GRAMMY Nominations for Children's Music and Audio Announced

The GRAMMY nominations for "Best Musical Album for Children" and "Best Spoken Word Album for Children" were announced December 3 at the 51st annual awards ceremony. Nominees include Beethoven's Wig 4: Dance Along Symphonies by Beethoven's Wig (Rounder Records), Big Round World by Trout Fishing In America (Trout Records), Here Come The 123s by They Might Be Giants (Disney Sound), Here Comes Brady Rymer And The Little Band That Could by Brady Rymer And The Little Band That Could (Bumblin' Bee Records), and The Shoe Bird by Gerard Schwarz Conducting The Seattle Symphony (Brilliance Audio).

Spoken word nominees include Around The Campfire by Buck Howdy With BB (Prairie Dog Entertainment), The Big One-Oh by Dean Pitchford (Random House Audio/Listening Library), Brown Bear And Friends by Gwyneth Paltrow (Macmillan Audio), The Cricket In Times Square by Tony Shalhoub (Macmillan Audio), and Yes To Running! Bill Harley Live by Bill Harley (Round River Records).

What immediately caught my attention was the high percentage of independent labels on the list. Only one music nominee is distributed by a major label, and two of the five spoken word nominations are from indie labels, a field usually dominated by big publishing houses.