I got an e-mail a week or two ago from an artist who asked me:
"Do you know you if applying for the Parents' Choice Awards is worth the application fee?"
Well, as someone who spends a whole bunch of time thinking about the relative merits of hundreds of CDs suitable for kids and families, I'm probably not the best person to ask that particular question. I don't need the Parents' Choice Awards. It's like asking the staff of Film Comment if launching an Oscar campaign is worthwhile.
But lots of artists (and authors and manufacturers) do submit their stuff, paying the fee ($225 for CDs) to submit their product for consideration, even though you might end up not getting any recognition at all. (See this post from Amy for a not entirely complimentary view on the matter.)
So I have two questions, one for the artists out there, the other for the parents, librarians, and general consumers (which might just include some of the artists).
Artists: So is the Parents' Choice entry fee worth it? Is there some other award or recognition that's particularly useful in terms of driving sales?
Parents/librarians/consumers: Do you care about what type of Parents' Choice Award a CD or artist has won, if any? Is there some other award or recognition that's a really good guide for you?
Now, I'm perfectly happy if the artists just want to respond anonymously -- I understand if you'd rather not have your name attached to any comments. And I guess in general, anybody who's reading (and commenting) here probably isn't a typical family music consumer, but I think the comments would be valuable for the artists reading.
Finally, I'm not attacking Parents' Choice here -- I'm honestly curious as to the responses I hope you'll provide. There's an artist (and probably many more) who needs you.
Interview: Dan Zanes
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.New Barenaked Ladies Album "Snacktime" Out May 6 at about 3:30 PM.
Remember last month when I told you that the Barenaked Ladies had a new kids' album coming out?
Well, more details have emerged, thanks to those hardworking folks at Billboard. They're reporting that the band will release Snacktime on their own Desperation Records on May 6.
Even though I don't have any ads here on the site, I'm going to gin up some tension and page views by making you click on the link below to see the track list. Hee hee.
New Music From Astrograss
The New York band Astrograss has, at least in its music for kids, always had an affinity for words -- after all, its first EP for kids (review here) set its bluegrass-y jazz (or jazzy bluegrass) to the lyrics of Shel Silverstein.
So it's no surprise that the first song the band's made available from their upcoming album, tentatively called Let Me Stay Up All Night continues with the fanciful wordplay. Called "There Their They're," it includes the zen-like phrase, "Someday, when I learn to spell 'spell'..." and is set to Astrograss' adventurous musical stylings.
Plenty of kids' bands say that they don't sound like anyone else -- Astrograss is one of the few that can back up that claim.
Listen to (and download) "There Their They're" here. Let Me Stay Up All Night is out March 9.
If I Can Make Just A Small Difference in the World
Many months ago, I had this crazy idea that instead of giving away a copy of the Deedle Deedle Dees' excellent album Freedom in a Box (really, top 10 of 2007 for me!) to a reader, I'd give away a copy of the album to a school or library designated by a reader. All readers needed to do to enter was to suggest a historical figure the Dees could write a song about.
And then chief Dee songwriter Lloyd Miller had this crazier idea of actually writing the song.
Loyal reader Katy was randomly selected to win this contest, having suggested not one but four figures, including Amelia Earhart. And while I've heard the resulting song before, Bill has now sent it onto the internet, not once but twice, first on this weekend's Spare The Rock show and then at a benefit show later that day, from which the very brief clip below comes from.
It's lots of fun.
New Music from Elizabeth Mitchell: "Green, Green Rocky Road"
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.
