Grammy awards - Kids Music

When I decided to feature the nominees for the Grammy awards this week in the categories especially for kids I thought it would be a piece of cake. I expected that people would be using the Internet to its best advantage to provide sound clips. I soon learned that finding clips from the featured nominees was going to be tough. Along the way I did find a few other gems that I'm going to pass on to you. Now the nominees.

Category 62 Best Musical Album For Children
All Aboard!, John Denver [Sony Wonder Records]
It took me a while of poking around the Sony web sites because they have more than one. But then I found The Station@sony.com. This page gives you a jukebox with lyrics that allow you to sing along with John Denver. There's also Wonderland, which is the kids area of Station@sony.com. It's one place the kids are going to hang around for quite a while. For a review of this record, check out John Denver: All Aboard.

Bigger Than Yourself, John McCutcheon [Rounder Kids Records]
Rounder Records 8044 has a description of this album, but no samples, and there's not too much to interest a kid. Folkmusic.com has a page on this release with lyrics for each of the songs. Though there are no sound samples for this particular album, all of John McCutcheon's albums are listed on John McCutcheon:The Music. Look for the music notes to find the albums with samples.

Shakin' A Tailfeather, Taj Mahal, Eric Bibb & Linda Tillery (& The Cultural Heritage Choir) [Music For Little People]
I couldn't find anything of substance on this release.

Songs From A Parent To A Child, Art Garfunkel [Sony Wonder Records]
The same jukebox at Sonywonder also has a sing along for this album. You can click here to jump directly to this selection. Sonywonder also has spoken word stories that kids can read along with. Go here and click on Webtime stories to see the choices.

This Land Is Your Land, Arlo Guthrie & (Woody Guthrie) [Rounder Records]
Rounder 8050 has a page on this album. Informative but not very interesting for kids.

After I had written this article, I found Music Boulevard. This online record store has 30-second samples of all of the nominees in this catagory.

Category 63 Best Spoken Word Album For Children
The Original Story Of Winnie-The-Pooh, Long John