Music that puts you to sleep

A number of sleepytime tunes have come across the OWTK desk recently and two of the best bedtime records I have heard recently are Mae Robertson's "Dream" and "Siente" - Night Songs From Around The World. I am always interesting in cool new dreamy songs for my girls to listen to while sleeping so discovering these two gems in the mailbox last month was truly exciting.

At bedtime, we usually set the mode on repeat - allowing the disc to play all night long, thus instilling a love (or eventual utter disdain) of music 'round the clock!

Robertson' "Dream" is a lovely collection of fourteen relaxing and peaceful nighttime cuts. This disc represents my introduction to Robertson, but she is nowhere near a newcomer to the kids lullaby scene (is there such a scene?). "Dream" marks fourth installment of Mae's beautifully conceived "Lullabies and Lovesongs" series. On "Dream", Robertson interprets classic songs of Dar Williams, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Tom Waits and the grandfather of cool Robert 'Bob Dylan' Zimmerman. She does a remarkable job of transforming great songs into delightful lullabies without turning them into a big bowl of mush. This is no simple task, for the process of slowing a tune up then making it smooth and gentle will often have disastrous effects. Fortunately, Mae Robertson's deft touch is near-golden allowing this album to come alive as your child drifts away to the land of (winken, blinken and) nod.

Being a font and design junkie, I was immediately taken by the layout of the artwork and the simple, classy fonts used on the front cover. "Dream", as with the previous three installments, is a gorgeous album. It is as good on the eyes as it is on the ears.

Visit MaeRobertson.com and order "Dream" today!

Siente - Night Songs From Around The World is a gently sweeping record featuring Hilary Field on guitar and Patrice O'Neill on vocals. This serene album is comprised of thirteen tracks over 54 minutes - moving between continents and languages. The musicianship on this disc is stunning. The guitar is always at center stage with mandolin and elegant horns gracefully rounding out the sound on this accomplished world music lullaby collection. Any parent, especially a new mom or dad with a tiny infant at home, should cherish this disc. It is not hard to imagine a parent stealing more than a few moments of shut-eye along side their precious bundle with the songs of Siente floating softly around the nursery.

The good people at Yellow Tail Records have provided me with an extra copy of Siente. For your chance to win this fine CD, simply send an email to OWTK. One winner will be selected at random on Monday, Sept 3rd. As always, OWTK will never share your email address or send you unwanted mail. Thanks and Good Luck!

Visit the Siente website.

The Bear and the Mouse...Like Castanets

Quick post...after 15 months of Out With The Kids I have finally decided on "blog" names for my children. And they are: The Bear (the 3 1/2 year old toddler) and the Mouse (the 3 month old darling girl). So there, that is done.

Also, check out "Like Castanets" from Bishop Allen. It may be my favorite song of all time (or at least of the Summer 2007). This video makes no sense, so just close your eyes and listen. Oh, and this is slightly different (not quite as good) as the version included on "The Broken String" the band's new full length (which is a collection of previously released songs). Great song for the kids as well...in addition to the very clever "Click, Click, Click" from Bishop Allen - the Bear sings along with that easy to remember chorus.

Justin Roberts @ Longwood Gardens

Last night, amid the spitting rain and ominous charcoal clouds we drove 30 minutes south to Kennett Square for the Justin Roberts show at Longwood Gardens. Thanks to the nasty April-ish weather the show was moved from this beautiful outdoor set-up to the less-dramatic, but perfectly fine indoor special events tent.

The event was part of Longwood's Festival of Fountains performance series. This one was billed as an ice cream concert for Families, but that amounted to individually wrapped frozen treats for sale, not a grandiose sundae-bar style that I was imagining (or dreaming of).

Before the show we strolled the grounds and discovered some cute little exhibits in the main Conservatory. There were four stations for kids to get their hands dirty (literally) - stamping and coloring, bees, worms and dirt, and ladybugs. At the ladybug table, kids learned a bit about the benefit of ladybugs and were asked to help out by carrying a stick with a bug or two over to a plant that needed their assistance in killing off a sickness.

While walking around, we passed these colorful lollipop plants. They look good enough to eat! ...almost. Longwood is absolutely beautiful and well worth the $16 admission cost for adults (kids under 4 free). A nature lover could spend hours there - inside and out - enjoying the sight, smells and sounds of the beautifully maintained grounds. Unfortunately, we only arrived 30 minutes before the 7:30 showtime, meaning we did not see much more than what was on our path to the event tent.

The show started promptly at 7:30 with Justin taking stage in a bright red short-sleeve dress shirt. Roberts brought along with him performer and producer Liam Davis. Liam acted as a sort of one-man band with a tambourine on his right foot, kazoo in mouth, keyboard to his left and bongo in front of him. They played for exactly an hour, sprinkling in songs from each of his five records, playing four from "Meltdown" his stellar 2006 release - "I Chalk", "Imaginary Rhino", "Cartwheels & Somersaults", "My Brother Did It", and the title track "Meltdown". The show, even without a full band (we look forward to see them in NYC in October as part of Target's Kids Festival), was a fun and upbeat affair. Much more so than I thought for what pretty much amounted to an acoustic performance (save for Liam strumming a low-volume electric guitar on two songs). So, the lesson here is: go see Justin Roberts live even if the full band is not supporting that particular show.

A hilarious kiddie mosh pit formed instantly in front of the stage, with Justin providing some instructions for dances, motions and sounds before most songs - some of the kids complied but most were just bouncing around to some of the finest children's music being made today. Roberts played three cuts from 2001's "Yellow Bus" - "Willy was a Whale", "Giraffe/Nightengale (opened the show - lovely number), and the title track "Yellow Bus". I counted two tracks from "Way Out" - "Day Camp" and "Airplane of Food". He also debuted a brand new diddy about a superhero boy with no particular super powers, again, very good stuff.

Read my review of Justin Roberts' latest effort "Meltdown".

Buy Roberts' CDs from The Pokey Pup!

Big Pile of Poo

This weekend turned out miserably. We did nothing we set out to do - meaning we did not head to New York to see The National on Friday night. We did not drive to Charlottesville to see John Prine and Josh Ritter on Saturday. We did attend my wife's family reunion on Sunday - in a chilly all-day downpour. What Fun!

Add to that a terrible night of sleep (I really shouldn't even use that word) on Sunday night and A Big Pile of Poo becomes an extremely appropriate term to describe our 72-weekend hours. Our gal (not the baby!) was up, oh, about every stinkin' hour screaming her head-off. She was uncontrollable and inconsolable. Zombie-esque? Freaky Evil Toddler? Yep, either one would work.

Last night, the Mrs. and I got a much needed night out alone. We headed to a soggy Philadelphia for a couple slices of Lorenzo's pizza and the Wolf Parade show at the TLA (I refuse to call it the Filmore East at the TLA or whatever it is now called). What an awesome way to spend 1.5 hours. The band from Montreal played mostly new tracks, which were great and very well received by the loving sold out crowd, sprinkling in a couple gems from Apologies to the Queen Mary. They came out for a rockin' 2 song encore, pleasing the masses greatly with "This Heart's on Fire" and "You are a runner and I am my father's son". One of the best live shows I have ever seen. And I got a parking spot right outside the venue. That has never happened. So, the rain wasn't all bad - it kept the usual crowd away from South St.

Tonight, we head to a soggy Longwood Gardens for a now indoor Justin Roberts show. Looking forward to this very much, as is my girl.

Oh, the OWTK email address has changed* Contact OWTK at:

OutWithTheKids_at_gmail_dot_com

*The pleasant, never helpful folks at Comcast, who told me I had 30 days worth of access to my old mail to move contacts, etc. apparently meant 3 days...so I lost all of my old emails and contacts. Lovely.

On the road with OWTK

So this afternoon we embark on a bit of a road trip. We are packing up the girls and driving up to Manhattan to have dinner and see The National play at the South Street Seaport. (Edit: No we're not. I cannot muster up the energy to drive 2 hours north only to end up 4 hours south. Maybe I am losing my rock-n-roll edge or just being a little wiser - or perhaps a bit of both). Instead, we are going to meander south, stopping for some Inner Harbor action (paddle boats anyone?) and dinner before continuing on...to Charlottesville, Virginia. We are spending a couple nights in a hotel outside of D.C. to break up the drive down and then again back home after the show...oh! yes, I have not yet mentioned why the drive to VA. We are going to see John Prine and Josh Ritter there - to lay on a blanket outside on the grass with the girls under the stars and the 52 degree temps (wow - sweatshirt weather in mid-August in Virginia - how perfect!)

This is part one of our week long music marathon. On Monday night, the Mrs. and I (sans children) are heading to Philly to see Wolf Parade and then on Tuesday night the whole family will be at Longwood Gardens for an ice cream social, firefly night, colorful water/fountain show and a Justin Roberts performance. Sounds awesome, no?

Oh, by the way - I didn't suck last night. I shut down the laptop, kept the TV off and engaged my gal in almost 4 hours of one on one play. Guess what, she slept good too! How rad!

iSuck

I have been failing as a father this summer. My patience, never a strong suit of mine, has been worn paper thin. My 3 1/2 year old is pushing her boundaries, testing her parents, not sleeping well, being lazy when it comes to using the bathroom (meaning she pees a bit in her undies before meandering into the john - every.single.time.) and countless other standard-issue toddler behaviors. I am losing my cool at home on a daily basis and it I feel like crap about it. Thing is, I know, in my right mind, what to do and how to react to these mini-meltdowns, contrived tears and such but the short-fused adult takes over before the calm dad ever has a fighting chance.

I feel like my strong, loving relationship with my daughter could crumble if I do not figure out how to behave well when she is not. And that cannot happen. Not to mention my relationship with the more-mild-mannered Mrs. which has been, um, rocky thanks to my inability to just deal.

Additional, I feel like a fat (that's an 'f' not the considerably more hip 'ph') lazy bum. This is nothing new either, but I have not felt like blogging about such toddler drama or mundane laziness.
Save for sports, football specifically, we are not TV watchers yet over the past couple of months I have had the thing on nightly, mainly to watch the Phillies flounder in an eventually flawed pennant chase. I have noticed a severe drop in the amount of time we spend playing, conversing and generally enjoying each other's company as a result of the amped up TV time.
Certainly this is souring my mood around the house. I feel like when I go to bed, I have wasted an entire night - YET THAT DOESN'T STOP ME FROM TURNING ON THE GAME AGAIN THE NEXT NIGHT! AHHH!!

I just gotta stop it.

Tonight, I am going to try something different, well not different per se - just something more in line with the first 3 years I spent as a father. We are going to do Playdoh, color, paint, run around in our (dry!) underwear, dance through the sprinkler, play Candyland, eat pizza sitting on the floor, put each others hair into crazy shapes and ponytails, and anything else we can think of that doesn't involve the television...at least until the Chiefs preseason game comes on at eight o'clock. Sorry, but it's football (said in an extra whiny voice).

OWTK Recipe Box - Crabcakes!

A house favorite. This one, like most crabcake recipes, is extremely simple, easy and quick. Very kid friendly. Here is what you are going to need:

Makes 6 nice size cakes, serving 3 adults (or two adults and two kids).

1/2 lb of backfin/lump/jumbo lump crabmeat
1 heaping tbspn of stone ground mustard (can replace with your favorite kind of mustard)
1 heaping tbspn of mayo
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of finely diced bell pepper (red, yellow of orange for best presentation)
1/2 cup of finely diced vidalia onion
Plain (unseasoned) breadcrumbs (tough part here is that I have no idea how much or little I use inside the bowl when mixing everything together. just go on feeling. you don't want too much, since you will be "breading" the cakes once formed)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Saute pepper and onion in some olive oil until onion is transparent. Set aside to cool.
• Pour a big mound of breadcrumbs onto a large flat plate. Have a clean plate right next door.
• In a large bowl mix the 1st four ingredients together, careful not to rough up the crab. You want to combine all the stuff without crumbling the nice chunks of crab (especially if you go with lump or jumbo lump). I gently flip everything around with a fork.
• Toss in the now-cool peppers and onions along with the breadcrumbs and mix again.
• Grab a palm full of the crab mixture and form the cakes one at a time, about an inch thick. Sit them in the breadcrumbs and coat them lightly, then set aside on the clean plate.
• Heat up a few tbspns of olive oil, medium-high heat, in a non-stick pan and softly lay the cakes in the oil, but don't crowd them. You might have to do two batches, depending on how big a pan you use. Should only take 4-5 minutes on each side, crispy golden brown. I flip softly with fork underneath and a finger on top to guide the cake back into the hot oil.
• Serve over sweet yellow corn.
• Sometime I will serve with my lame remoulade. I mix stone ground mustard with mayo and a bit of ketchup. It is ok, but not nearly as good as what you would be served in a restaurant.

Explaining Death to a Toddler

We have been very fortunate in that no one in our family has passed away in quite some time. There has been no need, and it seems this discussion is only conducted as needed, to go over what death is, what it means to die, and what the word dead is all about.

Naturally, I haven't the foggiest clue how I would answer any of these questions and really didn't think about my eventual answer...that is until my gal overhead older cousins taking about death as depicted in a Star Wards movie. Being the curious lass that she is, she wanted to know what it meant. I stumbled like a 13 year old caught with porn. I half started a couple sentences before my older brother stepped in to simply define for her death as when "your body stops working". She was fine with that and went along her merry way. Whoof, that was close. I almost had to come up with something on the fly that could have shaped her fears/imagination/etc about the topic of sickness/death for some time.

Seems then that toddlers don't need a lot of details, not all the time anyway. A short easy to transferable definition - something that has stopped working (batteries dying in a toy, etc) - satisfies their need to know and lets us grown ups off the hook, at least for a few more years, of sharing any of the nasty bits.

Thanks Bro!

Owl Moon - A kid thing that I love

So landis mom, of the super duper blog Bumblee Sweet Potato, recently returned from my favorite place in the world - Provence, France. Upon her return she launched a neat little contest asking fellow bloggers to write about "a kid-type thing that you enjoy more than your kids–or enjoy more than most adults do, because of your kids."

This one was kinda hard for me, although I'm not sure why. I think I was overthinking...or underthinking...or something. Anyway, what I love more than my girl are fine, well-written, skillfully illustrated hardback children's books (and that is saying something, considering how much she loves 'em) - you know the kind with flowery language, striking images and the like. I would never have read a single one of these books if not for my kids.

I am talking about books like Adele and Simon, and specifically, for the purposes of this contest, a lovely edition titled Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.

Owl Moon is a gorgeous book about a young girl and her father walking into the woods at night. They are going owling and it is the youngster's first time. The text is dripping with subtle beauty and the idea behind the story, at least for me, is superb - a dad sharing a middle of the night outdoorsy tradition with his little lady. There is a line in the book, towards the end, where the girl is describing the feeling of hot cloth fabric covering her mouth as a way to protect from the cold night air and the silence that is required for owling when she says "our mouths filled with the heat of words not spoken".

Simply amazing sentence. Amazing book.

Happy "Stage Names" Day

Today is the official release of my favorite band's new record. Okkervil River releases their 4th full length on this day. Thanks to a label pre-order deal, I received a digital version of the 9 tracks a couple weeks ago and have been listening non-stop ever since - yet I remain giddy about today, August 7th. I am happy for the band, that this day marks the wide-spread availability of their latest effort, and excited, in general, about a release date even for a record I already own - technically. I wonder if the joy of a record's release date is something future generations will possess, what with all the advanced leaks and such on the web.

I remember way back when I was growing up, when the actual day a record was released was the first time it was heard by just about anybody, aside from college radio and the indie zines and related press. What a wonderful day it was when the Afghan Whigs put out a new effort, or Silkworm unleashed another disc that would eventually break a label (ha).

Things are surely different now, not necessary in a bad way - just different. I like what labels like Jagjaguwar are doing to combat the digital download era, or at least find a space inside it that makes sense. With releasing the digital version early to those who pre-order the CD and also making available a demos bonus disc, they are attacking the digital era not by complaining and bitching about lost revenue - but instead by getting creative and dreaming up new ways to package and present physical media. Josh Ritter, who also has a new record coming out this month, is also trying a few different things. A pre-order gets you a bonus 4 track disc of unreleased stuff and a pre-order of a ticket to one of the shows on his fall tour gets you a download of the lead track on his new album. Again, clever, interesting and engaging the consumer - not whining about the state of the business. So maybe the CD will not die after all. Maybe the industry will run with these and other ideas and reinvent the way music is sold. It is said that necessasity breeds invention and well, the old guard music biz sure as hell needs to figure something out to remain relevant.

I look forward to opening up my mailbox this week to discover the physical "Stage Names" CD and the accompaying bonus disc of solo demo versions of each track. I can't wait to read through the lyrics and see the artwork (something OR records are quite known for by this point).

If you have never heard of Okkervil River, and it is still likely that you have not, give them a shot. Perfect music for fans of "literate" (not my term) rock like The Decemberists, Bright Eyes, etc.

Listen to "Our like is not a movie or maybe" from "The Stage Names"