The Best Kids and Family Music of 2016: 11th Annual Fids and Kamily Music Award Winners

We've been doing the Fids and Kamily Music Poll (http://www.fidsandkamily.com/) for ten years, which means that proud to announce the 11th Annual Fids and Kamily Music Awards, celebrating the best in music for kids and families from the past year.  We're always super-excited to announce the winners, and this year is no exception.  This year's top spot goes to Frances England's Explorer of the World, with a number of names familiar to the winners' list as well as some Fids and Kamily newcomers making up the top 10.

You can listen to selections from the top 10 by streaming next weekend's Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child (or listen directly via the player below).

The Top 10 albums of 2016 are (in order):

1.  Frances England - Explorer of the World
2.  Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - Infinity Plus One
3.  The Okee Dokee Brothers - Saddle Up
4.  Sugar Free Allstars - Sugar Free Allstars
5.  Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could - Press Play
6.  Dean Jones - In My Dreams
7.  Mista Cookie Jar - Music Is Everywhere
8.  Recess Monkey - Novelties
9.  Andrew & Polly - Ear Snacks: Songs from the Podcast
10.  Justin Roberts - Lemonade

Honorable Mentions (unranked, listed alphabetically by artist)

Emily Arrow - Storytime Singalong Vol. 1
Laurie Berkner - Superhero
Charity and the JAMband - Earth: Songs for the Earth & All Beings
Sonia De Los Santos - Mi Viaje: De Nuevo León To The New York Island
The Deedle Deedle Dees - Sing-A-Long History Vol. 2: The Rocket Went Up!
Moona Luna - P A N O R A M A
The Not-Its! - Are You Listening?
Red Yarn - Wake Up and Sing
They Might Be Giants - Why?
Danny Weinkauf - Red Pants Band

In addition to these 20 CDs, there were another 38 albums receiving at least one vote, making a total of 58 albums receiving one or more votes from the Poll's 21 judges. 

The Fids and Kamily Poll is the first compilation of year-end kids and family music "best of" lists from critics, writers, radio programmers, and others involved in the music industry. The poll was launched in 2006 and was inspired by the Village Voice’s long-running “Pazz and Jop” music poll.  The poll is coordinated by Stefan Shepherd of the kids audio website Zooglobble and Bill Childs of Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child.  Fids and Kamily logo by Jeff Bogle of Out With The Kids.

The Best Kids and Family Music of the Past Decade

As we prepare to announce the 2016 edition of the Fids and Kamily Awards, ten years after the first Fids and Kamily Awards, we thought it'd be fun to look back at the first decade of awards and see if judges past and present could come up with a consensus list of the best kids and family music of those last ten years.

So we compiled our list of all Fids and Kamily award-winners -- there were 122 of them -- sent them to judges, and asked them to pick their twenty favorites and score them in a similar manner as they do for the annual Fids and Kamily Awards.

Speaking as a judge who had to do this myself, I can assure you that this was tough work, even tougher than the annual awards, because I've heard more than 20 undeniably awesome kids music albums in the last decade, and that meant I had to leave some undeniably awesome kids music albums off my list.

But we all did it, and what you see below is the consensus list of the best kids music albums of the last decade.  No doubt some of your favorites might have been left off the list -- hey, some of your favorites might even have been left off the list of award-winners -- but I'm pretty sure that all of these will bring just about every family no small amount of joy.

Here, then, are the top 20 albums of the past decade, along with another 20 honorable mentions, with  the Fids and Kamily Award-winning year in parentheses.  (Note: albums released since Oct. 1, 2015 were not eligible for these awards, since those albums would be considered for the 2016 Fids and Kamily Awards.)

1.  The Okee Dokee Brothers - Can You Canoe? (2012)
2.  Molly Ledford and Billy Kelly - Trees (2015)
3.  Dan Zanes and Friends - Catch That Train! (2006)
4.  Justin Roberts - Jungle Gym (2010)
5.  Justin Roberts - Pop Fly (2008)
6.  Frances England - Mind of My Own (2011)
7.  They Might Be Giants - Here Come the 123s (2008)
8.  (tie) Elizabeth Mitchell - You Are My Little Bird (2006)
8.  (tie) Justin Roberts - Meltdown (2006)
10.  Barenaked Ladies - Snacktime (2008)
11.  Elizabeth Mitchell - Blue Clouds (2012)
12.  Asylum Street Spankers - Mommy Says No! (2007)
13.  They Might Be Giants - Here Comes Science (2009)
14.  Dan Zanes and Elizabeth Mitchell - Turn Turn Turn (2013)
15.  The Pop Ups - Radio Jungle (2012)
16.  Lori Henriques - How Great Can This Day Be (2015)
17.  Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - A Potluck (2012)
18.  (tie) Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - The Perfect Quirk (2014)
19.  (tie) Tim Kubart - Home (2015)
20.  Brady Rymer - Love Me for Who I Am (2011)

Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically by artist)
Caspar Babypants - Sing Along! (2011)
The Deedle Deedle Dees - Strange Dees, Indeed (2011)
Frances England - Blink of an Eye (2013)
Gustafer Yellowgold - Gustafer Yellowgold's Infinity Sock (2011)
Randy Kaplan - Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie (2012)
Lunch Money - Dizzy (2009)
Ziggy Marley - Family Time (2009)
Medeski, Martin and Wood - Let's Go Everywhere (2008)
Elizabeth Mitchell - Sunny Day (2010)
Alastair Moock - Singing Our Way Through - Songs for the World's Bravest Kids (2013)
The Not-Its! - Raise Your Hand (2014)
The Okee Dokee Brothers - Through the Woods (2014)
Elena Moon Park - Rabbit Days and Dumplings (2012)
The Pop Ups - Appetite for Construction (2014)
Recess Monkey - The Final Funktier (2010)
Red Yarn - Deep Woods Revival (2015)
Renee and Jeremy - It's a Big World (2007)
Justin Roberts - Recess (2013)
Various Artists (Spare the Rock Records) - Science Fair (2012)
Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke - Pleased To Meet You (2013)

For you data nerds, here are some more details.

• 104 of the 122 albums received at least one vote.
• There were 67 different artists or combinations, excluding "Various Artists" compilations, of which 6 made the list of 122
• The top 10 artists in the voting for this "best-of-the-decade" list, combining the votes for all their albums were, in order:

1. Justin Roberts
2. Elizabeth Mitchell
3. The Okee Dokee Brothers
4. Dan Zanes
5. Frances England
6. Lunch Money
7. Recess Monkey
8. They Might Be Giants
9. The Pop Ups
10. Gustafer Yellowgold

• Based on the average number of points for each year's albums, 2012 took the title for best year.

Thanks to all the artists who've been making music for families for the past decade -- and much more! -- and thanks to the judges who've helped make Fids and Kamily a useful place to find the best kids music each and every year.  Here's looking forward to another decade of great kids music.  The next decade begins next week!