Ear's Sean McCollough, Tennessee Kid at Heart

Music is everywhere. No really just walk down a street and wait for cars with open windows to drive by if you don't believe me. Taking that one step further, children's music is everywhere. When I think "Tennessee," I generally think of Ben Rudnick's "Live in Lexington" CD, but he's from Massachusetts. If you want to go native, you have Knoxville's "Kidstuff" radio host Sean McCollough and his latest, EARWORM.

Now an actual earworm is a pretty disgusting thing, but in this context it's a song that you just can't get out of your head. Sean is joined by fellow music makers Molly Ledford (for the pleasing monument tune "Sunsphere") and Billy Jonas (the little kids's safety number, "Green Means Go").

Sean's tunes hit the sweet spot for the very young, with plenty of repeating choruses and singalong verses. He's got the confidence from seven years of hosting "Kidstuff" radio, a weekly recorded show of kids music with monthly live programming featuring guests.

EARWORM gives Sean the opportunity to share his concepts, including a pair of goat songs, "Her Name Was Lady" and "Don't Let 'Em Get Your Goat." He delivers a version of the "Kidstuff" theme song for non-listeners of the program and the sympathetic "Car Sick" for anyone whose ever suffered from motion sickness on a family drive.

Sean's music is decidedly off the cuff (perhaps those shirts got too close to the goats) and accessible for the little ones in your brood. How you feel about earworms in your home is entirely up to you, of course. Sean just wants to pass along some down home, easy listening folk music from East Tennessee.

EARWORM is available on May 11 from Sean McCollough's website, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, and CDBABY.

Here is the video of Sean McCollough and friends performing "The Rattlin' Bog":

Kindie Quick Hits: Billy Jonas Returns, Jefrey Au-Go-Go Debuts

Five years is an eternity in children's music. You can miss a whole generation and suddenly there's a new audience that has no awareness of you. Say "Billy Jonas" to the parent of an under-eight child and the most likely response is, "Which one of the Jonas Brothers was he?"

Putting those references to rest, Billy Jonas has returned to the recording studio with his full ensemble – the Billy Jonas Band – for BUILD IT BACK AGAIN. First off, Billy does return to the quirky wordplay and serious frivolity of "What Kind of..." that he initially generated in 2002 with "What Kind of Cat Are You," his breakout, signature song. The new release has "What Kind of Bear Are You," which moves from bears to fish to bats.

Billy has yet to meet a pun he didn't want to include in his music. "Hairy Things" is not necessarily about hirsute people or animals. For instance, Hogwarts isn't about hairy, it's about Harry. You get the picture. The full band allows Billy to produce some sweeping harmonies and simply messaging on the title track and "It's Good For You And Good For Me":

Mama always held my baby sister in her arms.
She said, "I'm scared she'll stumble. I must shelter her from harm."
One day she let her go, she fell, it was for the best.
Sister learned to walk and mama's shoulders got a rest.

If you're into ecology, into people, into music that only sometimes takes itself seriously, then you'll be happy to hear that Billy Jonas is back in business.

BUILD IT UP AGAIN is available from Billy's website, Amazon, iTunes, and CDBABY.

Here is the video of their song, "Fireworks of Applause":



When your target audience ages out at 7 or 8, you really better like little kids. They have short attention spans and while basic stuff impresses them, if it comes off as phony to their parents, you're through. Jefrey Au-Go-Go (Jeff Siler) seeks to be a Pee-Wee Herman in the truest form of the notion – a character with character, but not a joke.

Our younger son is right in that "sweet spot" now. He's four and loves to listen to music. First it was only his older (13) brother's stuff. But as the older one turned to Rihanna and Five Seconds of Summer, the little nipper decided to pursue his own tastes. So far, he did not seem impressed by Jefrey. Perhaps that's due to exposure to so many children's artists. Perhaps that's due to the setting – we were having dinner at the first listening. But then again, he's burst into spontaneous singalongs just when we thought he was tuning something out.

Finally, perhaps it's just that after you've seen the Wiggles, it's tough to introduce a one-man operation, especially without the video component. I'll introduce the YouTube rendition of "Peter the Pushy Pup" and see if that does anything. But once again, if you've ever tried to force a youngster to have medication, you know that they can sense when something is being forced down their throat. So far we have to give Jefrey an A for effort and a C for connection on this end.

JEFREY AU-GO-GO is available at Jefrey's website, Amazon, and CDBABY.

Here is the video from "Peter the Pushy Pup":