Jumping for Joy: The Return of Caspar Babypants

It's difficult to establish a unique voice. There's so much product out there that few people stand out from the very first musical note. Chris Ballew doesn't have that problem. Entering the second decade in his second career as children's musician Caspar Babypants, Chris has turned out 13 – yes, 13 – CDs that brim with uniqueness.

His latest CD, JUMP FOR JOY! is as buoyant and boyish as the rest of the Caspar Babypants pantheon. As with past CDs, Chris is chock full of the stories behind the songs. "Pushy the Tug" came from a pet name he and his wife (CD artwork and local artist Kate Endle) exclaimed every time a tugboat chugged by their home in Seattle. "Blackberry Pie" is credited to his (then) six-year-old son, Augie, although like every Caspar Babypants composition, he couldn't help put his own distinctive upbeat stamp on it.

Caspar Babypants is all about two things… updating traditional favorites with new lyrics and arrangements and taking bizarre concepts and taking them on oddly logical journeys. JUMP FOR YOU! features the standout example, "My Pants Are On Vacation":

my pants are on vacation I noticed that thery're gone.
My right legs knows my left leg knows they both think somethings wrong.
My pants are on vacation they left a detailed note.
But their handwriting is so sloppy that I don't know what they wrote.

Caspar Babypants music also works on two levels. Kids enjoy the hummable melodies and gentle, amusing material. It's so approachable that when we attended a live performance years ago, Chris started a song intro, "This is a song about a bear..." and Ben cut him off by shouting the title of a particular track he liked. Realizing that yes, he had written two songs about bears, Chris self-corrected and explained, "Yes, this is my OTHER song about a bear." Adults like the wordplay and jigsaw, not-random conceit that burst from Chris's days in the Presidents of the United States. "Free Couch" is about a country tick that moves to the big city and finds a place to live. The chorus? "Don't freak out I'm living in a free couch." Don't just read it – say it. Then you'll get it.

Where else will you get old-time classics remade for today's tots, like "Where O Where," nestled side by side with "The Softest Guitar on the Moon"? JUMP FOR JOY! if you're silly and six. JUMP FOR JOY! if you remember what it was like to be silly and six. For a quick refresher, Caspar Babypants is giving you 19 reasons to JUMP FOR JOY!

JUMP FOR JOY! is available August 18 from Caspar Babypants' website, Amazon, iTunes, and CDBABY.

Here is the video for the new song, "Underground":

BeatleMania Redux for Caspar Babypants

Music can change your mood and it can also change your future. Chris Ballew (aka Caspar Babypants) had his world rocked at the age of two by the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." More than four decades later, he is returning the favor with his second collection of covers for kids and parents, BEATLES BABY!

Avoiding many overly familiar (and more mature-themed) numbers, Caspar still finds 21 tracks to reinvent and reintroduce. If you're tired of hearing the melancholy of "Hey Jude," try this CD's skiffle version. The timeless psychedelia of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is effervescently amped-up to new speeds. And "Baby You're A Rich Man" gains an '80s new-age feel.

If you don't know Caspar Babypants, the capsule is simple – he's the sideline venture for Ballew, front man for The Presidents of the United States (warning: web site not frequently updated). Ten albums later, Babypants is in regular rotation on SiriusXM's Kids Place Live as well as in homes across the nation and around the world. Producing CDs at a Brian Wilson-esque output level, Ballew took a step back from original compositions in 2013 for BEATLES BABY! A noble venture, the CD was hampered by the (copyright- and legal-rights) quagmire of not being able to produce videos to promote it. Love for the source material won out and inevitably, much like a container of Pringle's potato chips, he could not stay away from a second helping.

Musically, BABY BEATLES! is as satisfying and solid as anything in the Babypants oeuvre. A home studio fanatic, Ballew is ridiculously competent. "With a Little Help From His Friends" is provided by vocalists Rachel Flotard and Jen Wood and spouse Kate Endle, whose cherubic illustrations and cover artwork have helped define the Caspar Babypants persona.

Part of the Babypants recording process is to document the "story behind the music." As such, you never have to wonder "Why did he choose..." any particular song. From the seemingly-obscure "For You Blue" to the omnipresent "The Fool on the Hill," Ballew is refreshingly transparent. When you have an inquisitive four (near five) year-old, this helps answer a lot of "why" questions. Our older son (14) has heard all the Beatles' originals, but not his younger brother. Which negates any comments about altered arrangements – as far as the little guy is concerned, this is it. Never mind the Beatles, these are Babypants songs now. And as far as I'm concerned, that's fine. As long as this music has changed his future as well as his mood.

BABY BEATLES! is available September 18 from Caspar Babypants' website, Amazon, CDBABY, and iTunes.

Here is the video from his last CD, "Up All Night":

Babypants Brings Beatles Back for Tots

"The Beatles have been done to death."

"I know they were the greatest band, for their time, but what could they say that's relevant today?"

"Another Beatles CD aimed at kids? Have they no shame!"

Against nearly-unsurmountable odds, Caspar Babypants (the prolific Chris Ballew, late of the Presidents of the United States of America) has taken the challenge and released BABY BEATLES, a collection of the rock band's tunes reimagined for kids.

I won't be linking to any videos from this collection. Apple Music is happy to collect its royalties for song performance but the cost of proper licensing (according to Ballew) is prohibitive. But that was the easiest obstacle to overcome. There are 2-3 generations of adults with preconceived notions of how "their Beatles" sound. And in order to win over the hearts and minds of pre-adolescents, a recording artist must go through their parents' wallets.

When you think about it, children should have the least problems with Beatles covers. After all, how well would they know the original versions? And they might prefer a cover version, especially if it's performed by one of their favorite artists (imagine Raffi singing "Octopus's Garden"). That's one of the songs included here, along with "All Together Now," "Yellow Submarine," and "Penny Lane." So don't worry – you know the material. It's all in the presentation.

Ballew is all about deconstructing the Beatles and presenting them as pure children's songs. I'm not talking about the Monkees, crystalizing the first two years of the Beatles career in an endless tribute. These are children's songs that just happen to have been performed by the Beatles, some about 50 years ago.

It's oddly appropriate that "Cry Baby Cry" is repurposed here as a gentle child-calming lullaby. And let's not forget the "it's so obvious" inclusion of "Your Mother Should Know."

Ballew did a lot of research into the Beatles and was amazed that they produced such a diverse body of work despite being pressured to record and release as much material as possible, while dealing with day-to-day lives and their surrounding media frenzy. I'm amazed that Ballew has produced as much children's music as he has in just a few, short years – birthing them at the rate of one CD every nine months. No wonder he "took a break" with a labor of love. Well, I shelled out $95 per ticket to take my older son to see Sir Paul McCartney earlier this summer. For a fraction of that amount, you can bring BABY BEATLES home for your kids.

BABY BEATLES is available from Caspar Babypants' website link to CDBABY, Amazon, and iTunes.

Here is the video from the 2013 song, "Stump Hotel":