A Lively Album by a Cool Country Cat

Audio

Counting Sheep. Collin Raye. Sony Wonder. Family Artist Series. CD: $17, cassette: $10. https://www.sonywonder.com/.

Nashville superstar Collin Raye didn’t phone this one in. His first family album is a beauty, with 11 songs brimming with warmth and fun; the country, pop and jazz vocal stylings and instrumentals are terrific.

Raye is equally as comfortable with the Sgt. Pepper-ish, delightfully droll title song (by Robert Ellis Orrall) and the Steely Dan-like jazz swing of “Cool Cat” (which he wrote with his producer, John Hobbs) as he is with “Too Ra Loo Ta Loo Ral (That’s an Irish lullaby).” He effortlessly brings out the loveliness of that unabashedly sentimental tune of yesteryear, and does the same with “When You Wish Upon a Star” and the simple caress that ends the album, the Sherman brothers’ “Stay Awake,” from “Mary Poppins.”

Jungle Jazz Joint Jam. Jungle Jazz Band. Play It Cool Records. CD: $13; cassette: $10. (303) 444-5722. https://www.junglejazzband.com.

A delight for any age. This terrific jazz band serves up sizzling, sophisticated instrumentals and genuinely witty original songs about elephants, hummingbirds, tigers and other jungle dwellers. Two highlights among many: “Jammin’ in the Jungle” and the samba sway and sweet sound of “Sleepy Jungle Lullaby.”

Good Music for Little Guys: Classics for Fun & Adventure. Delos International. CD: $11; cassette: $10. (800) 364-0645 https://www.delosmus.com/.

Little guys in the toddler range--and girls too, despite the male spin in the album’s marketing--hardly need music to rev up their engines and get moving. If they’re going to race around the house to a soundtrack, though, why not a festive John Philip Sousa march (“The Stars and Stripes Forever”), Bizet’s cymbal-clashing “The Toreadors” or Rossini’s stormy and energetic Overture from “William Tell”? The selections are well-chosen to match toddlers’ high spirits and boundless energy.

Video

Works: Fun and Games and Works: How Do They Do That? Sony Wonder. 30 minutes each. $8 each. https://www.sonywonder.com/.

Educational shorts about how things are made are a children’s staple, from videos to such TV series as “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Kids don’t get tired of them, and adults are suckers for them too, so this nifty new live-action “Works” series for preschool- and elementary-school-age children should be a winner.

“Fun and Games” explains how crayons and kites are made, how a playground is designed and built, how a puppet comes to life and other interesting mysteries. “How Do They Do That?” shows a road being built, a boat propeller being forged, wood being turned into paper and glass being created.

Baby Songs Animals and Baby Songs Rock & Roll. Anchor Bay Entertainment. 30 minutes each. $13 each. (800) 745-1145. https://www.babysongs.com/.

“Baby Songs Animals” is a winner, inviting little ones to play and move along with real kids and real animals. You’d expect nothing less from children’s music favorite Hap Palmer. Palmer, a pioneer in integrating music, rhythm and movement in early childhood education, sings catchy, deceptively simple original and traditional songs (“Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “What’s Bigger Than a Bear?,” “Old MacDonald,” “Baby Chickie”) and always adds a full measure of reassurance and heart besides.

Viewers can pretend to be an elephant, a galloping horse or a chick breaking out of its shell; they can watch animal moms cuddle their babies, get a tuneful lesson in “big and small” and groove on watching kids their own age too.

“Baby Songs Rock & Roll,” a re-release, offers colorful real-kid footage too, but while the rock oldies that accompany the segments with kids playing and dancing--”Blue Suede Shoes,” “The Loco-Motion,” “Twist & Shout,” etc.--are adult-pleasing and fun for kids to bop to, they don’t connect to kids’ lives the way Palmer does.

Thomas & Friends: Spills & Chills & Other Thomas Thrills. Anchor Bay Entertainment. 37 minutes. $13. (800) 745-1145.

These chills and thrills are mighty tame, but that’s just the ticket for Thomas’ preschool fans, who adore the little blue engine and his pals. In this handful of brand-new tales, narrated by Alec Baldwin, the Island of Sodor, where the trains live with their human friends, has taken on a nifty atmosphere of fog and gentle mystery. The trains run through towns and country, across iron bridges and through mountain passes in the “wildest part” of Sodor. Is that castle haunted? Or that old mine? Is that a friendly ghost in the mist, warning of a landslide ahead?

A sunny musical segment, “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining,” wraps things up with lots more footage of the colorful, chug-along gang. The video will be available at the end of the month.

Lapitch, the Little Shoemaker. Sony Wonder. Movie Matinee. 75 minutes. $13. https://www.sonywonder.com/.

A good-hearted orphan apprentice shoemaker leaves his sour master and goes out in the world with his helpful dog companion, finding adventure and spreading good cheer. Helpful and kind to all he meets, Lapitch foils evildoer Dirty Rat, sets another villain on the path to redemption, rescues a pretty circus mouse and lightens his master’s mean spirit.

With colorful but unexceptional cel animation, this modest, Eastern European-made cartoon is pleasant for the most part, but a few intense bad-guy musical segments may scare younger viewers.