Love This Guy

As I am sure many parents can attest, I have a daughter who absolutely HATES riding in the car! (Hope she keeps this up into the teen years so we don't have to worry about her riding in cars with boys!) She seems to tolerate short trips (less than five minutes), but anything longer and we are dealing with serious issues.

Alas, we have succumbed to torturing ourselves with various children's music to make the ride tolerable for her (not us). I have logged in more highway miles listening to The Wiggles than any sane person should. Then, we decided to try the Laurie Berkner Band. That was great, for a while . . . and it seemed we'd hit a musical rut. We Are the Dinosaurs was ringing in my ears nonstop. I was going nuts listening to HER music.

Then, the miracle: a friend mentioned Dan Zanes and I found a cd at the library to try out. Holy cow! I had seem this goofy guy on Noggin once in a while, but never felt inclined to hunt him down. Now I am a woman on a mission. The tunes are bearable (and this is not just because it is something new). We checked out Dan Zanes and Friends, Night Time! and are loving it. Folky, funky and recognizable, these tunes do not create the fingernails on chalkboard affect that so many others before them had. ALL of the kids like these songs (which range from creative originals to sweet covers of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World). The boys groove along with their sister and sit back and relax - in the car no less! I think they even forgot about Green Day and the Black Eyed Peas for a moment. Could it get any better? Check out his stuff at: http://www.festivalfive.com