Fern - Hopping Into Easter with Fern

Fern – Hopping Into Easter With Fern
2012, Fern’s Music/Fern Forest Enterprises

Fern is a musician, songwriter and educator who writes and plays songs for children ages 0 to 7.  Long recognized for the quality and energy in her songwriting, Fern’s work has been trumpeted by Boston radio stations WERS and USA Today.  Fern has six children’s albums under her belt, and entertains children all throughout New England.  Fern’s latest effort, Hopping Into Easter With Fern, brings the usual blend of sentimentality, intelligence and snappy songwriting that has characterized Fern’s recording career thus far.  Together with her sidekick, Charlie the six foot tall chipmunk, Fern enchants her listeners with a personable style and a sense of childish wonder. 

Fern kicks things off with a song about the Easter Bunny and how he gets all over the world on Easter Eve.  The speculative folk-country number lists through many of the travel options of the hallowed hare, ultimately settling on magic as the means.  At just under two minutes this is a light snack that kiddos will enjoy.  “Powder Puff Bunny” is a funny little tune that celebrates the multi-colored eggs the Easter Bunny leaves on Easter number.  It’s a catchy number that will have the pediatric set dancing about, and will likely drive parents bonkers by the third listen.  Fern digs into a jazzy version of “Peter Cottontail”, complete with finger snaps and some pretty snazzy piano work.

It’s off to the islands for “The Chocolate Bunny”, with Fern spinning the tale of one piece of Easter booty to a reggae beat.  Fern deconstructs her chocolate bunny right before our very ears, ending up with the inevitable tummy ache.  It’s a cute number that kids will appreciate.    “The Easter Duck’s Parade” has romper room cadence of the sort that has pervaded children’s albums for the last three or four decades.  The bouncy feel will keep little ones interested, and the real live duck sounds add some amusement.  “Little Peter Rabbit” goes for a repetitive build, repeating key phrases while exploring new actions for the song’s subject.  This one is aimed at the younger portion of Fern’s audience, and the older kids will be getting antsy before the song is half over. 

“Here Comes Spring” is done in classic folk song style with perhaps just a touch of Appalachian flavor.  The repetitive nature of the song may wear on some listeners, but from a folk song perspective this is fairly standard.  “Pretty Flowers – Just For You” is a sweet little children’s ballad, and is perfectly written for Fern’s audience.  There’s an air of lullaby here, and Fern’s builds in some great atmosphere in the dual piano/synthesizer arrangement.  “Eggbert, The Easter Egg” takes on a vaudevillian style in the arrangement, while sounding like the sort of cutesy novelty children’s tune that Dr. Demento might have played in his prime.  It’s a cute little number that sounds like it should accompany a Rankin & Rankin television special.  Fern closes out her celebration of Easter with “The Egg Hunt”, speculating on whether all the eggs have been found.  It’s a catchy closer that the kids will appreciate.

Fern, along with her friend Charlie the Chipmunk, gets her audience.  That’s a fact that’s very apparent on Hopping Into Easter with Fern.  She displays that enigmatic je ne said quoi that makes a local or regional children’s favorite what they are.  At the same time, Fern’s voice could be a tough sell, to a wider audience.  The personality and charisma that Fern displays on Hopping Into Easter With Fern is unmistakable, but her tone and pitch both have their rough spots, and vocal purists just won’t be able to last long here.  The kids will love the music, of course, and just like artists such as Raffi and Sharon, Lois and Bram before here, the songs will occasionally drive parents out of their minds.  But Fern is the real deal, and she survives and thrives among the toughest music connoisseurs for one reason – she’s real. There’s nothing fake or contrived here.  In this way, Fern finds her own moments of musical beauty.

Rating:  3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Fern at www.fernsmusicforkids.com. 

Review: Bryant Oden – Songdrops: 30 Songs For Kids

Bryant Oden – Songdrops: 30 Songs For Kids
2009, Bryant Oden

Bryant Oden followed the path many Indie musicians take; where music is a love, a hobby while careers are pursued; but sooner or later the artist must follow his muse. Oden has been writing songs since his teens both comical and serious. A native of Oklahoma, Oden moved to Denver after college to be closer to the mountains; his inspiration. With a Masters in Education Psychology, Oden has worked as a counselor, an ESL teacher in a high school and as an entrepreneur. Over the years he has entertained family and friends (and occasionally strangers) with his comical children’s songs. After hearing for the umpteenth time that he should record them, Oden set out to do just that in 2008. It appears that Oden has struck a chord. His The Duck Song has over 3.5 million streams on various media sites, while several other songs have over 100,000 streams each. On November 1, 2009, Oden releases his first album, Songdrops: 30 Songs For Kids. Kids love The Duck Song. Parents love The Duck Song. Will Songdrops deliver on its promise?

There are children’s albums for children; children’s albums for adults, and the best kind: albums so masterfully written that children and adults get them on different levels and both enjoy them. Listening to a group like Trout Fishing In America will give you an example of the latter. Such bands/albums are rarities as even the folks capable of writing them don’t nail them all the time. In his masterful and humorous creation, The Duck Song, Bryant Oden gets there for a shining moment. The album born from that inspiration, Songdrops, never quite gets there again. That’s not to say it’s a bad collection of songs, but Oden never quite hits that same level of divine inspiration on the other 29 songs presented on Songdrops. Ultimately, this is a children’s album full of songs that adults will think kids will think are fun or funny funny, but may have a hard time gaining much traction with the kiddos.

Oden opens with The Duck Song, a fine and funny song with a classic vaudevillian twist at the end; enjoyable for everyone. I Got A Pea is a cute song built around an age-appropriate double-entendre that will have the kids cracking up and will even bring a smile on the parents faces. Perhaps the biggest drawback to the album overall, a conceit, if you will, is the use of Chipmunks style vocal mixing on the album. It sounds as if Oden has sped up his vocal lines to raise the pitch of his voice, creating an Oden-on-helium sound with rapid-fire vibrato mixed in. It may amuse the younger set at first, but it becomes grating quite quickly and doesn’t really seem to serve any purpose in the long run. This shows through clearly for the first time on Songdrops, which is cute buy annoying because of the vocal thing.

I enjoyed Bob The Snail, an ode to an unusual pet, and I Love U (It’s My Favorite Letter) will get little feet moving, but it just doesn’t have that quality that will have your toddlers walking around singing it at the top of their lungs a few hours or days later (a mixed blessing). The Unfinished Song will bring you back to your Scholastic Book Club days with Madlibs set to music, but the song may well be over the head of the younger kids. Oden hits his best “serious” moment on Sing You A Rainbow, seeming to summon the spirits of Raffi and John Denver in a sweet moment that will appeal to the sentimentality of the Moms listening (and a few of the Dads). Oden may go over the line a tad for some parents on I Don’t Like Tomatoes; getting very close to something some folks may consider a hot-button word for your toddlers. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with it, but there are some parents out there that won’t appreciate the humor on this one.

Oden is a humorous guy. He enjoys writing and playing for kids, and the songs are honest and well-intended. The quality is very much hit-or-miss throughout the album. The Duck Song is a classic, and there are a couple of other entries here that are very well done, but on the whole Songdrops leaves a lot to be desired as a children’s album. In the end I wouldn’t play it for my own kids, as after listening to folks such as Laurie Berkner, Trout Fishing In America, Elizabeth Mitchell and even The Smudge Fundaes, Songdrops just wouldn’t hold their attention.

Rating: 2 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Bryant Oden at http://www.songdrops.com/ or on Facebook. Songdrops will be released on November 1, 2009. Expect availability on iTunes. For information on CD available keep checking Oden’s website. You can listen to the tracks on his site, or watch videos on YouTube.