Are You Dave?

Way back in October, I got this message from Jeremy Zmuda on Sprockster: “We are organizing a fundraiser for our nonprofit, Kids Need A Melody, that provides free music classes, instruments, and books to young children living in the shelter system. We are targeting late January/early February, and want to have a family event with children’s music performances.”

Never one to pass up a worthy family event with fellow Kindie rockers, I wrote back and offered my help (and, of course, the music of The Fuzzy Lemons). As the autumn wore on, the event took shape rapidly: A huge, multi-band performance, with face-painting, raffles and prizes, the works. Some of my fellow Sprockster-ians joined in as well, including Suzi Shelton and Joanie Leeds, whom I’d met briefly at KindieFest, and Rebecca Frezza, a former Music Together teacher who is making the big time.

And, at some point, Bob McGrath of “Sesame Street” fame came on board as M.C.! Are you kidding me? Bob from “Sesame Street!” This was the guy who taught all of us to sing, sing a song, when we were knee-high. I could tell it was shaping up into a serious shindig.

Unfortunately, the Lemons weren’t available! No one was free that day except me. Undaunted, I contacted Suzi via Sprockster. We’d just donated a song to her for her daughter’s school (music budgets are being slashed everywhere!) so she remembered me, and was open to the idea of doing something together. She wrote “How bout you pick one of your tunes so that we can promote your CD’s and I will just learn it and sing backup or harmonies? (maybe think of a simple song, as I am a simple girl…).”

To be honest, it never occurred to me to just do a solo tune; if I’m gonna play Kindie Rock I gotta play it with a Kindie Rock Band, whether it’s mine or someone else’s! Anyway, I sent her “Please Don’t Cry” because it’s easy, three chords, cool harmonies.

There was the usual back-and-forth leading up to the event, correcting misspellings in the P.R. material, making sure everyone had the chords to the song, etc. All handled via e-mail. When I walked into Crash Mansion down on NYC’s storied Bowery, I still had hardly met anyone involved face-to-face. But I made may way to the little “green room” backstage and suddenly it was like I was part of the family. Suzi was there with her daughter, Jon Samson was there, Joanie and her boyfriend/drummer were there, Bob was there, the various drummers and bassists were there, and we all were just chattering like kids. (Sadly, Rebecca Frezza had been forced to pull out; it would have been fun to jam with her and her band.)

Bob McGrath is the sweetest cat you could ever meet (and his wife Ann is even sweeter). He was totally into what we were doing, and took the time to talk to each of us backstage. He wanted to know our names, what we played, the works. I slipped him two Lemons CDs for his grandkids, of course. Joanie told us later that, upon arrival backstage, Bob had very casually dropped trou and changed into his “Bob” clothes (khakis and a sweater) right in front of her. What a showbiz pro. (She’s still getting over that image. We had a laugh, wondering how many times he’d mooned Big Bird over the years.)

The whole afternoon was a hoot. Hanging out at a bar with other talented musicians, singing goofy songs to kids, swapping stories with Bob from “Sesame Street.” Joanie and Suzi both joined me for backups on “Please Don’t Cry,” then I borrowed Suzi’s acoustic for a solo “Skunks in my Shoes” that went over pretty well, I reckon. Ann told me afterwards that she could hear everything I sang very clearly, whereas some of the others didn’t enunciate very well. I took that as a HUGE compliment; what’s the point of doing this if no one can hear what you’re singing? (In retrospect, it may have just been that the sound guy had finally found the right balance, but that’s neither here nor there.)

All of the performers were great. Suzi Shelton is a wee little slip of a girl who packs a whole lot of soul and energy into her set. Joanie Leeds, by comparison, is a total over-the-top rockstar (in fact her album “I’m a Rock Star” was a candidate for a Grammy nomination!). Jon Samson did a quieter set, just him and his ukelele weaving magical tunes, accompanied by a bassist and drummer. Then Baze and His Silly Friends led a dance train around the entire bar!

Jeremy Zmuda, the organizer of the entire event, performs as “Jeremy Plays Guitar” and boy does he ever! Everyone captured the crowd in their own way (even though Jeremy had the home-field advantage since he’d sold most of the tickets to his own classes). And in between sets, Bob song some of the classics we all grew up with, and showed us all how it’s done.

All in all, it was a great afternoon. I spread the Fuzzy Lemons name and sold a few CDs to help raise some dough for a worthy cause. But the personal highlight came at the end of the day. For the big finale, the ensemble all joined Bob on stage for “Sing a Song.” Wow. Maybe it’s not on your bucket list but I sure enjoyed every second of it!

I’m not the only one who had a great time. I sent out a note praising everyone for the efforts and skills and the replies were pretty funny.

Suzi wrote “On behalf of Steve, Emma and myself - we thought Kids Rock TOTALLY ROCKED! It was so much fun, and hope to do it again someday with you all. You are amazing musicians and adding Bob to the mix was brilliant. I must admit, I have a little crush on the man… Have a great week guys, and wonderful job!”

Jon Samson: “I agree with Dave on all counts! But was I the only one who drank heavily after the show:)?” [This is even funnier if you know Jon, he was totally kidding.]

Baze: “I agree with Jon, who agrees with Dave! Great event and it was blast meeting and hanging out with everybody. Oh yeah, I did hit the Capri Sun’s pretty hard when I got home.”

Joanie Leeds: “Me too! Agree agree agree and like on Facebook! Thanks so much for an awesome event.”

A day or so later, Jeremy wrote “WOW!! I can’t thank you all enough for taking the time to be part of KIDS ROCK!! You all did such an amazing job performing! We’ve gotten such great feedback from the event. It was a success in every way!! Thanks so much, and hope to be able to share the stage again with you guys. Thanks again for being part of such an amazing show!”

Lizzie Bicknell, who is on the board with Jeremy at Kids Need a Melody, wrote:

Dear KIDS ROCK! celebs,
Thank you all so much for all of your investment into our first annual event! I really appreciate how hard everyone worked, the performances were inspired.

And it paid off in every way!! I am very happy to say that we raised enough money to begin working in a second shelter in two classrooms for families who are recovering from addiction. These kids REALLY need the developmental support and the joy of music! So thanks again for participating and giving to the cause. It will really make a difference.

I am looking forward to working with you again soon. You guys really are the best of the kindie-rock scene, it was so fun! Thanks again,
Lizzie

Look for Kids Rock to become an annual event, and look for me there every year!
~Dave

We were up for People’s Choice again, but we didn’t win. Oh well. Congrats to the winners! And thank you to Dave Entwistle for running an excellent awards show!

Happy Halloween! It’s time for our annual fright-fest and this year we haunt the Knitting Factory!

But first, a note: Last time we played here, Brandon Miller was our drummer. That turned out to be his last show with the Fuzzy Lemons. He’s decided to hang it up (for now) and we’re sad to see him go. Thank you, Brandon, for your awesome musical contributions to the band! To The Moon sounds amazing because of you.

Back to the band: We spent the last few weeks of September rehearsing with a cool young drummer names Chris Moran. Chris teaches drums at Garden Street Music, and when Dan McLoughlin heard we were drummerless he hooked us up. Chris dove in head-first and learned our tunes in two whirlwind rehearsals, including a batch Halloween tunes. And not only did he rock the set at the Knitting Factory, he did it in a Teletubby costume!

I love Halloween because the music is so goofy. We did “The Monster Mash” in full-on camp mode, of course, but the rest of our spooky set was pretty cool, come to think of it. “Five Little Pumpkins” has a righteous Bo Diddly beat (I play slide guitar on it), and our surf-rock version of the “Munsters” theme was gnarly, to say the least. And I can’t wait to record and release “Hallowalloween,” our first holiday-themed song (penned by Maiken DuBois, who has given her blessing to record it). With luck, it’ll get picked up and played every Halloween from now until, well, ever.

Playing in costume is fun and challenging. Dana had nowhere to clip her wireless receiver on her Crayon costume, and my top hat made guitar changes a challenge. But it’s so COOL to be up on stage all dressed up!

Watch this space for photos from the show!

~ Dave

With many of the Fuzzy Lemons out of town this weekend, we had to pass on the Arts & Music Fest gig.  But my old friend Erin Lee was back in town with the Up Past Bedtime Band, and they invited me to join them once again with my banjo and mandolin.

The Fest is always a great event, and this time around we were blessed with amazing weather. I did a total of five songs with the band, including “No Rain,” which I’ve covered in the past with both The Gordys and The Fuzzy Lemons. Erin Lee is teaching in Hoboken again and I’m looking forward to some raucous lunches with her this fall.

~ Dave

I’ve actually been in touch with Rocknoceros for about a year now, since my sister introduced me to them (she and her family are fans in the Rockno’s home state of Virginia). I met them face-to-face at Kindiefest and found them to be sweet fellows. Their albums are highly listenable.

Way back in the early summer, I got an e-mail from Rocknoceros’ booking guy. He said the band was going to be in Philly on Sept. 18th, and did I know of any gigs in our area on the 19th so they could make a mini-tour out of the weekend? It turns our the Lemons were booked at the Knitting Factory that day, so with the band’s approval I offered to share that slot with Coach, Boogie Woogie Benny and Willie Bob.

The Knitting Factory is so awesome, so technologically advanced, that they were able to accommodate two full bands on stage, at the same time, no problem (I’ve been in situations in the past where the headlining band gets a great mix and the other bands get the shaft). This gave me an idea: What song could we all perform together? A quick call to my sister revealed that “Yellow Submarine” was a popular favorite at Rocknoceros shows, so I mentioned it to Coach and the plan was hatched: When Rocknoceros finished their set, we’d join them on stage for an ensemble performance of the Beatles classic, “In the People’s Key of G” as Benny put it.

And whaddaya know, it worked! To my delight and surprise, things went pretty much exactly as planned. We had a decent crowd, including pretty much my entire family from CT and VA. Rocknoceros put on a great show (did I mention they’re really talented, friendly and entertaining?) and then we joined ‘em for “Yellow Submarine.” It was a wonderful moment and I hope it sounded as good to the audience as it felt on stage. My dad got it on video but I haven’t seen it yet.

Then after a few last-minute sound-check-type activities, we did our Fuzzy Lemons set. It was a full-on rockin’ 45 minutes, as always! Rob, the Knit’s sound guy, is crackerjack, we can always count on him to get the job done. We have a fairly new song, “The Firefly Song,” a lovely waltz in D that Kipley wrote, based on Eric Carle’s book The Very Lonely Firefly. It’s been really popular at shows and the audience really got into it today.

Afterwards, we broke for cupcakes (it was my nephew’s birthday) and went home! We’re in touch with Rocknoceros about sharing future gigs, watch this space for details.
~ Dave

Like Simon and Garfunkle before them, Erin Lee and Marci have finally split up (but they’re still doing concerts together). Now Erin Lee is touring with her new combo, the Up Past Bedtime Band, and in keeping with tradition she asked me to sit in with them for their Shipyard concert!

Fortunately, though the band has changed the songs remained the same, so rehearsing for the show was simply a matter of remembering what I did last year! (Erin Lee’s songs are really catchy and not too difficult to learn.) I like these sets because I get to break out the banjo and mandolin and challenge myself a little. Thanks, Erin Lee… all these years later she’s still pushing me musically!

I loved the Up Past Bedtime Band. They put on a great show, very entertaining, very silly, very musical. Learn more about Erin Lee’s new direction here.

Last year the town threw a magical birthday celebration for a true Hudson River hero, Pete Seeger. I was honored to be a part of it. Even better, Geri Fallo asked me back to join everyone in a reprise this year!

The amazing members of the Demolition String Band (Boo Reiners, Elena Skye, Clarence Ferrari and Skip on bass) put the show together and served as the MCs and “house band” for the night. Just as last year, rehearsing with Elena and Boo was a treat and a half. Even better, as we were running through “Turn, Turn, Turn,” local guitarist Julio Fernandez (you may know him from a little jazz combo called Spiro Gyra) was hanging around, and accepted our invitation to join in. He harmonized and we even threw in an extra slot for a guitar solo for him. All of a sudden I was a member of a supergroup!

I tried to remain cool on the outside, but I gotta say I was positively giddy inside. I was so cool I even offered to buy a round for everyone (rehearsal was at the Shannon Lounge, a classic pub in the true Hoboken tradition). No one took me up on it, but Julio did let me buy him a bottle of water and we sat and gabbed for a bit at the bar, where we were soon joined by Abbe Rivers on her way to rehearse her numbers. I love Hoboken, have I mentioned this lately?

Last year’s event was marred by drizzle, and the weather threatened to turn ugly again this year, but as of this writing we still haven’t seen a drop of the predicted downpour. Sinatra Park was bathed in a gorgeous sunset as we all gathered to perform.

Here’s the line-up from this year’s event:

1. The Hoboken Youth Choir did “If I Had A Hammer,” “This Little Light of Mine” and “This Land is Your Land.” Kate Jacobs, youth wrangler, asked me to stand by and play some guitar chords to keep everyone in the same key, which I was happy to do. Little did I know that Boo would join in on mandolin, along with Skip, the Demolition String Band’s stand-up bass player. It was a regular hootenanny.
2. Then it was my turn! I did “The Garden Song (Inch by Inch),” throwing in a little talkin’ blues cribbed from some classic Arlo Guthrie bits but also containing some of my own original insights. If Pete Seeger can make a speech during a song, the by gum so can I. Then the rest of the band came up, along with Julio, for “Turn, Turn, Turn.” The extra guitar and fiddle solos made the song last longer, but it was still over far too quickly for me.
3. Jon & Deena of The Cucumbers did “Kisses Sweeter than Wine.” I cornered them later and invited them to the Gordys show on June 24 (we’re covering one of their songs!)
4. Boo Reiners and the Demolition String Band led the crowd in singing “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.”
5. Abbe Rivers melted some faces with her powerhouse renditions of “Mary Don’t You Weep” and “Jacob’s Ladder.”
6. Kate Jacobs, again in delightful counterpoint to Abbe, led the crowd in “Goodnight Irene,” one of my favorites.
7. Elena Skye told us about the times she’d met Pete Seeger, then picked up her banjo and did “Union Maid” and “Little Boxes” with the Demolition String Band.
8. Tom Vincent, former mayoral candidate, did a jazzy “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.”
9. Eddie Fogerty ripped into “John Henry.”
10. Martha Fraiser played dulcimer and harmonized with her dad on the country classic “Get Along Cindy.”
11. I finally got to hear Annalee Van Kleeck sing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” and WOW.
12. Gene D. Plumber did his classic rendition of “Joe Hill” and gave a shout out to union workers who gave us the greatest gifts of all: the 8-hour work day and the weekend!
13. Julio Fernandez led the crowd in a soulful “Guantanamera.” Earlier that day, talking with Julio, I found out he’d been born in Cuba and was sent to live with an aunt in Hoboken when he was 6. The man should write a book. I’d read it.
14. Dave Calamoneri channeled his inner Steve Earle for a sweltering “Bring ‘em Home.”
15. The it was time for the big “This Land is Your Land” ensemble number. There were plenty of singers and guitarists on stage, so I grabbed my harmonica and threw that in instead, which was kinda cool, I thought.

Here’s a great site for good old-fashioned music: The Alternate Root.

Go to their poll page and vote for our friend Penny Jo’s song, “I Like Summer” by Greezy Wheels. It’s a free-wheelin’ zydeco rave-up, perfect for a backyard barbeque. (Check out the other tunes, too! But vote for PJ!)

I have to just start by saying WOW, what a talented and diverse field of colleagues I have out there in the world of kid-friendly rock. It can be daunting, sitting at home alone and listening to Laurie Berkner’s 37th super-platinum album and thinking “I’ll never be that good or that famous or that successful.” But to hang out with the amazing musicians who came to KindieFest is inspiring, galvanizing, and a whole lotta fun.

Day 2 was chock full o’panel discussions. My schedule kept me from attending the morning sessions, of which there were four: Marketing, Videos, Recording and Distribution. All very important topics and I’ll be pestering my fellow attendees for their notes in the days ahead. The word I got from the Distribution session was that they didn’t delve into digital distribution at all, which seems odd considering the state of the modern music-distribution model. I may pass a note along to the organizers to suggest that as a panel topic next year.

The panel I did get to sit in on, “Old School Meets New School,” was wonderfully inspiring. Four of the Old Guard sat on the panel: musicians Elizabeth Mitchell, Suni Paz and Bill Harley, and kid-radio personality Kathy O’Connell of WXPN in Philly. They shared their stories of how they got started, and the common thread was: There was ever a huge vacuum in the area of music for kids. In schools, in the media, on the radio, no one seemed to know quite what to do. Conversely, that left these creators and their peers a lot of freedom to explore and try things out. Suni Paz, for example, was told that there weren’t any kids’ songs in Spanish, so she tracked some down and wrote some more when she couldn’t find enough. Elizabeth Mitchell was simply happy singing to her students as she pursued her career in “grown-up” music, until the recordings she made of her classroom songs one afternoon became much more popular than her other stuff (an echo of Dan Zanes’ story fro the night before).

They told stories of their failures: Suni Paz spoke of being rejected by the Folkways people at the Smithsonian (”you’re not Joan Baez,” she was told); now she sits on the board. Kathy O’Connell was fired by WNYC on Christmas, and has hosted Kids’ Corner in Philly for over 20 years since.

I mentioned in the opening paragraph how daunting it can be to face one’s own shortcomings in the face of greatness. Sitting hear listening to Grammy-winning performers tell of their humble beginnings, it was easy to hear the little voice in my head that tells me “it’s all been done, you can’t duplicate what they did and you can’t do anything new either.” But then I thought of the way NJ’s governor has cut education budgets, and I thought of the the Hoboken teacher who e-mailed me about the possibility of the Fuzzy Lemons bringing music into the school system, and I thought about the intense racial issues that are rocking Arizona this week, and I thought “Hell YEAH I can do this. I MUST do this.”

Kids today face the same lack, the same ignorance, that their parents did a generation ago. It’s my duty and my privilege to sing with them the way that Bill and Suni and even Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie did before me. And it’s an exciting time to be doing so because we have so much support and such a growing, vibrant community.

Whew. After that, the panel on Venues seemed like an anticlimax, so I had a Coke on the patio with some folks instead. The Fuzzy Lemons have played some pretty diverse venues, from theaters to bars to outdoor festivals to parking lots to seaweed-strewn beaches, and we’ll even be at a zoo this summer, so I think we’re pretty well covered in that department. I spoke to the guy from ZooGlobble about reviewing our CD, and he said he already had it and did we have anything newer? which is surprising and disappointing because the durn thing just came out 5 months ago. Not sure how to respond to that.

I did slip a CD to Kathy O’Connell for her radio show, then introduced myself to Boogie and Coach from Rocknoceros (finally). They’re just as friendly as my sister described them (they’re from her neighborhood in VA), though we did catch ourselves using some salty language. From there we embarked on a colorful discussion about which band member had the worst mouth, and in fact we think that the way we comport ourselves behind the scenes would make an entertaining panel discussion next year.

The last panel was about PR and it was another daunting one, as Beth Blenz-Lucas, a high-powered PR agent from Sugar Mountain PR, listed her amazing clients and described how awesome they are and how incredible anyone has to be to even make her interested in representing them. It was a bit of a turn-off, honestly, and quite a reversal from the experience we’ve had with the good people at Pressler Collaborative, who are excited and eager to help us BECOME the kind of clients that Ms. Blenz-Lucas would deign to notice. Also, I happen to think that we’re that amazing already, and anyone who disagrees with me is obviously a philistine.

But that panel closed on a high note as Mr. Ray reminded us all that we’re in a diverse and supportive community. Someone asked the panel “What should we be called?” As in, Children’s Music? Family Music? Clearly a genre title that includes the Sippy Cups, Uncle Rock and Sugar-Free Allstars is going to have to be pretty encompassing. Mr. Ray suggested “Kindie Rock,” which is kinda cool. Then he admitted that he has owned the kindierock.com domain for two years now.

I wasn’t able to stick around for the performances after the last panel, sadly. It’d been a long day and I really wanted to get home to my wife, who was under the weather, and my adorable child–who has since come down with a fever also. Next year the Fuzzy Lemons are going to buck for a slot in the showcase.

I think KindieFest was a vital event and a huge success and I look forward to seeing what comes out of it, and to going back next year!

~ Dave

Kindiefest is a huge three-day conference in Brooklyn for folks like me: musicians with a family-oriented groove. Last night was the kickoff reception and keynote; I’m trying to read my scribbled notes from the night to see if I can make sense of them.

I rolled into Littlefield in Brooklyn at about 7:00 (after some frantic photocopying of the Fuzzy Lemons’ press material). The party had already spilled out onto the patio! It was a gorgeous evening to be sharing a beer with two hundred of your colleagues and peers.

I squeezed through to the registration table and immediately struck up a conversation with Ashley Albert of The Jimmies, who was in line right behind me. I’ve been hearing about The Jimmies for a couple of years and we just checked out their videos on WiggleNation last week–I congratulated her on how amazing they looked.

Then I made my way to the bar and met some members of a band called The Not-Its, from Seattle. About that time, Dan Zanes wandered in off the street, with his unmistakeable suit and hair. Not long after, the organizers called everyone in for some opening speeches, followed by the Keynote. I found my friend Erin Lee Kelly and followed her into the conference hall (actually a nightclub).

Dan Zanes gave a quietly inspiring speech. He started by admonishing everyone in the room to check out Pete Seeger’s “Incomplete Folksinger,” which lays a clear foundation for everything we do as family musicians. He described an experience I’m sure most of us share: going to the record store and being horribly disappointed by the Children’s selections, which mainly consisted of cartoon tie-ins. He compared that to his own childhood experience of growing up listening to those classic Folkways recordings of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, et al.

He spoke of his surprise upon learning that people were much more interested in the tape of songs he made for his new daughter that they were in his latest album of pop songs about drinking and old girlfriends. And he described hanging out on the playground with West Indian nannies and sharing music with them (in my own career I’ve been blessed with a similar crowd) and how things just sort of grew from there. The importance of finding other musicians, diverse musicians with different backgrounds and influences, cannot be overstated. He spoke of the vital questions to ask people: “Where are you from?” and “What did you grow up singing?”

The diversity is important because kids and families want to be able to relate to what’s up on stage; kids of all backgrounds want to be able to look at the musicians and hear their music and find a piece of themselves. Further, he spoke of his goals: “My goal is to build bridges, it doesn’t matter if I know how or not.” And, just as those old Folkways records came with all the lyrics and chords printed in the liner notes, he reminded us all that that the music we make should inspire people to make music themselves.

It was a lovely speech and he closed by encouraging us all to keep building this community. Sure, we could all view it as a competition for market share, but the best music comes from the heart and encourages folks, rather than showing off.

After that, two hundred eager community builders headed for the bar. A side note, there’s a lovely little microbrew called SouthHampton that I quite enjoyed over the course of the evening.

From then on it was schmooze-o-rama time. I brought a dozen Fuzzy Lemons press kits with me and handed eight of them out to various bloggers, labels (including Putamayo!), a radio show or two, and even a reporter from Time. I plan to hand out the rest today. In return I came home with a goodie bag full of postcards, CDs and stickers from a bunch of other artists.

The first folks I bumped into at the bar were familiar faces: Paul Helou, whom we’d met at Great South Bay last summer, and Mark Lipsitz of Bar None Records. I introduced them to each other and we all swapped ideas for venues and such.

I tagged along with Erin Lee off and on over the course of the night, meeting a bunch of folks in her (not inconsiderable) circle. I jotted down some notes: I met and/or schmoozed Recess Monkey (very cool guys from Seattle), Jessie Atwell, the creator of Wigglenation, musician/videomaker Michael Rachad, Bill Childs of Spare The Rock (a radio show!), and members of Justin Roberts’ band, the Not Ready for Bedtime Players.

Members of Brooklyn-based King Pajama shared a laugh with members of Philly-based The Cat’s Pajamas, while Sara Hickman, State Musician of Texas, laughed at just about anything that moved.

Mr. Ray held forth on the advantages of creating your own music program as a source of ongoing revenue; Patricia Shih held court in a comfy chair, surrounded by fellow musicians (she claimed she was only sitting because her feet hurt but she sure looked like the queen bee); and I negotiated World Peace by pointing out that Putamayo’s Mona Kayhan, of Iranian descent, was engaged in a warm conversation with Israeli horn player Oran Etkin.

My work thus complete, I went home.

~ Dave