First an adorable video, now Brady Rymer is offering a free song featuring a duet with Laurie Berkner. The song is called "Soft Things" -- besides it being a pleasant, mellow tune, it deploys one of the most under-appreciated instruments in kindie music, and that's Berkner's sweet, clear voice. It's from Rymer's forthcoming album Love Me for Who I Am, due out April 12. Download it below for the price of an e-mail. (Which, it should be noted, goes off to Brady, not me, in case you were wondering.)
It's now officially spring, so we can now officially be happy about the sun. Lucky Diaz has just the song for these bright new mornings. It's called "Here Comes the Sun," and, no, it's not the Beatles, but it's catchy in its own right. It's from the LA pop-ster's first full-length album, Oh Lucky Day!, set to be released May 10th. Listen to the song here. For the price of an e-mail, you can download the track for free.
I'd heard some time ago that the Twin Cities duo The Okee Dokee Brothers would be writing their next album as they traveled down the Mississippi River, and those plans finally appear to be taking shape. On June 1, canoes in hand (though I'm not sure they're actually portaging), Joe and Justin will spend thirty days going down the Mississippi. They tell me that they first came up with the idea for the trip way back in the summer of 2009, when they took a short road trip following the Mississippi River down from Minneapolis to Davenport, Iowa along the Great River Road. "We ended up camping along the river," they say...
"meeting incredibly interesting people, writing some songs, and conceptualizing the idea of an adventure album as we drove. We noticed that the river represented so much of what we stood for in our music; the Americana tradition, folk culture, community, adventure, nature, so we decided it would be the central theme of our next album."
The duo is partnering with Wilderness Inquiry, a Minnsota-based non-profit, who's outfitting the trip with canoes, paddles, life jackets, camping gear, etc and have applied for a couple other grants. [Unrelated and self-interested note: I used to live down the street from the Inquiry offices.]
As for the trip itself, Joe and Justin will be joined by a couple of "close friends with very creative minds" -- one, a wilderness expert who will "help [them] stay safe and sane on the river," the other, a photographer/videographer who will document the trip. They've set aside two hours each day for songwriting and six days for writing and research with museums, musicians and storytellers. (They're also visiting the Smithsonian archives in DC next week and meeting with a Folkways archivist to do some research on traditional river songs and hope to incorporate some public domain songs on the album.)
Finally, I asked them, "How do you deal with the 'Mark Twain Problem' -- meaning, do you directly write Huck Finn (or other Mark Twain-inspired) songs, or do you avoid them entirely?" Their response seems to me the appropriate one when faced with Huck Finn's overwhelming cultural influence:
"While we love Mark Twain, we're not going for a Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer angle on this album. We might mention them briefly in a song, but they are not our focus and we'd like to distance ourselves from that cliche a bit. The river is big enough for lots of characters and stories."
It's time again to take a look at my list of new and upcoming releases. As always, if I've listed you on here and gotten something wrong (or something not ready for primetime), let me know and I'll edit or delete it. And if you're not on here and think you should be, drop me a line, too, and I'll get you added for the next iteration.
David Weinstone: All I Want (Mar. 8)
Groove Kid Nation: The Wheels on the Bus (Mar. 8)
Maria Sangiolo: Planting Seeds (Mar. 13)
Jamie Broza: I Want a Dog (Mar. 15)
Doni Zasloff Thomas: Shabbat Shaboom! (Mar. 22)
Aaron Nigel Smith: Let's Pretend (Mar. 29)
Debbie and Friends: Story Songs and Sing Alongs (DVD) (March)
Readeez: Readeez Vol. 3: Knowledge is Good (March?)
Moey's Music Party: Playground Rock Star and Happily Ever Moey! (DVD, March?)
Billy Kelly: The Family Garden (April 5)
Joanie Leeds: What a Zoo! (April 12)
Brady Rymer: Love Me For Who I Am (Apr. 12) [features duet with Laurie Berkner]
Daddy A Go Go (aka John Boydston): Grandkid Rock (April 19)
Eric Herman: The Elephant (DVD, national release April)
Randy Kaplan: Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie (April)
Tom Chapin: Give PEAS a Chance (May 3)
Lucky Diaz: O'Lucky Day! (May 10)
Rockabye Baby: Lullaby Renditions of Jimi Hendrix and the Flaming Lips (those are two separate Spring releases)
Recess Monkey: Flying (June 21)
Andy ZThe Grand Scream of Things (Oct. 4) [produced by Tor Hyams]
Milkshake: Title TBAplusHoliday Album Title TBA (Fall 2011)
Other 2011 albums: Ah-Choo, Peter Apel, Rocknoceros, Funky Mamas, Dan Zanes, Hipwaders, Big Don, Charlie Hope, Mr. Richard, Chuck Cheesman. Also, Rockabye Baby for Van Halen, The Police, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madonna.
Ahhhh... Valentine's Day, the day when little boys' thoughts turn to that of Transformers Valentine's tattoos to distribute to their preschool friends. And thoughts of fish.
Or maybe that's just Recess Monkey for that second part. Just in time for Valentine's Day, the band's released the first video from their eagerly anticipated June 14 release Flying. It's called "My Valentine," and it's an ode to a fish. It features ukulele and some nifty big band assistance from Johnny Bregar and Dean Jones. What's not to love?
Recess Monkey - "My Valentine" [YouTube]
Another collection of random bits from around the kindie-webs...
-- Perpetual Grammy nominee Bill Harley is offering up another free track. This one is - gasp! - a quarter-century old. It's "I'm On My Way" from his 1986 album 50 Ways To Fool Your Mother and it's a nifty re-working of the old traditional tune...
-- The long-in-the-making "We Are the World"-style jam "A World of Happiness" is finally making its way to the light of day. Joanie Leeds and Tor Hyams released a YouTube video explaining the project, which basically boils down, "a whole bunch of kindie artists lending their talents to a single song to raise money for charity." That works for me. Originally pegged as a Haiti-relief song, now the charity of choice will be picked by a vote.
-- The Wales-based animation studio Planet Sunday, best known here probably for their animation work for The Hipwaders and Debbie and Friends, also helps run their Animation Academy. The Academy (now a non-profit organization, shows kids ages 8 and up how animated films are made and gives them the chance to make their own films. Their most recent workshop resulted in a music video for The Hipwaders. According to Planet Sunday founder Greg David, "The kids and parents really got a lot out of it, and it really improved the format of the day."
They've got two workshops lined up this month, on the 23rd and 25th February. One band is already interested, but they're looking to get someone else on board -- i.e., another kindie band. While David says they try to keep the costs down for kids as much as possible by getting grants and other funding to cover the cost of equipment and materials, etc., if a band would like to make a donation of either money and/or goodies for the kids it'd be much appreciated. (And, I suppose, that would go for anyone, regardless of their kindie-rocking status.) If interested, drop 'em a line here.
-- I normally wouldn't like this video from L.A.'s Mista Cookie Jar -- it's way too overdone for my own tastes -- but they all combine into something... else. It's probably the tune, which is earwormy, and downloadable for free (or donation) right here...
Mista Cookie Jar - "Joey the Dogg" [YouTube]
First an adorable video, now Brady Rymer is offering a free song featuring a duet with Laurie Berkner. The song is called "Soft Things" -- besides it being a pleasant, mellow tune, it deploys one of the most under-appreciated instruments in kindie music, and that's Berkner's sweet, clear voice. It's from Rymer's forthcoming album Love Me for Who I Am, due out April 12. Download it below for the price of an e-mail. (Which, it should be noted, goes off to Brady, not me, in case you were wondering.)
It's now officially spring, so we can now officially be happy about the sun. 
I'd heard some time ago that the Twin Cities duo 
