Raise your hand if you listen to classical music in your car….

Something happened to me when I hit my 30’s, and especially when I had kids. I YEARN for peace and quiet. I could listen to literally any song ever written when I enter my vehicle alone, but I will often throw on the classical station. I just want to listen to, or do, anything that encourages a calm environment. I love yoga, and my favorite part of every class is corpse pose. You just lay there like you’re dead for like 5 straight minutes. It’s the BEST!

We have a wonderful pop-up children’s book about emotions called, “The Color Monster”, by Anna Llenas. Whenever I read it with my 5-year-old she will say, “Mommy’s favorite page is green, for calm!” and she is absolutely correct. Here’s that page, it even has a little green hammock to remind me of all the rest I’m not getting:

So with that in mind, I’d like to express my sincere appreciation for Renee & Jeremy, a musical duo with a catalog of light acoustic children’s music that brings on all the calm vibes. “It’s a Big World” is a sleepy and sweet song that has become a regular on the “Calm time” playlist, and on the “Please nap in the car for the love of God” playlist.

“It’s a big dog

It’s a big plane

It’s a big cloud

With a little bit of rain”

Just typing out those lyrics made me nod off a little.

While I love their chilled out original songs, Renee & Jeremy also recorded an album of gentle covers. This album, “A Little Love”, is an eclectic mix with everything from “Shiny Happy People” (B-52’s), to “Yellow” (Coldplay), to our personal favorite “Give it Away” (Red Hot Chili Peppers). There’s something adorable about a 5-year-old singing “What I’ve got you’ve got to give it to your mama” while staring out the car window.

I was also delighted to learn they have a Christmas album titled, “Sunny Christmas”. They did a great job putting their own unique spin on several classics, which is refreshing. I’m sort of obsessed with Christmas music and I love when artists get creative with the standards. Last year my husband bought “Shatner Claus” on vinyl which is William Shatner’s Christmas album if you’re looking for more uniquely-styled holiday anthems…

Thinking about Christmas is not what I want to do on this fine May morning, but I’ll definitely be adding the calm and slightly haunting sounds from “Sunny Christmas” to my holiday playlist this year. I look forward to listening to it as I drink spiked eggnog, clutter my house with decor, and drop Christmas Vacation quotes every half hour beginning the day after Thanksgiving. Save the neck for me, Clark.

Renee & Jeremy are two musician friends who joined forces in 2006 to create this lovely collection of quiet songs. While I’m not familiar with their individual projects, I’m certainly happy that they came together to become the corpse pose of children’s music. Well done, you two.

ALSO, GUYS! I’ve created a much easier way for you to quickly check out the artists that I’m blogging about. This link should take you right to the Spotify playlist which I will add to with each post:

Or you can search “Kat Rees” as a verified artist….that’s me! The blog playlist is featured plus the songs from my 2013 album are finally there, woohoo!

Thanks for reading!