The Holiday Season Has Begun: We're Already Hearing About 2009 Christmas Albums

Thanksgiving hasn't even ended yet and already we're moving on to the Christmas/Hanukkah/winter holiday of your choosing phase of the year.

Tito Uquillas, guitarist and songwriter for Bay Area band The Hipwaders has jumped into the blogging ring with his new blog, Kindie Christmas. All about Christmas songs (natch), started in part to help motivate him as the Hipwaders go into the studio in January to record a bunch of Christmas songs for a winter 2009 release. (That news is new; they're also wrapping up work on Goodie Bag, an EP of new tunes.)

Anyway, Tito's always been an astute viewer of the kindie music scene (not to mention a vital part of it himself), so the blog promises to be a good read.

We'll See You at the End of the Tour

A shout-out to Amy Davis, who announced last night that she was permanently shuttering her blog, The Lovely Mrs. Davis Tells You What To Think. Amy announced the decision with a post that featured her characteristic wit and enthusiasm for the kids music genre. Amy will be helping Bill and I once more with the Fids and Kamily Awards this year, but I will miss Amy's writing, not just on kids music, but generally. Best of luck, Amy, though if the Diamondbacks somehow squeak back into the playoffs this year, I'm still cheering against your Cubs.

Concert Series Abounding

A quick shout-out to Bill over at Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child, who's putting together a sweet little concert series up in Northampton, including Elizabeth Mitchell, Uncle Rock, and Aric Bieganek. (And maybe more.) See? This is why I like co-sponsoring shows with him. (Austin folks! Family Music Meltdown 2 is just 2 1/2 weeks away!)

And Away They Go...

So Daron, Jack, and Drew are off on their million-mile cross-country Recess-Monkey-ish ciruit of the United States, and it turns out that if you head on over to Spare the Rock occasionally you'll get to hear the boys blogging their way around the country. No word if they'll eventually produce Hamlet at random, but at the very least you'll find out about their adventures as they make their way to Phoenix.

That's right! Phoenix, people! Remember? I told you they're playing Phoenix -- Sunday, August 3rd, 3 PM. Modified Arts in downtown Phoenix. Do not miss this show! Don't make me use more exclamation points!

(The Invisible) Band on the Run

How many of you have ever wanted to be a kids' musician? (OK, I'm excluding those of you who actually are kids' musicians.) How many of you ever wanted to go a road trip and see your family's favorite kids' musicians in concert? How many of you ever wanted to blog about it?

Well, if you're Eric Herman, you've answered "yes" to all three questions above. I should have noted this for you sooner, but for nearly a month, Herman's been documenting his travels down the West Coast in his Myspace blog. Herman writes of his days playing at schools, festivals, and libraries, and that's interesting from a "life as a musician" perspective. But he's also got his wife and two kids in tow with in his "What a Ride!" RV (conveniently named for his next album), and so, yeah, it's a blog about travelling with a wife and two small kids. (An RV in San Francisco is apparently not the easiest of vehicles to maneuver in that hilly city -- who knew?)

And, as you might expect from the writer of Cool Tunes For Kids, Herman spends a lot of time running into other kids' artists. Justin Roberts, Gunnar Madsen, David Tobocman, Tito from the Hipwaders, Frances England -- and probably more I've forgotten -- all make appearances in print and photo in Herman's blog.

Anyway, a fun read.