Little kids are so full of life, aren’t they? They seem to have a never ending supply of energy. What do you do to help expel that energy in a good way? At our house we love to turn on some music and dance. Some days we feel like being ballerinas pirouetting about to Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” Or we swordplay to the swashbuckling tempo of “One Last Shot” from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Most days the littler kids like to put on a CD of their own liking and do their own funky dance. We have one that plays songs about John Deere tractors for Special Dark, and another that has some classic “sing around the campfire” type tunes. They can get pretty old, are fairly boring, and actually rather annoying. If I hear “She’ll be coming round the mountain” or “This old man” anytime soon I think I’ll run and hide with my I-pod blaring to drown out the noise.

Enter Hank Hooper. His latest release “Playground Fortune Teller” has 17 songs of kids’ music with a twist. No cutesy tootsie little tunes here. The lyrics are geared towards kids but the music itself rides the gamut of hiphop, blues, motown, and rock. YES! Finally something we can all enjoy listening to without getting bored of the same-old-same-old. While I realize this may not appeal to some families we like it.

“Hank Hooper and BitWorks Music have produced this first-ever multimedia album download for kids! “Playground Fortune Teller” contains 17 original songs and an interactive eBook illustrated and narrated by Hank. All songs were written and performed by Hank Hooper, playing a wide assortment of guitars, banjo, ukelele, keyboard, and bass, with vocals from Hank and a cast of many guest stars. ” from the Hooperville page

You can hear a sample of “That’s my Chicken” – so funny considering our very own Cookie is called Chicken around here. There are other samples of some of the songs on the album at CD Baby. Have fun listening, and rocking out, and dancing with your kids.