Rocknoceros "Colonel Purple Turtle" CD Review...

COLONEL PURPLE TURTLE’ with ROCKNOCEROS
AWARD-WINNING BAND’S FIRST KID-FRIENDLY CONCEPT ALBUM
WITH COMPANION BOOK-A TRIBUTE TO FRIENDSHIP!

"In tribute to their friendship of more than 20 years, Northern Virginia’s premiere power trio for children – Rocknoceros – celebrates friends everywhere with the September 13th release of its fourth studio CD and first-ever kid-friendly concept album, Colonel Purple Turtle. Within the context of exceptionally beautiful music, the album offers lessons in science and lessons in life. A 24-page book, Colonel Purple Turtle’s Purple Turtle Journal, will be available as a companion to the album.

As almost every family with youngsters in the Washington, DC area knows, Rocknoceros (pronounced like rhinoceros) is three guys: Coach Cotton, Williebob, and Boogie Woogie Bennie. The theme of Colonel Purple Turtle is one of friendship and working together, a subject close to the hearts of the Rocknoceros bandmates, who have been best friends since they were children. Colonel Purple Turtle reflects their abiding trust in each other and their desire to share a message of camaraderie through song and story.

With an astounding variety of musical styles, sounds, and compositional devices, the world of a mythical reptilian Colonel and his friends in their make-believe home of Soggy Bog comes alive on Colonel Purple Turtle. This album offers energetic music that is never raucous, reflective music that is never boring, and interactive music that does not patronize children. Above all, Colonel Purple Turtle exposes kids to a world of musical tone color that goes far beyond the industrial gray of electric guitars, synthesizer keyboard, and drums. On this recording, small ears are opened up to the colorful nuance of a violin-viola-cello string ensemble, the harmonic language of jazz, the velvety blend of a barbershop quartet, the rhythmic complexity and vitality of Latin music, the antique sound of a recorder ensemble, and the relaxed style of finger-picking acoustic guitar, in addition to the driving energy of rock and roll. This great musical variety is not an end in itself, but, rather, is put to the task of relating allegorical tales that convey the message that knowing how to be a friend is an important part of life. Beyond the theme of friendship, the album’s songs also delve into such scientific topics as echolocation, the power of the sun, and the life cycle of ladybugs. Colonel Purple Turtle can be enjoyed and appreciated on many levels. It is fun and silly, festooned with colorfully descriptive language, word play, and humor, yet, at the same time quite serious and truthful. Taken individually, all the components of this album — the singing, the playing, the musical form of the pieces, the vivid contrasts — represent the highest production values, yet they never call attention to themselves, and neither the telling nor the message of the story is ever obscured."

What we thought:  We loved the fun and funky sounds of Rocknoceros!  Colonel Purple Turtle is a great compilation of cool and even educational songs spanning many musical styles including barbershop quartet, folk, Latin, rock and more.  We were very impressed by this CD and now consider ourselves Rocknoceros fans:)  Colonel Purple Turtle is great for the whole family...even Mom and Dad won't get tired of listening to it:)  ABCD Diaries gives Colonel Purple Turtle an A+!

Buy It: You can find this CD in music stores in September!


Disclosure: ABCD Diaries was given a copy of this CD for review purposes only. We were in no other way compensated. The opinions expressed in this post are ours and ours alone.