Happy New Year, listeners, readers and friends!  2011 was a pretty huge year for us at Ages 3 and Up!.  We don’t often tell people what we’ve been up to or what’s currently going on with respect to the behind the scenes part of Ages 3 and Up! and our less public lives, so we (meaning Amberly) are gonna do that right now with a bit of end of the year review.

Amberly went back to school in January of this year.  She is working on her BA in Arts Administration, with a minor in Theatre.  She enjoyed her Spring course “Fairy Tales in European Context” immensely, and has decided to also pursue minors in Folklore and Appalachian Studies as a result of her experience in that class.  She hopes to finish her undergrad before Kid-O goes to college. 

January 22, 2011 marked the introduction of a new voice to our program!  Sarah Smitha joined our team and has been doing our show the last week of most months and filling in on other weeks as needed.  She does an amazing job, and Kid-O and I consider ourselves fortunate to be able to work with her.  She possesses a genuine love for the genre, loves to hear and play new music, is more reliable than you can possibly believe, and she’s really nice too.  Thanks, Sarah!

In late January/early February we participated in the Gustafer Yellowgold world premiere week.  That was SO MUCH FUN for us!  A group of blogs and radio programs that support children’s music took turns previewing animated videos from Gustafer Yellowgold‘s Infinity Sock release.  We previewed “Wisconsin Poncho,” a song about a store that sells clothing made from cheese -our favorite song from the album.  Here’s a short clip.  Big thanks to everyone from the Gustafer Yellowgold family for inviting us to join in this!

The very same weekend “Wisconsin Poncho” premiered, we traveled to Chicago where we were happily hosted by Beth Engelman of Mommy On A Shoestring and her son.  We accompanied them to a concert featuring one of Amberly’s (and many other people’s) kids’ music heroes- Ella Jenkins.  It was moving, to say the least.  We met Ella and spoke with her briefly.  We also ran into Little Miss Ann while we were there!

In late March, we were honored to be invited to host two rounds of the KidVid Tournament, organized by Stefan Shepard of Zooglobble.  KidVid is a tournament in which videos featuring music made for children compete for votes and the title of champion.  It looks kind of like this.  Hopefully, we’ll get to do this again- it was a lot of fun for us!

‘Round about the middle of May, Kid-O and I bought a house!  Or, started buying one anyway.  More later.

The week preceding June 11th, we were happy to host Charlie Hope at our house!  Charlie came to Lexington to perform at The Morris Book Shop, in an event sponsored by WRFL FM.  We were so glad to have her- the performance went extremely well, and all seemed happy with the show.  Big thanks to Charlie for coming to visit, and super big thanks to WRFL and The Morris Bookshop for supporting music for kids and families in Central Kentucky!

And it was around about this time that Amberly found out that she was sick.  Nothing really to be alarmed about, but her doctors informed her that she was doing too much (all of the above plus being a full-time, single, working mom).  They said her high stress/low rest lifestyle had triggered symptoms of an autoimmune disorder that she’d hoped she would never have to deal with again.   She was advised to shelve any projects she could, eliminate stress, and not commit herself to anything new.  Sadly this meant putting her other radio project, Pied Piper Radio, on the back burner and cancelling plans for LOADS of other great events in 2011.

In the end of June, Kid-O and I traveled to Southern California to visit family and kids’ music friends.  While we were there, we attended a barbecue at David Tobocman and KC Mancebo‘s house.  The Jeff Bogle (of OWTK) family was, coincidentally, there at the same time.  So, David and KC invited a whole bunch of people to get together at their house.  We had the pleasure of visiting with Heidi Swedberg again, meeting Todd McHatton and his family face to face, and chatting with Jason and Jacob from The Pop Ups; we had been lucky enough to see their PASTA! performance earlier that day.  There were a whole slew of other people there- I’m sure I’m leaving someone out.  Anyway, huge thanks to David and KC for their hospitality.  It was great getting to meet everyone in person.

In the very end of July/beginning of August, we FINALLY closed on the house our family began buying in May of this year.  We moved and Kid-O started at a new school about a week later.  We’re both very happy in the new neighborhood, which is located right near school and work.  We both count ourselves lucky to be in a place of our own, where many of our neighbors are also our friends.

September 24, 2011 Ages 3 and Up!, WRFL FM, The Morris Book Shop, the Child Care Council of Kentucky and Rock N Romp Lexington co-sponsored performances by Aaron Raitiere and The Deedle Deedle Dees in conjunction with WRFL’s Boomslang Fest at Natasha’s Bistro.  The show went off without a hitch, which hardly ever happens, and a good time seems to have been had by all.  We had our largest crowd to date for any Ages 3 and Up! or Rock N Romp Lexington event, and my understanding is that all involved count the event as a success.  Thanks to EVERYONE -the bands, the crowd, the sponsors, the venue- for helping us pull this off.

The rest of 2011 has, thankfully, been a bit more quiet.  We’ve been settling into the new house and having fun with nearby friends and family.  School has been going well for Kid-O and Amberly.  Kid-O’s playing hockey.  We contributed our two cents worth and voted in the Fids & Kamily Music Awards (more on that in another post), and are glad to see the year winding down.  We do have some big things planned in 2012, including the possibility of more Ages 3 and Up!, a new incarnation of Pied Piper Radio, working with some of the events we had to postpone in 2011, and additional travel to visit radio, musician, and arts friends in Atlanta.

Anyway, again- HAPPY NEW YEAR!- I hope your 2011 was wonderful.  And if some things didn’t exactly go your way, I hope you’re able to leave them in the old year and move on.  Here’s to an amazing 2012!

This was our holiday program!  We played all sorts of holiday tunes though they were, admittedly, mostly Christmas songs. We heard electronic toy songs, beloved classics, a whole bunch of songs destined to become classics and played songs about how much we love our cat.  “Hi Kitty” is a member our family too!  In fact, we’re off to find her a super new catnip mouse quite shortly.

I think 2011 might be the year of the kids’ music digital holiday download.  It seems like almost EVERYTHING we received for holiday airplay this year was released digital only.  The cool thing about that is that it’s super easy for you, dear listener, to snag some last minute holiday tunes for your family.  Check out the links in the playlist:

• Spike Jones- “The Night Before Christmas Song”- Let’s Sing A Song of Christmas
• Mista Cookie Jar and the Chocolate Chips- “Robot for X-Mas”- v/a Kris Kindie
• Twink- “Daisy Doodle”- Itsy Bits and Bubbles
• Esquivel- “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”- Merry Christmas From The Space Age Bachelor Pad
• Tom Glazer- “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”- …Sings Honk, Hiss, Tweet, GGGGG, and Other Children’s Favorites
• Billy Kelly- “That’s How You Know It’s Christmas”- Dear Santa Claus
• Flannery Brothers- “Holiday Lights”- v/a Kris Kindie
• The Re-Bops- “Hot Cocoa”- Mother Goose’s Never Ending Tea Party
• The Jimmies- “Nogturne in C Minor”- Mama Said Nog You Out
• Todd McHatton- “In Your Stocking”- Christmas Songs
• Brett Campbell- “Arthur the Christmas Cat”- v/a Kris Kindie
• Salteens- “I Love My Cat”- Kid Songs
• The Jingle Cats- “Waltz of the Flowers”- Meowy Christmas
• Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke- “Angels We Have Heard On High”- …Sing Songs of Christmas Cheer
• Sufjan Stevens- “The Friendly Beasts”- v/a See You On The Moon!
• Lori Henriques- “Away In A Manger Lullaby in 4/4”- Playing For Christmas
• Ella Fitzgerald- “The Secret of Christmas”-  Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas

It should be noted that the new album from Twink is not a holiday album at all, but it certainly is fun to hear Mike Langlie play with toys- kind of in the same way it is for me to hear Kid-O play on Christmas morning… so there you go.  Be sure to check out the super coloring sheets and paper toys available for download at his site.

Happiest holidays, folks!  Whether you are a cat person or a dog person, no matter what you choose to celebrate or not celebrate, Sarah, Kid-O and I wish you all the best.  -Amberly

Todd McHatton has been building a Christmas CD a few songs at a time for the past few years, and it is FANTASTIC!  This year he’s added four new original songs to his Christmas Songs album- formerly his Christmas Songs EP but I think it’s now officially too big to be called an EP.  While it’s described as a “brief collection of holiday fun” above, it’s actually more in the neighborhood of 25 minutes of holiday fun.    Well worth the $1.99 required to download the whole thing, in my opinion.

Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke also built on the stupendous collection of holiday tunes they began last year.  Their Sing Songs of Christmas Cheer album clocks in at around 24 minutes and is comprised of unconventional versions of traditional Christmas carols (“Silent Night,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Jingle Bells”) and original songs that are destined to be played on our show for years to come (“Christmas Pudding” and “Christmas Time Is Here”).  Really great stuff, and also well worth the cost of the download.

Here’s what we played:

• Sheree Plett- “Leave No Trace Behind”- Hello Night
• Woody Guthrie- “Riding In My Car”- Nursery Days
• Bunny Clogs- “Are We There Yet?”- More! More! More!
• Todd McHatton- “Sing Along To This Christmas Song”- Christmas Songs
• Rowlf the Dog- “The Christmas Party Sing-Along”- The Muppets:  A Green and Red Christmas
• Tex Ritter- “Christmas Carols by the Old Corral”- Country’s Best Christmas
• Billy Kelly- “Glebells Jing!”- Dear Santa Claus
• The Jimmies- “Nogturne in C Minor”- Mama Said Nog You Out
• Lisa Loeb- “Sippin’ Cider”-  Lisa Loeb’s Silly Sing-Along:  The Disappointing Pancake and Other Zany Songs (Book)
• Secret Agent 23 Skidoo- “The Bluegrass Hopper”- Easy
• Mike Park- “Turn Off The Lights”- Smile
• Bob Dorough and Friends (Jack Sheldon)- “The Energy Blues”- School House Rock played from YouTube
• Fuzzy Lollipop- “Beautiful Marvelous Day”- Sweet!
• Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club- “Me and the Snowman”- Goodbye, My 4 Track
• Lasairfhiona Ni Chonaola- “Nollaig Bhan (White Christmas)”- v/a Putumayo Presents: Celtic Christmas
• Barbara Morrison- “Sing A Song of Six Pence”- v/a Putumayo Kids Presents:  Jazz Playground
• Louis Armstrong- “Ten Feet Off The Ground”- v/a Nicky’s Jazz for Kids

Before everything went all wonky, we had a pretty good show lined up.  In fact, it wasn’t all bad.  We played songs about road trips and wished everyone safe holiday travel, there was a smattering of holiday tunes throughout, we played music about saving energy and asked folks to decorate responsibly, and we tried our best to have a better morning.  New music by The Jimmies, Billy Kelly, Lisa Loeb and Putumayo Records was played.

Amberly will be back with you on the morning of Christmas Eve.  Hopefully doing a much better job.  Until then, you should enjoy this video from Billy Kelly.

As you may or may not know, Ages 3 and Up! has been one of several media outlets responsible for spreading the word about better music for kids and families on the radio in Central Kentucky and via the internet to households worldwide for about six and a half years.  It has been a joy and a privilege to be able to share music in this way.  During the time we’ve been part of the independent children’s media world, we’ve been excited and delighted by a number of projects that were not at all musical.  We’ve wanted to highlight those on this blog and in other places, and from time to time we have.  I am writing today to tell you that we plan to do more of this in the future.  In fact, we’re not even going to wait for the future… we’re going to write about one of those projects RIGHT NOW.

Ladies and Gentlemen of all sizes, I give you BIG Kids Magazine!

BIG Kids Magazine is based in Australia and is, as far as I’ve seen, unlike anything we have here in the US.  According to the creators of BIG, it is “a contemporary arts publication for children that will amplify small voices in big ways.”  BIG features side by side stories, artwork and interviews of children and artists including dancers, painters, singers, sculptors, actors, photographers, film-makers and writers.  It is, in my opinion, an inspiration.

Check out the pages of BIG Kids Magazine below (double click the pages for a better view):

What would YOU do?

Child and adult artists working together!

Create your own clay animation!!

Artwork which illustrates the idea of “flight,” from kids and grownups.

Inspiration from a grown artist, and the beginning pages of a progressive book project!

As you can see, the magazine is focused on creative arts for kids and their care givers.  It seems the idea was hatched some time ago, when one of the magazine’s co-creators was searching for a magazine to buy for her kids and couldn’t find one that spoke of the creative arts or offered a world view other than that espoused by TV, movie, or gaming characters.

Jo and Lilly, the creators of BIG are currently working with their eight year old senior editor to publish the magazine’s second issue, which is devoted to maps… maps of ANY sort!  They have issued a call for artwork submissions for their next issue.  Details on that can be found here.  For even more information and a little bit of inspiration, you might also visit BIG Kids Magazine‘s Facebook Page.

We had a magical tree, fairy, kind of hot lava sort of Winnie the Pooh morning THIS morning on Ages 3 and Up!.  We played GORGEOUS new music from Mr. and Mrs. Muffins (album art pictured above) and Sheree Plett, and played fun new tunes from Mike Park and Fuzzy Lollipop.  Be sure to click the links in the playlist- you won’t be sorry.

Oh.  And happy holidays!! 

• Mr. and Mrs. Muffins- “”The Happy Garden”- The Raindrop Dance and Other Songs About Love
• Flannery Brothers- “The Wake Up Song”- Move Over Lullabies… It’s Time For Wake Up Songs
• Sheree Plett- “The Vine Enchanted”- Hello Night
• J. Stirling Coyne, narrated by Grant Raymond Barrett- “The Christmas Fairy of Strasburg”-Christmas Holiday Stories
• Vince Guaraldi Trio- “O Tannenbaum”- A Charlie Brown Christmas
• 3 Sisters- “The Fairy On the Christmas Tree”- Vintage Christmas
• Mates of State- “17 Pink Sugar Elephants”- Crushes
• Duke Ellington- “Sugar Rum Cherry”- Three Suites
• Mike Park- “I Love To Play My Saxophone”- Smile
• Logan Whitehurt and the Junior Science Club- “The Volcano Song”- Goodbye, My 4-Track
• Secret Agent 23 Skidoo- “Hot Lava”- Easy
• Fuzzy Lollipop- “Don’t Touch the Lava”- Sweet!
• Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward- “Winnie the Pooh”- Winnie the Pooh OST
• Twink- “Glowstick Garden”- Supercute!
• A.A. Milne, narrated by Robert Shaw- “The House At Pooh Corner” side 1/4- http://kiddierecords.com  2006, week 41
• Franz Ferdinand- “Jackie Jackson”- v/a Colours Are Brighter

This week on Ages 3 and Up! we played morning time music, alphabet tunes, songs to make grocery shopping more fun, and jazz for kids.  (‘Cause we love the jazz for kids.)

Playlist:

• Patty Griffin- “I Love”- v/a I Love:  Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow
• Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band- “Like Never Before”- Oh Lucky Day!
• Medeski Martin & Wood- “The Squalb”- Let’s Go Everywhere
• Rabbit!- “When We Were Young”- Go For It
• Meadows- “The Alphabet Song”- The Littlest Star
• Johnny Cash- “Ah Bos Ce Dah”- The Johnny Cash Children’s Album
• John Upchurch and Mark Greenberg- “A Counting Error”- John and Mark’s Children’s Record
• Elizabeth Mitchell- “Alphabet Dub”- You Are My Sunshine
• Alan Mills- “Animal Alphabet Song”- v/a Smithsonian Folkways Children’s Collection
• The Pop Ups- “Subway Train”- Outside Voices
• Nick Cope- “The Very Long Shopping List”- My Socks
• They Might Be Giants- “I Am A Grocery Bag”- No!
• The Uninvited Loud Precision Band- “The Uninvited Parade Strikes Again”- v/a Blue Moo
• Oran Etkin feat. Charenee Wade- “Little Lamb Jam”- Wake Up Clarinet!
• Duke Ellington- “Chim Chim Cheree”- Duke Ellington Plays Mary Poppins
• Frances England- “Charlie Parker”- Fascinating Creatures
• Ella Fitzgerald- “Old Mother Hubbard”- Miss Ella’s Playhouse
• Coal Train Railroad- “It’s Hard To Listen”- Coal Train Railroad

And check out this video from Meadows:

We love this book.  Those of you who listen to our show regularly have heard Amberly gush over it often.  FYI, this is what the book looks like- don’t mistake it for the album which is equally good, but doesn’t contain nearly so much nifty information about making music at home with your family as the book.  More information about The Nields projects for kids and families can be found here.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  Or, at least, we hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!  This week, in honor of Thanksgiving, we had turkey tunes, not turkey tunes, songs about baking and dancing around the kitchen with your family and friends, a few songs about WHY people do things, some country flavored tunes inspired by a new tribute compilation titled I LOVE:  Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow, cowboy lullabies and nightlight songs.  It was a BIG show!

Here’s the playlist:

• Bob Dorough and Friends- “Three Is A Magic Number”- The Best of School House Rock
• Dog On Fleas- “Over The River and Through The Woods”- Cranberry Sauce Flotilla
• Brian Vogan and His Good Buddies- “Last Thanksgiving”- Sing A Little Song
• Banjos For Babes- “Turkey In The Straw”- Volume 1:  Classic Children’s Songs
• Joanie Leeds and The Nightlights- “Tofurky Song”- What A Zoo!
• Kira Willey- “The Mixing Bowl”- Kings & Queens of the Forest
• Dan Zanes feat. Loudon Wainwright III- “All Around the Kitchen”- Family Dance
• The Nields- “The Muffin Man”- All Together Singing in the Kitchen (Book)
• Barry Louis Polisar- “Symphony in Why #Major”- Juggling Babies
• John Upchurch and Mark Greenberg- “People Have Good Reasons”- John and Mark’s Children’s Record
• Peter Cooper with Baker Maultsby and Duane Eddy- “Everybody Loves To Hear a Bird Sing”- I Love:  Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow
• Uncle Rock- “Sneaky Snake”- The Big Picture
• The Handsome Family- “Snowball”- v/a The Bottle Let Me Down:  Songs For Bumpy Wagon Rides
• Elizabeth Mitchell- “Little Buckaroo”- Sunny Day
• Laura Veirs- “Prairie Lullaby”- Tumble Bee
• Medeski Martin & Wood- “Old Paint”- Let’s Go Everywhere
• Rabbit!- “Light Up The Night”- Go For It
• Lunch Money- “Nightlights”- Silly Reflection

Cheers!

-Amberly

This is not a new album.  But it IS a really great one!  Dizzy is the second album from Lunch Money, and is highly recommended.

This week on Ages 3 and Up! I incorrectly predicted a beautiful sunshine-y weekend.  I WAS SO WRONG.  It’s cool, though.  Because we’re all wrong sometimes.  So, yeah- songs about mowing the lawn, enjoying the sunshine, playing outside, more songs by kids, songs about FROGS (’cause I just love those), and a couple of songs that I just plain liked.  One of them featured a toy sitar!

List:

• John Upchurch and Mark Greenberg- “The Lawnmower”- John and Mark’s Children’s Record
• The Jellydots- “Sunshine”- Changing Skies
• Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers- “I Have Come Out To Play”- Modern Lovers ’88
• Takagi Masakatsu- “Come March”- v/a Childish Music
• The Rolling Stones- “Dandelion”- Through The Past Darkly
• Snowmonster!- “Come Home Fire Hat”- http://snowmonsterband.com
• Rainbow Beast and the Rock Band Land Rockers- “Something Like A Bear”- http://rockbandland.org
• Altyrone Deno Brown- “Sweet Pea”- v/a Home Schooled:  The ABC’s of Kid Soul
• Joanie Leeds and The Nightlights feat. Secret Agent 23 Skidoo- “Froggie Went A Courtin’”- What A Zoo!
• Caspar Babypants- “The Frogs”- This Is Fun!
• Brian Vogan and His Good Buddies- “One Tiny Little Frog”- Sing A Little Song
• Treehouse 10- “Meet My Frog”- Bug In A Puddle
• Lunch Money- “Somehow A Frog Finds A Pond”- Dizzy
• Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke- “One Fat Frog”- Rise and Shine
• Twink- “Rubbernecker”- Supercute!
• Shugo Tokumaru- “Malerina”- Port Entropy

And be sure to tune in next week- we’ve got a very special TWO HOUR episode planned.  We’ll be playing lullabies, like the one below, from 7-8 AM EST and having our usual fun from 8-9.  Hooray!

More springtime!  More music by kids!  More live performances! AND more music for kids from Central and South America this past weekend on Ages 3 and Up!.

That’s right!  We kicked off the show with some springtime tunes, including one that you can download for FREE, from Lucky Diaz’s forthcoming album.  We played songs by kids, including a newer project from a music program out of the San Francisco area called Rock Band Land.  We were joined by Aaron Raitiere, an artist we’ve been playing for the past few weeks who played not one live song for us, but THREE.  And, because I’ve been looking for an excuse to play Los Plumabits for a while, and because they were playing at Lollapalooza in Chile this weekend, we played music from Central and South America.  Fun show!

Anyway, here are the details:

• Lunch Money- “Wake Up World”- Dizzy
• Lucky Diaz- “Here Comes The Sun”- Oh Lucky Day! (forthcoming)
• Care Bears on Fire- “Baby Animals”- I Stole Your Animal
• Rainbow Beast and The Rock Band Land Rockers- “Can Man”- http://rockbandland.org
• Juicebox Hero- “Racecars”- http://www.snowmonsterband.com
• Tiny Masters of Today- “Tooty Frooty (Clarke’s Dream Song)”- Bang Bang Boom Cake
• Aaron Raitiere- “A Song about A Troll A Monkey and a Fox”- LIVE IN STUDIO!
• Aaron Raitiere- “I Saw Bigfoot”- Songs For Cool Kids
• Glissandro 70- “Voices Are Your Best Friend”- v/a See You On The Moon!
• Aaron Raitiere- “Goosebumps On My Goosebumps”- LIVE IN STUDIO!
• Mariana Iranzi- “Sueño de una Noche de Verano (A Midsummer’s Night Dream)”- Aventura Collage
• Os Mutantes- “A Minha Menina”- Os Mutantes
• Los Plumabits- “Libre”- http://youtube.com
• Aaron Raitiere- “I Ain’t No Zebra”- LIVE IN STUDIO! (also appears on Songs For Cool Kids)
• The Free Design- “Kites Are Fun”- …Sing For Very Important People
• Treehouse 10- “Sunny Weekend”- Bug In A Puddle

And here’s another from Los Plumabits: