Customer Reviews

Day at the Farm With Farmer Jason

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have three daughters and live on a farm. They love music, but I've heard enough kiddy songs to have a gag reflex! "I love you, you love me more, Barney's a closet carnivore ..." Blah, blah, blah... (OK, I made that up.)

With Farmer Jason, you get music that you AND your kids both like. Lots of good easy, often humorous lyrics with a rockabilly beat. "Hey Little Lamb" has a Cajun twang to it, "Old Cow" has a guitar intro that will remind you of Folsom Prison Blues, and the album is bookended by numbers that are perfect for both getting up and going to bed. Not a bad lick on the CD. If you want to have some fun WITH your kids for a change, buy this one.

"Farmer" Dave

Having brought alt.country to Nashville with his early-80s band, The Scorchers, Ringenberg's released a series of adventurous solo works over the past few years. His latest takes listeners through a day at the farm, featuring eleven original children's songs that work hard from the rooster's first crow to the last cricket-backed rays of sundown.

The farm-raised Ringenberg has an ear for barnyard rhythms, inventively creating chickens from guitars, horses hooves from banjo strums, cows from cellos, and tractor engines from wah-wah guitars. The lyrics combine educational themes with flights of fancy, but remain elemental enough for young children to learn and sing over and over.

Ringenberg brings along the breadth of his earlier work, with guitar sounds that include strummed acoustics, bluegrass picking, tic-tac electrics and rock power chords. Fats Kaplin's banjo, fiddle and accordion add a twangy edge, including the Zydeco-influence of "Hey Little Lamb." Farmer Jason's musical farm is a blue-ribbon feast to be enjoyed by children and parents alike.

This is a fabulous record for kids. There's just nothing not to like. Good music, catchy lyrics, charming narration. Some kids records are condescending or a little too woo-woo-dance-around-the-maypole, but this one is down to earth and certainly a lot more relevant to my country child's life than freakin' Raffi.

Plus, "Hey Little Lamb" kinda rocks!

Whenever a friend of mine hears news that is startling, she yells, "Oh my God! Soylant Green is people!!" Okay, that's an obscure movie reference, but I thought of her when I first played "A Day at the Farm with Farmer Jason." Listening for the first time, I figured I was listening to just another corny kids disk. Then, somewhere around track three, I suddenly yelled, "Oh my God! Farmer Jason is Jason Ringenberg!!"

Yup, `Jason' from Jason and the Scorchers has invented a new persona for himself, one that is hoping to anoint the ten-and-under set with an appreciation for roots-based Americana. But where exactly is he aiming? Anybody who ever raised a child knows that there's a world of difference between a four year old and an eight year old, and age ten is already out of bounds for kid's stuff. Left with no clear reference point, how am I to judge this? My own kids are in their teens, so their opinions would be worthless in this particular situation. As far as I know, none of my readers are in the second grade, either, so I guess I ought to review these disks from the parent's perspective, which is a trick when the music is squarely intended for the waist-high, single-digit crowd.

When my own kids were three or four or five, I can remember how they latched onto one specific recording. My oldest listened to Disney recordings for hours at a time, and my youngest listened to Thomas the Tank Engine until I thought my head would explode - the poor kid is fourteen, and he's still waiting for my ex-wife to remove the train stencils from his room. If you're a parent, you could do a LOT worse than Farmer Jason's disks. Ringenberg has an intrinsic grasp of Americana, and he utilizes his knowledge to write a few singalong tunes that kids can latch onto. If they stick, then the most important `grown-up' factor is just how bearable this will be for the parents. Will you find yourself singing along, or will you be smashing your head against a baby blue or pink wall?

To my taste, "A Day at the Farm" is a bit more juvenile than "Rockin' in the Forest." Translated, that means that "A Day at the Farm" was considerably more cringe-worthy. The `farm' tunes are much more suited to pre-schoolers, while the `forest' collection is a bit more tongue-in-cheek. It's sort of like comparing Barney to Bugs Bunny, and as a parent who by necessity is repeatedly subjected to this stuff ad infinitum, I'd choose Bugs every time. "Forest" has songs about a chicken, a pony, a dog, a cow, a cat, a hog, a lamb and a tractor. Hoop-de-woo. "Rockin' In the Forest" stretches the concept a bit, though, and even has moments that make me smile; the guest appearance by Todd Snider is a bit of fun, as is the spot where Farmer Jason has to stop the song because his harmonica was in the wrong key. It is stylistically more diverse, too, as the titles "Ode to a Toad" and "Punk Rock Skunk" suggest.

So, what's a young mom or dad to do? If your kids are four or less, suffer through "A Day at the Farm." Otherwise, let "Rockin' in the Forest" do the trick; you may even find yourself `borrowing' it.

"A Day at the Farm with Farmer Jason" B-

"Rockin' in the Forest" B Tom Ryan

I've got 3 little kids...finally a disc we all agree on!!! Thanks Jason!! Can't wait for your next cd.

This is an amazing disc that'll have everybody in your minivan doing the Doggy Dance! Do yourself a favor and buy it!