The Family Garden~CD Review

                    

Out in the yard there's a patch of dirt
        where the sun shines hard and the sprinklers squirt,
where me and my whole family love to go ....

The Family Garden leaps spryly from country to ragtime to rock.  The music is peppy and fun, featuring songs for all age groups, from the interactive "I'm Thinking of an Animal" for the preschool set to a tune for older kids titled "It's Close Enough," which pays tribute to all things ALMOST perfect. Parents will dig Billy’s cover of the B-52s’ classic "Rock Lobster” — high-spirited rock and roll played with wild abandon.  Molly Ledford from the band Lunch Money co-wrote and joins Billy in singing the sweetly sincere “We Could Be Pen Pals.”  There’s even a patriotic country song written for Billy’s dad. “That Old American Flag” is based on the true story of a father-and-son project, erecting a 25-foot flagpole outside Billy’s childhood home. Other highlights include “Coney Island Washboard (a ragtime tune dating back to the 1920s), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (a tribute to Billy’s favorite movie), and the album’s title track, an ode to the joys of digging in the dirt with the whole family. Particularly noteworthy is “The Invention of the Straw,” which Billy describes as “a real up-tempo number, chronicling the amazing, albeit factually inaccurate, story of the invention of the drinking straw. This is a truly strange song, even for me. It’s loaded with completely false information from beginning to end. This song asserts, among other things, that Nancy Reagan was Queen of England in 1997. Also, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.”

On January 1st, 2009  Billy Kelly made a New Year's resolution to record a CD of some of the songs he had written over the years for his two daughters. A few months later Thank You For Joining The Happy Club was released.  Much to Billy’s delight, the album was rapidly embraced by kids’ music bloggers, kids’ music radio programs, and, most importantly, by kids!  His song “People Really Like Milk” went to #1 on Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live chart, remaining on the chart for the better part of summer 2009, and scoring a glowing review on NPR’s All Things Considered. Thank You For Joining The Happy Club made the Time Out New York Kids and About.com/Children’s Music “Best Kids’ CDs of 2009” lists.  Common Sense Media praised the album’s “School-House-Rock feel that’s super fun … vast appeal for kids and adults alike.”  Warren Truitt of Kids’ Music That Rocks called the CD “a super set of indie rock songs for kids … Breezy, slyly humorous tunes … Super duper children’s music debut!”

I took this album along on the babysitting night too! It was another favorite for the kids and we had little ones from 2 years old to 8 years old. Some of their favorite songs were~

The Happy Happy Whistling Song

Scootdootdoodlydoo

I’m Thinking of An Animal

You can purchase this album here!

You can connect with Billy Kelly on Facebook.

~I received a product sample in order to write my review. I received no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed are mine.