Musical Finds

I'm always eager to listen to new music, particularly if the songs fall in the Christian or country genres. I also enjoy jazz tunes, instrumental music, and movie scores. Recently, I stumbled upon some fun musical finds, which I thought I'd share here on the blog.

1) Nikki Yanofsky: This 16-year-old Canadian singing sensation performed on the Mike Huckabee show last week, and when I heard her soulful voice, my channel surfing came to an abrupt halt. I've always been a fan of old-time jazz and Nikki was singing "I've Got Rhythm," a song off her debut album, which was released in the spring. Here's a YouTube clip if you'd like to take a listen. I adore these Gershwin lyrics, "I've got rhythm, I've got music, I've got my man, Who could ask for anything more?" Anyway, Nikki gained worldwide attention when she sang at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and she's been touring Canada, Europe, and Japan ever since. This October, she'll be performing in San Francisco. Click HERE for more details.

2) Baby John Mayer: While shopping in Lakeshore recently, I discovered a Baby John Mayer CD and a Baby Elton John CD, both replete with soothing lullabies for little ones.

3) Jewel Lullaby: Speaking of lullabies, I've heard good things about Jewel's Lullaby album. From the sample songs I've listened to, it appears to be a beautiful acoustic record.

4) Bella's Lullaby: And while I'm on the lullaby theme, I can't get enough of Yiruma's River Flows In You, which has become aptly known as Bella's Lullaby because of its appearance in the Twilight Saga. I'm not interested in watching the YouTube video so much as I am in listening to this beautiful song.

5) Educationalrap.com: As I've mentioned previously, I'm not a huge fan of rap music. But many of my fourth graders just adore it. Last year, I played some of Mr. Duey's rap songs in my classroom and the kids went nuts! I also showed this Fractions video several times in class and the kids loved rapping along with Mr. Duey. Having seen the power of educational rap songs firsthand, I was ecstatic when I found this great website yesterday, which has tons of educational songs for teaching science, social studies, math and language arts. I can't wait to use this rap about figurative language in my classroom. It will definitely help my students remember the difference between a simile and a metaphor.

So, tell me...what songs and/or CDs have you been listening to that you would recommend?

J