Childrens Music

I look for music enjoyable by adults, especially for music to be replayed endlessly. Staying away from the Barney stuff (I haven't even heard it) or other stuff that would be irritating when repeated endlessly. I don't have time to put links onto the CD names so you'll have to look them up on your favorite shopping sites on your own.

Lullabies

I like all of these. They are all pretty different, even though they are all lullabies.

• Mediterranean Lullaby published by Ellipsis Arts - probably our favorite collection of lullabies - we used to play it every night
• The World Sings Goodnight
• Lullaby a collection - Music for Little People
• The Planet Sleeps
• Under the Green Corn Moon (Native American lullabies)
• Guitar Lullaby with Ricardo Cobo
  If I ever took up guitar again, it would be to play the music on this CD
• On a Starry Night - Windham Hill

Kindermusik

We have the following CDs from Kindermusik:

• Rig-a-jig-jig
• Zoom-e-oh
• Too-da-la

These contain active music, probably for toddlers and older. Consistently good musicians. Some arrangements and songs are pretty boring, but in general the music is good.

You can order the above three from their web site www.kindermusik.com

Music For Little People

A nice publisher of good children's music, including:

• A Child's Celebration of Folk Music
• A Child's Celebration of the World
• A Child's Celebration of Song
• Shake Sugaree by Taj Mahal
• and the lullaby album listed earlier

Other Active Music

This includes

• Not for Kids Only - David Grisman and Jerry Garcia - bluegrass-y, silly, relatively mellow for active music
• Go Itsy - Asheba - "for kids Caribbean Style" - my son loves this
• Sesame Street Kids' Favorite Songs - this was the CD that put me off about Sesame Street - a bit manic, but gradually my son got old enough to where he really liked this CD for awhile.

Classical

Some of these collections seem more like generic classical collections marketed as if actually was some special effort to design it for babies or children. Some of the collections fall short of being able to believe this about them.

• Baby Mozart Soundtrack - pretty nice - short
• UltraSound - nice collection
• Smart Symphonies - nice collection - got this for free at the hospital
• Classical Music for Little Ones - Sony - nice collection of baroque (predominately) and other styles
• Baby Dance - a nice collection, but it made me want to hear full versions of the music instead of the little snippets on this CD. Better as a classical sampler than as a children's music collection.

Other Music

This includes

• Seal Maiden - Karan Casey and Friends - for somewhat older kids - a musical folk tale, the tale on which "The Secret of Roan Inish" was based.
• Di Grine Katscke - Klezmatics - Yiddish animal songs for children
• Old and In The Way - Old and In The Way - bluegrass album with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clements, and a bass player. Bluegrass by rock and rollers. Some lyrics aren't for kids, but my son loved this CD from the first time he heard it. I'd forgotten about the lyrics in some of the songs since I hadn't heard it in a while, so when I played it for him, he really related to the happiness in the music so it's too late to take it away. Since I'm able to burn custom CDs, I have burned one for my son that excludes the songs with lyrics that I don't care for him to hear right now. (This is another example supporting the fair use doctrine about music licensing and against copy protection of music CDs).
• Free to Be You and Me - Marlo Thomas and Friends - he's not yet ready for this.
• Return to Pooh Corner - Kenny Loggins - Liked House on Pooh Corner song (not on this CD) but didn't like this CD very much. Some people love it.
• Bolivian/Peruvian music - my son loves this type of music. His favorite is Festivity by Rayme.