The Biscuit Brothers

This is a light hearted children's show which explores the fundamentals of music theory. A mix of live action and puppetry, the show promotes interest in the musical experience with its fun, fast-paced antics. The segments in which classical music selections are turned into "music videos" are especially entertaining. "The Instrument of the Day" and "The Big Book of Music" are also fun. The only parts of the show I found somewhat annoying were the sketches with the Tiny Scarecrow. The characters of Dusty and Buford are lively without being too corny. It is evident that those involved with the production of "The Biscuit Brothers" have a genuine love of music and are intent in passing that along to today's youth. The scenic hill country of Austin, Texas provides the idyllic setting for this fresh, original bit of children's programming.

Cornball stuff that neither my 5 year old son nor I could get into. Season one wasn't bad, but the writing really seemed to go downhill fast, and instead of focusing on music season 2 seemed to try too hard to be some corn-pone Sesame Street knockoff sprinkled with some seriously lackluster routines and stilted acting, especially from the actor playing the part of Dusty who is just painful to watch he is so bad. The actor playing the part of Buford seems to have had some experience with acting at least. And contrary to another reviewer, my son actually laughed at the Scarecrow puppet a few times, but the whole thing being such a mishmash, and some of the scenes being jarringly out of place and just bad, the show doesn't hang together. The cartoons were uninteresting to my son who opted to play with his cars while they were on. I bet old Willie Nelson is a bit chagrined for adding his voice to this mess, if he remembers doing it at all, he he. We gave it a try, and it has a rare moment or two, but we won't be watching any more seasons.

As a huge music fan I've tried to expose my 3 year old to lots of great music. He's not quite ready for U2 or Dave Matthews, so we've got lots of children's music around the house - both audio CDs and DVD.

But most of it drives me completely nuts. Have you seen the Wiggles? I think they pipe their music in at Gitmo when they're interrogating terrorists. I can't even be in the same room when my son is listening to them or watching them. Truly awful, lip synced, ridiculously choreographed, pop drivel. Do you remember the goofy drama guys at your high school? Just imagine if someone gave them a kids TV show. And paid them $50 million a year. Ugh. And I'm not real cool with Captain Feathersword as a role model. He's not quite the pink teletubby with the purse, but it's pretty close.

So enter the Biscuit Brothers. These guys are real musicians and the music is really good (and they don't dance or prance!). My son absolutely loves the TV show on PBS, and I actually like the music myself. Plus they're pretty funny - they put in clever jokes that only adults get. And they're on public television so they're not in it for the bucks. I don't think they're in every PBS market yet, so you should ask your local station if they don't carry it.

The guys behind the Biscuits have music education backgrounds so each episode centers around a basic music theme - harmony, melody, rhythm, etc. Very educational without being boring.

Their show is set on Old McDonald's musical farm and the visuals are really nice - engaging but not overwhelming...lots of good outdoorsy shots so it doesn't look like some artificial set. The shows and the season1 DVD are well produced so they don't have that home movie feel like some kids shows but they also aren't don't look over-produced. And Willie Nelson does some of the narration, which I find highly amusing (not creepy like George Carlin doing voice overs on the Thomas the Train videos -seriously, the guy famous for doing the 7 Dirty Words bit is doing Thomas the Train?)

If you're a parent of young kiddos interested in music and/or music education, check them out.