Groove Kid Nation “Music in Motion,” “The Wheels on the Bus”

(www.groovekidnation.com) Children’s music committed to teaching tots to feel the funk. Not playing down to kids, these collections (in what sounds like a hot funk covers band messing around with nursery rhymes) teach the young’ns to do the soul clap, identify instruments (which doesn’t take much adjustment, as funk bands call out their instruments by name for solos all the time) and to react to high and low notes. They sound just as good sneaking lyrics about naps into Teddy Pendergrass songs as they do sneaking James Brown beats into The “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Best of all, they have animal characters as band members. I personally like “Music in Motion” CD better because I’m a purist…I prefer an all cat band to  a weasel/bird/bird/bug/rodent combo.