Music! Music! Music!

You might be considering buying music for a family on your Christmas list. I come to you on behalf of parents everywhere, begging you to put down the Fisher Price Little People CD and keep looking. (I only pick on Little People because I once fell prey to them, myself, and I rue the day.)

We're as enthusiastic about music as we are about books, so I thought it only fitting that you get a list of family music that we love, too. This is music I've discovered in my internet adventures that kids genuinely love and grownups can also enjoy. There's a mix here of more traditional kid's albums (like Raffi and vintage Sesame Street) and folk/indie-rock flavoured children's music to satisfy the pseudo-hipster parent (like Dan Zanes and Justin Roberts), with a little pirate music thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

Buckwheat Zydeco (website)
Choo Choo Boogaloo

Captain Bogg & Salty (website)
Pegleg Tango
Bedtime Stories for Pirates

Dan Zanes and Friends (website)
Catch That Train
House Party Time
Family Dance
Night Time
Rocket Ship Beach

Duplex
Ablum by Duplex!

Jack Johnson and Friends
Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George

Justin Roberts (website)
Meltdown
Great Big Sun
Why Not Sea Monsters?: Songs from the New Testament
Why Not Sea Monsters?: Songs from the Hebrew Scriptures

Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell
Catch the Moon

Peter, Paul and Mommy
Peter, Paul and Mary

Putumayo Artists (website)
World Playground
World Playground 2
Folk Playground
African Playground
Sing Along With Putumayo

Raffi (website)
The Singable Songs Collection
Bananaphone

Sergei Prokofiev (comp.) et al, Dame Edna Everage (narr.)
Peter and the Wolf (also includes The Story of Babar and The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra)

Sesame Street
Sesame Street Platinum: All Time Favorites

They Might Be Giants (website)
No!

Various Artists
Bright Spaces

Various Artists
For the Kids
For the Kids, Too!

Various Artists
Sunny (book with CD)