Rocking In The Forest with Farmer Jason
Barnes & Noble
Mark Deming

Country-punk trailblazer Jason Ringenberg returns to his family-friendly alter ego of Farmer Jason for his second album of music for kids (and their parents, of course). While the first Farmer Jason disc was built around the theme of a day on the farm, Rockin' in the Forest with Farmer Jason features 11 songs about the things you might find on a hike in the woods, mostly critters such as toads, butterflies and opossums, though Jason also celebrates Native-American culture on "Arrowhead," and the rich history of the wilderness with "The Old Oak Tree." While Rockin' in the Forest features a bit more educational and/or philosophical content than the first album, Jason is smart enough to know it's best to keep things light and fun, and most of the songs are playful tunes with singalong choruses and an engaging air of silliness, especially "Punk Rock Skunk," "The Catfish Song," and "He's a Moose on the Loose" (the latter featuring guest vocals from Todd Snider). Parents with a taste for alt-country will dig the revved-up "Possum in a Pocket" (especially the "mistake" on the harmonica solo) and kids who enjoy actually going out into the great outdoors will enjoy all of it; this is children's music that doesn't talk down to its audience and offers smart and engaging entertainment for all its listeners without trying to sell anything (a pleasant surprise in "family" entertainment these days).

A Day At The Farm with Farmer Jason
Barnes & Noble
by David McGee

If you can imagine a legit alt-country pioneer as an electrified combination of Mister Rogers and Captain Kangaroo's Mr. Green Jeans, you're going to be delirious over Jason Ringenberg's children's album, A Day at the Farm with Farmer Jason. He starts it out with a rousing wake-up song, "Get Up Up Up!," and moves through straight country, honky-tonk, razor-edged rock 'n' roll -- well, pretty much everything Jason & the Scorchers are known for, except here the music is in service to instructive tales of farm life. A little western swing energizes "A Guitar Pickin' Chicken," and of course there's a lot of chicken-pickin' going, courtesy of George Bradfute. No children's song ever got its point across as well as "He's a Hog, Hog, Hog," which tells a tale of "a real bad dude" porker, powered by an incendiary hard-rock engine fueled by Bradfute's slashing guitar sound. Fats Haplin's galloping banjo accompaniment fuels "Whoa There Pony!," a story about a rambunctious pony, whereas Bradfute's stomping support on cello-bass-guitar evokes the lazy gait of the animal Ringenberg impersonates on the barnyard bustle of "I'm Just an Old Cow" -- which, incidentally, is built on a classic Johnny Cash riff. Corn has certainly never been treated as affectionately as it is in the bluegrass hoedown, "Corny Corn." The day on the farm ends not whimsically, though, but with a tender acoustic lullaby, "Sundown on the Farm," with Tahra Dergee lending her whispery mountain voice as acoustic stringed instruments swell poignantly behind her and Ringenberg's harmonizing. This may be an unexpected turn for a rock-club veteran, but Ringenberg pulls it off with conviction, spirit, terrific music, and a big heart.