Review: Family Favorites - The Biscuit Brothers

Austin's Biscuit Brothers are best seen on TV or live. There's a definite theatrical sensibility in the episodes you can watch on selected PBS stations or on DVD, and they've been performing live even longer. (The live shows were the inspiration for the TV show, in fact.)

As good as those shows are, though, trying to capture the essential Biscuit nature on CD is a little tougher. Their previous disk, Old MacDonald's EIEI Radio, sounded a little bit like a (long) TV episode, with a little emphasis on the educational component of the TV show. It usually worked OK, but there were points where it seemed like there were some visuals missing and it wasn't as entertaining as watching the show.

Now, with their just-released Family Favorites, they're taking a slightly different approach, essentially forgoing attempts at direct education and an episodic structure, and putting together an album of fun songs, some of which were originally recorded for the TV show, some of which are new for this album. While the result is definitely not like the show in its overall structure, the album does a fine job of capturing the Biscuit Brothers spirit, energy, and humor.

The album starts off with a great version of the "Wabash Cannonball" -- its soaring chorus is a high point of the album -- and proceeds to wander through some time-tested tunes. Irving Berlin ("Alexander's Ragtime Band) and George M. Cohan ("Grand Old Flag" and "Yankee Doodle Scarecrow" -- OK, that last one has been modified a bit from the original) help the 20th century make an appearance, while "Old Dan Tucker" gets a smooth, polished performance from the band. Indeed, one of the pleasures of the CD is listening to the Brothers' fine voices and Allen Robertson's musical arrangements in song after song. And while the Biscuit Brothers' primary musical approach is renditions of folk songs, they're talented enough to make the alphabet song sound a bit like the Fifth Dimension on "Alphabet!"

And, yeah, Tiny Scarecrow, one of my favorite kids' show characters of all time (and one who gets high marks from my kids, too), gets his share of air time -- he's appropriately goofy on the "World's Shortest Dance Break," he negotiates the rapid-fire lyrics on "Tiger Rag" -- so that pleased me. In the let's-make-a-silly-rhyme "Schnitzelbank," he makes a Rene Magritte reference about floating apples -- high and low in the same song.

These songs are really an all-ages setlist, but given a couple of the titles, let's put the target range at kids ages 2 through 9. You can hear clips from the 34-minute album at its CDBaby page.

If you're already a Biscuit Brothers fan, you've probably picked up Family Favorites by now -- and if you haven't, you should. For those of you who aren't sure about the Brothers, I think this is a fun album you can enjoy even if you've never seen the show -- it's the best audio introduction to the Biscuit Brothers. Recommended.

DVD Review: Go Make Music! Volume 2 - The Biscuit Brothers

If you've read this website over the past five or six months, you know how big a fan I (and the rest of my family) have become of Austin's Biscuit Brothers. They've recorded four CDs and make the not-infrequent concert appearance in the Austin area with their top-notch, often rootsy versions of American classics and originals, packed with not a small amount of wit for both kids and parents.

But it's their PBS TV show in which they really shine. Each episode of the show typically tackles a different musical concept -- tempo, harmony, folk songs, emotion in music -- and illustrates that concept through a variety of ways. The two brothers Dusty (Jerome Schoolar, the executive producer) and Buford (Allen Robertson, the musical director) are the genial guides; sister Buttermilk (Jill Leberknight, jack-of-all-trades) reads from "The Big Book of Music" (it's a really big book); and Tiny Scarecrow (a puppet voiced by Damon Brown, the director) often plays the fool, demonstrating a concept via exaggeration or general silliness.

It sounds dry on paper (or, er, the screen), but it's anything but. Just watch Go Make Music! Volume 2, a collection of 4 episodes from the show's second season (2006-2007) released this summer, and tell me you and your family members a) don't learn something, and b) don't enjoy it. It's explicitly educational, to be sure, but there's such joy and fun on the screen that you don't mind learning (or re-learning) even the most basic of concepts. In the episode titled "Dynamics," all about how loud and soft music is, Tiny Scarecrow and Buttermilk share a duet where Tiny doesn't quite get the concept of loud and soft at first. It's funny to hear Tiny singing "I am singing softly, softly, softly" at the top of his nasally voice, but it gets the point across to the young'uns quite clearly. Or in "Conduct Yourself," the Brothers go on a "Conducting Adventure" illustrating exactly how important conductors are to drawing good or bad musical performances out of people (or how confusing it can be to having two conductors). If there's a base musical style used for illustrating concepts, it might classical music, but the show employs a whole host of styles, particularly folk and roots music when just playing music.

By this, the second season, the show has certainly settled into its routines for each episode, and so the favorite segments -- "Instrument of the Day," Crazy Classics," the end-of-show song in Symphony Barn -- all make their appearances here. The production is, once again, first-class. To artists who think they can just put together a DVD without much effort, I encourage you to watch these shows and look at how many people it takes (or how much effort it takes) to put one of these disks together.

A few technical notes -- the disk contains four 27-minute episodes from the season's second (13-episode) season. It also includes all 12 "Instrument of the Day" segments from Season 2. Strung together, I found listening to the segment theme a dozen times in about 24 minutes a little tiring, but individually (either option is available), I think they're great little 2-minute lessons about, say, the clarinet. There's also a brief DVD "Easter egg" that's worth finding.

The shows are going to be of most interest to kids 3 through 8. Unfortunately, there's nothing showing the Biscuit Brothers in action on Youtube or anywhere else on the web (a segment or three from "The Best of Symphony Barn" episode would be perfect uploaded there, hint hint, guys). But trust me. You can buy all sorts of Biscuit Brothers stuff here.

We watch the two DVDs from the show quite a bit. I watch Go Make Music! Volume 2 and can't help but think that this show a) could be huge, and b) should be huge. They have just the right mix of educational goodness, entertaining productions, and musical talent that make the show a real treasure. Definitely recommended.

I Hope You Like Biscuits...

... because I'm gonna be writing a lot about the Biscuit Brothers, the awesome PBS show out of Austin, Texas, this week. If I really had my act together, I'd have the interview I did with them back in September, but that'll have to wait and you'll just have to live with some reviews.

According to their Wikipedia entry, in addition to appearing on a bunch of Texas stations, they are airing (or have aired) in North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, Florida, Utah, Georgia, and California. If you live in an area that gets the Biscuit Brothers, and you're not already watching them, you (and your kids) are missing a great little show. (And if your local PBS station isn't showing them, write them and tell them the show is free. Free. Isn't America great?)

Austin Kid's Day, A Recap

Ah, Austin, a city I've called home (or home-away-from-home, or home-away-from-home-away-from-home) for well over twenty years.

Which means that I'm entitled to feelings of "when-the-hey-did-they-build-this-thing?," even if I was just there a couple months ago. Driving from the airport to the Glenn at the Backyard, site of the first Austin Kid's Day, held this past Labor Day weekend, I was constantly amazed at the width of the freeways and the number of power centers I passed. (Of course, this being Austin, many of those power centers are tastefully tucked in behind some trees so they're not nearly so noticeable from the road.)

I take that brief detour (metaphorically) to suggest that Austin, while it might have been able to put together a music festival 20 years ago, it certainly wasn't at the point where it might have supported a long afternoon of quality kids' music.
I was at the show courtesy of Aunty E, who paid for my flight and got me into the show. I made it to the show early, which is to say, early as compared to my schedule -- the flight arrived early and traffic on Labor Day weekend was very light.

I unfortunately wasn't early for the first act of the day, Austin'sJoe McDermott. Since I knew I was going to hear him in a couple weeks, I was only a little disappointed. Still, McDermott, who was playing solo, had a crowd of kids up front at the stage, eating up his "I Got Stuck In An Elevator," a story song which requires lots of bouncing on the part of the kids. Oh, there was a nice little joke involving the "The Girl From Ipanema." And then he sang in front of a microphone that was about, oh, two feet high, as if he'd stolen some equipment from a kids karaoke bar. Even from a distance, and if only for very briefly, you could tell that McDermott was an experienced entertainer, with the kids really getting into the performance.

I didn't catch much else from Joe because I was going to conduct some interviews (watch this space in the weeks to come for those). Luckily for me those interviews were held in a covered porch, which meant that I didn't actually get rained on.

Yes, those clouds weren't hanging around merely to make my photograph of the stage setup that much more atmospheric.

(Ooooh, spooky.)

I interviewed all the day's performers, which took awhile. I could hear Austin's Biscuit Brothers playing, though, during my later interviews and they were still on stage when I appeared back at the main amphitheatre. The Brothers (real names Allen Robertson and Jerome Schoolar) actually started performing for kids starting back in 2000, long before their PBS TV show got going. (And they have an even longer non-Biscuit adult career.) So they, too, had a devoted fan base and quite a bit of experience playing for the younguns. I enjoyed the few minutes of their act that I caught, though I was most amused by how the kids followed the Brothers (along with Buttermilk Biscuit), clearly enthralled.

As I waited for Trout Fishing in America to setup, I strolled around the grounds again. I was most impressed with the additional touches added to keep the kids and families amused between (and during) sets. Besides the expected festival touches such as the merch tent, tables for local arts organizations and charities, and a food vendor or two, the show's producers also sprung for a bouncy tent, face painters, and -- this probably was the most popular thing if my estimates of line length were of any accuracy -- a balloon animal guy. When you're setting up a festival that might keep families there four hours or more, distractions -- any distractions -- are key, and they filled the bill in that regard. I'm tellin' you, the line for the balloon guy was nuts.

Next up and a little earlier than expected was Arkansas' Trout Fishing in America. As much experience as Joe McDermott and the Biscuit Brothers have playing for kids, Keith and Ezra have them all beat, doing it for more than 30 years. It shows. They have their stage banter honed to a fine degree, amusing both the parents and the kids. They ran through a set of some of their most popular tunes, recent and old. (I was also impressed by the richness of the sound they produced with just the two of them on stage -- Keith on bass and Ezra on guitar or banjo.) They played a slightly rough version of a song ("all the words, most of the chords") from their in-development musical on manners -- it dealt with table manners and was pretty good. They wrapped up a little early, and then we waited for the main act.

Yes, after hearing from three seasoned performers earlier in the day, the headliner was Aunty E (AKA Erin Duvall), who was younger than all the other performers. Oh, and she was performing a good four hours after the show had started -- we all know how kids deal with doing something for four hours straight. (Again, the power of balloon animals.) And the rain, which had pretty much held off during the Trout set, started again shortly into her set.

In other words, I was a little surprised that the crowd was as large as it was. Some families may have simply wanted to see who this new performer was, but there were at least a few who had clearly seen Duvall perform as Aunty E in the past and wanted to see her again.

Aunty E pulled out all the stops, with a full backing band (three backup singers, a guy on saxophone, drums, guitar, Allen Robertson ditching the Biscuit Brother regalia to play keyboard) and some dancers. The band itself sounded great. (They did an excellent version of "Three is a Magic Number.") I still think the family music field is wide open for more artists to bring full bands on tour (even limited tours), because there's definitely something appealing to hearing a full band. A full band can, for different reasons, entertain both kids and adults. (The dancers, well, they were a nice idea but I think they probably could've used a little more practice.)

In the end, though, the success of Aunty E as a live act will rise (or fall) on the talent of Erin Duvall. I would be lying if I said that Duvall's songs (written with Chas Vergauwen) for Aunty E were as appealing as, say, Trout's or McDermott's. Let's be fair -- those acts have been writing songs for kids for a loooong time (longer in Trout's case than Duvall's been alive). To expect Duvall to write songs as compelling or as fun as them right out the gate would be unfair (and, well, unrealistic). I especially liked one Duvall had written for an album for adults ("Standing"), but the rest was fairly standard kids' fare, geared entirely to the kids. It won't drive the parents crazy, but I don't see many parents leaving the disk running in the car's CD player after dropping the kids off at school. (I'd also note that the songs seem like a pretty good for an animated series, which is definitely one of the goals of Aunty E and her producers.)

As a performer, Duvall worked hard to bring the crowd into the show. Like I said, I think she had her work cut out for her given her late performing time and the rain (and humidity) and she did pretty good -- there were some pretty starstruck kids in the audience. Duvall has a sweet voice and a fun stage presence. In other words, she's a pretty good performer, which bodes well for her future.

She wrapped up her set as the rain stopped, and even though they announced that she'd be signing autographs and I was curious to see how her little fans would react, I figured that 4+ hours at the show was enough for me. So off I went to my mom's house in the cooling but still humid evening.

Thanks again to Aunty E and to Alyssa from Red Consultancy for their assistance. It was a good time. I think both Austin Kid's Day and Aunty E have a future ahead of them...

Oh, I Like This Poster

Seriously, doesn't that look great? I'd think it was pretty cool even if my website's name wasn't on there.

Remember, the Family Music Meltdown will be Saturday, Sept. 15th, starting at 6 PM, at Ruta Maya in Austin, Texas. Great lineup (Deedle Deedle Dees, Joe McDermott, Laura Freeman, Telephone Company), cheap tickets, it will be lots of fun.

And many, many thanks to Jay from Lunch Money for designing the poster.