Children's music enters the next generation

Children's music enters the next generation

Gunnar Madsen, cofounder of the inventive a cappella chemical group "The Bobs," enriches the playing area of children's euphony in a style unambiguously his possess.

His fresh album, “I’m Growing” (Gee, Topographic point! Records, $15. (800) 448-6369, wWW.GunnarMadsen.com), is his charles Herbert Best to date, with off-the-wall lyrics -- "I love that noblewoman with the pumpkin pilus / She smells as henry Sweet as butter" -- and expert, wildly varied song and instrumental textures.

Tender puncher dreams ("Best in the West"), a tribute to librarians and a hilarious take on Mozart's 40th Symphonic music feed agency to a pinnace cultivation: a berceuse with Chivvy Nilsson-like lilting harmonies and a soulful rendition of the traditional "Shenandoah."





Other newly euphony releases aimed at the younger set:

"Pop Fly": Childhood observed with humour and empathy and i of the near mellow stone 'n' roll voices around: These ar singer-songwriter Justin Roberts' trademarks, and they shine in his newly CD, “Pop Fly” (Carpet Square Records; $15, world Wide Web.justinrobertsmusic.com).

Richard J. Roberts weaves deft lyrics through layers of beautiful speech sound. In the statute title track, a reluctant outfielder plays baseball under "cotton wool confect clouds." Other songs are about making memories at Grandma's ("From Scratch"), "Big Field Trip" thrills and living life-time to the fullest in "Fruit Bump around":

"Sometimes you've just now got to spin that old propellor / And watch over it rise up way past the lunar month. . . ."

"The Magic Center": Imagine horseback riding on a dinosaur, climbing the tallest lot, being safe inside a set of light -- or growing up to be an creature mD or an creative person. Grammy Award-winning songster Bunny girl Hull encourages children to manipulation their "magic oculus" to visit worlds of chance and dreams in this installment of her "Danton True Young Edgar Lee Masters" book-and-CD sets, “The Thaumaturgy Eye,” from Dream a World ($13.95; world Wide Web.dreamaworld.com).

Hull's heartfelt songs and schoolbook ar complemented by Kye Fleming's delicate computer-generated illustrations, narrator Elayn J. Elizabeth Taylor and flautist Diane Hsu.

"Very Derryberry": With gentle humor, Debi Derryberry (the voice of TV's "Jemmy Neutron") takes a sunny, youthful pop and wind approaching to master and traditional narration songs in her second children's CD, Really Derryberry (VeryDerryBerryProductions, $14; web.debiderryberry.com).

She revisits familiar spirit greenhouse rhymes, counts icing lick scoops, explores opposites and feelings, relates the adventures of two remarkably freckled brothers and escorts listeners to a peaceful "Slumberland."

"Sewing needle Races": Internationally known ethnic music singer-songwriter Ellis Alice Paul makes a welcome foray into children's music with his number 1 kin album, “Mosquito hawk Races” (Black Beast Records, $15; world Wide Web.ellispaul.com).

Paul brings acoustic soul and a light touch to road trips, human being ingenuity and heart ("Because It's There"), ace ("The 1000000 Chameleon Master of Architecture"), racing dragonflies, pinwheels and a cock-and-bull story exposé around the true difference 'tween heroes and monsters ("Abiola").

"Euphony for a Green Major planet": Whoa, le nothingness hot -- and very cool -- here. In his newest syndicate album, “Music for a Putting green Planet” ($14.98, wWW.musicforagreenplanet.com), East Coast-based jazz artist Hayes Greenfield (adolphe Sax, clarinet, transverse flute) performs surprisingly palatable "be-good-to-the-Earth" songs written with conservationist Margo Schepart. He's joined by other considerable talents, among them vet vocalists Joe Lee Woodrow Wilson, Miles Griffith, Broadway's Shayna Steele and a host of luminary malarkey, tilt and populace music instrumentalists. The message extends to the CD's commons packaging.

"African Dreamland": There's always room for another soothing lullaby record album, and “African Dreamworld,” from Putumayo Kids ($14.98; wWW.putumayokids.com), is a blissful quiet-time treat for any eld.

A pin-up addition to Putumayo's cross-continental series of lullaby recordings, it features artists from crossways Africa, including the incomparable Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Toumani Diabaté, Samite, and Mapumba, a newly creative person from the Democratic Commonwealth of Congo (and whew, what a vocalisation).

“African Never-never land,”

"Rock of All Ages": In his sixth family CD, “Rock of Entirely Ages” ($12.99; web.daddyagogo.com), Atlanta's Whoremonger Boydston celebrates kids and classic rock with slickness '60s pop references, entertaining lyrics with a form bubbles of good-for-you messages and feel-good, singsong bounce.

Sample highlights: " 'Round and 'Round" with its dance-happy drive, and "I Lost My Teddy Bear," a kid's lamentation for the expiration of childish things -- tinged with suspicions of parental engagement.

"Home Favorites": Toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners and their pet adults buttocks make music together old school expressive style with Euphony Together's “Kinsfolk Favorites” exit ($14.95; 800-728-2692, Ext. 345, web.musictogether.com), with 19 songs. The group specializes in early on childhood music development through catchy activity and singsong songs for playday and quieter moments.

Top-notch arrangements ar performed by appealing adult and child singers, and an accompanying 32-page pamphlet is filled with suggestions for enhanced participation.

lynne.heffley@latimes.com