Brady Rymer Tours US, Doesn't Make It To (Cough, Cough) Phoenix

I got word that Brady Rymer and The Little Band That Could will be heading off on a 12-city national tour starting in August and on through the fall.

I don't usually comment on single-artist tours unless there's something different about the tour, even for artists I like such as Brady, so why am I mentioning it? Well, this particular tour is going to be under the sponsorship of Children's Dimetapp. I know what you're saying, you're saying, oh, Stefan, you're a tool of the children's cold medicine-makers, but there's something else.

Besides being saddled with the somewhat clunky name of the "Children's Dimetapp Breathe & Boogie Tour," the other noteworthy thing is that the entire tour will be free. (Apparently attendees will even receive a Rymer compilation CD, among other goodies.)

So for the first time as I can tell, a company has figured that it's worth the money to fly a kids' musician (and a sizeable band) around the country to play for free in the hope that the association will pay off for the company. I don't think it'll be the last time.

I'll be curious to hear whether the new songs Rymer has written for the tour have any direct Dimetapp references, a la Ralph Covert's Rice Krispie jingle for his tour. But, of course, I won't know that because once again, despite the fact that the Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country and has a very young population, a major tour is skipping the area.

Tour dates for those of you living in other areas of the country that apparently suffer from more children's colds than I do after the jump...
Chicago - August 26 - 3 P.M. - Brookfield Zoo

Baltimore - September 8 - 12:00 Noon - Maryland Science Center

Philadelphia - September 15 - 11:30 A.M. - World Café Live

Boston - September 22 - 12:00 Noon - South Shore Mall (Braintree)

Washington, D.C. - September 23 - 1:00 P.M. - Glen Echo Park

Rochester, NY - September 29 - Time TBA - Venue TBA

Los Angeles - October 6 - 12:00 Noon - Santa Monica Pier

San Diego - October 7 - 12:00 Noon - Horton Plaza

Atlanta - October 13 - 12:00 Noon - Mall of Georgia

Seattle - October 20 - Time TBA - venue TBA

Houston - November 10 - Time TBA - Houston Children's Museum

Dallas - November 11 - Time TBA - venue TBA (Note: Dallas and Houston may swap dates, depending on time and venue considerations.)

Listen to This: New Songs from Brady Rymer

Those of you in the New York City area may be heading down to Central Park for Sunday's Green Apple Music & Arts Festival -- if you do, you may get to hear some new songs from Brady Rymer when he plays on the same stage as Laurie Berkner.

Luckily for those of us for whom a trip to NYC this weekend would be so not carbon-neutral, Time Out New York Kids has posted rough cuts mp3s of a couple new songs at the end of an interview with Brady and Laurie.

The first song, "One True You," is one of those midtempo feel-good Rymer songs that I don't have any great affinity for, although Rymer does these songs better than just about anyone. (And, if you're an adoptive parent, don't worry, the "families look like one another" theme is in the first verse only.) My preferrred song is the second, "Road Trip," which is a rave-up and lots of fun.

Appropriate, perhaps, for our own road trip to Tucson this weekend.

(Have I mentioned we're seeing Dan Zanes this weekend?)

KidVid Tournament 2007: "I Found It!" (2) vs. "Toenail Moon" (3)

Our first matchup on the third day of KidVid Tournament 2007 pits the #2 seed in the Woody Guthrie Region, "I Found It!" from Brady Rymer against the #3 seed, "Toenail Moon" from Wee Hairy Beasties.

Vote in the comments below. Rules: Video with most votes wins. One vote per e-mail address, please. Votes due by Tuesday 6 PM-ish East Coast time.

[Note: Hey, I can embed both videos here! Thanks, Internet-friendly kids' musicians and labels!]

"I Found It!" - Brady Rymer

"Toenail Moon" - Wee Hairy Beasties

Brady Rymer Celebrates Earth Day With A Pig On His Head

There's no detail on the website at the moment, but The Green Apple Festival, a 3-city 200-artist music and arts festival schedule for Earth Day weekend (April 20-22, 2007) will include a free concert featuring The Laurie Berkner Band and Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could. Rymer will open up the Sunday, April 22nd show in New York City's Central Park at noon, with Laurie headlining at 1 PM. Should be pretty cool...

No word on who's scheduled to shout "The Sounds of Silence!....." into the deep Manhattan night.

Shows are also scheduled for Chicago and San Francisco -- I can think of a few bands in both places that might be a good Earth Day backing band...

KidVid: "I Found It!" - Brady Rymer

The first video from New York musician Brady Rymer and the Little Band That Could, for the peppy roots-rockin' "I Found It!," has been available on Rymer's website for a couple weeks now, but I was waiting for it to appear on YouTube.

Well, now I've found it! (Groan.)

I like the song, I like the way the backup singers appear everywhere, I like the general good-naturedness of the video. It's actually reminiscent of a lot of videos for adult bands. It's a concert video with a lot of happy fans, but it's that general good-naturedness -- the way Rymer sings about his '57 Gibson guitar -- that distinguishes it from what you might have seen on MTV 20 years ago.