Matt Nathanson: Starfish and Coffee
[purchase]
Haddy N'Jie & The Stoones: Starfish and Coffee
[unauthorized & unavailable]
Lest two horsey songs in a row set too narrow a net for our theme this week, I spent a few moments looking for an animal song from the other end of the kingdom, and came up with the first track above - a little number I first encountered on 2004 release For The Kids Too!, the middle child of a three round alt-rock kindie concept which remains a core component of our collection even as our kids come upon their second decade.
The song is actually a cover, but naming the originator runs high risk in a world of blog takedowns and song loss (hint: his name is royalty, and he likes purple), while sharing the song as first recorded would invite disaster. Instead, I'll merely note that Matt Nathanson's version of the song is bouncy and joyful enough for kids of all ages, and that the second of the above tracks is seriously unauthorized, coming as it does from a huge and hugely diverse collection of Norwegian he-who-cannot-be-named covers which I managed to scoop up before it was blocked at the starting gate just a few years back. And that it could just as easily have been posted in our recent Unusual Instruments theme week, given that it features a truly haunting saw as lead instrument in what turns out to be a funky world-beat epiphany once it gains momentum.