New Albums from Fan Favorites
March roared in with the arrival of music from two evergreen children’s performers – Laurie Berkner and The Wiggles. Not one to let something like a pandemic slow her down, on March 5, Laurie released her 14th album, Let’s Go! Filled with her signature style these 16 songs, running a brief 33 minutes total, will not disappoint. Tracks like “When It’s Cold,” “Time to Eat,” and “Jumping Jack” would be welcome additions to storytimes as they encourage children to wiggle, jump, spin, clap, and knock while “Happy New Year” is the perfect way to end this year’s Noon Year’s Eve events. Reminders of the times in which we live are evident in “The Superhero Handwashing Song,” “The Superhero Mask Song,” and the opening track, “Let’s Go!” which celebrates the building excitement as everyone gets ready to go outside. In addition to all of this fun, there are also some quiet moments, times for mindfulness and reflection in “Listen to the Sounds,” and “Beautiful Light.”
March 5 must have been a special day because it also saw the release of We’re All Fruit Salad: The Wiggles Greatest Hits. Featuring 40 of the group’s most popular songs, this super album celebrates 30 years of the iconic Australian children’s group. As the originators of what came to be known as “cradle rock,” the music of The Wiggles stands the test of time and will entertain old and new fans. Enjoy the delightful video for the title track “We’re All Fruit Salad!” – a takeoff on one of their hits, Packed with three decades of music and fun, there is only one thing left to say about this album – yummy, yummy!
“I’m an a cappella fella with an a cappella family,” declares Steve Pullara on the opening track from his latest album, An A Cappella Family. Over the course of ten light, uplifting songs, Steve and his talented “family,” a group of musicians who recorded the entire album from a distance during the pandemic, entertain listeners with clever lyrics and jaunty melodies. The songs cover a wide range of topics including having gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe, the fun of slurping while eating, and the trials of losing your car in the parking lot. Also included are songs about a family’s adopted dog Bowzer and adopted cat Whiskers, a great tune about the fact that almost everything in life arrives at the store via truck, and a cool song about friends that proudly declares, “Big or small, short or tall, my friends come in all shapes and sizes.” While the majority of the album is very up tempo, things do slow down a bit with songs like “Midnight on the Moon” and “Ti Amo Lullaby.”
A Mind of Your Own by 
Follow up the music of The Bright Siders with the nine quiet, gentle tracks of Yoga Dreamland from 
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a Youth Services librarian in a medium sized suburban library. A couple of weeks ago, the relevancy of CDs came up in a networking group of children’s librarians. The question was – are the children’s music collections in public libraries still being checked out? Roughly 90% of the respondents said that even before the pandemic folks had stopped checking the music out and that they had either already removed their music collections or were in the process of doing so. Even though streaming music and viewing music videos on YouTube are on the rise, I still found myself surprised by this, especially since our music collection still sees a lot of use. Shortly after that, a call went out among youth library staff in a national networking group looking for songs on a certain theme. The majority of the suggestions made were songs by artists who have been used in programs for years and years. Both of these discussions raised the questions for me – How do we get library staff to move beyond the old standbys? And how will our families learn of new, exciting, diverse performers with songs that don’t sound like stereotypical children’s music, if we don’t introduce them through the physical CD or our programs? That’s where 8 Pound Gorilla Records comes in.
