Do family musicians have long careers because they have lots of ideas, or do they have lots of ideas because they've had long careers? While you're pondering the chicken-and-egg nature of the question, you can read this interview with
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, who might be exhibit A for consideration of the question. Over the course of more than 25 years of making music together full-time, they've got a lot of different plates spinning - albums, concerts, ukulele orchestras, creating musical curricula, and much more.
Their latest endeavor is called
Sing to Your Baby, a book/CD set designed to encourage parents, grandparents, and other caregiver to, er, sing to their babies. The idea that everyone should sing to and with their kids from the get-go is an important one to me, so I wanted to spend a few minutes chatting with Fink and Marxer about the project. And, as if to emphasize the duo's reach across the broad spectrum of family music, we started out chatting about one of kindie music's hot new groups, the Pop Ups, and ended by talking about living legend Ella Jenkins.
Zooglobble: Good morning!
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer: Good morning... so are you looking forward to going to Kindiefest?
I am. You?
We don't think we're going, but if plans change, we'll try... We're excited that the Pop Ups will be playing there.
As am I... It was interesting to me the first time I listened to this random CD and found out that y'all were on one of the songs.
Yes, and now one of the two, Jacob Stein, his father, Michael Stein, is the male vocalist on our album.
Really? [Checks his copy of the book.] Wow. Hadn't made the connection.
Cathy: Yes, he was in
Country Current, the Navy's country band, when I first met him in the '70s. Later he performed and wrote songs for the Dinosaur Rock series. More recently, he became a cantor out in California.
OK, so I usually start out interviews by asking people what their earliest musical memories are. In this particular case, I'm wondering what memories you have of music-making and singing by your parents.
Well, it was a close-fought battle that went right down to the final hour, but in the end Keller Williams and his video for "Hula Hoop to Da Loop" beat out Sugar Free Allstars' video for "Cars and Trucks" to be declared KidVid Tournament 2011 champion.
A tip of the cap to SFA, who beat a number of strong videos with their funky cartoon on their way to the championship and nearly pulled off the stunning upset. But it was not to be, as Williams' video took the crown. A video, I might add, which manages to retain viewers' attention with a simple concept -- Williams creates a loop (seemingly live), and a bunch of folks hula hoop their way through the rest of the video. Maybe it retains viewers' attention because of that simple concept.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank once again all my fellow kids' music writers who helped with this year's tournament by hosting various components -- Saturday Morning Cereal Bowl, Out With the Kids, Ages 3 and Up!, Gooney Bird Kids, Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, and Dadnabbit. I think we'll do this again next year.
So, for the last time, here is your KidVid Tournament 2011 champion...
Keller Williams - "Hula Hoop to Da Loop" [YouTube]
I know, maybe I should wait for 
It was probably a good sign that, almost literally as I started writing this post about the first solo family show of 
In a move that stunned many kindie music observers, late last night the popular family music bands 
