OK. It's not really my birthday at all. In fact, calendar-ically speaking, it's not this website's birthday, either. August 27, 2004 was the date of
my first post (well, really it was
here, but you get my point). But since it took me another two months to post post #2, I've never really focused on that date. It took me nearly four years to get to
one thousand posts, and that seemed like a good point to stop and note the achievement.
This post marks another thousand posts, bringing me up to 2,000 posts. That's probably pushed me up above a half-million words, more than 400 reviews, at least 50 interviews, and 23 jokes. (OK, maybe more than 23.) Over that time, I think I was the first to bring to the broad kindie world's attention (in alphabetical order): The Bazillions, Billy Kelly, the Biscuit Brothers, Bunny Clogs, Caspar Babypants, Central Services Board of Education, and... well, that's just through the letter C. More importantly, over that time, the genre has matured and come to self-define itself. Musicians are now part of a movement, and I'd like to think I played an itty-bitty part in that.
I'm typically lousy in planning my own birthday parties -- I have lots of ideas, but can't decide among them until it's way too late. And so it is with celebrating my two-thousandth post. I had lots of self-aggrandizing ideas -- and I may still get to some of them eventually -- but I've decided to celebrate the genre and you readers instead.
I've talked about
Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti quite a bit, not just because Bill Childs is a friend of mine, but far more importantly, because it's for a good cause and it shows how far the new group of family musicians have come in such a short amount of time.
So, for the next week, I'll give away at least 10 family music albums to people who buy the album and then forward me a receipt of some sort. I'm talking high-quality folks, many of whom are on the
Many Hands disk: Dan Zanes, Lunch Money, Frances England, and more.
If you want to use these Amazon Associates links to purchase the album, it'd be easier for me to track (and would offset some of the postage), but you're not required to. (I don't see who ordered, it just gives me a total number of orders.) These have to be new purchases (sorry all you early adopters), but I will give one of the 10 albums away to people who've already bought the album -- just comment in the comments below and I'll pick one randomly. If you're buying it new (to get one of the other 9), just e-mail me at zooglobble AT earthlink DOT net, and I'll get you hooked up. First come, first served.
Thanks to everyone for reading (and listening) all these years. I'll start planning for my post #3,000 celebration now.
Amazon links:
Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti
(CD)
Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti
(mp3)
Feeling a little bit pwned, East Coast? First Kindiependent in Seattle, then AMFM in Los Angeles. And now Let's Play!, a San Francisco Bay Area collective of family musicians, has set up shop.
It's a group that features (in alphabetical order) family musicians Alphabet Rockers, Charity and the JAMband, Frances England, Gunnar Madsen, The Hipwaders, Octopretzel, The Sippy Cups, and Rudy Trubitt. (And a little help from the local GRAMMY chapter.)
The group doesn't seem ready to bust out a "Vagabond Worms"-style supergroup jam just yet, preferring at this point to just discuss items like "GRAMMY Awards membership and voting, favorite venues, PR and booking agent recommendations, tour tips, music licensing opportunities," and more.
But still. Good news, even if you're just thinking about visiting (or touring) San Francisco...
Oh, that Smithsonian Folkways label. Folk music from around the world, but they've totally gone 21st century. Yep, that's right, they have a 
