Lately my 5-year-old daughter has been insisting we play the “favorites” game. We go back and forth picking our favorite (name literally any category), sometimes for a full half-hour before she’s ready to play something else. I love this game, because it’s one of the few that we can play while sitting down, and it doesn’t involve dolls.

One category of the “favorites” game was words. What’s your favorite word? This is actually a pretty introspective category. Do you like the way a particular word sounds? Or the meaning? Or both?

My daughter went back and forth between adorable choices like “love”, “happy”, and “unicorns”, to silly choices like “utensils”, “mice”, and “feet”. I started to think way too hard about this one, but ultimately settled on “harmony”. A lovely sounding word, with a lovely meaning.

My choice was likely influenced by the talent of this week’s artist, Andrew and Polly.

Andrew and Polly are a family-music duo who are wonderfully gifted at harmonizing. As well as whistling. Many of their songs have a delightful whistling melody, and their vocal harmonies are perfection.

Take for instance, “Two Little Birds”. This adorable song has both beautiful vocal harmonies, AND harmonious whistling. I believe one of the greatest skills you can have as a vocalist is the ability to harmonize. I’ve spent most of my singing life as a lead, so this is a skill that I really enjoy working on. Even with a great ear, it takes a lot of practice to not fall into the melody. (FYI, if you ever want to harmonize with me in an overly dramatic fashion, just pop on “More Than Words” by Extreme.)

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I’m turning into a crazy bird lady. We see so many around our home by the river and I really am fascinated by them. Lately we’ve had lots of ducks, including a few synchronized swimmers:

Andrew and Polly have several more happy whistling numbers like “Critters” which will have the kids howling like coyotes. And “Little Bitta You” is an upbeat pop-y song that I swear I heard on a yogurt commercial.

They’ve made quite a few quirkier earworm songs as well, including “Grapes”. This is a song you really need to be in the mood for. At first, I despised it, but after a few listens…I’m gonna go home. And I’m gonna eat some grapes. LA LA LA LA grapes.

Andrew and Polly is a solid choice for the family playlist, especially if you’re outside enjoying the sunshine. It’ll feel like birds are actually singing to you. Go take a listen, and get to work on those harmonies!

Playlist updated. Thanks for reading!