How I Got Here: Randy Kaplan (Harry Chapin)

In my "How I Got Here" series, in which kindie artists talk about albums that influenced them as musicians, the musicians usually limit themselves to one or maybe two albums, but Randy Kaplan's admiration for Harry Chapin cannot be contained to a mere album or two.

In his essay below, Kaplan talks about Chapin's influence, from individual songs to individual meetings with the man himself.  Fans of Kaplan will definitely recognize the seeds of Kaplan's own performing style in what he remembers about Chapin's.

Kaplan's next family album, Jam on Rye, is released on June 1.

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I was lucky to be given carte blanche over the many records and record players in my house growing up way out on that long, Long Island. There were my mother's 45s of Elvis Presley, The Platters, and Nervous Norvus; my father's LPs of Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and The Beatles; and my great-grandfather's 78s of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. I could barely lift those multi-record symphony folders with my great-grandfather's Yiddish scrawled on the covers but I was able to memorize every Elvis song in the stack, A-sides and B-sides. Nervous Norvus was my first exposure to the novelty song and I took to the genre right off the bat. I listened to Mitch Miller, Pete Seeger, and the triple-LP Woodstock soundtrack too. But the biggest musical influence of my childhood was our hometown hero, Harry Chapin.

Harry was famous for his lengthy story songs. Sure, a lot of them are a bit corny, but Harry can pull off corny better than anyone. His music and lyrics are elaborate and complex and diverse and poetic and bittersweet. And sometimes very, very funny. I'm thinking of songs like "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" and "Six String Orchestra." And Harry and his bass player "Big" John Wallace were a veritable comedy team onstage when they wanted to be. I learned a lot about interacting with audiences of all ages from watching Harry live in concert.

My family and some other families in the neighborhood went to see Harry every time he performed in the vicinity. After every show he would mingle with and talk to his fans and offer to sign our record albums and posters. I once wrote to him just to say hello and to ask him when he'd be performing again. He sent a fairly long personal note back to me, which I hung on my corkboard (it didn't come down for decades). I remember one line in particular: "My next gig will be on December 3rd." That was the first time I'd ever encountered the word "gig." I've heard it and said it a million times since then!

My friend Nadine wrote a letter to Harry with a little bit more of an agenda. She asked him to come play a few songs at our elementary school. He obliged. My mother pulled some strings, got me backstage, and told Harry that I played guitar too. He shook my hand, flashed a smile, and told me to keep practicing. He then proceeded to do an entire show, unplugged, for the whole school. He even called Nadine up to the stage to sit next to him on the piano bench as he sang "Tangled Up Puppet."

Harry was generous, humble, charismatic, and accessible. My mother once ordered his book of poetry and lyrics, Looking...Seeing, but it never arrived in the mail. She said she was going to call Harry personally and tell him. My father made fun of her, laughing, "You think he's just listed in the phone book like a normal person?!" Well, he was listed. And when my mom called him, he answered the phone! She told him about the problem and he sent over an autographed copy of the book right away.

Now that I have a son and a family of my own, I try to keep the caveats of Harry's only #1 song, the mawkish yet magic "Cat's in the Cradle," in mind, caveats about what could happen if you don't spend enough quality time with your family. I don't travel anywhere near as much as Harry did (he was on the go non-stop!) but as a musician I have to be on the road at least sometimes. So whenever possible, my wife and son travel with me. And when they can't, there's Skype and FaceTime, so that helps.

After all this time, I'm still inspired by Harry's talent, generosity, enthusiasm, and great recordings (my favorites are Verities & Balderdash, Portrait Gallery, and Greatest Stories Live). I'm certainly glad to carry the mantle of the lengthy story song to the children and family music genre. Yes, I've rationalized more than a few indulgent song lengths by reminding myself of Harry's epic numbers!

Harry told me to keep practicing. And I did. That's how I got here.

Photo of Harry Chapin by Steve Stout from Harry Chapin.com

Sugar Free Allstars, Record Store Day, and Vinyl's Allure

Chris "Boom" Wiser and Rob "Dr. Rock" Martin -- known as the Oklahoma-based duo Sugar Free Allstars -- are every bit as energetic in front of the mic, B3 organ, and drum kit as they are behind them.  In addition to touring, organizing the second annual Wiggle Out Loud kids music festival (set for Sept. 14, 2014), they're bringing kindie to the vinyl hipsters with a brand new 45 for what just might be a national holiday in some neighborhoods around the country -- Record Store Day.

They're releasing a brand new song, the little bit funky, little bit soulful "My Daddy's Record Collection," on a colorful 45, along with their classic track "Banana Pudding" as the B side.  The duo will premiere the 45 at OKC's Guestroom Records.

Wiser and Martin -- er, "Boom" and "Dr. Rock" answered a few questions about vinyl's allure and the new 45...

Zooglobble: Did your parents have a record collection?  What do you remember about it?

Boom: I remember my parents having some records, Ray Charles' Volcanic Action of my Soul and Jeannie C. Riley's Harper Valley P.T.A. are the first ones that come to mind. My sister and I had some records too because at the time that was still the main way you listened to music. We had a lot of book and record sets, where you would listen to the story on the record and follow along in the book. A bell would ding to tell you when to turn the page. We also had the Peter Paul and Mary children's album, one by Dora Hall, and a record from Disney with songs from several movies. We spent a LOT of time listening to all those records!

Dr. Rock: We mainly had 45's as all we could afford but quite a few of them and I still have most of them and they will still play. I grew up in a rock house so there was always music playing and my big brother and mom helped shape the music I like early in life. 

What was your own first album?  Was it vinyl, cassette, CD (or, dare I say it, 8-track)? What was your own first vinyl album?

Boom: My first vinyl record was a 45 of the theme song for the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, a song called "Good Ol' Boys" by Waylon Jennings

Dr. Rock: I had and have all of the above media. I only recall my first 45 I bought with my own money and it was the Rolling Stones' Miss You. Had lots of cassettes in the 80's. Not a good medium to last but sound great. 

What inspired the song "My Daddy's Record Collection" and your desire for the RSD vinyl?

Boom: Dr. Rock got me back into listening to and collecting vinyl records again and my son Boom Jr and I listen to them together sometimes. He's 3 1/2 now, but when he was a little younger he liked to watch the label as the records would spin. He still likes to look at some of the album covers, like Talking Heads' Little Creatures. Now he has his own little record player and a copy of Abbey Road by The Beatles (it was a copy I got at a garage sale when I was in high school that was WELL broken in already back then). He likes to listen to that records sometimes, he'll turn on the player and put the needle on by himself.

As for releasing it on Record Store Day we thought it would be cool because there are a lot of musical acts that will release new vinyl or special editions on that day but no one in the Kindie/children's music world had that we were aware of.  [Ed. note: I think Dan Zanes was the first to release a kindie vinyl, but I'm pretty sure "Daddy's Record Collection" is the first new kindie RSD release.] And it helps to draw more attention to the release, hopefully encouraging more parents to expose their kids to the joys of music on vinyl records.

Dr. Rock: Boom and I love vinyl and wanted to put some out. 

What's coming up for SFA this summer?

Boom: We have a jam packed summer full of shows all over the Midwest region of the country, have some fun video projects in the works and will be working on putting together the second annual Wiggle Out Loud family music fest in OKC 

Dr. Rock: Lots of shows, lots of libraries! We play like mad in the summer, sometimes four times a day. But it's worth it to help everyone get their rock on in the summertime. 

How I Got Here: Laura Doherty (Billy Joel, The Beatles, Neil Young)

Laura Doherty has a new album (In a Heartbeat, funded via Kickstarter) full of acoustic rockers for your favorite kindergartner, a new animated video ("Domingo the Flamingo"), a new band name (Laura Doherty and the Heartbeats) and a long history of making music for kids.

I've had a number of conversations with Doherty through the years -- she's one of the nicest musicians in a genre of nice musicians -- and so I was happy when she agreed to be the latest participant in my "How I Got Here" series of kindie artists reviewing influential albums.

Read on for not one, not two, but three albums of great importance to her on her El train to Chicago kindie musician.

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Most of the music that influenced me when I was young, were pop and rock songs that had catchy melody lines, jangly guitars, and anything with harmony— the more parts, the better. I can’t remember ever not loving music and singing. I was the girl with headphones on, playing guitar with my tennis racket, in front of my bedroom mirror and singing into my hairbrush. Or I was often lying on the plush green rug in my yellow room, with my ear pressed up against my Emerson stereo speakers. (Thus inspiring the song “Yellow Room” from my band Sweet Hello’s album Well of Wishes).  

What album has influenced me the most in my own songwriting? I’ll break it down into one that has influenced my singing and one that’s influenced my guitar playing. And then a radio segment that rocked my world!

My parents did have a small collection of adult contemporary 60s and 70s records, such as Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand, which I liked, but it was really my brother’s record collection that I was drawn too. It was 1980, I was 10, and Billy Joel’s Glass Houses captured my attention. I stared at the teeny-tiny “hand-written” font of all the lyrics on the inside record sleeve, and I memorized every word. Growing up in NY, I had an instant connection to Billy’s voice. In “Sleeping with the Television On” I would sing it just like Billy, with a stronger NY accent that I actually had. To this day, if I’m in close proximity to a karaoke machine, you can bet I’ll be asking them to cue up “New York State of Mind”. “All for Leyna” was another favorites from that record. That driving piano riff and soaring vocal…pure 80s pop! I went on to collect all of Billy Joel’s albums after that. Of course MTV was in high gear with videos, and all the 80s music made an indelible mark on my brain.

Later in high school, I became completely obsessed with the Beatles, learning the words to every song, but oddly enough I never fully learned which songs are on which albums. This is because my introduction to the Fab Four came one Thanksgiving weekend, when NYC’s rock station 102.7 WNEW played EVERY Beatles song from A - Z. I popped in my cassette tapes and recorded the whole thing. My family must have not seen me too much that weekend as I was holed up in my room switching the cassettes! I remember it covered 3 days worth of Beatles music. And that’s how I learned Beatles songs…”Ob-la-di-bla-da”, followed by “Octopus’ Garden” followed by “Oh, Darling.”

Back to an album that greatly influenced my guitar playing. I discovered classic rock and folk-rock of the 60s and 70s right at the time I first picked up a guitar, around age 16. Neil Young’s triple compilation album Decade was one that greatly influenced me and I bought the accompanying guitar songbook too, and taught myself some chords. The chord progressions I play today, and the rhythmic way I approach the guitar, I believe have sprung from those Neil Young songs I was learning as a teen. “Old Man,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “Heart of Gold”…the guitar parts all have great melody lines. I could go on and on with influences after that, such as the Indigo Girls and all the female singer-songwriters emerging at that time. I immersed myself in this music!

Fast forward 20 years or so, I’ve been living in Chicago and music continues to weave through my life. Always a passion, then as a part-time career, and eventually 4 years ago, it turned full-time career of teaching, performing, and recording music for kids. You can hear those early folk and rock influences in my 3 children’s records and my adult records too — I’ve got one solo, and two with folk-pop band Sweet Hello. 

I began writing songs for kids in 2008, and it seemed a natural progression to the music I was playing already, and a nice pairing to the early-childhood music classes I was teaching (Wiggleworms), at the Old Town School of Folk Music. It’s a program that 15 years later, still brings me joy to teach. So thanks to Neil, Billy, The Beatles, and the Indigo Girls for acoustically rockin’ MY world!

Photo credit: Phil Onofrio

How I Got Here: Danny Adamson, the Not-Its! (The Cure, Joni Mitchell)

Danny Adamson, guitarist for the sartorially superior Seattle pop-punkers The Not-Its, sometimes jokes about wanting to rock kids' faces off at upcoming shows.  Thus, it might surprise you to learn that when asked to write about an album that influenced him for our "How I Got Here" series, he picked an album by Joni Mitchell.    And also one by the Cure (who, I will note for the record, played the loudest show I've ever been to, at any rate).

But this isn't some fancy late-minute conversion -- check out his bio, he lists Mitchell and the Cure among his top 5 favorite artists there, too.

So read on for Adamson's stories of how the Cure saved his life (or at least from getting beat up) and singing along with Joni and how those helped him rawk melodically. 

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Which band or artist is your favorite of all time?  Growing up, that was always the question asked.  Since people could never choose just one, I started altering the question to “What are your top 5 bands or artists of all time?”  This gained far better results, as people could no longer pull the “I’m so eclectic and well rounded, how can I possibly choose only one when I like soooo many styles of music?” card.  This served me well at parties during my 20’s.  Now I don’t ask, because I am stuck in the 80’s and 90’s and find that I no longer recognize bands that people list.  I am lazy about discovering new music these days and find if you put on a Wilco album in a social setting, 95% of people will be generally pleased.

On to my attempt to sound interesting and eclectic!  I wish I could write about 5 albums that influenced me musically, but nobody wants to read that much from a guy who’s not even the lead singer of The Not-Its!  So I will limit myself to two, one which was huge in my world at the time I first started playing guitar in the 8th grade - The Cure's Head On The Door - and another album that made me realize that it’s actually a good thing to “try” to sing as well as you can (rather than just get by or do the punk rock screamy thing) - Joni Mitchell's Blue.

The Cure had many albums that were influential to me, and you can definitely make the case that my musical style leans toward their guitar heavy (less synth), earlier stuff, but Head On The Door was their first album that I obtained (would have said “purchased” but I probably stole that cassette as I was a sticky-fingered, hooligan in 8th grade).  I was a skater kid back then, not the “gothed out” type of fan, but The Cure influenced me in many ways….  There may or may not be VHS video footage somewhere out there of me holding a magazine page photo of Robert Smith’s face with the mouth cut out, lip-syncing to the song “The Catch.”  In junior high, just wearing a The Cure shirt once saved me from getting my ass kicked.  I threw something at a car and the hot pursuit ended with the car full of 20 something year olds catching me (don’t ask me how that happened?) and letting me off STRICTLY because of that shirt!

Anyway, that album was something new, that didn’t sound like pop music, or the poorly produced skate rock compilations I had received via my subscription to Thrasher skateboarding magazine.  I just liked how Head On The Door (and most of their other albums) sounded.  I wouldn’t say it is their best album, but definitely my favorite and most influential, as it just got me at the right time.  It was fun to try to figure their songs out on guitar.  Something about bands from across the pond felt cool to my friends and me.  Nobody at our suburban Seattle junior high was listening to The Cure or The Smiths and it felt nice to have something from far away that felt like our own.  Still to this day I put my boys to bed by playing guitar and often songs by The Cure make it into the rotation. 

I started playing in punk bands in 10th grade in 1991.  I played guitar, my good friend also played guitar and a new buddy played bass.  We eventually found someone who played drums but still nobody could or would sing.  I started singing by default because nobody else was willing.  I was not good and confidence took years to establish.  I had a girlfriend with a hint of granola in her.  She owned some fleece, a pair of Birkenstocks, and pounded me down with the obnoxious crooning of Joni Mitchell.  I fought it hard with Fugazi and Superchunk, (which I believe she still loves today) but both sides triumphed in that battle as Joni Mitchell’s album Blue worked its way into my hard wired system.

That album and girlfriend both went away - the album for a few years and the girl forever - until I picked up Blue (purchased this one) on vinyl in 1997 or so.  I lived with 4 guys in a dude/party house near the University of Washington at the time.  A typical scene for one of my roommates to find when rolling home would be hearing Joni Mitchell blaring from my room with a giant speaker hauled into the bathroom, speaker wire stretched across the hall, and me screeching the high falsetto sounds of JM from the shower.  I was singing along due to its obvious genius as it grew on me, but also because I was actually trying to get better at singing.  Eventually I could sort of keep up with her and learned that breathing correctly and weird stuff like that were important elements to singing well.  With the album Blue, I really think you can feel the energy and emotion she put into the album (which I don’t usually say because how the heck do I know what went down in that studio?), but it’s tough to ignore when it’s just one person and her guitar or piano.  Pretty awesome.

For me, these two albums simply just sound good to me and hit me at that right time in my life.  As I’m writing this, I’m finding it an interesting case study between albums that sound good and my association with music for children and families.  I know many people relate to albums of their past by what the album said to them and how they emotionally connected with the lyrics.  I’m quite the opposite.  I could hear a song 5 times and still not really tell you what it’s all about.  I just like it if a tune sounds good or has a nice harmony and I will always fall for an amazing little drum fill or hi-hat trick.  So yes, the guy who has never paid attention to the deep meaning of love songs is now writing music for kids.  I know kids are amazing, bright and full of potential, but what they really want is a good hook and a badass guitar riff.

How I Got Here: Lucky Diaz (The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced)

With the recent release of Lishy Lou and Lucky Too, Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band continue their run of bright and poppy kids music for the 21st century.

And so, as often happens when I get these "How I Got Here" essays, I was a bit surprised when I got Diaz's recollection of discovering Are You Experienced  by The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- was I expecting something shinier, I don't know.  But I think one of the lessons I'm learning in doing these is that context is everything, and it doesn't take a lot for a piece of music to change your life.

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One of the most vivid days of my childhood -- I believe it was a crisp early evening 1989, and for California, about as Fall as it gets -- I was riding my bike home from a friend's house.  In my back pocket was a Maxwell cassette tape (yes, I know let's all spare each other the- ‘man I'm so old comment’…) with the words "Are You Experienced" scribbled on it. My friend Ben had given it to me. He told me it was a guy named Jimi Hendrix and that I had to listen to him. Ben, already obsessed, had pilfered it from his father's pile of amazing cassettes and LP's which included Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and the Beatles, among other epic things I had no clue about yet.

At the time, I thought very little about the tape, and to be honest, it must have laid on my nightstand for a couple of days. At this point, I had been learning the guitar for about a year. I was obsessed with Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, and just about every guitar hero ever to roam the earth. Ironically, I was unaware of the greatest guitar slinger all. The man that defined the term.

I had heard the name Jimi Hendrix before, from my second cousin, April, who our family affectionately coined La Cuckoo. La Cuckoo was older than me by about ten or so years. As a young child, I remember her wearing a tie-dye shirt that sported Jimi Hendrix's iconic image. I once asked her who it was and she told me, Jim Hendrix. I said, "Who's that?" To which she replied, “One day he will blow your mind.”

My 8-year-old self had shrugged it off. I already didn't trust La Cuckoo. She once promised to make me a clown for Halloween. The memory of screaming my head off in horror as she spun me around to see myself in the mirror, only to discover that she instead painted me up to be Gene Simmons from KISS was still fresh. But I digress…

A few evenings later, I noticed the tape peeking out from under some comic books on my nightstand, and decided to finally give it a go. I put the tape in and pressed play.  The intro to " The Wind Cries Mary" began…

La Cuckoo was right.

Mind blown.

Never had I heard the guitar in such an incredible way. A chorus of voices. A true voice. Never had I heard the guitar sing, scream, yearn and expose. The hammer ons, the bends, the technique. Nothing like it now, and nothing like it since.

Song after song, more and more. The first piece of art I HEARD. A masterpiece of Mitch Mitchell on drums, Noel Redding on bass (or Jimi depending on historical accounts). A trio, creating a cacophony of organized insanity. Motown, the Blues, Pop, Jazz -- all of it. THIS WAS A BAND! There, in one vacuum of madness.

I sat there for what must have been three days of a long weekend, coming downstairs only for food and water. In my room, analyzing every second of that cassette tape over and over, side after side. Grabbing my guitar, trying to replicating what I heard, failing miserably, loving every moment of it. When I finally came up for air, I went to my local music shop looking for a Fender Stratocaster of my own.

I never stopped listening to that cassette.  I even packed the tape with me to take to music college.

I still am listening.

Never looking back, experienced. 

How I Got Here: Chris Ballew (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)

Although he may be better known among a certain set of the population as founder of The Presidents of the United States of America, Chris Ballew may eventually be best known for his ongoing string of excellent albums for kids under the moniker of Caspar Babypants.

On September 17, Ballew will release his seventh Caspar Babypants album, a record of Beatles covers called -- naturally -- Baby Beatles .  So when I asked Ballew to write the latest "How I Got Here" entry on albums that were significant influences on kindie musicians, it's not surprising that he chose one of the Fab Four's most famous albums.

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When I was 2 years old in 1967 I got a copy of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. I was right there glued to the speakers as it found its way into everyone's cultural landscape. I started to plant the songs in my wee sponge like musical brain and as it seeped its way deep into my personal musical landscape, the songs and I became fused. Although in later years I would go through a phase where I sort of hated the album for doing away with the small tight little early Beatles rock and roll band I loved and creating the concept album, I could never deny its influence.

The feeling that you are being taken on a fantastical ride into a silly and beautiful and melancholy atmosphere is what I strive to recreate when I write and record music for families. If this is about how I arrived then this album was the mode of transportation for sure.

There used to be a time when I wrote songs that were "serious" about tortured love or big ideas and metaphors. I found after years of scratching at that idiom that it was a frustrating dead end of overstuffed concepts. One day I stumbled onto a man on a chair in the back of a bar in Boston singing songs about frogs and cats and monkeys in the most groovy simple way. That was Spider John Koerner and he gave me permission to write songs that made the impossible possible. After a long break from the Beatles and Sgt. Peppers, I went back to that early source and I was blown away by how connected those songs were to the fanciful imagery of those early public domain folk songs. I had finally found a way to link my early fascination with psychedelic groovy songs to some sort of historical heritage. 

As I dove back into Sgt. Peppers, I had the most intense time travel back to childhood sensations and I felt that this feeling of being connected to childhood and storytelling was the core of something worthwhile and important.  Still, I had to push my way through a bunch of years of missing the mark including almost hitting it with my grownup rock band The Presidents of The United States of America before scoring a creative bullseye hit with Caspar Babypants. The Presidents are very close to my true musical vocabulary but still rely on the sting of innuendo to make the songs sparkle. Caspar is a pure innocent version of the same energy and I find it very sustainable. I hear that innocence when I listen to Sgt. Peppers and I am sure that album planted that seed long ago.

Now as I make simple innocent music for newborns, toddlers, kids and parents I feel like the emotional vocabulary of the album and my own childhood and my new creative enlightenment are all intermingled to make music that feels fresh and familiar at the same time. Without those mop tops and their intense desire to expand their awareness and get out of the spotlight and make a work like Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hears Club Band I would not have found my true musical home. Thanks, Paul, John, George and RIngo!