Music and Audio Books

This CD is beyond beautiful. As always for Danielle, it has a delightful variety of musical styles (I can almost hear Jerry Douglas' dobro on track 11 and my youngest daughter always requests track 9 "the western song"!). The lyrics are deeply moving. I cannot more highly recommend this CD for everyone except to say ... when we reach our final judgment, I would not be surprised to hear her track 4, You Did It to Me, as the song playing when we sit down with Jesus. It is the most deeply moving setting of the corporal works of mercy I have ever heard.

Danielle's beautiful spirit shows vibrantly through her songs. I had the opportunity to meet her and I can say that her music is just as amazing as she is. Her and her songs have the ability to truly move others.

I've been a big fan of Danielle Rose ever since I discovered "Mysteries". This CD is better than ever. Not only is her voice beautiful but the lyrics absolutely capture your heart and inspire you with a zeal for Christ. She's an absolute phenomenon. Get all of her CDs. You won't regret it.

I'm into playing all kinds of music, so this book, along with the Rock n Blues Harmonica and the Blues Harmonica Collection, caught my interest. The other book of interest in this area is the Bluegrass book by Mike Stevens. That book has great tunes and techniques but like alot of harp playing involves alot of bending, which of course is an integral part of blues harp as well. So I was surprised that this book and cd of mostly Irish and American fiddle tunes for harmonica DOES NOT involve bending at all. This makes the songs more accessable especially for a beginner but what's also nice is that the tunes are not simplified or dummied down to allow for this. This collection will really give you alot of tunes to play and because of the no bending aspect you'll be able to play them right off. Well that's sort of true because many of the tunes are complex enough but that's cool too because they sound like they are supposed to and not simple versions. About 22 of the tunes are on the cd and I wish there had been more on there to give an idea of how the ones you're not familiar with go. Of the 100 songs in the book about 20 (none of which are on the cd) involve a 12 hole harmonica (Hohner 364 model, musician's Friend $24.00) The tab makes it easy to follow on these 12 hole tunes but the 12 hole harp has a different configuration of holes in the top register so can be a little tricky when just playing it like a regular harp. One cool thing you can do with one of these 364's is play some really low notes on the bottom holes that aren't on the regular harp and the hole setup on the bottom part is the same as on a regular harp. These 12 hole 364's are also great for playing some blues tunes like Sonny Boy Williamson's Bye Bye Bird. There's also a 14 hole harp, the 365, and I only mention this because there's a version of it called the Steve Baker that is set up like a regular harp on all the holes. This is a bit pricier and because it's set up like a normal harp the tab in the fiddle book would not work for this harp- just the 364 or the regular 365. Any, this is really a great collection. There's also alot of folklore and harmonica tidbits on the bottom of each page.

This is a nice overview of harmonica fiddle tunes. It's not for a beginner, but for somebody adding to their musical or transitioning from a blues harp style, this is a nice book. If you've already learned some fiddle tunes on your own, this may not offer a whole lot, but even picking up a few tunes makes it well worth the price of admission. It is a nice, friendly approach.

I bought this for my husband, who is just beginning the harmonica and loves this type of music. He picked the book up and started playing "Star of the County Down" right away.

My only disappointment is that it does not have many songs on the CD that he would like to play, so I have had to play the tunes from the book so he can get a feel for them since he does not read music well.

This book may not be ideal for the beginner, but it is not too advanced that a beginner cannont play the tunes.

The playing techniques at the beginning of the book, and tidbits of info with each song are interesting.

Songs on the CD are Soldiers Joy, The Arkansas Traveller, Farewell to Whiskey, Turkey in the Straw, The Year of Jubiloo, Liberty, Tobin's Favorite, The Irish Washerwoman, The Kesh Jig, The Morpath Rant, Ricketts Hornpipe, Planxty Irwin, The Rose Tree, Miss McCleod's Reel, Speed The Plow, Petronella, The Road to Lisdoonvarna, Paddy Whack, Garry Owen, Boys of Bluehill, The Girl I Left Behind Me, and The Eight of January.

It is, of course, impossible to know all that is knowable about Irish music, much less present it in a single book. Geoff Wallis and Sue Wilson come amazingly close to accomplishing that daunting task, however, with The Rough Guide to Irish Music.

The volume is deceptively small, though thick, and it's packed with information. It begins with an explanation of the roots of Irish music, its relation to "Celtic" music -- the terms are synonymous in some circles, antithetical in others -- and the people responsible for keeping the music alive and/or bringing it back into the public's fickle consciousness. Next, an excellent chapter spells out the differences among the many Irish vocal and instrumental styles. Do you know whan "sean nos" really means? Can you identify a reel, jig, slip jig or hornpipe by its time signature? This section will help.

The bulk of the book is devoted to a "who's who" of Irish music, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a reference more complete. After dividing the musicians into loose categories -- singers, groups, families, fiddlers, harpers, etc. -- the book provides concise but thorough biographies detailing their influences and impact on the music scene. Each entry also notes the most influential albums from each band/musician, making it easy for readers to know where to expand their collections.

The book ends with a listing for sessions around Ireland, plus music festivals, schools, media, recommended reading and other resources.

If you have any interest in expanding your knowledge of Irish music and Irish musicians, this is the place to do it. The Rough Guide to Irish Music is a phenomenal package that's useful and well-written to boot. It's compact size makes it easy to stow in a music case or jacket pocket, and I predict you'll find yourself pulling it to browse a lot more often than you'd expect for a reference book.

My only problem with this book is that it wasn't written four years ago when I first became seriously interested in Irish music (I eventually started the Arizona Irish Music Society...). I could not find a quick cure to my ignorance and reading Irish Music Magazine was frustratingly unsystematic.

Most books on Irish music are focused on the early history of the music, but there was little about the last 50 years. For me The Rough Guide to Irish Music is absolute God send. It is incredibly thorough and yet quite readable.

The first part of the book gives an excellant background on the history of Irish music and its evolution over the last fifty years. The next sections give profiles of key artists and bands with recommendations about their best CD's. Beware, reading this section can be very expensive!

I cannot pretend familiarity with all the performers and bands covered, but I was favorably impressed with their coverage of the performers I do know.

The Rough Guide Guide to Irish Music is an incredible achievment.

The format and content of this compact guide to Irish music makes the reader eager to listen and learn. The guide has three main sections: background, musicians, and listings. Within each section, the layout allows the reader to peruse for specific information, such as recording history, accompanying artists, and recommended CD top choices as well as recording labels. The background section provides an overview of style and form; while the listing section includes resources not readily available to Americans in such a concise format. I recommend the book for the balanced and well researched information, adroitly presented, that can help with purchases for one's own or a Celtic friend's collection.

The "African Alphabet Song" was the only song that could sooth our newborn in the car. There is a visible ring where Track 13 is. He's now 16 months & he loves the whole CD!
I wish there was a DVD version of this great classic!

(SIDE ONE)
1. Rubber Duckie (1970) Ernie
2. But I Like You (1984) Ernie and Bert
3. Mah Na Mah Na (1969) Mah Na Ma Na
4. One Fine Face (1986) Ernie and Bert
5. Air (1990) Guy Smiley
6. Imagination (1973) Ernie, with Bert, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Herbert Birdfoot, Prairie Dawn, and Grover
7. Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree (1984) Ernie, The Honkers, A Dinger and Ernie's Rubber Duckie
8. Share (1980) Ernie and Cookie Monster
9. Captain Vegetable (1983) Captain Vegetable with Eddie and Andy
10. Dance Myself To Sleep (1982) Ernie And Bert
11. I Don't Want To Live On The Moon (1984) Ernie

(SIDE TWO)
1. Bein' Green (1970) Kermit the Frog
2. African Alphabet Song (1987) Kermit the Frog and Ladysmith Black Mombazo
3. Big Round Nose (1977) An Anything Muppet
4. If I Where (1982) Kermit the Frog
5. Five People In My Family (1969) The Anything Muppets Father & His Family
6. Tadpole (1987) Kermit the Frog
7. Caribbean Amphibian (1986) Kermit the Frog
8. Frogs In The Glen, The (1982) Kermit the Frog
9. I Wonder 'Bout the World Above Up There (1988) Kermit the Frog and Friends
10. This Frog (1977) Kermit the Frog

this album contains some wonderful recordings of the best of Sesame Street and Jim Henson in action. From the "African Alphabet" With Ladysmith Black Mambaazo to the reggae flavored "Do De Duck" with happy Ernie, this album is the most fun and the best one to share with anybody who loves "Sesame Street"

This book includes recommendations from Joe Pass himself. You would get a glimpse on how Joe Pass thinks. it is helpful to look at jazz from different views , so that you can build your own.

Basically takes the form of a master class. Good transcription (TAB), and it's fun to hear Mr. Pass himself describe his approach to the guitar.

Joe takes a no-nonsense approach to jazz soloing. No modes, crazy scales, patterns or exercises here. Joe was a player, and his approach is direct.
He categorizes lines as either major, minor or dominant, with a subdivision for altered dominant sounds. He solos over the three centers, while Don Mock comps behind him, and the solos are transcribed. He also plays and explains lines over the three basic chord types. The lines are great; classic Joe. The intro Blues in G alone is enough to stop most players in their tracks. I've offered any of my students who nail it a lunch on me.
Although it's mostly lines, there's some chord stuff too. Two Blues in G, one solo and one duo, contain enough chord riffs to keep even the most advanced players busy for awhile, and the three songs in the performance section, (All the Things you Are, Joe's Blues, and Stella by Starlight), are just your 'typical' Joe Pass brilliant performances.
I loved Joe's playing, saw him perform whenever he came around and got to meet him as well. He was a monstrous player. Easily the best pure jazz player I've ever seen, and I've seen most of them. When I met him he was near the end of his cancer battle, and he took the time to talk to me despite being tired and obviously sick. This book is a gift from Joe, and it stays on my music stand.
I have the CD version and Joe cracks me up, with his dry humor and explanations. (For instance, slyly cutting on tuners).
He also states that he uses very few arpeggios, but uses them in nearly every solo! But who cares. This guy was one of the top jazz players of all time (in my opinion one of the top three...Django, Joe and Lenny Breau, with all respect to Barney Kessel, Wes, Tal, Howard Roberts, Benson, Les Paul, et al).
The lines in this book are great, and players from intermediate on up will get things at their own level, because the explanations are pretty simple. (and it has tab!).
Save your money on all the 'How to play jazz solos' by a bunch of guys you've never heard of, get this book and dig in. And if you nail the first Blues in G, I'll buy you lunch.

This is an all time favorite! I bought this audio casette 15.5 years ago for my then 3 and 1 year old daughters. Now at nearly 19 and 17, they still remember the wonderful lyrics and have begged me to locate new copies for them since we wore the first one out! My older daughter is a student at NYU, and is not embarrassed at all to share the silly lyrics with her friends.
I own preschools and have used this music over and over again for all ages of preschoolers. They adore the songs!
Families of all ages will treasure the times they spend singing these songs together. This is a very worthwhile investment.

Road trips are a challenge for our family of 10! We try not to fill all the time with audio and video, because games, family conversation and reading are all more healthy. However, we never go more than 300 miles without Traffic Jams. These songs are a delight to both kids and parents. They are relevant to the two-year old and the grandmother, boys who catch frogs and girls who dream of fairies. And if a Dad can't relate to keeping a snowman in the freezer, then he needs this tape just to get him out of his grownupness.

We buy this tape for new parents and brag about it to other families. It is our number one favorite travel entertainment...even though we have a TV for the van now!

I am amazed to find that no one has yet written a review of Joe Scruggs' work!@In fact, I am accessing his page right now because I went to get some more of his music for my two kids who just LOVE this tape! "The people in the car" is their very favorite song on the tape, but they love all of the songs, and this is the tape they always clamour to listen to when I ask them what they want to hear. Great music in itself, and riotous lyrics.... Best of all the children's music around these days....

This book starts out with relatively easy 4th's and 5th's exercises to get you accustomed to some of the intervals Larry uses in his work. For exercises they sound amazingly good. It then progresses to a step by step analysis of one of his more chordally involved pieces which will take you a while to fully absorb due to the complexity. I'd recommend a very patient approach and playing the CD while following along with the music to thoroughly know the piece before attempting to play it. From there it moves on to another interesting piece employing 'Turkish Finger style' technique. I could explain the whole book but in a nutshell what this book is is a way to experience a shot of Larry's guitar(music) trancendance. It's not easy. In fact it's quite difficult because there's nothing easy about his approach to the instrument. Somehow he consistently manages a greater than the sum of the parts result which is the true measure of a music genius regardless of musical category. This book might not be for everyone but for me, it was a work of art.

This book is intended to the intermediate to advanced player.Reading the text and playing the scores will put you on a new dimension of jazz music.

Larry Coryell's Power Jazz Guitar: Extending Your Creative Reach is a straightforward "how-to" instructional guide strongly recommended for anyone seeking to learn the rhythm and joy of playing true jazz guitar music. Chapters include musical scores, descriptions of the music's moods and nuances, instructions on using special finger styles, and much more. An accompanying CD contains the lively jazz scores and lessons to better demonstrate and perform the music! If you aspire to proficiency on the jazz guitar, begin with a careful reading of Larry Coryell's Power Jazz Guitar, and practice along with the lessons on the "user friendly" Larry Coryell's Power Jazz Guitar compact disk.

I just bought this for my 3 1/2 yr. old daughter. She already knows about 1/2 of the alphabet, but I was not sure where to start when introducing sounds (as some of the letters have more than 1). This is a fun and easy way to do so. I would highly recommend it for home-school, or for a preschool classroom (where I first saw it). I am going to try some of the other books in the series as well..solar system and the phonics volume one and two.

I purchased Rock 'N Learn Letter Sounds for my two year old daughter. She loved following along in the work book to the very catchy songs. There are many colorful pictures to hold her interest. Also, it has a quick pace to keep her interested, but not too fast for her to keep up. She learned her letters and all their sounds before she turned three. We are now moving on to side two of the tape that teaches her to read whole words. I went to a local teacher supply store and asked for a recommendation for teaching early phonics. They told me this was the best out there. I agree. Furthermore, the music is actually pretty good so it doesn't drive parents crazy.

I can't say enough about this tape and book! I started playing this tape for my son when he was about 2. He loved it. Everytime we drove in the car, he wanted to hear it. It's got a fun beat (easy for parents to listen to!) and a great book with lots of color. In fact, I had to order extra books, because his friends wanted to have their own when they were in the car. My son turned 6 in December. He began sounding out words when he was 4, and was reading words on his own by 4 1/2. Now he's way beyond any of his peers, reading at the 3rd grade, 8th month level. His spelling is also exceptional. I truely believe I owe it to his early introduction to this book!

Jai Uttal has done it again. What an amazing and beautiful blend of peaceful sounds and harmonies. Definitely more on the tranquil side, but one of my absolute favorites. I could listen to the first song on the CD all day. Great chill music or end of active yoga class.

Searching for other Jai Uttal music I stumbled upon this CD and after sampling just two of the tracks I quickly purchased it. I can say after recieving it I was not disappointed! The layers of harmony, space, and sound combine to leave the listener searching within and in a state of reconnected peace. All music should be this good. Track #5 bija mantras, if listened to while watching the rising sun in the morning will give you a feeling of understanding, awe, and peace. All the tracks leave me speechless and are great for meditation, yoga, relaxation, massage and reconnecting the soul to the divine. A true must have CD.

I am admittedly a huge fan of Jai Uttal and Ben Leinbach - I have quite a few of their cd's and enjoy using them in yoga classes or when I want to chill out. So, of course, I was excited with this new offering.

It did not disappoint - this inviting collection of songs is soothing to the spirit and uplifting for the soul. Gentle, lilting chants coupled with lush, ambient slow-trance grooves provides a welcome escape from everyday life. "Gopala Lullaby" and "Bija Mantras" were my two favorites on the cd - the first song showcases Uttal's beautiful voice and the second song is almost hypnotic - making it one of my new favorites for meditation. I have enjoyed using this CD in my yoga classes and am sure it will be one of the classic favorites for myself and many other fans of this duo's work. Simply divine!

I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument- and this book has been a great help in my beginning to play one (having washed out on guitar and piano)...in fact, it makes it very easy to play songs very fast! Thanks for the great book- there is not that much accordian music written for beginners out there...

I bought this book when I bought a new accordion and so far it has been great. I've never played the accordion before, nor do I know anything about it, but this book has been fantastic about explaining everything.
A good buy for beginners.

I haven't played the accordion in fifty years and I was looking for something as a refresher. This book was just what I was looking for, it reviewed what I had forgotten and I even learned things that I had never learned in the first place. Nice selection of songs too, not a bunch of corny tunes that you never heard of. It comes with a CD and you can hear what you are expected to sound like after a little practice. I have several books on the accordion and most of them are useless but this is a real worthwhile purchase.