CD Review: Bari Koral Family Rock Band, “Rock and Roll Garden”

Feb 23, 10 • In Music

With oversized flowers and a watercolor painting of puffy clouds, daisies, and a rubber duckie on the cover, you might expect Bari Koral’s full-length debut to be more than a little on the cutesy-poo side — and it is, ultimately, targeted mainly at the pre-K audience. But the record’s called Rock and Roll Garden for a reason: Koral and her Family Rock Band manage to tie together toddler-friendly themes (dinosaurs, colors, clapping) with arrangements that benefit from a surprising amount of genuine (albeit very gentle) rock ‘n’ roll bite. The end result ain’t exactly Joan Jett, but if you’re a parent who’s spent any time at all trying to find music that’s aimed at your young children and isn’t barf-inducingly patronizing, you know it’s the little victories that count. And you can count Bari Koral