BUGS

Mister G, also known as Ben Gundersheimer, offers a new album Bugs that is a delightful introduction to a welcome voice in children’s music. Possessing a strong, pleasant and tuneful tenor, Gundersheimer also plays banjo, guitar and mandolin. On this album, he is joined by Rani Arbo and other members of her band daisy mayhem for thirteen superb original Mister G songs. There's even a hysterical/historic version of Elton John’s "Benny and the Jets," recorded back when Gundersheimer was just a lower case "g" of nine years old. Of Mister G's orginal tunes, there is the Cajun flavored title track, the Latin-tinged Spanish/English language ode to Crocodiles "Cocodrilo," and what might well be Mister G’s theme--"Gonna Take My Hat," which pits creative haberdashery against early male pattern baldness.

A master of multiple musical styles, Mister G sings his "Grilled Cheese" to a swinging ska beat. The catchy "Friends" has delta slide guitar oomph, and "Snow Day" is a funk plea for a day off from school. There is the Phish-like fun of "Shark in My Bathtub," and the Samba-fueled sonnet to imagination in "Blast Off." Parents will enjoy his B52s-ish, punk approach to canines in "Pug on a Rug," while sibling rivalry is celebrated in the ballad "Brothers and Sisters." To round things out, there is also the funky fear fest of "Ghosts and Goblins", and the Tex-Mex "Vamos a la Playa."

~ Lahri Bond, Parent's Choice