This year's top spot goes to Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band's Made in L.A., 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 listening to this weekend's Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child on the air or by streaming it on the show’s website starting Sunday evening.
The Top 10 albums of 2017 are (in order):
1. Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - Made in L.A.
2. Justin Roberts - Lemonade
3. Jazzy Ash - Swing Set
4. Dan Zanes and Friends - Lead Belly, Baby!
5. StevenSteven - Foreverywhere
6. Red Yarn - Born in the Deep Woods
7. Various Artists - Let All the Children Boogie
8. Lisa Loeb - Feel What U Feel
9. Randy & Dave - Life on a Trampoline
10. Jack Forman - Songs from the Monkey House
Honorable Mentions (unranked, listed alphabetically by artist)
Priscilla Ahn - La La La
Alphabet Rockers - Rise Shine #Woke
The Bazillions - Rock & Roll Yearbook
Randy Kaplan - Trippin' Round the Mitten
Lard Dog and the Band of Shy - Dreamers
Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights - Brooklyn Baby
Little Miss Ann & Amy D - Keep On
Walter Martin - My Kinda Music
Jess Penner - Imagination
Danny Weinkauf - Totally Osome
Along with these 20 CDs, there were another 30 albums receiving at least one vote, making a total of 50 albums receiving one or more votes from the Poll's 19 judges.
And as if that wasn't enough, with the increasing number of music being released outside the traditional album format (i.e., via singles or short EPs), we also polled our judges for the best in the past year's singles releases. The top 5 singles releases of 2017 are (in order):
1. Mista Cookie Jar - "Serotonin"
2. KB Whirly and Mista Cookie Jar - "Let Your Love Light Shine"
3. The Okee Dokee Brothers - "Countin' on Me"
4. Chibi Kodama - "The Safety Dance"
5. Alphabet Rockers and Mista Cookie Jar - "Yummy Yummy Fresh"
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, which uses the same eligibility dates as the Grammys, is coordinated by Stefan Shepherd of the kids audio website Zooglobble and Bill Childs of Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, with the "singles" release poll coordinated by Sagan Thacker of Radio Active Kids. Fids and Kamily logo by Jeff Bogle of Out With The Kids.
