OH Music: Rebecca Frezza & Big Truck "Rockin', Rollin' and Ridin'"

I recently received a copy of Rebecca Frezza & Big Truck's latest album Rockin', Rollin' and Ridin'. I'd never heard any of this band's music, and quite frankly, I misjudged them when I first saw the cover of their newest CD: a cartoony cover with Rebecca photoshopped behind the wheel of a yellow smiley-faced car. I assumed it was going to be a prototypical sugary kids-bop piece and that my sensitive adult ears would be begging for a time-out before the first track reached its chorus. Thankfully, my 3 year old daughter (wise beyond her years and ears) convinced me otherwise.

I was totally wrong about Ms. Frezza and Big Truck. The songs on this CD tote awesome bluesy-rock sounds from an impressive seven-piece band. Rebecca's beautiful voice and the voices of the backup singers make the catchy lyrics so much fun to sing along with. Set to release November 10th, "Rockin', Rollin' and Ridin'" is their fifth album geared for kids ages 4-8, with 8 songs plus a bonus video for "Big Truck".

Here's what's fun: the kinesthetic quality of the songs just beg to be acted out, something my daughter and I can't resist doing each time we listen to the album. Songs like "Motorcycle Boy" which send us on our imaginary motorcycles screeching and zooming all over our living room, "Rocketship" where we become astronauts lifting off into outer space. "Robot Dancer" works because even though we don't need an excuse to dance like robots, it's nice to have a song with perfect robot beats for super-rad robot dancing.

Our favorite song on the album is "Hey-O." It's a catchy repeat-after-me type song, and I get to sing along with one of my childhood heroes, Roscoe Orman (better known as Sesame Street's Gordon). But let me warn you once you sing along you'll have the darn song in your head the rest of the day (just ask my husband).

There's a lot of mediocre kids music out there, a lot of music that you might guess from cutesy covers would be as soggy as yesterday's cheerios, but Rebecca Frezza & Big Truck's "Rockin,' Rollin' and Ridin'" shouldn't be one of them. It's energetic, singable and danceable; I'm excited to hear more from these talented and entertaining artists. It's definitely on Otterhop's must-have list.