Austin Kiddie Limits Schedule Set

Amy Winehouse won't be there, the Paul Green School of Rock will. The schedule was always set before, but the Austin City Limits Festival (Sept. 14-16) has added some more details regarding its 2007 Austin Kiddie Limits activities. Instruments to noodle on, tattoos, dance lessons, hip-hop lessons -- lots of stuff to do.

See the complete schedule here.

Let the rumors for the "Special Guest" each day from 3:15 to 3:30 begin!

(My suggestion? The Del McCoury Band finishes their set 2:30 Friday. I think they could do a little Little Mo McCoury stuff at 3:15, no? Jack White on Saturday? Jeff Tweedy Sunday?)

Our Little Evening of Music Now Has a Name

Remember I told you that Bill and I would be hosting a really cool kids' and family music show on Saturday, Sept. 15th in Austin?

Really, with the Deedle Deedle Dees, Joe McDermott, the Telephone Company, and Laura Freeman? How could you forget?

Anyway, we have a name for the evening of music, seeing as how "Austin Kiddie Limits" and "Kidzapalooza" were already taken: the Family Music Meltdown. The title comes courtesy of Austin-area musician Mr. Leebot. (Thanks!)

And if you're gonna be in Austin that weekend, you need to join us. Well, not "need" as in you "need" air to breathe, but, y'know, it'll be lots of fun.

CD Review: Old McDonald's EIEI Radio - The Biscuit Brothers

Like many people my age, I grew up on PBS shows. Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood -- all of them great. (And so was Scooby-Doo, but that's not relevant here.) So it's been a little weird to me that the great TV kids' music show of this generation -- Jack's Big Music Show -- has never been anywhere near PBS.

Which isn't to say that PBS doesn't have a show worthy of adulation right in its own backyard, if only it would share it with the world.

My friends, meet the Biscuit Brothers. Produced in the musical city of Austin, Texas (and appearing on a few PBS stations, mostly in Texas), this show centers around the titular brothers, Buford and Dusty Biscuit, who live on, yes, Old McDonald's farm. Along with their sister Buttermilk Biscuit and Tiny Scarecrow, the funniest muppet this side of Kermit, they explore different components of music -- tempo, melody, or emotion, for example.

Want to listen for yourself? Then try their second kids album, Old McDonald's EIEI Radio, released this spring.

Lest this sound somewhat dry, let me assure you that it's not. It's rarely didactic, and the show would much rather make its point through humor, as in the classic "Chickens Playing Bongos," which features many different instruments (ferrets playing french horns, for example). The skit "Traffic Report" demonstrates the importance of conducting by illustrating what can sometimes happen without a conductor helping to orchestrate musicians' entrances and exits.

The music is pretty darn good, too. Buford and Dusty (better known to friends in Austin as Allen Robertson and Jerome Schoolar) have some fabulous Americana roots arrangements of children's classics -- "Oh, Susanna!" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" are particularly sharp. But they don't limit themselves to Americana. Their revisionist lyrics to Jacques Offenbach's classical "Can Can" (as a how-to entitled "The Can, Can!") are a hoot and a half, while The 'All Coming 'Round the Mountain' Music Block," shows how the same song can be arranged in many different ways (one of which is, apparently, lovingly ripping off the guitar riff from the Beatles' "Daytripper"). Some of the originals are classics (the aforementiond "Chickens Playing Bongos," the snappy "Make Your Shoes Move!," which includes Tiny Scarecow's classic, "Help! I'm being chased by bees... No, that's OK, they were just bees of the mind"), while I don't think the slow songs near the end worked quite as well. Maybe if there were visuals...
What's that? Oh, yeah, this is a TV show. And while the CD, made up of bits from the TV show, holds up OK as an audio-only artifact, I think the Biscuit Brothers concept works best viewed as it was intended -- as a TV show. I'm not going to review the whole thing here, if only because a) this review is long enough as it is, and b) my copy, probably through family user error, got a nice big scratch, rendering one of the three episodes here from the show's first season inaccessible. But even with just two episodes and the bonus material, it's a nice collection. The first episode introduces the characters and the farm and like many pilots, is a bit slow. The second episode, "Rhythm," is easier to watch. The episodes are structured like many "educational" shows -- a common theme illustrated in many ways, such as live action, videos, features with "real kids" -- but, as I said before, the show doesn't take a very hard didactic approach. And the show is very sharply produced -- it looks great. (OK, maybe the animated animal bits aren't Pixar-quality.) The bonus material -- the featured songs from the episodes, plus bonus songs and interviews -- make it a worthy package in general. A second collection, featuring three episodes from the second season, is also available.

The CD (and DVD) are most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 8. You can listen to samples at the Brothers' website. You can also listen to samples of all the tracks at the CD's CDBaby page.

Old McDonald's EIEI Radio is lots of fun, though deprived of its visuals and since it pulls from a variety of episodes, it's a better introduction than something your family would want to listen to over and over unless they're familiar with the show. Of course, if you listen to the CD a couple times, you'll probably want to become familiar with the show. Really, if you give the episodes a few viewings, you'll wonder why this isn't on your own PBS station. Recommended.

Review: Everybody Plays Air Guitar - Joe McDermott

With all apologies due to Spinal Tap, there's a fine line between sweet and schmaltzy in children's music. Topics that in one musician's hands produce a moment of "A-ha! That's how life is!" in another's hands produce a moment of "Duh. Of course that's how life is." Frankly, the same track can produce those two moments in two different families.

On his very recently released fourth CD for kids, Everybody Plays Air Guitar, Austin-based Joe McDermott very carefully walks that fine line. How you feel about the CD depends on how sweet you and your family like your music.

Let me start out with the album's strengths, which I found to be the simpler tracks in concept (if not necessarily execution). The leadoff title track (bolstered by its simple but catchy chorus) basically just talks about how great it is to "air guitar" (yes, that's a verb). On the closing track, "Anything Is Possible," McDermott channels a little mid-career James Taylor in a sweet ode to possibility. And the album's strongest cut, the poppy "Dolphins," is a trifle of an idea with far-ranging lyrical flights of fancy (Hemingway, AFLAC insurance). "Ride, Ride, Ride," a live cut, while out of place mixed in with its more polished companions, shows off McDermott's sense of humor.

There are other tracks, however, that a number of listeners will probably tune out, "Sport Comes to the Rescue" and "Our Family Car Is A Helicopter" are a little goofy, but there's something about the humor that doesn't pack much of a punch. (They're not as sharp as McDermott's earlier, classic track, "Baby Kangaroo," which worked so well on so many different levels.) It's not that the songs are bad or arranged poorly -- in fact, McDermott's attention to detail is well-appreciated (check out the string quartet on "Momma's Gonna Have a Baby"). But some listeners -- and you know who you are -- will just find those tracks a hard slog.

The songs on the 36-minute album are most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7. You can hear samples from the CD at its CD Baby page or previous cuts (including "Baby Kangaroo") here for his last album, with links to other albums, too.)

In the end, if I sound a little conflicted in this review, it's because I am to some extent. There are some great songs here, and there are some that, while, expertly done, just don't have much "pop." So while I'm recommending the CD, it's really a combination of the people who will find this album absolutely wonderful and of the people who will find it, well, just a bit too safe. But, overall, recommended.

See, Mom? External Validation!

Welcome to any readers finding me from this morning's article on kids music in the Austin American-Statesman. For a YAKMA (Yet Another Kids Music Article), it's pretty good. I say that not because it quotes me (pshaw, who cares?) or Dan Zanes (I think it's in the kids' music journalist bylaws that one interview him on the subject), but because it also quotes more under-the-radar artists such as Austin's Biscuit Brothers and Barry Louis Polisar.

OK, maybe the mention of the Fids and Kamily poll had a little something to do with it. And the fact that the the Statesman is my hometown paper away from my hometown paper was kinda nice. My mom -- who still lives in Austin -- got a kick out of it, too.

Anyway, look around the place for lots more great kids music, regardless of whether or not you know my mom.