Patty Shukla Keeps It Simple for the Li'l Ones

Stefan Shepherd of Zooglobble said it best. Basically a statement to the effect that "Kids music is just that and it isn't for US." In other words, I get to write about children's music, but I'm not the target audience. And if I find myself listening with adult ears, I'm only going to disappoint myself.

Patty Shukla hits that sweet spot in my reviewing prowess. She boasts close to 100 million views of YouTube videos of her songs. Yet her average "audience member" would appear to be 3-6 years old. A year ago, I'd never think that kids that young could drive that much traffic. But now my three-year-old knows what the YouTube app looks like on the iPad and can effortlessly find Wiggles songs.

Patty is going for the real young set. I'm talking parallel to Sesame Street and prepping for Laura Berkner. Patty's most recent CD, WIGGLE IT! is the first one to feature cover songs. In short, it's not the best representative example of her work, unless you want reggae-fied versions of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Row Row Row Your Boat."

Her previous (of four) CDs, I CAN DO IT! has a more well-rounded collection of basic thoughts, such as "Saturday's My Favorite Day" and "Let's Plant a Tree." We're talking about simple children's tunes, with a beat and easy-to-repeat choruses. Patty cleanly and professionally delineates her ideas and takes her audience exactly where she needs them to go. What to expect from "Vroom, Goes the Red Race Car" and "Let's Plant a Tree."

At first listen to Miss Nina, we were convinced that our younger son would not "get it." To our amazement, when we made the CD available to him, he proceeded to sit there and study it, then play guitar along with it, for the next month (until he moved on to another CD). Patty Shukla may just be the next artist he gets into. As Stefan pointed out, this is not music for US (i.e., adults). And we'll deal with it. It's just cool that he's getting into music, like his brother. (END NOTE: Patty just gave birth, like, last week. So she'll deal with it, too.)

Patty Shukla's CDs and DVDs are available at her website, iTunes, and Amazon.

Here is the video for her song, "I Like to Dance":

The Point of Harry Nilsson

Stefan Shepherd interviewed Recess Monkey's Drew Holloway recently about the late Harry Nilsson and his influence on the band's music.

I posted a response to his Zooglobble blog with a few sketchy memories and just wanted to flesh them out here, from the dark recesses of my mind.

In 1971, an animated special was produced called The Point, based on a musical concept from Harry Nilsson. In a nutshell, it's a fable about being different.

I missed the initial airing on NBC, but no matter. In 1972, my class and every other third-grade class was marched into the school auditorium and we watched The Point. I went home singing "Me and My Arrow," which later turned up in a commercial for the badly-manufactured car of the same name.

Years later, even with the sweep of the Internet, advent of iTunes, and the deviousness of Napster, I never thought about investigating the music of Harry Nilsson.

One day, we played an album (yes, a record) of TV themes for my son. After it was over, I started singing one of them, "Best Friend," the theme to The Courtship of Eddie's Father. As usual, my son asked his standard question, "Who sang that?" I did some research on Harry Nilsson and we began listening to his songs with some regularity.

Nilsson had the ability to sing about almost anything. Even a nonsense song like "Coconut," which would have pegged any other artist as a one-hit wonder. I was tremendously sad to have to tell my son (in a carefully worded remark) that he wasn't recording any new material.

You can hear Harry Nilsson's influence on a number of childrens artists, from Recess Monkey (Drew's remarks, which begat this post) to the audio/visual mastery of Gustafer Yellowgold. Even though Nilsson is no longer around, his songs and spirit survive, and I'll be looking for The Point this holiday season.