Music That Wakes Kids Up or Lets Them Dream

Audio

Oy Vey! Chanukah! A Totally Klezmer Chanukah for Kids. Backyard Partners. CD: $16. Hatikvah Music International, (323) 655-7083. For the family.

Klezmer music duo Sruli and Lisa, superb musicians who play clarinet, accordion, poyk (bass drum and cymbal), recorder, violin and cello between them, explore Jewish traditions rooted in Eastern Europe. The songs and stories, playful, exotic and haunting, and some silly jokes too, are enlivened by a children’s chorus and child voice actors, and an elderly woman offers touching reminiscences of the old country. It’s a class family act, a fitting follow-up to the duo’s previous CD, the delightful “Oy Vey!, Klezmer, a Totally Cool Klezmer Experience for Kids.”

There’s a generous and varied selection of children’s Hanukkah recordings out there. Hollywood-based Hatikvah Music and https://www.jewishmusic.com are excellent resources. A few artists to look for on the Web: Debbie Friedman (“Miracles and Wonders: Music for Chanukah and Purim”), Judy Caplan Ginsburgh (“Chanukah Favorites”), Cindy Paley (“Chanukah, a Singing Celebration”), and Sharon, Lois & Bram (“Candles Long Ago”).

From the Gumbo Pot. CD: $15. (504) 861-2682. Ages 4 to 9.

The yummy ingredients in this rich musical gumbo include the spicy Louisiana lilt in Johnette Downing’s voice, and irresistible Cajun and Creole rhythms in playfully evocative songs about ‘gators, ‘skeeters, crawfish, a stroll by the bayou, a boppin’ kitchen band and a werewolf named Loup Garou.

Sweet Dreams of Home. Magnolia Music. CD: $15; cassette: $10. (800) 490-8875. For the family.

Mae Robertson’s pure, spun-gold vocals and intimate, conversational stylings are just right for these 11 dreamy, caressing songs by Graham Nash (“Our House”), Tom Paxton (“Home to Me Is Anywhere You Are”) and Arlo Guthrie (“I’m Going Home”). John McCutcheon, Paxton and other top-notch musicians and singers appear, including album producer Eric Garrison, whose title song is a lovely closer in this warm evocation of home. For sleepy times.

Sweet Dreams. The O’Neill Brothers, Piano Lullabies. CD: $14. Cassette: $10. (888) 9-O’NEILL; https://www.shamrocknroll.com. Infants to age 6.

You don’t even have to be little to enjoy these nursery rhymes. Pianists Tim and Ryan O’Neill turn more than two dozen familiar childhood ditties--”The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “The Muffin Man,” “Hush Little Baby,” “Pop Goes the Weasel”--into gentle, graceful lullaby magic with their accomplished keyboard artistry. Snuggle up.

Environmental Songs for Kids. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. CD: $14. Cassette: $9. (800) 410-9815. https://www.si.edu/folkways.

A lot of kids have a penchant for environmental activism and an appreciation for the interconnectedness of all life. Folk singer and teacher Coco Kallis encourages them to follow their natural interest in cleaning up pollution, recycling, conserving and treasuring life in this recording. Along with “Keep It Clean for Me, and I’ll Keep It Clean for You” and “If We Don’t Fix It (Nobody Else Will)” messages, Kallis, an earnest singer who’s a bit weak in the upper register, includes antiwar classics such as “The Strangest Dream” from 1950 and Malvina Reynolds’ moving “What Have They Done to the Rain?”

The liner notes, directed at elementary school-age children, are outstanding, loaded with suggestions for discussions and fun activities related to the songs’ themes.