Zooglobble

Updated post:
The fine folks at Festival Five have provided some clarification on the previously discussed The Welcome Table: Songs of Inspiration, Mystery, and Good Times mostly-gospel album. The album is coming out as an iTunes digital exclusive on Tuesday, December 23rd and an Amazon exclusive in its physical format on the same date. (Though I'd note that I just added the Amazon disk to my cart, so maybe Amazon didn't get the memo from Festival Five.) All other retailers will get the album (physically and digitally) on February 10, 2009. So yay for last-minute Christmas gifts (a gospel album is kinda appropriate for the season, no?)

If you want to get a sneak preview besides listening to the clips on the Amazon page, though, head on over to Zanes' Myspace page, where you can hear "Jesus on the Mainline" in its entirety. Nice rootsy gospel with some funky organ work to boot.

Anyway, here's the tracklisting...

Continue reading "New Music (and Album) From Dan Zanes: "Jesus on the Mainline"" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, the contest to win tickets to Dan Zanes' Holiday House Party has come and gone, but someone's finally gone ahead and posted a clip from his performance at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Even with the MST3K-like heads obscuring part of the action, you can see that there must be, like, a dozen people up there on stage. The Zooglobble winner for the Seattle show reports that there was tap dancing and shadow puppets.

And, by the sound of this clip, yodeling. Lots of yodeling.

Dan Zanes and Friends - "Shining Star"

Tickets for the NYC run, which starts next weekend, are here.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've told you before -- you have until tonight to enter the contest to win a 4-pack of tickets to Dan Zanes Holiday House Party shows in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City. The show's gonna be a blast, methinks. Enter now!...

But Dan hasn't forgotten people who won't be near those fine cities, too -- if you go here you can download "Colas" from Dan's fine Nueva York! CD. He's offering it as a celebration of Heifer International, an organization our family has supported in the past (particularly around this time of year).

And to get you in the holiday mood a little bit more, here's an old (but related) video...

Continue reading "One Last Reminder (Plus Bonus Video and Song): Win Dan Zanes Tickets" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A gentle reminder: you can win tickets to see Dan Zanes and his Holiday House Party in San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City just by going here and leaving a comment. Entries are due by Monday night. (See the link for more details.) And in case you're not sure what to expect, why don't you let Dan Zanes explain (and duet a bit on "Let It Snow"...)

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've been reading your Dan Zanes newsletters (and, really, why aren't you?), you know that Dan Zanes has announced his Holiday House Party set of concerts. He's going to San Francisco Nov. 29/30; Davis, CA Dec. 2; and Seattle Dec. 6/7 before heading back to New York City for a long run at the New Victory Theatre Dec. 19 through Jan. 4.

For those of you who haven't been reading the e-mails, let's let the folks at Festival Five describe it...

Take a seat in the theatrical living room of Grammy winners Dan Zanes and Friends, America’s premier family music band, for a 21st century all-ages holiday celebration. If you feel that the festivities of the season are incomplete without disco Hanukkah rave-ups, raucous Arabic worship songs, a Korean new years anthem, high octane Mexican fiddling, tap dancing, shadow puppetry, snow, laughter, and the occasional Christmas carol, than this is your party. Everyone is invited and now that includes you. The New York Times says “concerts by Dan Zanes are always a cause for celebration” and the Holiday House Party may just be the wildest concert of them all.

Well, thanks to Festival Five, we here at Zooglobble are happy to give away a set of 4 tickets to one show in each of San Francisco (Sunday Nov. 30th @ 5 pm), Seattle (Sunday Dec. 7th @ 4 pm), and Nueva York City (Wednesday Dec. 31st @ noon) for you, loyal readers. How, you might ask?

Continue reading "Contest: Win Tickets to Dan Zanes' Holiday House Party!" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Way back in June (June 17, to be exact), Dan Zanes and Friends played on the CBS Early Show. With Zanes' crazy hair, I almost wondered if his "morning hair" was boring and looked like mine, but no such luck.

Anyway, this version of "Colas" off of Nueva York! is particularly energetic and well worth a look-see, though you'd never know it by looking at the audience of kids and families who must've been told that standing up would, you know, screw up the sightlines. If nobody dances at a Dan Zanes performance, did it really happen?

Dan Zanes - "Colas" (Live on the CBS Early Show)

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo credit: faithdesired

Seeing as I'm, you know, west of the Mississippi River and unwilling to travel the 2,000 miles to the nearest Disney Music Block Party show, I was pleased as punch to get an e-mail from a woman known on her Flickr page as faithdesired. She went to the Disney Music Block Party show in Columbia, Maryland (just outside DC) on Tuesday, July 29th and took a few pictures.

Like, 110 of them.

And did I mention that she actually does this for a living?

Though usually not with a child on her hip. Not quite the Roger Miller/Ralph's World "can't change film with a kid on your back" line, though with a digital camera, that line's a bit of a puzzler now.

She's let me post a couple pictures here, a nice one of the two Johns from They Might Be Giants, of course. (Plenty of other pics -- Choo Choo Soul, Raven-Symone, Ralph's World, and more, on her page.) A Dan Zanes picture, plus a second concert report, after the jump.

Continue reading "What Does That Disney Music Block Party Tour Look Like?" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me start this review by suggesting that, for all its sins real or imagined, Disney Music purveys more original music for kids and families than any other label. It is possible to avoid a fair amount of that if you don't actually watch cable TV on a regular basis, but they put out a lot of music on a regular basis, and for all age ranges. Not to mention a back catalog the envy of just about anybody. How much you actually enjoy it all depends in part on your age, but I've got three recent Disney releases here, and at least one of them is worth your time.

I admit it. I'm old. Not, like, Social Security old, but old enough that if I use the phrase "OMG" I mean it ironically. I am old enough, however, to have a kid who, though she isn't quite out of the "kids music" phase yet, will start listening to music I haven't introduced her to.

So I understand quite clearly that the soundtrack to Camp Rock, the latest Disney Channel original movie, premiering on a gazillion different channels this week, is Not For Me. It is for kids just a little older than my daughter. They'll spend their own allowances on it, or maybe their parents will get it for them. And what they'll get is an attempt to duplicate the High School Musical magic, except this time in a slightly more rock-oriented retelling of Cinderella. The album features some tracks with Joe Jonas solo (he's got a leading role in the movie) as well as a Jonas Brothers track. There are some songs by 16-year-old Demi Lovato, who has the lead female role and seems to be Disney's leading contender for a Miley Cyrus with a less pop and more rock edge.

The songs are fine enough, and most of the songs won't drive you to change the station if you hear them on Radio Disney (OK, maybe "Hasta La Vista," ugh), but you're not going to remember them 15 minutes after they're over. There's nothing as memorable as "Breaking Free" or "Fabulous" or "You Are the Music In Me," all of which are decent pop songs. In the end, it's not really for me, but it never really was.

Continue reading "Review: OMG or LOL? Three Disney Disks" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're all about sharing here, and now that I've finally gotten around to selecting a winner of the Lunch Money CD, it's time for something new.

So, I've got a copy of Dan Zanes' fine, new, 99%-Spanish CD Nueva York! yours for the winning. All you have to do to enter is list your favorite non-English language song(s) (kids' or adult) in the comments below. I'll randomly select one entry to receive the CD. All entries due by 9 PM West Coast time Thursday night; one entry per person, please.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Imagine if Kanye West decided his next album would be a bluegrass album. Or if Metallica felt they had a polka album in them. How would their fans react? How would the bluegrass or polka purists react? Most importantly, would the music be any good?

I'm thinking about those questions after having listened to Nueva York!, the latest album from Dan Zanes. The album, released yesterday, is Zanes' eighth "age-desgregated" album, the follow-up to his 2006 Grammy-winning album Catch That Train!. And, after slowly building up his rep as the godfather of family-friendly music for American families, Zanes has chosen to release an album songs from Latin America and Mexico recorded 99% in Spanish.

Zanes has released less obviously kid-oriented albums in the past -- an album of seafaring songs (Sea Songs) and an album of songs from Carl Sandburg's Songbag -- but those were released when Zanes had a little lower profile than he does now. So while Zanes probably couldn't act like Beck did early in his career, and release his higher-profile stuff with Geffen while releasing other, more challenging albums on small labels, he should still get credit of some sort for embracing this new album as the full-fledged follow-up to Catch That Train!

But back to the original question -- is the music any good? Yeah, it's good. The album starts out with insistent drums and the driving "El Pescador," which rocks as hard anything in Zanes' kid-ography, helped out by Marc Ribot on guitar. "Colas" mixes tuba into a a Mexican son joracho recorded with the Villa-Lobos brothers. "Pollito Chicken" is the closest thing to a "kids' song" here, with a kids' chorus helping out the children's rhyme.

On it goes -- through Daphne Rubin-Vega's turn on the beautiful la-la-las of "Alba Mananera," the Villa-Lobos brothers' forceful string playing on "El Pijul," and long-time DZ compatriots Rubi Theatre Company on the multilingual "El Canario." I certainly can't speak with any knowledge of how "authentic" the renditions are, but these mostly traditional songs probably don't sound like this today in their "home" countries, either. These renditions here are vibrant, full of life, with solid musical performances. More so on perhaps his other CDs, Zanes takes a little bit more of a backseat to his fellow musicians -- it's a more collaborative album than any of his previous efforts, which befits the learning and immersive nature of this project.

As good as the music is here, I can't say this is the perfect DZ album. At over an hour in length, it goes on for too long. Kids who have grown up on Zanes' albums may miss the absence of Father Goose and his silliness especially. And it's going to be hard for a lot of English-speaking families to fully "get into" the album when it's virtually entirely in Spanish. None of which the album bad as an entity unto itself, but for those families who stumbled recently onto Zanes via a Playhouse Disney video and haven't been listening for five years, it's likely to be a little bit confusing, at least.

While the album is another all-ages experience, it doesn't have quite the early-years hook some of Zanes' other albums have, so I'm going to put the target age range here at ages 5 and up. You can hear samples of the tracks just about everywhere online, or you can listen to "Colas," "La Piragua," and "El Botellon" right now at Zanes' Myspace page.

With Nueva York!, Zanes has crafted another album of fun, family-friendly community music. Going back to the question I posed earlier -- does it really matter who does a bluegrass album so long as the album is good? While the album is a less-than-perfect introduction to his music, longtime Zanes families will embrace this CD as just another part of his wide-ranging musical explorations. And hopefully it'll introduce Dan Zanes to a whole new set of fans. You'll listen, you'll dance, and -- Zanes hopes -- you just might even sing along. Definitely recommended.

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

The Disney Music Block Party Tour took for. freakin'. ever. to get their site up and running. I mean, news of the tour has been floating around for at least a couple months now, and it became almost amusing to see the "Full Site Launches May [insert date here]" change every couple days, but midday today they finally came through on their promise.

Dan Zanes, They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Imagination Movers, and Choo Choo Soul is a pretty sweet lineup, though they won't all be appearing at each concert. $36 a person is a bit steep, though kids under the age of 3 are free, and some of the other activities (the PLAYSKOOL play areas, NAMM-sponsored areas with musical instruments for the kiddos) look nice. (I'm a little dubious about having a tent with nothing but Playhouse Disney TV -- just stay at home if you're gonna do that -- but, hey, don't tell me that place won't be packed after the kids have been there an hour or two.)

No, They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies will not be playing at the same show. Value for money, the last show in the Nassau Coliseum is your best bet. As for you Canadians, the good news is that you get a show. The bad news? The Toronto show gets one less act than everyone else.

Aaaand, of course Phoenix (not to mention the entire country west of the Mississippi) doesn't get a single show.

Full details (dates, locations, hours) after the jump.

Continue reading "Disney Music Block Party Tour. Finally." »

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You probably already know that the next Dan Zanes album, ¡Nueva York!, is almost here (set to be released on May 20). You may also remember the Zanes mentioning to me earlier this year that he's recorded an album of Broadway tunes.

But in between those two albums is a third album with some new Zanes material coming out later this spring. It's called The Welcome Table: Songs of Inspiration, Mystery and Hope, and it's a compilation of new and previously-released DZ&F material "mostly from the North American gospel traditions." With the promise of new Zanes music and the fact that proceeds will benefit the New Sanctuary Movement, an American organization of churches and synagogues "working toward deportation reform," I think it'll definitely have a few fans...

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:03 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)

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.

Continue reading "Concert Review: Dan Zanes (Phoenix, February 2008)" »

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

Dan Zanes has made available a second track from his upcoming Nueva York! CD. The track is "La Piragua," and it's got a sinewy melodic line and groove that I think will lead to a lot of swaying dancing in concert (or possibly family rooms). That's Sonia De Los Santos joining Dan on vocals. And dig the guitar work.

Zanes says it's a Colombian song about a mysterious small boat written during the 1960¹s by Jose Barros, one of the country's most recognized cumbia songwriters. Barros, who also wrote "El Pescador," another Colombian song included in the album, died earlier this year.

Stream "La Piragua" (as well as the previously released "Colas") at Dan's Myspace page. Nueva York! is out in April on Festival Five Records.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With Dan Zanes visiting Phoenix for the first time on tour with Dan Zanes and Friends less than two weeks from now, I thought it'd be a good time to catch up with the singer. I've done both these things before (seeing him perform in Tucson in April 2007 and interviewing him back in summer 2006), but nothing ever stands still in Dan Zanes' world these days. So I called him up in Puerto Rico and chatted a bit.

Read on for his views on what makes a good Dan Zanes and Friends concert and what he does the first time he visits a city. (Phoenix-area readers, feel free to chime in with suggestions for what he should do here.) Find out about the upcoming album, ¡Nueva York!

And even if you've never even been to Phoenix, you'll want to read the end of the interview where I find out exactly what he was doing in Puerto Rico and what Paul McCartney has to do with it. Trust me, it's worth the time. (And thanks to Dan for making the time.)

Zooglobble: How would you describe a Dan Zanes and Friends concert?
Dan Zanes: As much like a little Grateful Dead show as possible. I try to make the theatre feel like your living room. There's lots of people singing along, lots of people on stage, and as much roaming around, laughing, and crying as possible. And then the whole dissolves into a whole dance party. I want everybody who comes to feel like we're all in this together.

What's your favorite part of the show?
Two things: first, how much people throw themselves into singing. Are they singing their heads off? Second, what's the level of the dancing? Are the aisles filled? How many people are upfront? How much chaos? How intense does it get?

I can't even remember the last show where people didn't dance. In the world of young people, it's so much how they relate... in a physical way.

Continue reading "Interview: Dan Zanes" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Elizabeth Mitchell made another appearance on NPR today, this time on their podcast/newscast/somethingcast The Bryant Park Project. The visit was ostensibly to plug the new CD from Mitchell and husband Daniel Littleton's band's Ida, Lovers Prayers. Oddly enough, though, most of the interview is spent talking about that kids career, rather than the new CD. Anyway, go here to listen to the interview and to hear Mitchell, Littleton, and their daughter Storey sing "Green, Green Rocky Road," which Mitchell says they "just recorded (with a VERY special guest) for [their] next children's record." It sounds suh-weet.

Update: Watch a video of the live recording here.

Update #2: Mitchell reports in her latest newsletter that their "VERY special guest" with whom they sing the song on the upcoming album is Dan Zanes. As I said, suh-weet.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Head on over to Dan Zanes' new blog, The Welcome Table, for a free download of a track recorded as part of the session for Zanes' upcoming 2008 album En Latino.

The new song, "Colas," is not a tribute to highly sugared carbonated beverages. Rather, it is (in DZ's words), "is a traditional son jarocho from Veracruz, Mexico introduced to me by the Villa-Lobos Brothers, a trio from Veracruz now living in Nueva York." The opening riff sounds a bit like "Catch That Train," but then it moves into a slightly more traditional sound. Zanes' Spanish sounds passable. The whole track is a bunch of fun.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

News from Dan Zanes' newsletter last night that he's started a blog called The Welcome Table. Given that his first major post is about his trip to Tucson this past spring to visit organizations doing work along the U.S.-Mexico border (and it's translated into Spanish, too), methinks it won't be like a lot of other kids' music blogs. I knew he'd done some work when he came down for his concert in Tucson, so the background is nice.

Oh, and the presale for his Arizona shows has started. Go, people, go!

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I try not to get too provincial here at Zooglobble HQ. Physically we're in Arizona, but, hey, I've got readers all over this wonderful country of ours, the world even -- no need to spend so many electrons on my own little corner of the world.

But I noticed that Dan Zanes had announced some new tour dates including... three whole concerts in Arizona. That's right, on Friday, Feb. 8, Zanes and friends will hit Phoenix's Orpheum Theatre, then will head two hours south for a concert at Tucson's Rialto Theatre on Saturday the 9th, then back four hours north to Flagstaff's Orpheum Theatre for a concert on Sunday the 10th. (Yeah, I can't figure out that order, either.)

Needless to say, I'm excited about this, for a couple reasons, actually. First, obviously, is because it means another chance to see Zanes in concert without having to travel down to Tucson. If we go, I guess the question is whether our son, less than two years old back in April, would join us at a 7 PM Friday night show... Hmmm....

The other reason I'm excited is that it's really the first time that a major kids' musician (excluding the Wiggles, who are in their own category) is making multiple Arizona stops. Heck, it's really the first time that a major kids' musician is coming to Phoenix. (For those of you who want to list their own musician who has, in fact, played the Phoenix area, I'm sorry, "major" includes maybe five or six artists.)

So, if you live anywhere near Phoenix, please, please, please make it to this show. If you can't, tell your friends to make it to this show. I think Phoenix is on the verge of no longer being stupidly ignored by kids' music bookers (I hear rumors of other artists looking into the area), but the reluctance of artists to book shows here won't appear so stupid if Zanes plays to a half-full house.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dan Zanes takes a small step toward creating family-music empire, albeit in a very inclusive way.

News from Zanes in his newsletter that the next Father Goose album, It's a Bam Bam Diddly, will be released in October. In addition to help from Dan's band and many others, Sheryl Crow also makes an appearance on the disk. I'm pretty sure Crow never said the phrase "it's a bam bam diddly," which is now my favorite album title of the year.

Zanes also mentions that he's recording the next Dan Zanes and Friends CD, which will be called En Espanol, for release in 2008. He says it's "a very different type of project but even at this early stage it has a very high emotional content." No word on whether Sheryl Crow will appear on that disk as well.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Two is better than one. Or, in this particular case, fifty-one is better than two.

Fifty-one is, as best as I can tell, the total number of people singing or playing on Campfire Sing-Along, the recently-released fourth album by the Bay Area duo Orange Sherbet. You might be thinking, last time I checked, "duo" meant, well, two people. And, yes, Jill Pierce and Tamsen Fynn are indeed a duo. But they've pulled in a whole host of family and friends to sing a collection of campfire sing-along favorites. Sometimes the friends are older (such as Charity Kahn from Charity and the JAMband, who makes an appearance on "Sippin' Cider"), sometimes they're younger (the chorus of kids who appear on old chestnuts like "Make New Friends" or "Down by the Bay"). Most are fun, or at least an excellent reminder of songs you can sing at your own campfire.

What turns this album into more than a very enjoyable version of a "Wee Sing" CD is the presence of the Northern California roots/bluegrass band Hot Buttered Rum, who join forces with Orange Sherbet and, occasionally, the rest of the 51 for great versions of traditional sing-alongs -- "Down By the Riverside," "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain," "Frog Went A Courtin'," among others. Making the CD stand out, however, are the originals, contributed by members of both bands -- "Bit By Bit" is an awesome song about how little things make a difference, while "Marshmallow" is a fun sing-along that could've been written 70 years ago. It's in the originals most especially that the combination sounds very much like a West Coast version of Dog on Fleas. It's a wholly winning sound.

(Oh, and I almost forgot. All this plus Dan Zanes. Yep -- Zanes makes an appearance on an original called "One Man Band," revealing a heretofore unknown skill in humorous spoken-word poetry. It's hardly a Zanes-ian essential, but it's amusing listening.)

The 48-minute album is appropriate for all ages, though kids able to sing along, ages 3 through 9, are probably more likely to enjoy the CD. You can listen to samples or at the album's CDBaby page (at which you can hear some of "Bit By Bit").

The best parts of Campfire Sing-Along are where Orange Sherbet and Hot Buttered Rum combine to make timeless songs sound fresh and new songs sound like they've been part of the canon forever. (Who would've thought orange sherbet and hot buttered rum would taste so good together?) There are enough such moments here to make this recommended, even if you don't plan to get any closer to the great outdoors than your local park.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, if I hear that Dan Zanes is releasing a new EP and a book described as a "sing-a-long activity booklet," I get excited.

Until I hear that it's only being sold with his first four albums.

Now for $43.97 for the boxset at Amazon and from Zanes himself, it's an excellent price, particularly if all you have is Catch That Train!.

But for the DZ fanatics among us (raises hand), that's just a bit too steep (and not worth the effort to eBay all the copies we currently have).

Music just wants to be free, Dan! Stop the double-dipping!

Tracklist:
1. Jug Band Music
2. Jim Along Josie
3. Sloop John B. (previously released)
4. All Around The Kitchen (previously released)
5. Home In That Rock

Posted by SAShepherd at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've been to a lot of great concerts in my life -- Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Guy, U2. One of the key factors is the feeling that the crowd is having a shared experience -- amazement at Bruce's endurance, Guy's prowess, or U2's yearning. But that communal experience is one that ends up being focused on the performer(s) on stage (or not, as Guy ended up his concert jamming on the sidewalk in front of the Cats Cradle in Chapel Hill (back when it was in Chapel Hill) while his band played on inside).

The wonder of a Dan Zanes concert, then, is that he produces a very communal experience that isn't so focused on him. Instead, the community itself is the communal experience...

Continue reading "Concert Review: Dan Zanes - Rialto Theatre, Tucson" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

So many things to do (or write about), so little time.

Which is probably good, otherwise I'd be spending too much time thinking about this weekend's Dan Zanes concert in Tucson. We are very excited about going, sad that our son won't be joining us. (We decided that a 2-hour drive and a concert smack dab in the middle of naptime was a perfect storm that might very well ruin the show for the rest of us.) We've been watching Zanes' All Around the Kitchen DVD this week to try to give our daughter some sense of what the show might be like, though we keep saying things like, "Yeah, I like her voice, but she's not going to be at the show."

What does the show look like now? Well, the Old Town School of Folk Music's burgeoning video library has a video of the band from a show last November. (Warning: took me forever to download)

In the meantime, I've got a couple reviews (I hope), maybe some other stuff. And, yes, I will get the contest winners announced very soon. Really.

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Remember when I said that I thought there was room for some more small kids' music labels?

Well, Dan Zanes has obviously been thinking along the same lines, because in his latest newsletter he's announced that he's signed up both Barbara Brousal and Father Goose to do albums for his Festival Five label. Now, Zanes has released a couple less-kid-specific albums of his own, and re-released an old album featuring David Jones, but this is the first step toward creating a family music empire and total Zanes-ian domination.

Or maybe it's just a couple CDs from his bandmates. CDs which ought to be cool, to varying degrees.

I'm going with the latter option.

Anyway, it more than made up for hearing that Brousal won't be making the Tucson stop on his upcoming tour. (Oh well, Charlie Faye's voice is pretty good, too.)

Posted by SAShepherd at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The last quarterfinal in KidVid Tournament 2007 is here, and duking it out for bragging rights in the Pete Seeger Region are "Let's Shake" from Dan Zanes, the #1 seed, against "I Hope My Mama Says YES!" - AudraRox, the #3 seed.

Vote in the comments below. Rules: Video with most votes wins. One vote per e-mail address, please. Votes due by Wednesday 11 PM-ish East Coast time.

"Let's Shake" - Dan Zanes

Watch the video on Zanes' website by going here and clicking on "Let's Shake."

"I Hope My Mama Says YES!" - AudraRox

To view this video, head to Jack's Big Music Show player. Roll over the picture of a red-hair-streaked Audra on the right, kid on the left.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Final day of competition pits "Let's Shake" from Dan Zanes, the #1 seed in the Pete Seeger Region against "Wigglin' Blues" from Pam Blanchard and the Sunny-Side Up Band, the reader-nominated #4 seed.

Vote in the comments below. Rules: Video with most votes wins. One vote per e-mail address, please. Votes due by Wednesday 9 PM-ish East Coast time.

"Let's Shake" from Dan Zanes

Watch the video on Zanes' website by going here and clicking on "Let's Shake."

"Wigglin' Blues" - Pam Blanchard and the Sunny-Side Up Band

Watch the video here (direct YouTube link here).

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

We are finally completing the "Others Receiving Votes" section of The Top 50 Kids Songs of All Time. Except, of course, unless Top 25 college rankings, we actually rank items 26 on down. (Somewhere 'round here I actually have an "others receiving votes" listing for song #s 51+.)

A few mid-majors with strong performances, a few songs close to not quite at the top of the major conference standings...

In case you're tuning in late, here are the previous entries:

Songs 31 through 35
Songs 36 through 40
Songs 41 through 45
Songs 46 through 50

There is still time (but not so much) to enter the contest to guess the Top 5. Winner gets one million dollars a free CD.

30. "Buckeye Jim" - traditional: This is just such a delightfully weird song. "Way up yonder in the sky / A blue bird lived in a jaybird's eye" the song starts off, and the meaning gets no clearer. Wonderful imagery, though I'm not sure the original songwriter was in a completely happy place when writing. (Elizabeth Mitchell and Dan Zanes do the song; so do The Hollow Trees -- click on track 17.)

29. "Marvelous Toy" - Tom Paxton: This is one of the few songs on this list that's old but not traditional -- Tom Paxton wrote it but Peter, Paul and Mary made it famous. John Denver recorded it, too. (And apparently it was the Chad Mitchell Trio's biggest hit, but, uh, I've never heard of them.) I like the mystery about the toy -- "It went "Zip" when it moved and "Pop" when it stopped / "Whirrr" when it stood still / I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will." Indeed. (Listen to Amazon's miserly 30-second clip here.)

28. "All the Pretty Little Horses" - traditional: Oooooh. A lullaby that's not in a major key! Despite that the fact that the narrator's basically bribing the baby to go to sleep ("Hushabye, don't you cry / Go to sleep, little baby / When you wake, you'll cake / And all the pretty little horses"), I sing this quite a lot. (Did you know Olivia Netwon-John recorded an album of lullabies? I didn't. Anyone care to tell us how good it is? Even just the "All the Pretty Little Horses" sample?)

27. "Hot Potato" - The Wiggles: Yeah, deal. It's simple enough for kids to master, it's got hand motions, and 4 guys from Australia built a freakin' empire on this song. Sorry that this song will now be in your head today while you have that meeting with Terry from marketing. (Ah, YouTube, what would we ever do without you?)

26. "This Old Man" - traditional: Yeah, you're probably bored of singing it, but in the best folk song tradition, change the lyrics. At least the first line... "Britney Spears / She played one..." "John McCain / He played one..." "Shaquille O'Neal / He played one..." (No, I am not going to find a sample for you. If, however, you can find one of the three people listed above singing it...)

Posted by SAShepherd at 04:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Ted Williams was the last person to hit .400 for a baseball season, and now I'm duplicating the feat (using my own, very narrow, self-selected definition). 5 shows, 2 with our family's attendance...

-- Trout Fishing in America: They played here the weekend before last. I know that Trout's music appeals to all ages, but the fact that they played at the auditorium smack-dab in the community of Sun City -- which prohibits kids from living there -- amused me slightly. In any case, it's a long drive out there from our house, and since we were co-hosting a Chinese New Year's party that night, we took a pass. Hopefully next time...
-- Baby Loves Disco: All four of us attended the soiree in Scottsdale this weekend and had a fun time (again). I'll have more on this maybe next week.
-- The Terrible Twos: Argh. This show was schedule at the very last minute, so late that there was zero confirmation of the show except on the band's myspace page. We had guests visiting that afternoon, and shooing them out the door a little early so we could see a show that no human had actually confirmed seemed, well, my wife drew the line at that. And, yeah, that would have been bush-league. (So needless to say, I was a little disappointed when the venue's owner called up later that night and said that, yes, the show did indeed go on.) Hopefully next time...
-- Dan Zanes: Sunday, April 22nd, Tucson. We are there. I can't wait. I'm bringin' the uke.

-- Finally, some radio show's hootenanny in Brooklyn on March 24: Either that or the Park Slope Parents CD-release party on March 25th would be a lot of fun. It would also be terribly inconvenient, geographically (not to mention I'm already out of town that weekend).

So are you listening, West Coast? San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland -- I'm talking to you -- each of you have enough kids' artists that you could put together a pretty good hootenanny yourself. (Or if you all want to come out to Phoenix, let me know...) Don't let the East Coast Bias win!

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I know that bar on the right side of the main homepage is a bit on the long side, but it's time for some updates...

Planet KidVid is a new enterprise from longtime Friend of Zooglobble Monty Harper and kids' musician Mr. Billy. If they keep up with the posts, this could be a website that causes lots of families to go over their allocated "screen time."

The Harper family is evidently trying to take over the web as Monty's wife Lisa and her daughter Evalyn have established the Kids Music Planet podcast. What is slightly different about this podcast from many other kids' music radio shows is that they play multiple selections from a few albums. So if for some reason my review of an album isn't clear enough you can decide for yourself. ;-)

Belinda and Hova finally seem to have settled on a new internet location for their Greasy Kid Stuff playlists. If you go to their website, you can also find out all about their Mar. 18th "Grease Ball" with Captain Bogg & Salty, The Jellydots, and The Sprockettes. You can also hear They Might Be Giants' penned-just-for-Belinda-and-Hova "Greasy Kid Stuff."

I've also added Fred Koch's new children's music-related blog to the sidebar. Fred is another longtime listener and reviewer of kids music and I'm glad to see him start up a blog.

Regular readers will certainly be aware of Amy's appearance on WNYC's Soundcheck on Tuesday. Amy made a lot of excellent points (and ones I mostly agree with) and is to be commended for always sounding coherent, a not at all easy thing to do live on the air. Listen to the 20-minute segment here.

Finally, children's media publicist (and, well, fan) Beth Blenz-Clucas talked about a couple of her clients and other kids' musicians and topics on Vicky and Jen's Grammy-related podcast. The podcast also includes discussions with Richard Perlmutter (he's working on Beethoven's Wig 4, apparently), Dan Zanes, and Ezra Idlet from Trout Fishing in America. (Beth was also kind enough to mention this website as a good resource...)

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards are tonight and while I missed the Police reunion (I'm sure there will be 14 versions available on YouTube tomorrow), I am very happy that Dan Zanes won the award for Best Musical Album for Children for Catch That Train! (review here). Wow, I've interviewed a Grammy winner.

See a smiling Zanes and Father Goose during the ceremony here.

Congratulations also to Bill Harley, who won the award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for his album Blah Blah Blah: Stories About Clams, Swamp Monsters, Pirates & Dogs.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Compilations are notoriously hard things to compile. Any fool can put together a CD of good or popular songs, but their appeal as a single entity often fades after time. (Really, who listens to those Now! CDs, like, six months later?) The key is finding some loosely unifying theme or spirit to guide the collection.

Park Slope Parents The Album (Vol. 1) has just enough theme to carry the day. The 17-track collection plucks chooses songs old and new, released and not, from mainly New York City artists. There are a few tracks that deal with life in New York City -- David Weinstone (Music for Aardvarks) contributes his simple "Subway" ("Bing bong / the doors open on the train / bing bong / All the people pile in") while Michael Leyden has a more rocking take in "I Hear a Train."

Any compilation should also be measured by how well it does in helping you to discover new artists, rediscover chestnuts from old artists, and getting new tracks from your favorite artists. In terms of discovering new artists, Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel's "The Season Song" is a perfect pop tune from an adult band (whose members both teach in schools) writing a kids' song (specifically for this album). Dan Zanes contributes the "The Monkey's Wedding" from his Parades and Panoramas disk while Daniel Schorr's "Good Boy with a Bad Reputation" (off his first album) is a great example of his countryfied Dwight Yoakam-esque rock.

And the new tracks. These, my friends, are why you should get yourself on the CDBaby waiting list and order the disk. Smack dab in the middle of the disk are two great new cuts. The Deedle Deedle Dees contribute their ode to New York City roadways (had to balance out the public transportation songs, I suppose) with "Major Deegan," which was recorded for their upcoming album. The loping song sounds timeless, especially with those "whoo-whoo's". And The Quiet Two continue their surreal attack on kids' music with the loopy and giddy "When I Dream." AudraRox's reggae song of tolerance "Moms & Dads" and the sometimes-out-of-control (in a good way) "Drunken Sailor" contributed by Astrograss (with backing vocals from AudraRox's Audra and Jen) are just as good.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the sweetest track, the album closer "Fools Will Try." Somehow these Brooklyn parents got Ralph Covert to contribute a track from his 1997 album Birthday, and it's nothing less than some of the best advice you can give to a child. This is one of those songs that should appear on a lot of new parents' mix CDs...

The album is probably most appropriate for kids 3 through 8 (who probably don't care less about the appropriateness of a compilation and who just care whether a CD has good songs, which this one does in spades). The album is a fundraiser for Park Slope Parents, an informational website for parents in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For those of you who don't live in New York City, I'd recommend the CDBaby page, where you can hear samples. (The cover, by the way, is by children's author and illustrator Mo Willems, who contributes drawings that are more "Knuffle Bunny" than "Pigeon.")

Though collected for kids living in New York City, Park Slope Parents The Album (Vol. 1) is appropriate for families visiting New York City, learning about New York City, oh, heck, lovers of good music. It's a great collection of music and it's definitely recommended.

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, how about this one?

At the same time that Bill and Amy and I were putting together the Fids and Kamily awards, our Pazz and Jop-inspired poll focusing on kids and family music, the masterminds behind Idolator were planning their own poll.

And despite the fact that I'm from Arizona, the state that spawned the New Times chain that took over the Village Voice, the New York newspaper that hosted Pazz & Jop for more than 30 years, then unceremoniously dumped Robert Christgau, who ran it all that time, I wangled myself an invitation to participate in the new poll. (See this NPR story for more info on the controversy.)

You can see my album votes -- which are the same as my F&K votes -- here. (I though about reordering my votes in order to vote for albums more likely to get support from the rest of the poll, but thought better of it.)

You can also see my Top 10 singles votes, which, since it was put together in about 3 minutes before deadline, probably needs some explaining. Not that those aren't great songs, but I think I need to put together a proper Top 20 list.

Frankly, the most surprising thing about the poll? I wasn't the only person to vote for kids' music:

-- Dan Zanes got two votes (though at the moment they're listed as Catch That Train! -- that would be my vote -- and Stop That Train!).
-- Paul Westerberg also got two votes for his work on the Open Season soundtrack.
-- Unsurprisingly, Bruce Springsteen placed high (#39) with his We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Session CD (Top 20 for me).
-- Uncle Rock got a vote for Plays Well With Others.
-- The Gothic Archies got a vote for The Tragic Treasury.
-- Other votes came for High School Musical, Spongebob Squarepants, Aly & AJ, Jack Johnson, and Smoosh.

You can also find some "kids music" listed in the Top Singles section.

Next year, we're asking Robert Christgau and Chuck Sasha Frere-Jones to participate in Fids & Kamily.

Posted by SAShepherd at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)