We're back with more great kids' music to give away.
First, big congrats to our first ChiIL Mama Win A Disc Wednesday winner, Alicia Starr. You have won a copy of Tiny Cool--Princess Katie & Racer Steve. Please reply to zbluesun@gmail.com with your mailing address within the next 48 hours.
Check out Roger Day's web site to sample some tunes, get more info about his YouTube channel, and order discs and silly t-shirts like mosquito burritos and it's a no no to kiss a rhino.
We were all amused by Why Does Grey Matter, and thoroughly enjoyed the rampant, goofy humor, that masks actual learning. Roger Day introduces "Sara Bellum, The Brainy Girl", and like our favorite roller derby players' names, uses fun puns and plays on words.
I remember when They Might Be Giants began teaching useful adult life skills to children, like how to recite the alphabet backwards and memorize the periodic table of the elements. Roger Day continues in this noble tradition, while kids neural pathways are still fresh and receptive. This brainy bunch of songs celebrates the cerebral and tickles the funny bone.
Adults and kids alike will groove on witty titles like "Inside My Cranium","Brain Freeze!","Get Your Brain In Gear", "Monkey Brains" and "It's a No Brainer".
My kids both love rocking out to "The Left Brain/Right Brain Song" which contrasts the functions of the different sides of the brain in a funky, memorable way. They adore screaming out the lyrics, "My right brain wants to rock the house. My right brain wants to go wild and create. My right brain wants to rock the house. My right brain wants to draw and illustrate." This disc is recommended for kids 5-11, so it's ideal for those who have outgrown more traditional little kid tunes. My 6 and 9 year old have been begging to hear it for weeks. For once, instead of "accidentally" losing the disc under the driver's seat , I'm not trying to dissuade them.
Award-Winning Children’s CDs
Roger Day released ROCK ‘N’ ROLL RODEO in 1998 followed by READY TO FLY in 2001. Roger won a Parents’ Choice® Recommended Award. Word spread. In 2003 he filmed a family concert DVD ROGER DAY LIVE! He won another Parents’ Choice® Recommended award. And The Film Advisory Board Award for Outstanding Family Video. The following year he made his Public Television debut.
DREAM BIG! came next in 2007. Radio Disney played the title song. Another song, “I like Yaks,” went to number 1 on Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live. He won a Parents’ Choice® Gold Award and started selling out shows from the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte to the Library Theatre in Birmingham. By this point Roger’s music had spread far beyond the family’s Christmas tree.
Schoolhouse Rock for the 21st Century
Roger’s fourth release Why Does Gray Matter? … And Other Brainy Songs for Kids features 14 tracks that make innovative use of “the brain” as a theme for every song. “I’m pretty sure it’s the first recording session in Nashville to research Web MD for fact checks,” says Roger. “One song is even co-written with a college friend who is a real-life neuropathologist. It’s the only kids’ song I know of that uses the terms ‘corpus callosum’ and ‘deep basal ganglia’ while referencing Ringo Starr.”
The Schoolhouse Rock quality of his latest project is impossible to ignore and one of its best features. If you didn’t hear these songs on this CD first, you might think you knew them from watching cartoons on Saturday mornings years ago. For this reason, Day’s music counts adults as some of its biggest fans. Roger acknowledges, “I’ve had more than one parent admit they listen to my CDs even when their kids aren’t around.”
Usually, the mp3 player flips to 80's punk when the kids' feet hit the playground pavement, but I will admit to letting Roger Day play. His witty lyrics and memorable riffs make listing to this kids' disc a pleasure. So "Shake Up Your Brain" and check out Why Does Gray Matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment