Review: Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie - Randy Kaplan

I will admit that when I first heard about Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie, the latest album from Los Angeles-based (usually) Randy Kaplan, I was somewhat skeptical.  There was so much that could have gone wrong with this project - a troubadour recasting famous blues songs into kid-friendly complaints. ("Randy-ized," it was called.) And with a centuries old blues man offering sandpapery-voiced commentary? Oh, so much could have gone wrong.

But I was willing to give it a shot because Kaplan is one of kids music's top storytellers with significant depth in musical sources of inspiration, and I figured that if anyone could make these re-done stories worth listening to, it would be he.

Luckily, I was proven correct.

OK, I can't say that I found the overarching narrative conceit -- the century-plus-year-old bluesman "Lightnin' Bodkins" introduces many of the songs and tries to find Kaplan his own "blues name" -- very interesting.  In fact, when I listened to the album, I pretty much always skipped forward to the next track.  Parents in control of the car's CD player or the iPod may do the same.

But that's only because the songs in between those interstitials are so much more interesting.  Yes, the songs are "Randy-ized," which ironically means they've tamed down, not made more inappropriate.  So "Timeout Blues," which turns the classic chorus "In the Jailhouse Now" into "In the Timeout Now," is all about a rabble-rousing kid.  Kaplan is one of the top 2 or 3 kids music storytellers working today, and like other talented storytellers, he draws from a deep well of pint-sized frustration and pique.  And what better channel for expressing frustration and pique than the blues, such as in "Ice Cream Man Rag," which bemoans an ice cream truck that never stops at the narrator's house.  There are other more straight-ahead songs whose double-entendres (if Kaplan cracked a knowing smile while encouraging kids to shake their things -- eggshakers -- in "Shake Your Thing," I couldn't hear it).  And near the end of the album, more pensive songs like "Move to Kansas City" don't really sound jokey or silly at all, with songs like "Way Down in Arkansas" and "So Different Blues" remarkably tender and sweet.

Kids ages 3 through 8 will most appreciate the album, which is available at all the usual suspects (and on Spotify as well).  I'd also highlight the understated musical accompaniment, most notably the gentle finger-picking guitar work of Kaplan (assisted by his producer Mike West).

Yes, Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie has its origins in a somewhat jokey concept, but the final result transcends that limitation.  Ignore Lightnin' Bodkins, ignore the idea that your kids might get a basic education in the forefathers of the blues (unlikely), and just enjoy with your kids a solid collection of bluesy stories from one of the best storytellers around.  Definitely recommended.

Disclosure: I was given a copy of the album for possible review.

Interview: Richard Perlmutter (Beethoven's Wig)

I sometimes wonder if Richard Perlmutter, the musician and producer behind the wildly successful classical-music-by-way-of-"Weird-Al"-Yankovic series Beethoven's Wig, gets the same type of "are you Hootie" questions that Darius Rucker, lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish, gets.  He's not literally Beethoven (or his wig), but no Perlmutter, no Beethoven's Wig.

He released the delightful Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Piano Classics last year and has been spending an increasing amount of time taking the Beethoven's Wig concept to live audiences.  We chatted by phone recently and in our interview below we talk about the origins of the series, learning to enjoy performances, and whether or not there's a crisis in classical music.

Zooglobble: What are your first musical memories?

Richard Perlmutter: Sitting around, listening to the radio in the '50s -- I remember that Frankie Acalon song, "Venus."... I also remember performing in third grade, in a pretty primitive school talent show.

I built my own guitar, then spent $13 for a Harmony guitar.

Was there lots of music in the household?

Our family was not really musical.  My parents paid for some guitar lessons, but after that it was my doing.

How did Beethoven's Wig come about?

I had done a couple other albums on my own, produced some other albums, written for TV shows, wrote jingles -- lots of stuff was comedic.  My strength is as a lyricist.  I liked classical music and been thinking about doing something with it.  I always tell the Beethoven's Wig "story," which is that I had thought of the phrase "Beethoven's wig... is very big" sung to the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.  At first, I didn't know how it would all sound, how it would be received.

Were you surprised by the initial success of the first album?

I had an inkling -- a friend heard a couple songs I had done as a demo, and thought it was a cool concept.  So I finished the album and got a record contract for it.  Within a week after it came out, it was on NPR, at the top of the charts on Amazon, I was invited to be on the Today show.

Everything was new.  No musician plans for success -- it happens, then you deal with it.  Fortunately, it happened when I was a little bit older.  It was nice, but I didn't feel like a rock star.

What comes first, the melody or the lyric -- or, put another way, do you have a germ of an idea and expand on it, or do you assign yourself a song, and work on putting lyrics to that?

The first.  The last three albums I've done had a loose concept -- instruments, dance, piano -- which have let me explore different themes or genres in classical music.  I really like to explore things.  As I explore, some ideas settle in more and are a better fit for lyrics.  My last album [Sing Along Piano Classics], some selections were popular, others (like Schoenberg or Stravinsky) aren't "hits."

Were you intentionally ranging through a long time period?

Yes, I was.  To pick a Stravinsky piece, for example, I listened to a lot of different songs.  I actually played as a writer.  I sort of felt like a singer-songwriter.

Which do you enjoy more -- recording or performing?  The project started out as an album, but you seem to be making more concert appearances.

You've noticed I've amped up the touring over the past year.  My first instrument is classical guitar, then mandolin.  I didn't take classical piano 'til after the first Beethoven's Wig album, but thought it would be good for me to do so.  My classical piano teacher said it would be good to play onstage.

Doing that gives me more opportunities.  Bringing in five singers and an orchestra is a hard sell in this economy.  Lately I've been hired to perform solo, then maybe I'll bring in local singers.

I've got a lot of curiosity, ambition -- not commercial ambition, but personal goals.  To sustain yourself, most people in music are trying new things.

It seems like there's a lot of hand-wringing about a crisis in classical music.  What's your prescription for solving the crisis -- or is there even a crisis at all?

I don't think about it that much but I also don't think there's that much of a crisis.  Maybe for large symphonic performances -- economically there may be some problems, some are doing well, some are not.  Many that are playing repertoire are now doing new things.

Audiences for every kind of music have become smaller.  You have to find your audience.  Someone recently said something along the lines of, and I'm paraphrasing, "There used to be millions of fans for a few artists, and now that's reversed."  The idea of having gigantic audiences is old.  I've been thinking a bit about a Beethoven's Wig TV show, but what does that look like in this age?  You've got Mr. Rogers, but he was one of a few people.

I'm not that worried.  Trying to save classical music, that's not my job.  Beethoven, Bach -- they're like Shakespeare and Chaucer.  As long as humanity is around, they will be, too.

If you love music, you can find a way to do it.

What's next for you?

Mostly concentrating on the live show, working on my musicianship, performing skills.  I'm really having fun performing.  I'm also developing workshops, performances with students, trying to use Beethoven's Wig in different ways.  I'm working with animators on developing a mix of visuals for the live show, too.

I've also been toying around with ideas for a new album, but that's a little ways off.

Concert Recap: Justin Roberts (Getty Center, Los Angeles, August 2012)

I can get so wrapped up in the constant thinking about kids music -- the planning of shows locally here in Phoenix, among other things -- that sometimes it's hard to simply relax and enjoy music. (I do see "adult" artists every now and then, but not as often as I might otherwise if I didn't have, you know, a family.)

So it was oh-so-pleasant to be able to go to Los Angeles' Getty Center last weekend to see a performance from Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players. It was the first of three weekends of concerts in the Getty's annual "Garden Concerts for Kids" series.

I can't think of too many nicer places to see a kids music show, and evidently many Angelos agreed.

There were many -- many -- families wandering around the expansive Getty grounds.  They were in the exhibits, the courtyards, and they were on the lawn that overlooks the Getty garden.  (That picture at the bottom of the page shows the crowd after a number of them had left following Roberts' first set.  Really, the place was packed.)

Before getting into the show itself, a word about the Getty Center as a concert venue for family shows.

The weather was about 75 degrees, the lawn is huge, and they gave out lawn blankets to sit on.  Let me repeat: they gave out lawn blankets to sit on.  What drawbacks were there to the venue?  Hm. Let's see... I suppose that if the sun were blazing, the unshaded portion of the lawn might be a tad uncomfortable.  And, um, the nearby snack cart stopped selling ice cream at 5 PM, before Roberts and the band had even finished the concert.

And that's it.

Seriously, if this were a series that went on through the year (it's only 3 acts over the span of 16 days, primarily to preserve the lawn's health), it would be hard to think of a nicer free concert series anywhere in the country.

But you're probably reading to hear a little bit more about the show itself.  After finding a blanket with Lucky Diaz, wife Alisha Gaddis, and daughter Ella near the stage, we settled down through a long set featuring Roberts' many hits, not to mention a couple new songs from Roberts, one about being a robot, the other about being an alien.  They were fun songs (one had a particularly '80s-synthesizer sound associated with it), and I look forward to hearing them on disk.  (Roberts said after the show he's still recording a few songs for the next "rock" album; the lullaby album should be out this fall.)

The five-piece band is a finely-tuned piece of entertainment machinery at this point, with an excellent sound, interactive hand movements for many songs, and wildly digressive puppet interplay from Tim (drummer Gerald Dowd), Little Dave (multi-instrumentalist Dave Winer), and Willy the Whale (guitarist Liam Davis), who has a fallback career as a Billy Joel cover artist should Justin call it quits.

Aside from getting a kick out of watching Diaz and Gaddis enjoying the show with handclaps and accompanying hand motions (Gaddis and I bemoaned the loss of the "trick-or-trick-or-trick-or-trick-or" hand motions on "Trick or Treat"), a couple of personal memories:

1) Miss Mary Mack singing along with a fair number of the songs.  Just goes to show that even if your kids reach double digits and are out of the target range of kids music, if they've listened to it enough (and it's memorable enough), good kids music can appeal even to the tween set.

2) Little Boy Blue lost a tooth -- that's how hard Justin rocks.  OK, he doesn't really rock that hard, but I'm going to remember for a long time the look on Little Boy Blue's face when finishing up his ice cream bar (one that required a long walk back to the main courtyard) and losing a long-wiggling tooth.

So, your takeaways:

1) Justin Roberts, fun as always in concert.

2) Justin Roberts' new songs -- good stuff based on one listen.

3) The Getty Center Garden Concerts for Kids: don't miss.

Lovely all around.

[Disclosure: Thanks to Sarah W. McCarthy at the Getty Center for extending us a welcome to the Getty.]

Video: "Ice Cream Man" - Randy Kaplan

I'm sorry, Mr. Randy Kaplan -- despite your claim in your song "Ice Cream Man," from your new album Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie, I am the official ice cream king.

Even if you do have a cape.  And a crown.  And, er, an ice cream truck.

OK, I concede my title to you, sir.  Where's my ice cream?

Randy Kaplan - "Ice Cream Man" [Vimeo]

Video: "Shoo Lie Loo" - Elizabeth Mitchell

Elizabeth Mitchell takes her time doing things, usually.  The fact that she's releasing not one, but two, albums this year (Little Seed last month, Blue Skies in October) is the exception that proves the rule.  More typical is this video for "Shoo Lie Loo," a song off her previous album, Sunny Day... released in 2010.  Don't get me wrong -- I really like the video, which captures the simple, sharing nature of the song (a favorite of mine from the album).  But I'm impatient -- I wish I'd seen it 18 months ago.

Elizabeth Mitchell - "Shoo Lie Loo" [Vimeo]