Servings from the cereal bowl

by Dave Loftin

Sample the Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl Grab your kid and a cup of coffee and tune in to the “Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl,” hosted by Dave Loftin, Saturdays from 8 to 10 a.m. on the Web at WAWL.org. He posts his weekly playlists on SMCB.BlogSpot.com. And now you can take your Cereal Bowl with you—in podcast form! Go to SaturdayCerealBowl.podbean.com, or simply search the iTunes store. Don’t worry, parents, it’s free.

Caspar Babypants

This is Fun!

© 2010 Aurora Elephant Music (ASCAP)

In roughly a year and a half Caspar Babypants (Chris Bellew) has recorded three full-length albums for families.  The third, This is Fun!, just dropped earlier this month.  Just like the first two albums, the latest offering has no less than 20 tracks of kindie goodness.  This is Fun! leaps out of the gate with the funky “All You Pretty Babies”.  “Where Do You Go” asks the many curious questions about nature and what happens as season change and night falls.  I particularly like the cover of Nirvana’s “Sliver”.  Not only because it’s a great song and it’s an homage to the Seattle rockers, but mostly because Krist Novoselic of Nirvana sits in on bass.  Also, don’t skip over “Mister Rabbit” with fellow kindie-rocker Charlie Hope.  This is Fun! couldn’t be a better title for this disc unless you threw the word super in there.  Caspar Babypants should be in the top ten artists of your kindie music collection.  His latest offering will entertain your family and simply make you feel happy.

Keller Williams

Kids

© 2010 KW Enterprises

Keller Williams is no stranger to the music scene.  His style is about as eclectic as you can get but he tends to hover around jam band and progressive bluegrass.  Nearly two decades and a dozen albums under his belt, Williams has entered the world of family music with his first album for the smaller set, Kids.  Listening to the new disc will take you back to the classic Smithsonian Folkway recordings of Seeger, Guthrie and others making great Americana and bluegrass for kids and families.  Kids kicks off with “My Neighbor is Happy Again”, a story of a man who has a goat to help with lawn care and trash disposal.  “Because I Said So” is a country-waltz about a boy who seems to ask for the most ridiculous things and, of course, mommy says no.  Keller Williams is also known for incorporating phase looping into his music.  This is the playing of multiple instruments one at a time and looping them resulting in a very impressive one-man band sound.  He executes this beautifully on “Hula Hoop to da Loop”. The disc is loaded with some timeless songs for the whole family plus there are a few absurd songs to keep the kids laughing (and the parents, admit it) like “Mama Tooted” and “I’m Taking a Bath”.  Kids will surely entertain, amuse and keep you singing for a long time.