Featured TV on DVD Review: Let's Hear It for The Laurie Berkner Band!

September 23, 2010

Let's Hear It for The Laurie Berkner Band - Buy from Amazon

The Laurie Berkner Band is led by Laurie Berkner, who sings and plays guitar, while it also features Susie Lampert on keyboard, Adam Bernstein on bass, and Bobby Golden on drums. Their album, We Are...The Laurie Berkner Band sold more than 400,000 copies on CD. Their latest DVD release, Let's Hear It for The Laurie Berkner Band contains a number of music videos, but starts with an intro by...

The Show

    Moose and and Zee, a pair of animated animals. Moose does all the talking, while Zee the owl is there to be his Teller to his Penn.

  1. Who’s That?
    The set starts with a very high tempo song that is an excellent introduction to the style of music that follows. It has a catchy tune, easy to remember lyrics, and there are plenty of times for the kids to join in.
  2. Victor Vito
    The tempo slows down a little for a song about food.
  3. Moose and Zee are back, this time getting the kids at home to clap to the music and teaching them how to keep the beat.

  4. Five Days Old
    A counting song with a western beat and lyrics that introduce the numbers one through five, but understates her true age by a statistically significant margin.
  5. My Energy
    A song that should get the kids up and dancing. Strangely, despite the title, it is not the most energetic song on the DVD.
  6. I’m a Mess
    A song about getting messy. I'm sure kids will love this one. I'm not so sure about the parents.
  7. In the Clouds
    We slow way down for a song about flying in the clouds.
  8. Moose and Zee are back, this time giving instructions on how to pick the right animal to wear on your head. This makes sense when you look at the next song...

  9. Pig on Her Head
    A song about wearing animals on your head.
  10. The Cat Came Back
    This is an incredibly famous song and The Laurie Berkner Band does a smokey jazz version of the song. Very fun.
  11. Farm Song (That’s What I Did on the Farm)
    Laurie sings about all the animals she met on the farm and the sounds they make.
  12. Moose's sister, Clarabelle, shows up and along with Zee the three of them demonstrate how to dance to the music, which is a perfect set up to...

  13. I Really Love to Dance
    A fast song about dancing, which also shows a lot of the kids showing off their dance moves.
  14. I’m Me and You’re You
    Another slow song, this time about the value of diversity.
  15. Sneaks
    You would think a song about sneaking around would be slow, but after a slow start, the beat kicks in.
  16. Moose and Zee explain how to make music by playing instruments, or even by singing along or just whistling.

  17. I’m Not Perfect
    Another slow song, this time about making mistakes and how that's okay. Another good diversity song.
  18. Rocketship Run
    A song about flying to the moon on a rocket? Or a sneaky way to teach kids to count to ten?
  19. Magic Box
    A slow song about using imagination to fly around in a box.
  20. Moose and Zee explain what an encore is and encourage the kids to cheer loud enough to get the Laurie Berkner Band to sing one more song.

  21. Fast and Slow (The Rabbit and the Turtle)
    The story of the tortoise and the hare, but with a very Celtic feel to it.
So that's 16 songs plus 6 segments with Moose and Zee for a total running time of close to 43 minutes.

The Extras

There are four songs featuring Moose and Zee in the extras section, which lifts the total running time to about 50 minutes.

The Verdict

Let's Hear It for The Laurie Berkner Band has more than enough catchy tunes that preschool kids will want to dance along to the show over and over again. The DVD's running time is a little short compared to most TV on DVD releases aimed at a similar audience; however, it is a better value that a lot of CDs aimed at preschool kids.


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