Are You Dave?

The Hoboken Family Alliance has been hosting their groovy “Cabin Fever” event at the Hoboken High School gym for a couple of years now, and not a moment too soon! The event had long since outgrown the Elks club. In a twist, however, I was barely involved this year, and the Lemons weren’t there at all! I did a half hour of ukulele songs to advertise for Guitar Bar, Jr., and that was it. I did get to visit with Daniel from the Rockdoves, and Michael of Preschool of Rock, and you know how much I enjoy networking. The Rockdoves (along with Erin Lee & the Up Past Bedtime Band and some others) are working with the Lemons to get a family concert series going in NYC, watch this space for details.

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

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.

Goodness, I’ve had NO gigs this month! I’ve only had one birthday party, and I’m only teaching 9 or 10 classes a week instead of my usual 13 or 14. This is gonna bring my numbers way down. But on the up-side, I’ve had a LOT of great time to spend with my family. We’ve been up to the pool on campus quite regularly, and we’re off to northern CA at the end of next week to visit a whole bucketful of relatives. Tonight we went over to the Shipyard to see our pal Big Jeff perform with his band, The Bouncy People. Which reminds me, next Tuesday I am sitting in with Erin Lee and her new band at the Shipyard. I’d better rehearse….

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

For those of you keeping track, this was my 4th concert and 4th band in a 3-week span. I’m even getting paid for two or three of them! I love being a professional musician. 

Anyway…

Erin Lee Kelly and Marci Applebaum made their triumphant return to Hoboken tonight as part of the family concert series at the Shipyard. Last year they got rained out (and their visit to the Art & Music Festival was pretty damp as well) so everyone was thrilled when the rain decided to give ‘em a break.

I honestly don’t remember when, exactly, Erin Lee invited me to sit in with them again. It just sort of happened organically—it’s been on my calendar since April. But as the date got closer, Erin Lee and Marci were on tour and I was too busy preparing for recording and other gigs. I started to feel bad that I was neglecting the two of three songs they’d invited me to play. But the beauty of their material is: It’s deceptively simple. Wonderful melodies, rich harmonies, clever lyrics… and underneath it all, a comfy musical pocket for me to sit in with my banjo and mandolin. 

Tom Sweeney and Chris The Sound Guy showed up at 5:00 and got set up, while I sat on the stage steps with the band and ran through our three numbers. The two songs I’d done with them last fall came back in a flash, and the third was an easy addition. We ran a sound-check, and with only three voices and three instruments to check we were done before 6:00! So we puttered around, I grabbed dinner, and we watched the lawn slowly fill up with Hoboken’s wee music lovers. 

By the time Erin Lee and Marci started at 7:00 there was a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, throwing around fee beach balls courtesy of NY Waterway Ferry.

Erin Lee and Marci have really honed their act; they keep up a steady stream of banter with the crowd and with each other, between and even during their songs. The Fuzzy Lemons would do well to borrow a page from their book, and indeed we’ve been working on that whole between-song thing at rehearsals. They cracked me up several times (when I wasn’t too busy helping with crowd control. Oh the beach balls!)

It was a treat to jump on stage and play banjo and mandolin with them; my confidence (if not actual skill) with both instruments has skyrocketed since the last time I tried. I even took solos with both instruments! 

As always, it was over too quickly. I had to pack up my stuff and jump in a cab to head for Fuzzy Lemons rehearsal! I look forward to the next time I can hang, and jam, with these two awesome performers. 

Tomorrow night, The Fuzzy Lemons at Church Square Park!

~Dave 

Road trip!!!!!!!

We rolled out of bed early this morning and were loading up Dana and Kipley’s vehicles by 9:00 a.m. for our first real road trip to an out-of-town festival, the Great South Bay Music Festival on Long Island. It was a classic day: A sack o’ bagels, iPod jacked into the car stereo, and a lot of miles to cover. I don’t have a lot of details to share from the trip itself (who wants to read about someone else driving?) so I’ll skip to when we got there.

There’d been heavy rains the night before, and the KidZone is located in a tent right down near the water. What might have normally been a packed-earth floor inside the tent was instead a damp, seaweed-covered beach! So, we had to brush a little sand off of our gear afterwards, no big deal.

The guys from the Long Island Music Hall of Fame were great, getting gear set up and making us feel very welcome. The first performer, Paul Helou, was a dynamic and creative musician who greeted us with a big smile, even as we edged into his start time with all of our gear-hauling ands set-up. He even invited us to get up and jam with him, and so I borrowed Justin’s bass, and Brandon and I backed him up. His tunes were clever and silly and he has a great voice, check him out.

As for the Lemons, we played a pretty rockin’, high-energy set. Maybe the energy was too high; our “Jump, Wiggle & Shake” was about 90 m.p.h.  At one point during the song Kipley just looked at me wide-eyed and mouthed “wow.”

The audience was thin, unfortunately. A trio of suspiciously childless young men hung out for most of our set, and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. We had no idea why, but we had our suspicions… but after the show we found out they were local teachers, not just some stoners.

The KidZone was located next to Ye Pirate Brotherhood, a splendid and rowdy group of costumers, as you can imagine. After our set they approached us about possibly playing the 2nd Annual Long Island Pirate Festival in September. What could be more fun than that?

Overall, a fun day, even if we didn’t entertain thousands of screaming fans. Big ups to Erin Lee for helping us land the gig!

~Dave

Rosanna Magarelli runs a big Music Together franchise in NYC. My friends Pete and Erin Lee have worked for her in the past, and I’ve subbed for some of her classes. We’ve spoken on the phone and she’s even offered me quite a bit of money to cross the river and work for her, but we’ve never met face-to-face until today, when she came up to me at the Sippy Cups show and asked “Are you Dave?”

Six years ago, when I first tumbled into Music Together, Erin Lee Kelly and Marci Applebaum were among my new co-workers. Erin especially took me under her wing and showed me how much fun it could be. (Before then I’d only ever held desk jobs. Ick.) I remember her telling me that one could even teach Music Together hung over, if need be. She’s that kind of cool. (I’ve tried it, and it’s not recommended, but it can be done.)

She and Marci had already been best friends and singing buds for just about ever, and now they’ve got a whole band with CDs and videos and the whole deal.  We’ve kept in touch, and I was able to put in a good word with Geri Fallo at City Hall, and now I am thrilled to announce that Erin Lee and Marci will be bringing their special brand of musical zaniness back to Hoboken on Tuesday at the Shipyard! Even better, they’ve invited li’l ol’ ME to join them on stage for a couple of songs! 

(Erin’s e-mail to me said “we would love to have you, the Bodhisattva of Hoboken, sit in with us on a few tunes.” I googled ‘Bodhisattva’ to make sure it wasn’t an insult of some sort, and according to Wikipedia it either means ‘a person whose aim it is to become fully enlightened,’ or ‘a being that compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to save others.’  Cool. Perhaps in a later post I’ll explore my relationship to either/both of those definitions. One thing’s for sure: The Fuzzy Lemons will have to find a way to show our thanks once we hit it big!) 

We’ll see how it goes Tuesday–we’re throwing together a last-minute 5:30 rehearsal for a 7:00 show, and I’m slightly out of my comfort zone playing mandolin and banjo instead of guitar–but it sure is flattering to be invited to share the stage with them. Seriously, they’re creative and funny and I wish I had half of their energy and talent!

Come check out the show, and ask Erin what it’s like to have Hugh Jackman bring his kid to her Music Together class.

See you there,

Dave

Thank you, Hoboken!

On May 20, two days after our 2nd Goldhawk show, Kipley brought up the idea of doing a fund-raiser to benefit earthquake relief in China. Response was positive across the board. I had a rough draft of a “Lemon Aid” flyer prepared the next morning. We’d been talking about doing another gig on June 1 anyway, so we decided to go for it.

A quick call to Dave and Fran at the Goldhawk, and the show was booked. We spent the week after Memorial Day pushing the show HARD, selling tickets and posting flyers all over town.

Looking back, I’m impressed with what we were able to accomplish in a short amount of time. Everyone dove in and made it all happen:

• We raised the ticket price to $10 a head, with the goal of raising a serious amount of money for the Red Cross International Relief Fund.
• We ran with the idea of doing two sets, one at 4:00 and one at 5:15 — and we sold out both sets!
• We printed and sold paper tickets as well as electronic ones, which was a big part of how we sold out both sets.

The week leading up to the gig was a flurry of activity, over e-mail and on the streets. On May 26th we’d sold a total of 22 tickets, which had some folks nervous but come on, we’d only booked the show 48 hours earlier! We got the Wachovia Securities sponsorship again (Kimberly’s boyfriend, now fiance, cheerfully set that up for us) and so we were able to offer a free drink with ticket…. and ID!

Kipley’s e-mail to the LemonList (our incipient fan e-mail list) said “A great cause, a rockin’ family show, and free booze… if anyone can find a more awesome way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I’ll eat a bug,” prompting one of my smart-mouth nephews in Massachusetts to ask “what KIND of bug?” Sheesh. 

(Even as all of this was going on, we still somehow found the time to discuss the formation of an LLC, a legal entity that would handle the Lemons’ finances and such.) Tickets continued to fly out the door, and there were about 20 left the day before the gig. They disappeared pretty quickly.

On the Big Day, Fran once again opened his pub for us at 3:30. Dave Entwistle wasn’t around, so Fran himself ran sound (in addition to running the bar!) It was exciting to be able to say were were playing two sold-out shows! Today the Goldhawk, tomorrow the Garden.

Both sets went very well, I think. We added two new tunes, “Sunburn” and “Hey Baby,” plus we covered “Show Me” by Rebecca Frezza. Untested material is always a scary proposition, but we swallowed the fear and forged ahead, with positive results, I think. 

Photo courtesy of Marco Ambriz

I love our audience. Hoboken parents are just cool people, and they’re raising good kids who love music. I take great pride in being a part of that, as a Music Together teacher and as a Fuzzy Lemon. Also, Erin Lee Kelly was there, which is awesome. Look for more about her in an upcoming blog entry; for now, the short version is: She’s on the board of the Children’s Music Network and has a LOT of connections in the city, and she knows tons about how to entertain an audience of jaded families. We had a great talk at Qdoba after the show. 

At the end of the day, what with ticket sales, additional donations, and a corporate-matching donation from Google (courtesy of Maiken’s husband), we raised somewhere around $3,500 for the Red Cross. I’m really proud of that number.

Thank you to everyone who helped!

Dave