Zooglobble

One of the 2007 albums that just missed making my list of 20 favorite kids music albums of 2007 was Campfire Sing-Along from the Bay Area band Orange Sherbet with some help from the band Hot Buttered Rum (here's the review).

I've been a little sad that the CD didn't get more attention, so I'm happy to have an excuse to provide more attention myself. I've found a video that the band put together with the artist Sarah Klein. Klein is friends with Orange Sherbet singer-songwriter Tamsen Fynn and will be showing a couple of her short films at the San Francisco Bay Area International Children's Film Festival this weekend. You can see the hand-animated "On the Farm" here (direct link to broadband version) and the live-action bread-filled "Feed the Starter" here (again, direct link to broadband version). They're both cute, in different ways

But those are from an older Orange Sherbet album, and I'm all about the new. (Usually.) So I'm most excited to find the hand-animated video for Campfire Sing-Along's leadoff track, "Campfire Song" (broadband link here). As you might expect, it involves a bear, which I always find to be a good thing.

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kansas City kids musician Funky Mama (aka Krista Eyler) pointed out yesterday that Kansas City, Missouri will host its host its own kids music festival, the first Kansas City Jiggle Jam Family Fest, Memorial Day weekend (Saturday and Sunday, May 24 and 25).

"Don't forget the Midwest family music," asks Eyler, and with a lineup including They Might Be Giants, Justin Roberts, Trout Fishing in America, Tom Chapin, John McCutcheon, not to mention KC-area favorites Jim Cosgrove and Funky Mama, it would be hard to. Especially when the cost per day is $10/kid ($8 in advance, kids under 2 free) and $5/adult. Heck, at those ticket prices, you're losing money if you don't pack those kids of yours into the car/minivan/refurbished school bus and head out.

(Hey, I spent a number of years in the Midwest -- can't ever forget the Midwest family music.)

Anybody else have some sweet tours or multi-multi-artist festivals they know of? Let me know...

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Perhaps you're thinking you don't want to wait until August or September to see a whole bunch of kids' music artists. Perhaps you're also thinking, hey, I'd like to see the Judds reunite! (Coachella's got Portishead, you decide which you'd prefer.) Well, then, Coachella's countryfied cousin, Stagecoach has come to rescue. In addition to booking the Eagles for the festival's second, Stagecoach also is doing its Half-Pint Hootenanny once more and announced its lineup today, with some familiar names on the list:

Brady Rymer
Buck Howdy with BB
The Bummkinn Band
Tom Freund and Friends
Uncle Ron and Aunt Sandii
Kid Fiddlers
The Bon Family and California All-Star Cloggers
Croakers Youth/Family Square Dancers Club

That's a decent lineup there. Stagecoach is May 2 through 4 in Indio, California.

And what if you prefer Austin in springtime?

Well, there's always South By Southwest March 12 through 16 with a bajillion bands and those who love (or hate) them. The free kids show on Auditorium Shores takes a different tack, with Sara Hickman's Super Pal Universe (remember them? they were at Austin Kiddie Limits) and the Rachel Tractenburg Morning Show making an appearance Saturday afternoon.

If you're actually attending the conference, be sure to check out Rockin' in the Wee World (yeah, those kid-music puns can fade away now), which at the very least features three very nice people -- Sara Hickman, Austin Kiddie Limits/Kidzapalooza producer Tor Hyams, and Stagecoach Half-Pint Hootenanny producer Karen Rappaport McHugh -- among others. And, hey, it's Friday at 12:30 -- you'll totally have woken up from Thursday night's shows...

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think the world of Dan Zanes. But I'm willing to acknowledge that not quite everyone is as OK with the pied piper of family music as I am.

Mark Foley, the creator of New York's One Man Blam, has put his own take on Mr. Zanes up on YouTube. Now, considering that in the very description of the video, Foley says, "Dan Zanes & Company do such great work, who can resist joining in the fun?," it's clear from the get-go that the phrase "gentle satire" was created for stuff like this.

"Well, I don't have a tangerine suit / Or a fiddler in hot pink tights," Foley starts out, then later notes that "I threw out the very same duds / He got in an old thrift shop." He's aiming Nerf balls at Zanes, but he's certainly hitting the target.

Considering the other songs Foley's made available, Foley is clearly mining the same seam Zanes has mined with such success. And I've got to believe that Zanes himself would probably completely approve what Foley's doing with One Man Blam and Volunteer Music, which brings "free concerts for underserved communities and worthy civic initiatives." He, uh, just doesn't have the distribution deal with Starbucks.

One Man Blam (Mark Foley) - "Dan Zanes Blues"

Now where did I put that DZ ukelele of mine?...

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Not wanting to wait to hear music from the Barenaked Ladies' May album-length foray into kids' music, Snacktime?

Well, then, get yourself to a cruise ship!

(Huh?)

The band hosted their "Ships & Dip III" Caribbean cruise in late January (hmmm, wonder how much interest there would be in a Zooglobble cruise?). The Brothers Creeggan, a BNL side project featuring BNL bassist Jim Creeggan and former member Andy Creeggan, played a show which included Jim's "Pollywog in a Bog," from the upcoming album. It's a mid-tempo reggae tune and here, at least, also features a mid-song dancehall rap.

So who's with me on Zooglobble cruise idea? How about renting a paddle boat?

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You know, why stop at showing album art from one eagerly anticipated 2008 release when you can show two.

This is from Pop Fly, the sixth kids album from Justin Roberts. Sarajo Frieden, who did the artwork for Roberts' masterful Meltdown! CD (and, yes, I did use the word "masterful," it is and I won't brook an argument), does the honors once more. I see elephants standing out in what would appear to be right field. Not sure if there are some imaginary rhinos there.

And, yes, I did take the cover from Justin's website. Was it the "New CD" sign that gave it away?

Pop Fly is out on Carpet Square Records April 15.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And who says album art is passe'? Did the Barenaked Ladies resurrect Edward Gorey from the dead (and give him a cheerier disposition in the process)?

In any case, as noted earlier, BNL's first kids music CD, Snacktime is out May 6 on Desperation Records.

(Oh, and if you want to hear who makes an appearance on the disk, Bill's got the scoop. Lyle Lovett -- now there's a guy who should do a kids' album.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been years since I've run an Oscars pool -- that happened about the time that the number of movies I saw in a theatre dropped to a dozen or so (but, hey, I love you, kids!) -- though I did catch part of last night's ceremony, including the announcement of Best Original Song, which went to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their lovely and aching "Falling Slowly" from the movie Once.

It was a little surprising, the win. Alan Menken, whose brilliance as a movie-musical composer cannot be denied (think all the classic Disney animated movies from nearly 20 years ago) had the misfortune of being nominated three times with Stephen Schwartz for Enchanted in the category, which meant that voters too blinkered to recognize the best song of the three (note: "Happy Working Song," duh) split his vote.

Not that I'm complaining. It's a stunning song from a great little movie. The soundtrack is nice, but I've found that it never quite moved me the way the movie did. The soundtrack version of the Oscar-winner adds a string section which, while sweet, takes away from the central core of the movie, the way these two artists create a singular musical voice. Much better is the movie's version. Less than 20 minutes into the movie, you hear this duet, and it floors you. The clip below is from the movie.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - "Falling Slowly"

And in case you feel like you need a kid-friendly version (or at least one the kids might be a little more interested in -- initially), you can click here. I wouldn't recommend it, though -- it's absolutely awful. Update: And Bill notes that MST3K alum Mike Nelson feels similarly.

Once is out on DVD now, and if you haven't seen it, you should.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Meet The SqueeGees, the first full-length CD from the Los Angeles-area band The SqueeGees, could offer me a chance to be exceedingly lazy and simply copy the review from their debut EP, The SqueeGees. Well, maybe half the review. Because half of the CD was originally found on that debut EP.

Now, that's not a bad thing, perhaps, because that means the bubbly tiny nugget of a song, "Apples Oranges & Peaches," is back, as is "Nala the Chihuahua," with its snaky melodic line and harmonies. And "The Ol' WWW," which really isn't a kids song (though it's totally kid-safe) is back to amuse the parents.

Just as with the EP, the Squeegees are at their best when they're not as concerned with the point of the song, such as the dreamy "Bubbles." "I-D-E-A," a song encouraging more environmentally conscious thinking, almost overdoes it with the hitting-over-the-head. (More amusing is the Queen-esque breakdown that starts "So you think that you would like to drive a big car? / Have you seen the gas prices today?" and ends, of course, with "I like to ride my bicycle / I like to ride my bike...")

In fact, what struck me the most on listening to the full-length CD is how much care and craft has gone into these tunes, musically speaking. The SqueeGees generally play folk-rock, but there's a lot of interesting bits squeezed in here, like in the song above, or the harmonies in "Nala the Chihuahua." Along with Samantha Tobey's clear voice, they make the most of the songs here.

I'll peg the album as most appropriate for ages 2 through 7. You can hear some tracks from the CD at the band's Myspace page.

There's a lot to recommend in Meet the SqueeGees. I like the quirky ones more than the standard ones, but that might be personal taste. In either case, there's a high attention to sonic detail that kids musicians thinking of recording debuts could do well to emulate. Recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I feel compelled to jot down a few words about the Dan Zanes show we saw a couple weeks ago, and not just because I've got this cool photo of Dan wearing a scarf my daughter gave him (you'll have to click through to see that).

I was glad to see that Phoenix managed to turn out a decent-sized crowd, a good 700 people, maybe more, in the gorgeous Orpheum Theatre. Really, for a Friday-night show that might have impeded attendance by families with younger kids, I'm pretty happy.

There were clearly families for whom this was not their first DZ show -- I recognized people from the Tucson show last April. But many, including Miss Mary Mack's younger brother, who, let's go ahead and call him Little Boy Blue, were seeing him for the first time.

So they got to hear all the standbys -- "Pay Me My Money Down," "Hello, Hello," among others. There was a serious mosh pit down in front of the stage. It was weird sitting in our seats with Little Boy Blue (who seemed a little overwhelmed by it all) while watching Miss Mary Mack stand up front jumping a bit during the songs and turning around every minute or so to make sure we were still sitting there.

The band continues to sound great, and Dan's guest, the same guy who appeared at his Tucson show last April, blended in better with the band than I think he did last time.

There were some changes, though, from last time -- no strolling into the theatre at the beginning of the show (though they did leave that way). The biggest change was no Father Goose, which was a little disappointing (especially since we told Miss Mary Mack a couple times during the show, "yes, Father Goose will be coming out soon"). Especially for an evening show, Father Goose's appearance would have added a nice jolt of energy.

But it was still a nice show, worth seeing. Dan and the band, as always, stayed in the foyer signing autographs after the show and chatting up the crowd. Miss Mary Mack had brought a colorful scarf for Dan (who knows where that idea came from) and gave it to him. Dan kindly accepted it, then decided to wear it. The man has no fashion fear, that much is for sure...

Anyway, here's hoping that the decent turnout not only brings Zanes back to Phoenix but also serves as an invitation to other artists...

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's time I dial back a bit on the They Might Be Giants Here Come the 123s madness. The album's been out for more than a couple weeks, and there's plenty of other music to talk about. Before I completely turn things over to my Here Come the 123s archive, a pair of final thoughts.

First, my conjecture that the album might break the Billboard Top 10 proved too optimistic. Thus far, their peak chart position is #172. Given that Herbie Hancock's sales of 5,044 albums that same week put him at #159, it would appear TMBG probably sold just under 5,000 copies their first week. Now, given that they also debuted at #9 on the Kid Audio Chart, and only dropped to #10 in week 2, it's not unlikely that they'll continue to sell four or five thousand albums a week, especially given the ongoing promotion. But doubtful that they'll make the Billboard Top 10.

And for those of you who are already awaiting the next TMBG kids' album, the reported album on the planets and science is definitely a go. This article quotes a Disney executive as saying that the album could be released as early as next year. The podcasts will go on forever, one can only hope...

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've hear rumors of particular bands being booked for C3's twin titans of summer kid-friendly music festivals, Kidzapalooza and Austin Kiddie Limits, and some of those rumors would appear to be inching toward the realm of reality.

Austin Kiddie Limits has posted some new tracks on its Myspace page. New to the page are The Jimmies, Buck Howdy, Uncle Rock, and Mr. RAY. These artists would all appear to be on the bill for AKL, set for September 26 through 28. (Buck Howdy already has AKL dates on his live calendar.) And The Jimmies have a Kidzapalooza date set on their calendar. (Kidzapalooza is set for August 1 through 3.)

These aren't all the bands I've heard rumors of, so more will be announced at some point, to be sure. But, hey, it's only February -- ACL is 7 months away, after all. Now you can plan your summer 2008 road trips accordingly.

Posted by SAShepherd at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I realize that the Grammys have been over for more than a week now, but I wanted to put a few final thoughts down for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards and, in particular, the kids music field...

I've already shared with you Buck Howdy's thoughts on his trip to the awards, but Buck wasn't the only one visiting. Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer paid a visit, too. The duo has won Grammys before, and Cathy was a nominee this year for Best Traditional Folk Album, with Banjo Talkin'. They attended a number of events and took a bunch of photos. I don't think I ever quite appreciated how much like a convention the Grammys are for the music industry.

And my friend Joel Rinsema, executive director for the Phoenix Bach Choir, nominated for five Grammys along with the Kansas City Choir, did win one award, sort of -- Best Engineered Album, Classical, which goes to the engineer. Still, that's a "Grammy Winner!" sticker they can slap on the CD. "We are thrilled," says Joel, who goes on to say...

"We had an absolute blast at the Grammys. The whole thing was surreal; from the Biltmore Hotel, to the pre-telecast and telecast award ceremonies and of course the post-Grammy bash (the bash looked more like the set from the movie Caligula, to be honest!). It was especially exciting sitting with 80 other people who were there for our nominations. I can definitely say that people knew which disc we were pulling for, especially when the winner was announced for best engineered classical album. I don't think John Newton, our engineer on "Passion Week" expected the eruption that happened when his name was called as the winner. It was a thrilling ride to be on, but to be honest it feels good to have it all behind us. Some have said "congratulations and condolences" (we didn't take home the REAL big awards - Best Classical or Choral Performance). My response is "are you crazy!? We are THRILLED that our disc won a Grammy!" It truly was an honor and we look forward to the next time our hard work is recognized in this manner. It is not the reason we do what we do, but it certainly is gratifying to be recognized for making the right decisions and producing high-quality art."

But you can't talk about this year's Grammys without talking about Herbie Hancock's stunning Album of the Year win for River: The Joni Letters, beating contenders such as Kanye West and saving Amy Winehouse from winning the Christopher Cross slate (AOTY, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist). Most of the criticism of the win seemed to be along the lines of, "not popular enough, from an artist way past their artistic peak."

Sound familiar? Yeah, I had the same thought many of you may have had when I read who won Sunday afternoon for best children's music recording -- the Muppets? Not to mention a Christmas album? You've got to be kidding me.

I then reconsidered, for a number of reasons. First, and primarily, I haven't actually heard the album. I've heard the other four nominees, but not that one. So criticizing the selection does seem a little... hollow on my part.

Having said that, I've always thought that Grammy awards should either be critically recognized or achieve sizable popularity through sales. Common Sense Media reviewed the album well, but it's unclear if anybody else did. And I have no idea how well it sold. But then again, it may very well have sold better than everything else.

And, really, in the end, it all comes down -- in this election season especially -- to the voting rules. The rules on the Grammy website are a little vague, but it basically comes down to, no, a whole bunch of people who know nothing about kids music are not voting on the categories. Voters are required to limit the categories they vote on to 8 or 9 out of the 31 currently available (the two awards comprising kid audio make up one of those 31 categories). It's possible that some people are taking a lark, but how much can that differ from somebody who votes in the Polka category for kicks?

No, I think it basically comes down to who's voting, and who's getting CDs, with a touch of special affinity. To the extent that Disney has a number of staff who, through production credits or other ways, become members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, they can vote in a block. And, frankly, it probably doesn't take much of a block to get them to win. And, to the extent that Disney can send out promo CDs to a much broader range of listeners than, say, an indie like Buck Howdy can, that makes their job easier.

It's for these two reasons that I figured that Peter Himmelman had a decent shot at winning. Meaning, he recorded My Green Kite for Rounder, a label which is not unfamiliar with this process, and he probably had a lot of fans who might not have otherwise voted in the kids' category.

But speaking of green objects, it's hard to compete with Kermit the Frog. I saw Jim Henson's Fantastic World this weekend, an exhibit the Smithsonian is helping to put on and taking across the country, and it's fascinating to me how, even nearly 20 years after his death, Henson's creations have this amazing hold on the American psyche. (It's a very good exhibit, worth attending when it swings by your city.) Even if A Green and Red Christmas is a pale imitation of what came 20 or 30 years before (and, again, I have no idea), it's not totally surprising in retrospect that enough people voted for the album to give it the victory.

The solution, if you don't like the end result, is pretty simple. Sign up to become a voting member of NARAS and do as much lobbying as possible once you get nominated.

Of course, actually implementing that solution might not be quite so simple...

Thoughts, anyone?

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

As you might expect, I get a lot of e-mails from people who make kids music. Sometimes they include links to their own website (which I often peruse, if briefly) or perhaps YouTube videos. I've long since learned not to keep my expectations too high, which makes the occasional discovery that much more fun.

I'm clearly not the only person David Tobocman has e-mailed to let people know about his video for his song "Home," but that won't stop me. [Note: Tobocman let me know he hadn't yet e-mailed people, only the artist, and her post generated the viral popularity thus far...]

Tobocman's a southern California musician, and "Home" reminds me of nothing so much as the wistful songs on the soundtracks from another southern California musician, Randy Newman. The illustrations of Valerie Walsh make an excellent match. It's a great little video.

David Tobocman - "Home"

You can listen to samples from all of Very Helpful Songs here.

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From my album submission guidelines:

#2 -- Quotations of two sentences or less on artists' websites or other promotional materials or by other websites/magazines do not require permission from the site owner. Quotations longer than two sentences, or any quotations attached to products actually sold to others, require express permission from the site owner.
OK, I realize the very last part of #2 is not common, but I know that artists will quote reviews on websites, promotional materials, and even on CD wrappers/covers. I'm just covering myself in the event that somebody wants to quote me on the latter. I'm not expecting a lot of letters from that provision.

And to be clear, when I said "not expecting a lot of letters," what I meant was, "putting this out there for a cheap laugh."

So imagine my surprise when I saw the latest album from Brady Rymer, Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could, in all its shrink-wrapped, ready-for-retail glory:

Look there in the lower left-hand cover. That red sticker. That quotation at top, said by, erm... Who woulda thunk it?

I'm pointing this out not out of vanity -- trust me, if I do that, you'll know it. Nor am I pointing it out because I don't think it's true. I meant it when I wrote it two years about Brady's last album, Every Day is a Birthday, and I still think it's a true statement. Nor am I pointing it out to make clear that doing something like this will have absolutely no impact (either way) on my opinion of an album.

OK, maybe I am doing it for that last point.

But mostly, I just wanted to say that I appreciated my name being spelled correctly.

Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could is out on Bumblin' Bee Records on March 4.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Buck Howdy attended this last weekend's Grammy celebrations, a nominee for Best Musical Album for Children for his (and partner BB's) fun Chickens album.

I'll have more thoughts (and photos and comments) from the Grammys later, but Buck had written up some thoughts about his experiences this weekend and I thought they might be of interest to both consumers and fellow musicians. Thanks to Buck for letting me share them with you.

****

Today I'm feeling a bit like Alice In Wonderland, having just emerged from the "rabbit hole" called The Grammy Awards.

Last December our CD BUCK HOWDY WITH BB - CHICKENS was nominated in the Grammy category Best Musical Album for Children. Now that the Grammys are over I can only say that the experience as a nominee is simply surreal - from the parties leading up to the big event, to the Red Carpet stroll we took (interviewed along the way by CNN, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, MTV), to the marathon award sessions.

One highlight was the nominee reception. Its a gathering where nominee medallions are presented (while everyone still feels like a winner) and where even a turkey-farming-singing-cowboy can rub shoulders and visit with legends like Charlie Louvin; Whisperin' Bill Andersen; young jazz star Eldar; country sensations Montgomery Gentry and too many others to recount It's a wonder BB and I didn't get whiplash, "Look there's the Foo Fighters; wait, look over there, isn't that Taylor Swift? Wow, John Tesh got old and he needs a haircut!"

Another highlight was the Kids Artist breakfast on Saturday morning at the Biltmore Hotel - a wonderful gathering of nominees and other kids artists as well as media, distributors and promoters. It's an event that should be repeated often and attended by everyone who has anything to do with making music for kids or families. Lynn Orman of Orman Music & Media and Beth Blenz-Clucas of Sugar Mountain PR co-hosted the event, and about 40 artists and industry folks were there.

Grammy day itself was a blur. Just before noon we got all gussied up and headed to the Grammy pre-telecast hall (where winners of most categories are announced). By 1:30 we learned that The Muppets took the prize in our category. And just like that it was over, though the disappointment took awhile to sink in because the Grammy celebrations extended into the wee hours of Monday morning.

But now that I've slept and climbed out of the "rabbit hole" a few thoughts remain. First, it was a experience BB and I were blessed to have. What a thrill to be praised, respected and welcomed with open arms by major stars and the media for the humble little thing we do called "kids music." But more important, I came away believing that EVERY kids/family artist should be involved in NARAS. (All it takes to join as a voting member is $100 and a bit of leg work, but it is well worth it.)

Here's why. Within minutes of the Muppet win I was receiving texts and emails from other artists (though not other nominees) who were unhappy with the result. Frankly, I was too because I believe there were more deserving nominees than the Muppets - indies such as Bill Harley and Peter Himmelman. However, anytime you pit the voting power (not to mention the production and promotion budgets) of an entertainment giant like Disney (the Muppets'
label) against the "little guys" (indie artists), more often than not, the giant will win. BUT . . . it doesn't have to be that way.

If you're an artist, get involved - if there's an artist you love, encourage them to get involved. I'd love for you all to have a chance to take a trip down the "rabbit hole" that is the Grammy experience. And most important, I'd love to see the amount of attention lavished on quality indie music for kids and families that it deserves.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Never called the florist? Didn't have time to buy chocolate? Oh, well, the Internet has provided a couple free mp3s for your listening pleasure.

First up, Charity Kahn from the Bay Area-basedCharity and the JAMband has posted "Moon Hug," a mellow love song just as appropriate for a parental mash note to a child. Kahn says in an e-mail that she's working on a new album and the track is from that upcoming album.

And, across the Bay, the Hipwaders have posted "Valentine" at their Myspace page. It's more of a puppy-love song straight out of the '60s.

Both are available for download today only...

Posted by SAShepherd at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't say that "You Can Be Anything," off Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang's non-holiday, self-titled debut CD, is my favorite track off that CD. (Gwendolyn, make a video for "Anatomy," stat!) But the newly released video, if you're about 3 years old, seems like it hits a whole bunch of sweet spots. Animation, fire trucks, other kids dancing -- yeaaaaaahhhh....

Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang - "You Can Be Anything" (link is now updated)

And for the adults, about 36 seconds in, your topic is whether ELO merits the #8 ranking. Discuss.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As if I needed more proof.

Having a website devoted to a particular subject area -- in this case, kids music -- obviously draws other similarly-inclined readers and can make one think, "hey, this is kinda popular!"

Until you vote in a massive year-end poll -- in this case, Idolator's 2007 Pop Critics Poll -- and realize that you are, indeed, weird. OK, not weird, perhaps, but clearly my taste in music (submitted based on "professional" obligations, anyway) does not closely align with anyone else's. Here's the proof. Heck, at least last year, I think someone besides me at least voted for the Dan Zanes disk. It's really too bad, because I keep saying (and said so in my own ballot) that there's great music in the genre for all ages if you're only willing to give it a shot.

I really couldn't have filled out that ballot to look like other voters anyway because I barely listened to 10 "adult" albums in 2007 that were from 2007. It usually takes me 6 to 12 months just to get caught up. (I think I'll finally get to that new Georgie James disk next week.) So, for what it's worth, here are my top 5 albums of the year, adult division.

1. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: Oh, how I adore this CD. It's not even close -- my favorite of the year by far.
2. They Might Be Giants - The Else: Which isn't to say this album was bad by any means. My favorite TMBG "adult" album since John Henry.
3. The Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On: A case of 8 or 9 OK-to-good songs and 3 awesome songs. Works for me. Roots-pop-rock.
4. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Technically speaking, I didn't even hear this in its entirety until 2008. But it's good. Really good.
5. (Tie) Feist - The Reminder / Kelly Willis - Translated From Love: Depends on whether I want my female singer-songwriting fix close to the Canadian or Mexican border.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

They Might Be Giants were my first musical discovery. Meaning, up through and including most of high school, I was a fairly straight-laced, MTV-watching, Columbia-House-12-for-a-penny-ing music listener. And, then 20 years ago this September, they released Lincoln on the Bar/None label and that was the start of an entirely new musical direction for me, one where I actually sought out music rather than taking whatever was most easily consumed.

I take that brief personal detour for two reasons:
1) In one sense, the fact that I've got this website charged with finding great music for kids and families is due, in some small way, to that 20-year-old album.
2) It provides an interesting perspective to me as I consider the words of John Flansburgh, who founded the band as a duo with John Linnell 25 years ago and who now navigates with Linnell both a very independent course as a band but also one that has them working with many large media corporations.

Flansburgh, who, along with Linnell and the rest of TMBG, has released two excellent album in the past 12 months -- the adult-oriented The Else last summer and the kids-focused Here Come the 123s last week -- took some time out from his busy schedule to answer some questions about the new CD/DVD set. Read on for Flansburgh's thoughts on the influence of "Sesame Street" on their work for kids, how they went about picking animators and directors for the video, the future of the Podcast for Kids, and much more.

Zooglobble: What sort of music did you listen to in your childhood?
John Flansburgh: My mom avidly listens to a bunch of quite specific music that is very non-rock and very non-kid: Noel Coward, Joan Baez, Louie Armstrong, Lotte Lenya (which was very mysterious to me as a kid). West Side Story and Cabaret were routinely played at top volume to inspire housecleaning. I had some Beatles and Monkees albums I bought with birthday money that I essentially memorized, and some very odd kiddie albums I inherited from a distant relative that were truly strange. One was called Happy Birthday to You! and even at a very young age I was suspicious it was a bit of a rushed effort. Side two got pretty grim.

You've mentioned Sesame Street as an inspiration for your kids' CDs -- is that the music, the visuals, or both?
Both. Personally, as abstract or maybe as obvious as this sounds, when we first embarked on kids' stuff I felt it was important that it be focused directly to kids. I know that notion contradicts what a lot of people say is our kids' stuff's fundamental appeal, but for me it was the essential difference from our adult efforts. I never wanted anyone to walk away from the kids' stuff thinking we were rock guys some how goofing on kids or kids' stuff. No inside jokes for adults allowed, and no pandering. Sesame Street was very good at avoiding any kind of pandering vibe that poisons so much kids' stuff. Also, Sesame Street, and specifically the Muppets on Sesame Street, established this perfect tone. They balanced educational material with very original ideas and actual entertainment. It's breezy.

Did you primarily write the songs for the album in a concentrated burst, or was it a case of polishing up song snippets you'd written sporadically over the past few years?

The writing took place over about a year, with videos going into production almost as soon as the first songs were written. The videos take a long time to produce. There was a saying back in the MTV rock video days "Good, Fast, and Cheap. Pick Two" which is to say you can only ask for so much out of a production unless you have gobs of dough. We have to deliver the entire DVD on a smaller budget than the average episode of an animated series, but obviously there is a much more focused effort within each video, so affording the animators as much time as possible, along with a lot of freedom, is the strategy.

Some of the songs on Here Come the ABCs ("Rolling O," "Letter Shapes") seemed inextricably tied to their videos while there isn't a single song on Here Come the 123s that doesn't "make sense" purely based on the audio -- did you approach writing the songs and creating the videos differently this time around?
That is a very astute observation. I really loved the more instrumental stuff on the ABCs and the gentle tone of those videos, and I would be happy if there was stuff like that on the 123s, but we were actually working to meet two very different challenges with each DVD.

With the Here Come the ABCs DVD we were essentially required to deliver an
hour-long program because of the kooky way "full length" DVDs were shelved in stores, and I guess even priced at the time. As silly as it seemed, even if we had done a 45 minute DVD it would have been hidden somewhere in the back of the store, and that would have just killed the project. Because our songs are rarely over three minutes, the challenge of achieving a sixty-minute program become a bit of an obstacle within the creation of the DVD. Those leisurely instrumentals were actually another way to keep an hour-long DVD program rolling along.

Since then, that weird DVD length requirement has completely disappeared, so this time around we were thinking we'd be free to just go about our merry way with a shorter disc. Then, about half way into making the 123s, Playhouse Disney decided it couldn't really afford to broadcast interstitial songs - that's the show biz term for songs between their TV shows - for much more than a minute and a half. That interstitial exposure is a big part of what makes folks aware of these discs, so it's important that the stuff work on the Disney Channel. It kind of fell to us to restructure the videos for broadcast to either fit the new length, or live with the longer songs getting edited down in some blunt way. So, to really just make it easy on ourselves, and to make sure the songs being broadcast would have the right structure, we just started writing all the new songs shorter. Of course writing short songs was pretty natural for us, but since a lot of the kids' songs are lists or stories, it occasionally got tight keeping it under ninety seconds. "One Dozen Monkeys," for example, would definitely have been more leisurely if it wasn't for the broadcast structure.

I should point out there was a hidden upside to the short song requirement. Because the animators had less to animate by about half for the same budget as the ABCs, the actual quality of the animations went way up, and people seem to dig the higher visual quality.

You have now been officially behind the curtain of They Might Be Giants' professional challenges! May I apologize on behalf of the band! [Ed: I've already told John there was no need to apologize.]

How did you go about selecting the animators for the videos?
It's mostly six degrees of separation from the folks at ColourMovie. With just a few exceptions out of something like twenty five companies we have hired, they are all friends of friends with the folks at ColourMovie (who created the videos for "Alphabet of Nations" and "Even Numbers"). I met David Cowles working on a pilot for Disney. The Homestar fellows we met on our own. I did find one team of people, the company Feel Good Anyway, just by doing a Google search of motion graphics companies, and Matthew Canale was either a film student or soon out of school and he actually contacted us through our myspace page. I don't think that is going to happen again! But then again, his reel was amazing.

The John and John puppets have a bigger role this time around (on the DVD, in the Podcast for Kids). How much of the puppets' appearances were improvised? And who came up with the idea for the Podcast for Kids, anyway?
The podcast was just an idea that came up after the success of the adult podcast. Obviously it's a way to find a new audience but it's also something for kids that was looser than the DVDs. The podcast is exactly the kind of thing I feel we're good at--it's totally self defined but semi-structured and has a device we can kind of hide behind and jam off of. My wife Robin Goldwasser made all the puppets and styles them with a lot of handmade props which makes it a lot of fun. Filming the puppets is just a very easy way for us to be ourselves but also be characters.

The podcast is scripted, and sometimes more fully than you might imagine, but there is a big layer of improvisation on top of the scripts to energize it. Because the weekly episodes are often organized around calendar events, and we're shooting weeks ahead of the post date, it has to be planned out. I'm happy to report the podcast basically gets stranger and stranger over the next few months.

Kids' voices play a big role on Here Come the 123s, either in the background or on choruses, and Hannah Levine's vocals are featured prominently on a few songs. Are there any particular bonuses or challenges to having kids in the studio?
John recorded the Henry tracks at their house, so I'd imagine it was about as casual as any other day there. Hannah Levine is kind of a different story. When she was recommended by her uncle Dan Levine, who plays trombone in TMBG, I didn't assume she'd be a ringer. It was just an experiment to get another kind of voice on the project. She is, and I mean this in the most positive way, a professional kid actor and singer. She's got an agent, and she seems to work pretty regularly for a kid in school. She can do line readings any way you ask, and takes direction with an adult's level of comprehension. It was really amazing. I also believe she is lucky because both her parents are very hard-working performers based in New York--not LA--and I don't think she is being raised with any big fantasies about what "it" is that she is doing. I get the feeling that performing to her is just an interesting part of her life, with school and everything else. It's fun. I've seen my share of stage kids, and honestly I'm not a big fan of that scene. I am happy to report she has got a seriously good handle on it.

You have been quoted as saying you're thinking of continuing a series of "educational" albums on other subjects. Do you think you'd ever release another album like No! -- that is, an album targeted at kids but without an ostensible theme?
I would be happy to do that. I don't think it's that important to us that the albums be educational at all. I'd even be into doing something that has a story arc. It was only after No! came out that we got any understanding of how young the audience for most kids' music really is, and looking back on it I think that realization was part of what pulled us toward the ABC and 123 themes. Writing for such a young audience without the themes might have ended up feeling like an obstacle. We're interested in writing for older kids too, but that has its own challenges. For better or worse a lot of preteens are really into their own culture now. Tween music and gaming are powerful, powerful things.

What's next for the band (either for kids or for adults)?
We just started talking about the next rock album and I think we're going to find a way to change it up. It's gotta be great. That's all I really know. No rest for the weary!

What's your favorite number?
When I was a kid it was seven. I haven't really thought about it since!

(Photo credit: Joshua Kessler)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Is there any stopping the Baby Loves Music empire? Uh, well, probably -- after last night's Grammys, anything can happen -- but I'm increasingly curious as the next two entries in the series show considerable promise.

First up is Baby Loves Hip-Hop features the story of the "Dino-5." The press materials say the CD "follows five best dino friends on a musical adventure as they teach key life lessons and have fun at the same time," which, I gotta tell you, sounds boring as all get-out, but then I read the participants, which include Prince Paul and members of Digable Planets, the Roots, and -- of course -- Jurassic 5. The "Dino-5 Theme Song" you can download at their website sounds much more promising than the PR. In any case, Baby Loves Hip-Hop is out on Baby Loves Music in April.

Next up is Baby Loves Salsa. The skeleton of the website for this CD throws a lot of names around that I, as a non-salsa expert, don't recognize at all. But the tune available for download, "Somos La Banda," is lots of fun. Between this CD and the new Dan Zanes album, it looks like 2008 is the year of Spanish kids' music. Baby Loves Salsa is out on Baby Loves Music in June.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been late in announcing this (mostly because I figure most people reading this are reading Bill's site, too), but Bill and Ella over at Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child have made a big move to a commercial radio station, 93.9 The River in Massachusetts and Vermont. Well, "move" might not be the best verb, because they're still broadcasting on Valley Free Radio, but the fact that they're now also broadcasting on commercial radio puts them in pretty select company -- I'm only aware of Belinda and Hova at Greasy Kid Stuff who are doing rock (or rawk) shows for kids on a commercial station.

Good on them.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A while back, I wondered, "why are there not more great jazz albums for kids?" I could have substituted the word "good" for "great" and it still would have been a legitimate question. Still, the kids music jazz subgenre has picked up some steam since I wrote those words and with the recent appearance of a definitely great jazz album for kids, I thought it worthwhile to highlight some other new disks worth further exploration if you're looking to broaden the jazz section on your family's CD shelf (or whatever the iPod equivalent of that is).

Thirty Tigers' Jazz and Swing For Kids applies a big band (or at least one that approaches double digits) to 10 familiar kids' tunes. A glance at some of the titles, however, shows that they're mixing things up a little bit -- "Diddle Diddle Swing," for example, or the "Old MacDonald Jazz Remix" (a boogie-woogie which throws in a snippet of "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" for good measure). Strong vocals ("Here Comes the Rain Itsy" gets turned into a Little Richard rave-up) and a sense of playfulness are the strong points on this 33-minute CD.

The Doug Beavers Rovira Jazz Orchestra's Jazz, Baby! is, in many ways, a similar album. All 10 songs here are traditional ("Twinkle Twinkle," "Shortnin' Bread," "Working' On the Railroad"), and the vocals take center stage. If there is any difference it's that the arrangements are stronger, with strong versions of "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" that take full-advantage of a 20+ member big band being two highlights. "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" is done in a fun cha-cha style. It's a polished recording, and while it's not targeted at adult listeners, those listeners who listen with their kids certainly won't begrudge time spent in its company. (Listen to several tracks from the 33-minute album here.)

While those two CDs certainly have much to recommend them, by sticking to traditional and familiar early childhood songs, they don't necessarily lend themselves to repeated listening over a long period of time -- they're CDs you might dip into occasionally.

Are there CDs worth more than an occasional dip? Well...

Baby Loves Jazz's latest CD, Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 & 2 certainly has its fair share of the standard childhood classics -- "Wheels On the Bus," "Skip To My Lou," and "Old Macdonald," to name a few. And its animated characters -- "Duck Ellington" (groan) or "Ella Elephant," for example -- clearly show who the CD is targeted at. But the album has more than its fair share of originals. Take the loopy "Blue Lemurs," a snappy little tune with piano accompaniment and the ear-wormy lyrics, "I like blue lemurs / And I don't know why." Or "Makes Me Want to Skat" and "We're a Band," which features "Ella Elephant," or, as we call her in the real world, Sharon Jones (of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings), who scats up a storm. Whether original or traditional, the music from the small jazz combo backing the vocalists is top-notch.

At 46 tracks and nearly 90 minutes in length, this two-CD set is almost too long (I wonder if the original CD/book combos from which the tracks were selected might not be better introductions). But that length also provides a tremendous variety of styles to choose from, from the rap-jazz of "Duck Jam" to the slower album closer "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I would be surprised if any family couldn't find at least 30 minutes of music they'd want to hear many times over. (Listen to samples and download some tracks here and here.)

Finally, there's a possibility that Swingin' in Daddyland, the second foray into kids and family music from Vermont's Lewis Franco piqued my attention as I listened to all these jazz CDs precisely because it sounded different. And that could be true. But this CD, which features Franco and a 3-man band called The Missing Cats, swings in a relaxed way. Franco and his band play a lot of gypsy swing jazz tunes ("Swing 42," which sets Franco's original lyrics to an old Django Reinhardt tune, is a good example) but isn't afraid of different styles, such as the Western swing on "Stomp Stomp" or even the not-very-jazzy but lots of fun roots-rocker "Annabelle."

I came to think of Franco as a jazz version of Brady Rymer, who often takes as his subject family life, from both the child and parental perspective. His lyrics, especially "Have You Looked?," about a father who answers repeated questions from his daughter about where lost objects might be, deal with both perspectives with understanding and heart. You can listen to samples and a couple full tracks here. While this is definitely a jazz album, Swingin' in Daddyland I think would have broad appeal beyond those looking for just a "jazz album" -- it's my favorite of the four good albums here and is definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yeah, I posted this song ten months ago. I don't care. It still rocks (in a very, er, folky and gently humorous way).

Plus, now you can see what the mysterious Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke look like. Well, I guess they're not that mysterious. But it's not like I'd seen a picture before...

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke - "Sylvester (Big Pet Pig)"

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I realize that 2007 ended almost 6 weeks ago, but I really want to make sure that I note publicly my 20 favorite songs in the kids music genre from the past year. I'm not going to go through the fool's errand of trying to rank songs (it's hard enough ranking entire albums), so I'll just provide you a top 10 list (with the songs in no particular order), along with a list of tracks 11 through 20 (again, in no particular order).

If people wonder why in the world you'd ever play kids music for your kids (let alone the whole family), I think these 20 tracks might change at least a few people's minds...

(Note: I've only posted links to complete songs. All links current as of February 2008.)

Top 10 Songs
The Deedle Deedle Dees - "Major Deegan"
Georgie James - "Grizzly Jive" (listen/download here)
ScribbleMonster - "I Wish I Lived In Michigan" (listen here)
Peter Himmelman - "My Green Kite" (listen/download here or listen here)
Steve Lee - "Grab A Balloon" (listen here)
Soccer Team - "I'll Never Fear Ghosts Again" (off the Play compilation from DeSoto Records)
The Nields - "Anna Kick a Hole in the Sky"
Orange Sherbet with Hot Buttered Rum - "Bit By Bit"
The Hipwaders - "Educated Kid" (listen/download here)
The Barenaked Ladies - "The Other Day I Met a Bear" (listen here)

Songs 11-20
Johnny Bregar - "Airplane"
Asylum Street Spankers - "Be Like You" (listen here)
Gustafer Yellowgold (Morgan Taylor) - "Pinecone Lovely" (watch video here)
Renee & Jeremy - "Night Mantra" (listen here or here or watch here)
Sugar Free Allstars - "Bathtub Boy" (listen here)
Andre 3000 - "Throwdown"
Recess Monkey - "The Pool" (listen here)
The Terrible Twos - "Caroline"
Uncle Rock - "Elephant in the Room"
Jambo - "Lady Bug Boogie"

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've talked to a few Grammy winners and nominees here at Zooglobble -- Dan Zanes, Ralph Covert, the incomparable Ella Jenkins -- but with the Grammy ceremon(ies) set for Sunday, I hope you'll indulge me another Grammy interview. No, it's not kids music, but it's also not every day that a friend gets nominated for 4.4 Grammy Awards (yes, 4.4 -- see below).

Joel Rinsema is the Executive Director and Assistant Conductor for the Phoenix Bach Choir. (Here he is rehearsing the Phoenix Bach Choir.) Their recording with the Kansas City Chorale of Grechaninov’s Passion Week, led by Artistic Director Charles Bruffy, was nominated for four 2007 Grammy Awards, including Classical Album of the Year.

Joel is also the music director at our church and is always up for talking about cooking good food. He was kind enough to talk about what it was like hearing about the nominations, their music, and where to get designer fashions on the cheap.

To some extent, there are some parallels here between Joel's comments on the impact a win for the Choir and Chorale would have on the classical music category and what wins for independent artists in the children's music categories mean. So go ahead and read -- you'll enjoy it...

Photo credits: Tim Trumble

Zooglobble: Where literally were you when you heard about the Grammy nominations? Was there lots of jumping and screaming involved? Or did you just go back to getting the kids ready for school?
Joel Rinsema: The kids were off to school, and I believe that the televised nominations began at 9 AM Arizona time (8 AM Pacific), so instead of making my way to the office, I booted up my laptop and worked while the nominations were going on. Charles Bruffy lives in Kansas City and we do a lot of our work via AOL Instant Messenger. He wasn’t on, but Donald Loncasty, the Executive Director of the Kansas City Chorale was, and we immediately began to IM back and forth while watching. Of course, they announced all of the “major” nominations to the press corps, but when they got to the end (without announcing any of the classical ones!) and announced that a full list of the nominees was available “at the back of the room” we were both ready to throw things at our TVs.

Instead, I began to frantically type in www.grammy.com. So did, it seemed, thousands of others were doing the same thing, as the website was frozen. I kept on hitting refresh…and there it was…the list of the 50th Grammy Award Nominees. I remember quickly scrolling down the list, and clicking on the word Classical. The first field that appeared was Category 98: “Best Classical Album of the Year.” Alphabetically, ours is listed second, right after the Cherubini Mass with Ricardo Muti conducting. Shaking wildly…so much so, that I knew that I couldn’t type, I picked up the phone to call Kansas City. Don answered the phone and I just remember screaming craziness into his ear. (Something like “Oh My God! Best $(*^&^^% Classical Album of the Year!)

I went back to the computer as Don was still trying to access the site. I just knew that if we were nominated for best Classical, that there were other nominations. Sure enough, we were given nods for four additional Grammys including Best Choral Performance , Best Engineered Album -Classical, and Best Surround Sound Album. Also, our producer Blanton Alspaugh from Soundmirror in Boston was nominated as Best Classical Producer. Two of the five discs he submitted for consideration (Passion Week and Eternal Rest) are ours. [Ed: Hence, the additional 0.4 nominations.]

Did you have any idea that you'd be nominated for four awards? Any rumors?
We heard that Passion Week had made a good impression on the voters. We had no idea though, that we would be up for Best Classical. That was SO far removed from our thinking.

What are the big "firsts" associated with the nominations? (Besides "first Grammy nominations for Joel Rinsema")

I have tried to research some of of this, but it was not easy. For sure it is the first Grammy nod for either of the Choirs and for Charles. I know that there have been some other individuals and chamber-sized groups in both our communities that have received nominations. I doubt that any of them received 4 in one year, however. There are much bigger implications if we were able to actually walk away with a Grammy, especially Best Classical Album or Best Choral Performance. In 50 years of the Grammys, an unaccompanied (a cappella) choral album has never won the Best Classical Album category. What is even more surprising than this: an unaccompanied choral album has never won the Best Choral Performance Category! Chanticleer has won a few, but the Category they have won is “Best Small Ensemble Performance (they have less than 24 singers…in fact, only 12). If we walked away with either of these, it would be huge for the choral field. We don’t need no durned instruments!

Tell me a little bit about the album and the choir(s).
Both choirs are professional choirs. There are not that many of us in the U.S….maybe a dozen or so similar choirs. Because there are so few, the general public (who have never been to our concerts) really don’t know what they are missing.

Let me explain it like this: most people know what a professional symphony orchestra is. It is an orchestra comprised of players who had dedicated their lives to their art. Most have advanced degrees in their field, and have highly developed skills. Because of this, professional orchestras are able to play a wide range of repertoire; both the classical standards and also pieces that are so advanced, virtuosic and, frankly, difficult, that it takes a professional player to perform. This is similar to the professional choir. There is only one full-time professional choral ensemble in the US (the all-male Chanticleer) however, so most of our singers piece together several part-time jobs in music in order to make ends meet. Some are school teachers/professors, music directors at churches and synagogues, private vocal instructors etc.

We have been joining the two choirs together now for about 7 years. When Charles took the job in ’98, there were some in Kansas City that were worried that he was going to leave them. They were so used to being Charles’ golden child, that they did not want his affection to be split between the two children. We brought the two Choirs together within his first two seasons. I remember that there was something quite magical about it. Not only were we able to perform repertoire that required more voices, but there was some incredible music-making that happened. Kansas City had done a lot of recording back in the mid-90’s, and was the first North American choir carried on the U.K. based Nimbus Label. The Phoenix Bach Choir had released a holiday album in 1996, but it was a one-off, and the choir didn’t have recording as part of its long range plan. I also came to be the administrative head in 1998, so Charles and I sort of instigated the whole recording thing in Phoenix.

We recorded a disc of 20th and 21st century settings of Shakespeare texts back in ’03. In all honesty, that disc came off better than it should have. It was our first time recording since ’95, it was our first recording with Charles, and it was the first recording with Soundmirror’s producer Blanton Alspaugh and engineer John Newton (who we hired after some fairly extensive research). The album came together so nicely, that Soundmirror shopped it to Chandos, which is the world’s largest independent classical record label, based in Colchester in the U.K. Chandos took it on, and the disc received instant success –especially in the U.K. where it spent some time as a top seller on Amazon.co.uk and was ClassicFM’s CD of the week when it released.

We caught the recording bug after this immediate success. Grechaninov’s Passion Week was a piece that two of the choir members (one in Kansas City and one in Phoenix) had been encouraging Charles to program for some time. We decided that not only would we perform it, but we would record it. We did just that in ’05 in Kansas City. We shopped it to Chandos first, but they really weren’t interested in it, as they had the only other recording of it out there…by a Russian Choir. We sat on it for a while, but in the meantime, recorded Eternal Rest. When that project was done, we approached Chandos with both of the discs and convinced them to release them both. They released Eternal Rest in the fall of ’06 and the Grechaninov in the Spring of ’07. I think that they feel good about their decision.

Do you have a particular track from the CD on your Myspace page for listeners -- what should they know about it?
We have included my two favorite tracks No. 1 "Behold, the Bridegroom" and No. 6 "Now the powers of heaven" at www.myspace.com/phoenixbachchoir. They both are great representatives of the whole work. There is a sentimentality and spirituality about the piece that I have never experienced in any other work I have been a part of. One does not need to be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu etc. to get something from this music. It is knee-weakening listening. I don’t think there is a person on the planet that could honestly listen to the work and not be somehow changed by it. If you are a Christian and follow along with the texts, it is profoundly moving, perfect for the season of Lent.

How many of you are going to LA for the ceremony?
There are nearly 80 of us attending the ceremonies in Los Angeles! In addition to current and former choir members, several board members and friends are joining us. It is going to be a great time! We will try to make our presence known in good ways. Some have joked about trashing their hotel rooms if we lose. I don’t think we’ll be doing that.

Where exactly are your seats for the Sunday telecast?
The majority of the seats are in the “Bronze” a.k.a “nosebleed” section. You see, while both choirs are on the discs, the “official” nominees are Charles Bruffy and the Producer/Engineer. They will be sitting up by the other nominees. There are two ceremonies: the pre-telecast begins at 1p.m. pacific time and includes the majority of the awards, including ours. Historically, this ceremony has not been telecast. This year, XM Radio is broadcasting it, and it was just announced that they will do a live webcast at Grammy.com from 1-3:30 Pacific. After the pre-telecast, we all walk across the street from the LA Convention Center to the Staples Center for the telecast that begins at 5 PM Pacific. We don’t know for sure if any of our categories will be a part of the telecast or not…possibly Best Classical and maybe Best Surround Sound, as we are up against the Flaming Lips and