Many Hands, Many Concerts

Many Hands: Family Music from Haiti is, for many reasons, the most intriguing and audacious release in the family music world this year, bar none. It benefits the Haitian People's Support Project and is being put together by Dean Jones on Bill Childs' new Spare the Rock Records label.

One reason I say "audacious" is the list of benefit concerts. One is certainly common, two is definitely not unusual, but six (thus far)? That's, like, Live Aid territory. If you are in the areas below, you are hereby commanded (as much as a random guy on the internet can in fact command) to clear off your calendar and attend one or more of the shows below. (And, yeah, if the birdie who's been talking to me is correct, the possible special guests on the 26th are indeed pretty special...)

Sunday August 15: Dog on Fleas, Grenadilla, Uncle Rock (Rosendale Theater, Rosendale, NY)
Friday, August 20: Elizabeth Mitchell & Family and Frances England (Mill Valley Library, Mill Valley, CA)
Saturday, August 21: Dog on Fleas, Lunch Money, Randy Kaplan, Deedle Deedle Dees (Armory, Boston, MA)
Saturday, September 11, 11:00: Randy Kaplan, Johnny Bregar, and Recess Monkey (Multnomah Arts Center, Portland, OR, presented by A Child’s Time to Rock!)
Saturday, September 11: Deedle Deedle Dees, Gustafer Yellowgold, Dog on Fleas (Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY)
Sunday, September 26: Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, Deedle Deedle Dees, and very special other artists TBA (Pines Theater, Look Park, Northampton, MA)

Life Is Good (Festival) Is Very, Very Good

Excellent, even. That's a festival lineup for you: Laurie Berkner Band, Dan Zanes and Friends, and They Might Be Giants. Not to mention The Sippy Cups. (Unless, of course, the "Dane Zanes & Friends" text isn't a joke and it's just a Dan Zanes tribute band.)

What lineup? It's for the Life Is Good Festival 2010, a charitable event to be held Sept. 11 and 12, 2010 in suburban Boston. Here's the kids lineup. Man, if that's the kids lineup, I shudder to think what the adult stages would be. (U2, Bruce Springsteen, and Beyonce?) No details yet on ticket prices, schedule, etc.

You Cannot Slow Down Library Kids Music Festivals, You Can Only Hope to Contain Them

But really, why would you?

Earlier this year it was the Tricycle Music Fest, a production of the San Francisco Public Library system. It took over from the original Tricycle Music Fest, a production of the Charlotte, Mecklenburg County library system in North Carolina. That Fest is currently on hiatus, which could very well be the result of a loss of grant or municipal funding, both of which have likely taken a hit in the current economic environment.

And while San Francisco's fest will have a second go-round this October, there's still that whole 3,000-mile swath of land between the coasts. Luckily, Minnesota has stepped into the gap. (Yay, Minnesota!) The library system of Dakota County (suburban Minneapolis) is putting on Rhythm and Words on June 12, featuring authors and musicians from the Twin Cities' nascent kids music scene. Bunny Clogs, Clementown, and the Sweet Colleens, among others, will be performing, along with authors (including Lunch Lady creator Jarrett J. Krosoczka (who knows a thing or two about kids music and book festivals).

Clearly, this is the type of thing that requires backing of some sort -- a donor, advertising, in the case of this festival a portion of a dedicated tax. But it's proof that it still can be done, even these days...

Nickolodeon's Mega Music Fest: Biggest Mashup Ever

What do you get when you cross Yo Gabba Gabba! with the Laurie Berkner Band and Colbie Caillat? Synergy!

Or, at least, that's what Nickolodeon believes, as they announced yesterday the first-ever "Mega Music Fest." (Note to self: "Mega" is no longer a prefix, apparently. It's a word unto itself.) On May 22 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the channel will be hosting the concert and taping it for a prime-time special this summer. In addition to the folks above, the concert will feature Wycleaf Jean, the Roots, Dora the Explorer, and the Fresh Beat Band, along with Sherri Shepherd and John Leguziamo. Caillat, Jean, and the Roots will apparently be performing duets with the other folks.

For those of you thinking that this would make for a fun live concert experience, you're going to have to know people -- there's no mention of the concert on the BAM calendar even though it's just ten days before the concert.

I'm 99% sure that Caillat, Jean, and the Roots will be performing with the Nickolodeon folks, but would it be too much to ask for at least a Roots/Berkner performance? (Yes, apparently it would.)

Photo credit: Todd Owyoung

Kindiefest 2010: Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem

I'll be posting a bunch of stuff -- photos, videos, rambling thoughts -- from my weekend at the 2010 edition of Kindiefest over the next week or so. That's probably a dozen posts, so without any further ado...

I liked Ranky Tanky, the first kids' album from Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, a lot, but didn't totally love the disk.

I loved them in concert. It doesn't entirely surprise me, as I get the sense that their strength is their live show, four talented musicians making music together. But in Brooklyn they got the audience involved for each and every song until ending with a stunning a cappella version of "Wildflowers" that transfixed the crowd.

If they can bottle just a little more of that live energy into their albums, they are going to become big, big stars on the kids music circuit if that's what they want.

Here's their take on the title track from Ranky Tanky...

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem - "Ranky Tanky" (Live at Kindiefest 2010) [YouTube]

One more after the jump...
And here they are playing "Zudio" from the forthcoming Many Hands for Haiti disk.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem - "Zudio" (Live at Kindiefest 2010) [YouTube]