Only One Ocean

K- Gr 6—The award-winning Banana Slug String Band (Doug Greenfield, Larry Graff, Steve Van Zandt, and Mark Nolan) performs 14 original songs about ocean ecosystems and animals. Four ocean-focused organizations co-sponsored the recording, and the band's goal is to share with children knowledge and beauty of the ocean, and to call them to action in protecting the ocean. The band is joined by guest artists George Winston, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet, Victor Wooten, Brett Dennen, Tim Carbone, Zach Gill, and an enthusiastic youth choir singing in several musical styles, including rock, funk/rap, jazz, zydeco, sea shanty, klezmer, reggae, bluegrass, and country. The musicians give outstanding performances on a variety of instruments, such as guitar, violin, mandolin, dulcimer, ukulele, saxophones, flute, piccolo, trombone, piano, electric keyboards, accordion, washboard, and more. Several songs emphasize the importance of the ocean to life on earth: "Only One Ocean," "Ocean Everywhere," "Ocean Flow," "The Living Sea," and "Too Hot." Other numbers focus on ocean creatures: "Kingdom of the Crab," "Standing on My Head" (barnacles), "Cetacea," "Coral Reef," "Turtle Ate a Jelly" (too many plastic bags polluting the ocean), "Plankton Soup," and "Jellies Ballet." "Going Down, Down, Down" describes the ocean floor and "Mountain in My Hand" celebrates all kinds of sand. This excellent album would be a great resource for science classes as well as for library music collections.—Beverly Wrigglesworth, San Antonio Public Library, TX