Like many new parents, my wife and I wanted to use music to soothe our newborn son. We tried a handful of “baby music” CDs and found that it quickly became unbearable to us after a listen or two. Then one day she came home with a CD of free music from her PEPS group*.
The music was from somebody named Caspar Babypants. I thought for sure it would be more of the same but my wife popped it on and it immediately felt different. As we listened I said, “Wow, this reminds me a lot of Presidents of the United States.” It sounded so familiar that I jumped on Google and found that Caspar Babypants was in fact Chris Ballew of the POTUS! One of my favorite musicians was making baby music (not to be confused with baby-making music)!
Fast forward two years, several live shows, and every album being purchased and put on all our devices later and Caspar Babypants is still our favorite kids’ music. It really isn’t even fair to call it kids’ music because I often find myself listening to it even when I’m alone. Every song is catchy and has a little story, or is a cover of a traditional song, or even, in the case of his Beatles album, a ton of great classics! Caspar Babypants really does appeal to everyone in the family.
Released today, Caspar Babypants’ ninth album, Night Night!, is breaking the mold a little this time around. Although the music still has his much-loved sound and feel, the songs are all a bit slower and more toned down to create a peaceful lullaby album. In addition, all 16 tracks are original songs created just for this album. Historically, each of his albums, while mostly original music, have had a traditional song or two. Although $9.99, a song about a forsaken and then rescued teddy bear from the More Please! album, will always be my favorite Caspar Babypants song, Night Night! is quickly becoming my favorite album.
As always, Chris has written a short background story for each song on the album explaining how the idea came to him. They are always a fun read and provide great insight into his process as a musician.
The lovely artwork for the cover, as for all previous albums, was done by Chris’ wife, Kate Endle. More of her work can be found in her Etsy store. Her art is lovely and can be enjoyed by the whole family. They make great kid room decorations!
Night Night! can be purchased directly from Caspar on his website or can be found on iTunes.
*PEPS is a great non-profit volunteer organization in the Puget Sound Area (Seattle, Washington) that helps form support groups of parents that are in close proximity and have new babies of the same age. We cannot recommend PEPS enough to any new parent in the area.
Great review…but as a Presidents fan, you should know it’s always abbreviated as PUSA! 😉
This is true! But I wanted to make sure new fans knew what I was talking about without having to go look it up! Thanks for reading!