I hope you've taken the opportunity to watch a lot of great videos and vote for your favorites at a lot of great kids music sites over the past couple weeks -- now the four videos which won their regionals will compete here at Zooglobble to finish determining the KidVid Tournament 2011 champion. The first semi-final matchup features Keller Williams, who won the Pete Seeger Region with his video for "Hula Hoop to Da Loop," going up against Debbie and Friends, the winner of the Woody Guthrie Region with "Cinderella." Two very different videos, indeed, so even if you came here intending to vote for one or the other, I hope you'll take 3 or 4 minutes and check out the competition's song and video. Polls close at 9 PM West Coast time tonight (Thursday). As always, one vote per household, and play nice.

Debbie and Friends - "Cinderella" [YouTube]

Keller Williams - "Hula Hoop to Da Loop" [YouTube]

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's the second day of second round voting for KidVid Tournament 2011 (there's something synchronistic in that, right?) features the Woody Guthrie Regional. It's the matchup between the Bazillions' "Preposition" (a #1 seed) vs. Debbie and Friends and the #2 seed "Cinderella." Vote over at Gooney Bird Kids today and today only. Vote here.

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It started with my favorite kids music videos of the year. Then you voted on your favorites at Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl. Then you went to Out With the Kids, Ages 3 and Up!, Gooney Bird Kids, and Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child to vote in Round 1. Maybe you even went to Dadnabbit (or should've, anyway) to read Jeff's handicapping of the brackets.

All that, and we still have seven matchups to go. Here, then, are the Round 1 winners who will be facing off in Round 2.

Ella Jenkins Region: The Not-Its!, "Green Light, Go!" (2) vs. Sugar Free Allstars, "Cars and Trucks" (4)
Pete Seeger Region: Keller Williams, "Hula Hoop To Da Loop" (1) vs. Recess Monkey, "Black Hole in My Room" (2)
Leadbelly Region: Caspar Babypants, "$9.99" (1) vs. Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, "Big Pet Pig" (2)
Woody Guthrie Region: The Bazillions, "Preposition" (1) vs. Debbie and Friends, "Cinderella" (2)

Some of the winners won in blowouts, some in squeakers, but all of these (friendly) face-offs will get even closer here in this next round. Even though I like the Sugar Free Allstars video (it made my Top 25 list, after all), it makes me a little sad that John and Mark's "A Counting Error," my favorite video of the year, didn't make it to round 2, but that's the perils of fandom, right?

Round 2 will start on Saturday, March 26. Which matchup will kick off Round 2 and where will it be found? Well, you'll just have to wait for Saturday to find out...

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

Yes, that's right. Head on over today to Out With the Kids for your chance to vote on the first two matchups in KidVid Tournament 2011, featuring the Woody Guthrie Region:

-- The Bazillions, "Preposition" (1) vs. Coal Train Railroad (and Readeez), "Just the Juice, Jack" (4) -- watch and vote here.
-- Debbie and Friends, "Cinderella" (2) vs. Billy Kelly, "The Sky Floats (and So Do Boats)" (3) -- watch and vote here.

And, if you want a second opinion on the videos, Jeff Giles, the fine writer and mastermind behind Dadnabbit, has graciously agreed to provide his thoughts on the whole bracket. Read his take on the day's competition here.

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I heard about the "twist" Debbie Cavalier (AKA Debbie and Friends was considering for the video for her new song, "Cinderella," I thought it might end up being cheesy. But now that I've seen the final product, bada boom, bada bing, I think it turned out pretty funny and ends up elevating the rest of the video just enough to not drive away the parents. The song is an uptempo, 5-minute retelling of the myth with touches of Death Cab for Cutie.

Debbie and Friends - "Cinderella" [YouTube]

More D&F videos after the jump.

Continue reading "Video: "Cinderella" - Debbie and Friends" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think the first time I became aware of the Topspin media widget was a couple years ago when David Bryne and Brian Eno promoted their new album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today using it. As someone who writes a website, the content-filled nature of the widget appealed to me, but it appealed to me as a fan as well. Sure, from a listener perspective, it's just a way to give an e-mail address to get an mp3, but it did it in such an elegant and well-designed way that it typically was the only type of widget that I'd actually respond to.

In time I realized that kids musicians were starting to use the widget, too. At this point enough of them are using the platform that I thought it'd be worth asking the users what they thought of it and its good (and bad) points. Among the artists who responded were Debbie Cavalier, Jeremy Toback, and Kevin Salem from Little Monster Records, along with one of his artists, Key Wilde. I also talked some with Mike King from Berkleemusic -- if you need an overview of Topspin, you could do far worse than checking out the videos King made with Topspin CEO Ian Rogers.

What made you interested in working with Topspin?
Most artists came to Topspin via some personal connection -- Debbie Cavalier first heard about Topspin nearly two years ago when, as the Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee, they started to plan the development of the “Marketing Music with Topsin” course. Jeremy Tobck knew Topspin cofounder Shamal Ranasinghe when he was developing the idea for Topspin, and was "super intrigued" by his idea of deepening the direct relationship between artists and fans. Toback says that Ranasinghe, dug Renee & Jeremy, wanted then to be beta users, and "helped convince us that we had built enough on our own to benefit" from the platform.

As for Kevin Salem, he says that Robert Schneider’s manager told him about it, though he "was slow to respond." (Robert Schneider is another Topspin artist, both for the Apples in Stereo as well as his Little Monster Robbert Bobbert project.) But the Topspin representative was an "old acquaintance" from Salem's time as a solo artist after giving him a quick tutorial, Salem thought it could "help plug the considerable holes in [his] physical distribution network." He also says he thought it could help create "unique products" for the fans and "shift the ratio of physical-to-digital sales in our genre." [I'd note that at Kindiefest, Salem noted that the next Little Monster release, a compilation, will be entirely digitally distributed.]

Continue reading "Topspin and the Kindie Artist" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The first semi-final matchup of KidVid Tournament 2010 features the Pete Seeger Regional winner Caspar Babypants and his "Itsy Bitsy Spider" video from More Please! -- the video vanquished Dan Zanes in an epic Round 2 matchup. That video's going up against the Ella Jenkins Regional winner Debbie and Friends and "Willy Won't" from the upcoming More Story Songs and Sing-Alongs, who defeated a feisty Johnny Bregar in Round 2.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, but the official results are based on the poll at the bottom of the page. One vote per person, please. One vote per person! Votes due by 5 pm tomorrow (Friday) East Coast time. And, as I continue to say, play nice -- that means encouraging folks to watch both videos and avoiding trash-talking. Really, folks, it's just a silly internet contest.

Caspar Babypants - "Itsy Bitsy Spider" [YouTube]

Debbie and Friends: Willy Won't [YouTube]

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Well, the first round is over, and it's time for the second round of KidVid Tournament 2010. The first matchup today is the Ella Jenkins Regional final featuring Debbie and Friends' "Willy Won't" from the forthcoming More Story Songs and Sing-Alongs CD against... "Shoo Fly Pie" from Johnny Bregar's Dragonfly album.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, but the official results are based on the poll at the bottom of the page. One vote per person, please. One vote per person! Votes due by noon tomorrow (Wednesday) East Coast time. And, as always, play nice!

Debbie and Friends: Willy Won't [YouTube]

Johnny Bregar - "Shoo Fly Pie" [YouTube]

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The other first-day KidVid Tournament 2010 matchup from the Ella Jenkins Region features Debbie and Friends' "Willy Won't" from the forthcoming More Story Songs and Sing-Alongs CD up against "The Ladybug Without Spots" from the Randy Kaplan's Loquat Rooftop album.

Continue reading "KidVid Tournament 2010: Debbie and Friends vs. Randy Kaplan" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today's free tune comes courtesy of Debbie and Friends, who's releasing her (their) second album, More Story Songs and Sing Alongs on March 30. For the price of an e-mail, you can get a free mp3 of "Home Run Ronnie," which mixes some '70s-era pop-rock with a story song about, well, you can probably guess the sport (March 30 is a particularly apropos date, no?). Just when you think the story's getting a little too schmaltzy, Ronnie starts talking and pulls it back ever-so-gently from the edge.

And, if you want to hear the song first, here's a storyboarded version of the upcoming video for the song.

Continue reading "Share: "Home Run Ronnie" - Debbie and Friends" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Things that I'm not a big fan of regarding the new video for "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" from Debbie and Friends: the sticks for arms on all but one of the human characters.

Things I'm a big fan of regarding the video: the exaggerated cartoonish action and expressions, the human characters' "jazz hands," the brief "what happens after the story" vignettes that lend the traditional story a bit more shading.

It's a big '70s soft-rock sound that may not be your cup of tea, but I think younger kids will be intrigued by the video.

Debbie and Friends - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" [YouTube]

Debbie Cavalier, by the way, is in the studio recording the follow-up to Story Songs and Sing Alongs -- expect more story songs and some guest stars, too...

Posted by SAShepherd at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Debbie Cavalier leads a double life -- not only is she behind Debbie and Friends, which offers a bunch of songs (and animation) squarely aimed at preschoolers (and maybe their older siblings), she's also the Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music's online division. So she's got a pretty broad perspective on life as a musician, educator, and entrepreneur. (She's also a really nice person.) Read on for her inspiration for Debbie and Friends, some music education tips, and the worst part about playing keyboards.

Zooglobble: What music did you listen to growing up?
Debbie Cavalier: My mom always played a lot of Tom Jones and Neil Diamond in the house when I was a kid. She also played my grandfather records a lot: The Marty Gold Orchestra. My grandfather has been a huge influence on my musical life. I just wrote a blog post about this.

Upon getting my own record player in elementary school in the mid 70s, my favorites rotations up were Elton John, Carole King, Billy Joel, the Bee Gees, Carly Simon, and Bruce Springsteen. Elton John definitely got more airplay in my room than anyone else.

What was the path that led you to your current job at Berklee and what does that job entail?

Continue reading "Interview: Debbie Cavalier (Debbie and Friends)" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week I posted some art and a rough video from the latest Debbie and Friends video, "I've Got a Laugh." Well, the finished product is out, and it does look pretty slick.

I have to tell you, though, I think Debbie Cavalier might want to look for some of her money back. I've met Debbie in person, and she totally has five fingers, not four, on each of her hands.

Debbie and Friends - "I've Got a Laugh"

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the I-swear-she's-not-kidding file, two Debbie and Friends songs will appear on Fox's series 24 next year.

I'm sure many of us can think of a kids' CD or two they might wish Bauer would use his morally questionable interrogation techniques on, but apparently two Debbie and Friends videos will be used in a scene with a young child watching TV.

I guess I can add this to the list of kids music getting high-profile placements...

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'd seen a pre-production video of Debbie and Friends' "I've Got a Laugh" a few weeks back and thought, huh, that might make for an interesting post.

And then Debbie sent me some animation art. Sold.

There's nothing earth-shattering about the song, but I do think it's an effective echo song that's easily memorized and repeatable at home. I'm also impressed with the amount of work that goes into good video production. really enjoyed her video for "Hangin' Around" more than I thought I would, so I'm eager to see what the final product looks like.

Debbie Cavalier - "I've Got A Laugh" (pre-production version)

A couple more pieces of art from the video after the jump.

Continue reading "Pre-Video: "I've Got A Laugh" - Debbie and Friends" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

... or, in more search-friendly terms, writing about music -- ie, blogs -- by kids musicians. I know that Warren covered this last week, but I've had this on my to-do list for awhile, so I'm going to press forward with a highlighting of another wave of kids musicians turning their thoughts to the blogosphere. Some have a lot to do with the kids music genre, some very little. But I'm guessing at least one of 'em will be of interest to most of you and/or your RSS reader...

-- Ann Torralba, best known as Little Miss Ann, is trying her hand writing about kids music at littleshouldersmusic, focusing in particular about music in the Chicago area where Ann lives.
-- Bill Harley has long been one of the most talented wordsmiths in the kids music field, so I'm glad to see that he's started a blog. He tells his stories very well, and anyone interested about the arts and school culture generally will find this of value.
-- Robert Burke Warren had a long career making music for adults before starting to make music for kids as Uncle Rock. Now he's got a blog in which he's every bit as thoughtful on paper as he is in person.
-- Debbie Cavalier records music for kids under the moniker Debbie and Friends but her day job (OK, other day job) is Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College, so, uh, yeah, she knows something about music education. She has not one, but two blogs. One, on Music, Education and Technology, is geared more toward Berklee's students, but occasionally deals with stuff of interest to a broader audience, while the other, Kid's Music Matters, is a pretty good example of an artist blog, mixing self-promotional stuff with more behind-the-scenes stuff.

Posted by SAShepherd at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our other matchup in the Pete Seeger Region for KidVid Tournament 2009 is a matchup featuring #2 seed vs. the #3 seed. It's Debbie and Friends' "Hangin' Around" from her debut album Story Songs and Sing Alongs going up against Secret Agent 23 Skidoo's video for "Gotta Be Me" off his debut Easy.

Comments welcome below, but the videos and the all-important official poll are after the jump. All votes due by midnight tonight (Wednesday) East Coast time. One vote per person, please. And, yeah, play nice.

Continue reading "KidVid Tournament 2009: Debbie and Friends vs. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo" »

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can't say that I thought "Hangin' Around," one of the tracks from Debbie and Friends' Story Songs and Sing Alongs was more than a mildly pleasant tune, but the new video for the song has done what good videos often do -- make you listen with new ears.

The song lists a bunch of animal group names (which, incidentally, seem to be a whole bunch of verbs -- "flock," "mob," "span," "clutch," etc.) with some cute computer-animated renditions of said animal groups. I dig the sheep -- I think kids will really dig the whole thing.

Debbie and Friends - "Hangin' Around"

Posted by SAShepherd at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've had mixed luck taking our youngest, Little Boy Blue (who's about 2 1/2 years old), to cultural events. The Dan Zanes concert last month? Boy, the kid sat there and took it all in, bouncing a bit and clapping his hands. The musical version of Goodnight Moon we attended at our fabulous local theatre for young audiences, Childsplay? Let's just say it's a good thing we were in the back row, near the "screaming kid" room.

I'm gonna chalk that one up to hunger, but you know, maybe it's because we didn't have a chance to watch a Goodnight Moon DVD over and over like we did with Dan Zanes to prep the guy.

Anyway, Debbie Cavalier, who recently recorded a kids' music CD of her own called Story Songs and Sing-Alongs as Debbie and Friends, just penned a good guide for parents about to take their kids to their first musical event.

It's a solid set of common-sense recommendations which, thankfully, doesn't completely assume that your child's first concert is necessarily going to be the symphony. The suggestions -- listen to the music together beforehand, talk about speakers and appropriate concert behavior -- apply just as much to Megadeth as to Mozart. Though I'm guessing Dave Mustaine wasn't quite who Cavalier had in mind...

Posted by SAShepherd at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)