Gray Matter Matters. Trust me on that one.

Parents’ Choice® Gold winning kids’ musician Roger Day’s “brainy” new CD, Why Does Gray Matter? … And Other Brainy Songs for Kids! is one of the newest albums in what we lovingly refer to as “van rotation” right now. If a CD leaves the kids’ rooms and makes it to the van, it’s good. It’s about the wonders and mysteries of the human brain, and is geared to kids ages 5 – 11.

As I’ve mentioned many times, I am not a music reviewer and don’t consider myself necessarily very good at it, but I am certainly opinionated, as are my children. I feel qualified to tell you that this is a great CD that my kids love. The music PR people in my virtual life are much better at actually writing about the tunes. So let’s let them do it, right?

In the spirit of Schoolhouse Rock and Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Why Does Gray Matter? includes “Brain Food – Eat it Up!” which uses omega 3, lypocene and green tea in a B-52s inspired rocker about the best foods for brain health. The “Left Brain/Right Brain” song illustrates the different functions of each side of the brain: the left brain is a Bach-inspired baroque string quartet and the right brain – naturally – is a bad British punk rock band. Roger Day co-wrote “The Brain Train” with Dr. John Paul Bouffard, Chief Neuropathologist at Overlook Hospital in New Jersey; the song takes a peek inside Ringo Starr’s brain during that nanosecond from Ringo’s first thought about playing the drums to showtime at Shea Stadium. Roger says, “I’m confident this is the first – and probably last — children’s song that uses words like ‘corpus callosum’ and ‘deep basal ganglia’ in the lyrics.”

There wasn’t a song on this CD that I didn’t like. My son has actually learned a lot about the brain by listening to it and it’s spurred some awesome discussions & teachable moments. My daughter just boogies along as we chat because the music is as good as the content. It’s good stuff – particularly if you’re a science buff.

Win it! Comment here before noon on Friday, May 7, 2010 to be entered to win a copy.