I have a number of CD's with wonderful children's songs, songs that stimulate their imagination. Here are some artists I'd suggest:

John McCutcheon - both traditional songs and songs he wrote himself. "Tommy Don't Lick that Pipe" from the "Wintersongs" CD is as good a song as you'll find. It takes me back home to those wonderfully cold Wisconsin winters.

Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer - lots of good stuff, mostly new & some traditional.

Kevin Roth's "Daddysongs" - and with a mountain dulcimer, even.

Some of Dan Crows's CD's (but a lot of his stuff is as sicky-sweet or dumbed-down as Raffi's), and some of Barry Louis Polisar, and children's albums by the Roches and the Chenille Sisters are quite good. Rosalie Sorrels has a couple of children's albums - the one I have is "What Does It Mean to Love?" - it's quite good. Shel Silverstein's children's albums are excellent - just be sure you don't play Shel's adult songs for first graders, or you may have to go job-hunting.

Everything by Tom Chapin - my kids really loved his stuff. My kids also loved the Sesame Street albums and knew every word of every song - this is quality stuff.

Doc Watson's "Songs for Little Pickers" - the best traditional songs a kid can sing.

"Peter, Paul, and Mommy"; and "Peter, Paul, and Mommy, Too" - excellent choice of very singable songs.

Priscilla Herdman's "Daydreamer" and "Stardreamer" may be the best children's albums I've heard - or maybe it's that she has a voice that makes me melt.

"Kids at Heart" by Golden Bough is an excellent selection of songs with a bit of a Celtic flavor.

Oh, hey - kids that age love cowboy songs, and rounder has two very generous "Best of the West" collections from Riders in the Sky.

One more - I don't think Fred Penner gets the credit he deserves for his presentation of a wide variety of traditional songs. Every Fred Penner album I've heard has a number of gems.

I sing for kids quite often, so I collect kids' songs. There's a Tower Outlet here in Sacramento that sells kids' CD's for a buck or two, and I've built quite a collection. Now, the songs I sing for kids are usually about drunkenness and mayhem and other sorts of naughtiness more suitable for third graders, but the kindergarten kids like that kind of stuff, too. Favorites are "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" and Shel Silverstein's "Welcome to Our House" and "Charlie and the MTA." "The Hole in the Bottom of the Sea," "Deep Blue Sea" and "The Hokey Pokey" go over well with all age groups. And everybody likes "Good Old Mountain Dew." I think most of thses songs are in the database.

-Joe Offer-