Easy Breezy Farewell to Caspar Babypants

It's difficult to say goodbye, which is why it was tough to write a final piece about Caspar Babypants (Chris Ballew) on the release of his decisive CD, EASY BREEZY! It's the 19th (!) and last collection from the former frontman of Seattle's The Presidents of the United States, who turned to children's music 12 years ago and cultivated more than 360 silly, sneaky earworms over the course of his recordings (nearly one per day for a calendar year).

Ballew decided to postpone the inevitable and pushed EASY BREEZY! into 2021 (from a planned fall 2020 release). It wasn't that he just couldn't say goodbye as much as he wanted to perform some final kids' concerts and let his young listeners down in an easy breezy manner. You're not going to find tremendous social messaging on a Caspar Babypants CD. Instead, it's all about clever wordplay ("Awesome Blossom"), twanging guitars ("Spooky Baby"), genre-bending ("Caterpillar Jazz"), and kid-tastic concepts ("Put This Monkey to Bed"). Ballew even delves into his own childhood on "When I Was Little."

EASY BREEZY! offers an appropriate coda to the impressive recording history of Caspar Babypants, which curious inquires like "What If?" addressing children's questioning everything around them, "Weird Weird Dream" sharing the powers of our subconscious, and "The Ballad of the Babypants" explaining the magic powers behind a special piece of clothing. 

I have to mention the five Caspar Babypants books written by Ballew and illustrated by his wife, Kate Endle. Each features a CP song that goes with the book, such as "Penguin on A Scooter." Click here for more information on the books. Ballew is shifting his musical focus to more ambient sound. His new website has a full playlist of songs.

Ballew turned to kids' music in 2008, right around the time I jumped into the fray with regular coverage of the industry. If there's ever a Hall of Fame for kid's music, I want to throw my hat into the ring to induct Caspar Babypants as a first-ballot inductee. His songs fill a sweet spot between frivolous and poignant, with a timelessness and specificity that makes him easy to identify yet hard to quantify. My younger son's class performed a dance to POTUS's "Volcano" a few years ago and it was just perfect – whatever double entendré might have been implied was consumed by the sheer fun of the selection. It's hard to say goodbye to an old friend. But with nearly 200 recorded tunes, Caspar Babypants has generated plenty of easy, breezy content that kids will enjoy for years to come. 

EASY BREEZY is available from Caspar Babypants' website, Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Here is the video for the song, "Wild Wide Time":

Cooped-Up From COVID? Bug Out With Caspar Babypants

If you feel itchy after listening to the new Caspar Babypants collection, BUG OUT! you're not alone. Caspar (Seattle musician Chris Ballew, formerly of Presidents of the United States of America) has a special affinity with hexapod invertebrates and his latest release celebrates the tiny critters. There's generally a Babypants explosion every year, but his 2020 opus was pushed up an entire three months due to the Coronavirus outbreak. With his audience confined to their homes, Chris felt compelled to move the release date from August to May.


BUG OUT! constitutes the closest thing to a "concept" album that Chris has released since his two Beatles-related compilations. insect-themed songs include "Pay Me No Mind" (about a lonely bug seeking attention and friendship with large animals), "Fuzzy Buzzy Buzzing Bug," "I'm A Bee," "Slugs in the Dust," "Termite," and a Babypants-ed version of "The Ants Go Marching." Chris loves to take a classic song and revise it with his spin on lyrics and almost a rap beat:

The ants go marching five by five, marching makes them feel alive
The ants go marching six by six, carrying leaves and tiny sticks
The ants go marching seven by seven, marching seems like their obsession
The ants go marching eight by eight, right across my dinner plate

Chris credits his kids for inspiration and artist wife Kate Endle for design (and children's books based on his songs). Chris remains one of the most inventive and quirky children's music artists. His mashups of concepts is unpredictable, yet comforting. His songs are imbued with a spirit of "anything is possible if you wish it," from the peculiar "Pickle Holiday" to melodic ballad "Hedgehog in the Fog."

In a recent Facebook post, Chris revealed that he has two Babypants CDs already completed for 2021 release – but that they would be his "final" recordings, although live performances would continue. Looks like he and I will be sunsetting at around the same time. Nonetheless, with an average of 20 songs per CD, Caspar Babypants has a superlative batting average for a children's performer. If your family is feeling stressed and needs some rhythmic release, it's the right time for everybody to bug out.

BUG OUT! is available from Caspar Babypants' website, Amazon, and Apple Music.

Here is the video for the song "Baby's Driving A Car":

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":

Finding Caspar Babypants (It's Not Hard)

Caspar Babypants is the Mormon of children's music (in a good way). If it's been nine months, there's another Babypants CD in the mail pile! His sixth CD, I FOUND YOU! just made its way to our iPods this past week.

Chris Ballew, frontman for The Presidents of the United States, is the rare musician who has turned his sideline project (kids recording artist) into almost as big a deal as his "day job." Of course, these days that means expanding his cachet with books as well (artwork by his talented wife, Kate Endle). Guest artists on I FOUND YOU! include Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner and singer Rachel Flotard, formerly of Visqueen.

Unlike Kepi Ghoulie, who references his punk past in some of his songs, you find none of that malarkey with Caspar Babypants. These are straight ahead, tongue-in-cheek quirky tunes for tots. Ballew's specialty seems to be taking traditional songs and redressing them. On I FOUND YOU!, listeners get new verses for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Row Row Row Your Boat." Bet you didn't even know those songs needed extra verses. Well, two-year-old Matt did, and promptly requested a replay of "Twinkle Twinkle" so he could attempt to memorize them.

When the blazing sun is gone and the moon is up and on,
Then you shine your little light what a small and happy sight,
Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are.

"Yes and No" provides explanations to some daily quandaries that might baffle kids. For an 11-year-old reading for a science test on liquids, solids, and gases, this song acted as a rest break AND a study aid.

Water is so liquidy it flows around my shoe
But in the winter time that water can be solid too
Yes it can no it can't yes it can no it can't it is both yes and no.

We've seen Ballew in concert and he's a genial guy who invites sing-alongs. I FOUND YOU! provides ample opportunities for you and the fam to join in on choruses and share the silliness of "Too Dirty To Love" and "Say Farewell (to the baby worm)."

There's one guitar solo (from Turner) and fewer double entendres within the 19 songs on this new collection. And we can expect another Babypants to come tumbling down the babypath some time next fall. We'll look forward to it, as always.

Here is the video from an older Caspar Babypants tune, "More Moles," a favorite on SiriusXM Kids Place.



I FOUND YOU! is available from CDBABY, Amazon, and iTunes. Find lyrics and video links on his website.