chance that the album will be available there as well when it’s released.

Here are a couple of tracks that we love:

05 Housefly Blues:

10 Glow Worm:

Hannah of Gentlytiptoe pointed us to Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child – a kids’ music podcast just waiting for you to subscribe and enjoy. Each week it features oodles of good tunes including many, many Kiddley household favourites. The show is “Based on the radical notion that music for kids shouldn’t want to make parents gouge out their ears”.

This week’s show includes the brilliant track “Pick up The Toys” by ScribbleMonster & His Pals – the goal of which is to get kids to clean up their room before the end of the song, all the while getting faster and more frenetic. Crazy fun.

Ralph’s World is the debut CD from Chicago musician Ralph Covert. Like the other kids CDs we love at Kiddley HQ, this one features a great collection (18 in all) of fun and memorable songs. Ralph’s original songs are supplemented by a few standout covers, including “Take a Little Nap (the disco song)”, an age-appropriate version of Get Down Tonight, and “Winnie the Pooh/The Wonderful thing about tiggers”. Many of the tracks feature kids singing along in supporting roles, which always seems to make music more enjoyable for AJ.

You can listen to the first four tracks in their entirety on the australian Ralph’s World site. Here are a couple of our other favorites:

09 The Name Song:

15 Drivin in My Car:

Claire bought this CD from Amazon after seeing a Dan Zanes segment on Sesame Street. It’s a folksy collection that includes a number of original songs along with some traditional folk songs and covers like What a Wonderful World (sung with Lou Reed) and Woody Guthrie’s So Long it’s Been Good to Know Yuh.

Night Time! is packaged up like a board book, complete with liner notes and illustrations that pull together the theme of loose and relaxed night time music. My first reaction was that this CD was a little old for AJ (she’s 3.5) and I wasn’t entirely certain about the suitability of lyrics like ‘pay me or go to jail.’ It wasn’t an instant hit with her either in the same way that I Like to Sing was, but after two or three plays the infectious melodies and gentle magic of the songs grabbed both of us, and it’s currently in high rotation both at home and in the car. Night Time! is less of a kids’ album and more of a family album; there are aspects of it that can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of age. Because of that I suspect it will have a lot of longevity; it’s not likely to be something she grows out of in a year.

One practical note: the CD case doesn’t have a traditional disc holder (the disc slides into a flap at the back of the book), which I suspect makes the CD particularly prone to scratching. Kiddley house policy is to make a spare copy of all kids CDs for playing so that we still have the original kicking around. That’s highly recommended with Night Time! as well.

Dan Zanes Night Music! at Amazon.

Some samples:

01 Night Owl:

02 Pay Me My Money Down:

08 Siyahamba:

Justine Clarke is one of the regular presenters of Playschool here in Australia, and she’s released a great music CD for kids aged 2-6 called I Like to Sing.

Unlike plenty of collections of children’s music, this album won’t wear thin after you’ve heard it a couple of times. Various songs reveal country, pop, and jazz influences, and the musical arrangements are excellent.

The CD is available at the ABC Shop (linked above), and they’ll even ship orders overseas.

Here are some 30 second samples of 3 of our favorites. Enjoy!

04 Watermelon:

05 Hop Hippity Hop:

06 It’s Starting To Rain: