A free download of this song is available at his website: http://parrygripp.com/sotw/2012/Raining_Tacos/  Donations are appreciated; there is a donation option on the page.  It is also on itunes and Amazon.

When I was still a homeschool mom, we had a blast singing this song with a group of homeschooled kids that met at our house.  Listening to the song is fun; I think singing it is even more awesome.  Maybe you'd like to try it?  You can warm up by singing with the video.  But you might want to develop your own arrangement.  I worked out some guitar chords for key of G, capo 5 -- it has G, D, C, with some Em and Am thrown in here and there (easier for us to sing than the key in the video; it's slightly lower than the key there) .

I think I'll go have a taco.

A friend told me about this song, and now it is one of my all-time favorites!  If you like tacos, you will like this song.

It was written by songwriter Parry Gripp, who has created a whole series of kind of bizarre songs . . . and in my opinion, at least so far I think this one is the cream of the crop.

And if you watch the video, with animation by Boone Bum, you will also enjoy some interesting, cartoonish artwork:

The other day my teenage son was offering his ukelele to play-- well, actually he was insisting that I play it, even though I am much more familiar with playing guitar.  "but I won't know what chords to play," I said, and he told me "It's easy!"  So I did try out playing on his very beautiful concert size ukelele.  As soon as I was holding it, I had a flash-back to many years ago, when I used to play a soprano ukelele, at 10 years old.  I think the phrase "My dog has fleas" (sung when tuning a ukelele's four strings) is ingrained in my memory, as that is what I immediately thought of when I started strumming.  It's a fun and easy way to remember what the strings are supposed to sound like, for tuning.  

And when I remembered that tuning phrase, it also brought to mind  a fairly new link in my memory-- and that is Caspar BabyPants' song by the name of "My Flea Has Dogs."  This was the first song I heard of his, and it was so delightful that I had to stick around on his YouTube videos page and watch several more.

You would think that a performer who uses the name "Caspar BabyPants" would be singing songs that are  . . . well . . . babyish.  And yes, these songs are for children-- but really, I think many of his songs fit in well with the "children of all ages" audience group.  But what do I know?  I'd probably stay in the juvenile section of the library forever, if I didn't have to look for computer how-to kinds of titles once in a while.

Anyway, if you would like to see a very entertaining song-with-animation video, just gather all your kids together and tell them to watch this (that way you can tell them it's kids music for them,  even though you're really the one who wants to hear it . . .). 

And here is another favorite of mine, from Caspar's collection, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  What I like about this song, besides the very clever use of fingerless gloved hands in acting out the story, is that there are so many interesting verses.  I know "Itsy Bitsy" is a variation on the "Eency Weency" Spider song, but I have never ever heard a second verse to that one (except in a Spanish version where they had the "great big spider'-- la arana grandotota).  So here is the "Itsy Bitsy" Spider song, with a great assortment of verses, as sung by Mr. Babypants.  And by the way, Caspar has a regular name, that he uses when he isn't performing songs for young children -- it is Chris Ballew. He also sings and plays bass in an Alternative Rock Band called the Presidents of the United States of America.

Now that was really fun.  I like the way those harmonicas come in and get shaken every now and then.  Just don't stop to think about how harmonica music relates to harmonicas being shaken . . .  It is all part of a total effect of imagination and delight.  Another thing I really like about this particular version of the traditional song is that the melody is a little different, and it sounds a little more bluesy.  I guess that goes really well with the harmonicas.

If you'd like to learn to play and sing some of Caspar Babypants' songs, you can find chord sheets for them for FREE on his website.  He has been most gracious to put these up, and also offers every single one of his songs as individual downloads (right there on the website) for the baby-sized price of $ 0.50 each.  

Caspar has recorded 7 albums, with each one having 19-22 songs; so that is a huge collection of children's songs!  I think he is dedicated to enthusiasm, too, since every one of his album titles ends with an exclamation mark . . . for example, the album with "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on it is called More Please! and the album with "My Flea Has Dogs" is called Sing Along!  Some of the other albums are Here I Am! (first album),  This is Fun! and I Found You!  His newest album is Baby Beatles!  This is a collection of Beatles cover songs, designed for young children.

If you have heard Caspar's songs before, what are your favorites?  And if they are all new, come and see what you find-- and if you'd like to, make a comment about which ones you especially like.

This Friday, my son will be auditioning for a youth theatre play, "Schoolhouse Rock"-- based on the '70's series of Saturday morning ABC TV 3 min. animated music video shorts.   I vaguely remember this series-- not because I watched them, because I didn't--I think Saturday morning was sleep-in time instead of TV time, for me-- but because we got the VHS tapes from a garage sale and I've seen some of them with my own kids, and my kids also used to play some computer games that had songs and activities from Schoolhouse Rock.  However,  I do remember learning the preamble to the constitution by memory as a teen totally because of their preamble song; a high school friend taught it to me.  I was grateful and ecstatic.  I thought this was a far superior way of memorizing than to just recite the words, during our class's study of American Government.

 Well, recently, when browsing music by some folk artists on MySpace, I came across an absolutely wonderful piece of music by Rachel Garlin-- called "Three is a Magic Number."  I loved it, but didn't know it was a cover of a Schoolhouse Rock song, until looking up more info about it.   I learned that this song was the very first episode of Schoolhouse Rock, and it was written by jazz musician and singer Bob Dorough, who also wrote songs for other episodes.  Bob sang and recorded the songs, and they have helped numerous children learn their multiplication facts (because they go through the multiples of each number, using skip-counting).

Bob's original version is very well-sung, and has catchy musical accompaniment.  You can see the original animated video above.    This song's lyrics's are especially meaningful-- with phrases like "the past and the present and the future," " faith and hope and charity," "the heart and the brain and the body,"  . . .  with these lyrics, it is more than just skip-counting -- and it is this "more" that has made it a beloved favorite out of all the number songs on Schoolhouse Rock.

Back to Rachel Garlin -- she is a folk singer-songwriter who has recorded four albums of original music-- this cover song is one exception; it is on her Big Blue Sky album (2004), and is available on CD Baby and iTunes.  Rachel has a mellow, pleasant voice-- her singing reminds me of Carly Simon and Carole King.  She teaches music to kids, and this kids' song seems a natural fit for her.  But I like the way she has audience participation from grown-ups for singing the multiples of three during the song.  Here is a link to hear Rachel's version of the song on MySpace -- this is where I first learned of her, and of this magical song: https://myspace.com/rachelgarlin/music/song/three-is-a-magic-number-77358219-85255929

I'm not sure which of the Schoolhouse Rock selections will be in the youth theater play . . . but I hope they include this one; I know whatever they use will be great learning for the audience as well as the youth actors-- and will also be entertaining and FUN :)

Do you have some favorite songs from Schoolhouse Rock?

Just about everyone knows the favorite patriotic song, "This Land is Your Land." I've always really liked this song. But I fell in love with Woody's songs when I checked out a library book of his children's music. In singing these songs with my own 2-yr-old, a delightful assortment of down-to-earth lyrics met our eyes and ears.

My favorite was the one about getting washed up, called "Clean-O." It went on and on, with a tot calling to various family members to wash this or that so the child would be "nice and clean-o." Singing this song was humorous to me, especially the verse that said, "Brother, O Brother, Come wash my hair!"-- that's probably because my own particular tot was much more likely to have a screaming fit about having her hair washed than to request anyone to come and wash it! So at the time, I had great perverse delight in singing this verse with my 2-year-old.

Here is a delightful rendition of this song, from a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WBsdx9-nEI&feature=related&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1