Thursday, August 4, 2011

Party with the Laurie Berkner Band

Last week the Laurie Berkner Band released a brand new DVD-CD combo called Party Day!


My own kids are out of town so I can only give you my grown-up take on it, but I was not disappointed. It has 12 songs, taking viewers along for a costume party, a birthday party, and a pajama party. A group of kids (giving great performances) accompany them along the way, joining in for consistently upbeat songs like "This Hat," "Where is the Cake?," and the mischievous "The Cookie Bakers of the Night."

The DVD is essentially a visual album, a smart move in today's market of online media and decreased DVD and, particularly, CD sales; the great animations on the DVD, coupled with the accompanying five-track CD, give parents a reason to purchase the actual discs, although I don't know if there are plans for an iTunes version down the road.

Like all of Berkner's work, the program seems geared toward the 3-6 crowd, although I expect it should work very well all the way through age eight or even nine; the music certainly does, and I know my seven-year-old, having given up on many other preschool properties, still enjoys this band's segments on Jack's Big Music Show. I'll have to give it a go with her when she gets back from her summer vacation, but my expectation is a lot of dancing and jumping around...

The band consists of Laurie Berkner, Adam Bernstein, Susie Lampert, and Bobby Golden. The DVD was directed by Bil White and produced by his partner Nathalie Renard at Space Cadet Industries. You can check out the album on the band's website.

Here's a YouTube preview of the title track "Party Day":

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