Finally, a child-friendly musician for the aging punk parents whose tastes have expanded but who still long for a smattering of their youth in song. <\/p>\n
Not so surprisingly, Chicago’s Dave Hamilton \u2013 also known as Mr. Dave \u2013 spent much of his formative years playing in 56 Hope Road, a funk and jam band that played with the likes of Verve Pipe, Dave Matthews, and Stevie Wonder while releasing four albums. Now devoting his life entirely to youngsters, Mr. Dave is not only a teacher but opened a children’s music studio in his hometown, where the 10 tracks on his fourth kids’ album were fleshed out.<\/p>\n
While there isn’t a dud on the album, standouts include the title track, \u201cFeeling Good,\u201d an acoustic strummer about all of life’s pleasantries, from feeding animals to tea parties, and even features a whistle solo; \u201cBamboo The Bear,\u201d a catchy, upbeat, bouncy story that sounds almost like a quirky Elvis Costello; and the funky and educational \u201cStreet Smarts,\u201d which discusses protocols for the youngsters walking through intersections with some clever rapping and spacey sounds, too.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Mr. Dave sure does span the spectrum here. For instance, \u201cI Will Share\u201d is a calm, piano song, while other songs here, like \u201cTwo Wheels,\u201d are surf rock along the lines of The Beach Boys. Elsewhere Mr. Dave gets closer to New Wave with the ’80s-esque \u201cCaptain Brown Beard,\u201d while \u201cSong In All Of Us\u201d is a folk song in the vein of Bob Dylan but also something you could dance to. <\/p>\n
Though it’s unlikely that he’s seeking out any mainstream attention, the most modern moments on this disc are the electro-pop and beat friendly \u201cPelican Kid,\u201d which could soundtrack any club packed with those who are barely drinking age, and the wispy, orchestral indie rock of \u201cQuestions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Hamilton has reportedly recently become aware that he was destined to write kids’ music, which is fantastic because he has a knack for it, and his ability to channel his own influences keeps the parents interested, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10049],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45059","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mr-dave","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45059"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45059"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}