On my first listen through of The Hollow Trees’ newest album Hello Friend I connected with the familiar strains of bluegrass music that weave together with jazz, folk, country and more to create this lively musical feast. And what a feast it is. The first track is called “What Do You Want on Your Taco” and definitely gets your mouth watering for the next Taco Tuesday. This song is the most requested by our children.
Hello Friend is a wonderful combination of covers and original songs that work together to capture the humor and experiences of childhood. “Merry Go Round” was inspired by a particularly exhilarating carousel ride. My favorite song on the album is “Harmony Hills” a lullaby that captures the golden hour of dusk in the band’s fictional universe of Nelsonville.
Hello Friend Track List
- What Do You Want on Your Taco?
- Merry Go Round
- My Dog Has Fleas
- I Can’t Dance (I’ve Got Ants in My Pants)
- It Ain’t No Fault of Mine
- Hello Friend
- My Metaphor
- Guitar You Going to Sing Along?
- Poor Papa
- Backward Bill
- She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain
- I Like to Draw
- The Harmony Hills
Hello Friend! for Use in Storytime
Many songs on this album are written in a call-response style making it easy to play the song and engage children (and adults) in singing along. Several songs also fall into common themes used in storytimes and preschool themes.
Call and Response Songs on Hello Friend!
- Hello Friend
- I Can’t Dance (I’ve got Ants in My Pants)
- Guitar You Going to Sing Along?
Themes on Hello Friend!
- Food (What Do You Want on Your Taco?)
- Dogs/Pets/Animals (My Dog Has Fleas)
- Art/Creativity (I Like to Draw)
- PJ/Bedtime (The Harmony Hills)
You can connect with The Hollow Trees on Facebook or learn more about their music and upcoming performances on their website. Hello Friend! is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released July 1, 2016.
Now through June 8 you can enter to win your own copy of The Hollow Trees’ newest album as part of Bundle #3. Just fill out to form on this post for the Kids Music Giveaway.
While the album speaks to the child in all of us, I Believe in Little Things was born of Diana Panton’s desire to present a personal musical offering to her many fans who are parents of young children. Diana explains, “I started to hear from moms that they were using songs from my albums like ‘Moon River’ and ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ to put their children to bed. This inspired me to put together a collection of songs that would hold special meaning for children (and their parents). The recording process was a real treat, as every effort was invested in using the best musicians and production values to make this record equal in quality to any of the jazz albums I’ve previously released.”
Our family has thoroughly enjoyed I Believe in Little Things. It is a terrific addition to our music library. We have enjoyed arts and crafts time with Diana Panton’s voice inspiring our creativity. We’ve also brought her along on car rides for some much needed crooning which soothes all our car-cramped crankiness and exhaustion from running errands with four kids in tow.
This giveaway will, hopefully, reach families, teachers and librarians and provide another opportunity to get kids music into the hands of those who know and love kids on a daily basis.
In addition to the flower poems you can teach your little ones and use in storytime programs, I’m also excited to share with you a new album from 
Problem solving how I could spark their interest in this fun and engaging poem, I thought of the finger puppets I made of snowmen for a few winter poems. I designed the little fish and then turned to my talented husband to create a shark. I printed off a practice sheet to make sure they were the right size. My boys immediately gave their full attention to the little fish and shark as I cut them out. They could hardly wait for me to finish taping the puppets. They each chose one fish as their own and I was allowed to be the shark.
We spent the next 30 minutes playing with the finger puppets and repeating over and over the poem. Success! We took turns being the fish and or the shark. They loved it so much they brought it back out to show their sisters when they got home from school. These little finger puppets were the ticket to engage them! (This time, at least)
It is probably also the main reason why I love April showers so much. Rain, storms, thunder and lightning have always filled me with awe and appreciation for nature. I love the sound of rain dripping, dropping and tapping on my windows and roof.
