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Award-winning independent children’s music label Music for Little People will continue its 25th anniversary celebration this year with the release of Maria Muldaur’s Barnyard Dance: Jug Band Music for Kids (retail price $13.98) October 12th. A platinum-selling songstress and five-time Grammy Award®-winner, Maria Muldaur returns to her Jug Band roots with her fifth CD for children. This happy, snappy, lighthearted music is played on homemade instruments such as washtubs, spoons, pots and pans and just about anything else you might find in the kitchen or lying around in the yard. Kids can grab a kazoo, harmonica, washboard or jug and play and sing along! Says Maria, “This project led me through a wonderful excursion into our rich musical past to find these delightful gems! The musicians and I had a blast recreating this music, keeping it within the tradition, while giving it a fresh modern sound that families today can groove to.” Jug Band music emerged in the rural south during the 1920s and was based on country blues with elements of ragtime and early New Orleans jazz. As many musicians couldn’t afford expensive instruments, they created homemade ones, using a washtub with one string attached or blowing into a jug to create the bass sound. A washboard played with thimbles replaced drums, and cowbells and kitchen items rounded out percussion. Stringed instruments were usually banjo, mandolin and fiddle, and the kazoo or harmonica stood in for horns. Says Leib Ostrow, founder of Music for Little People, "Maria’s great passion for the extraordinary music that was written in the first half of the 20th century has inspired her to become a "songcatcher" of sorts, searching for and preserving classic music that might otherwise be lost. And she plays a hot kazoo!”
BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO’S BAYOU BOOGIE GETS THE PARTY STARTED FOR ACCLAIMED CHILDREN’S LABEL MUSIC FOR LITTLE PEOPLE CD Due Out November 2nd “A Zydeco trailblazer” - USA Today “Stanley ‘Buckwheat’ Dural leads one of the best party bands in America” – The New York Times Award-winning independent children’s music label Music for Little People will continue its 25th anniversary celebration this year with the November 2nd release of Buckwheat Zydeco’s Bayou Boogie. The CD features the Grammy Award®-winning worldwide ambassador of Zydeco music in a family dance party collection from the bayou featuring children’s music superstars Laurie Berkner and Dan Zanes, along with Music for Little People label mates Aaron Nigel-Smith and Maria Muldaur. Smoking accordion, rocking Hammond B3 organ, rollicking rub board and sizzling guitar licks join together on this recording to create a musical gumbo of Creole culture that can almost be smelled and tasted. Buck guides children and parents through a rollicking mix of some of the most family-friendly classic rock 'n' roll tunes and great original songs performed in a Zydeco style as only Buckwheat can. The result is a rich tribute to this unique melting pot of American culture. Buckwheat Zydeco’s Bayou Boogie is designed to introduce children to a fun time at Buck’s place on the bayou, and it kicks into high gear with the joyous “We’re Having a Party.” Buck and friends get kids into a festive mood with good-time boogie classics like “Barefootin’” and “Walking the Dog,” and Buck and guests all put their right feet in on “Hokey Pokey.” Buck’s own “The Mice Ate My Rice” and “Ripsy Dipsy” prove that nothing stops him from having a good time, even when “Everything Hurts.” The celebration ends as happily as it started with “The Party’s Over.” “Children are our future and our treasure,” says Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural. “Nothing makes me happier than seeing kids have a good time, and I’m so proud to be able to introduce them to my musical roots and get them boogying to the sounds of Zydeco music.”
Official band website: www.buckwheatzydeco.com
More Kids News!!! Sprout is set to launch its first, long form original series Noodle and Doodle (26x11) on Saturday, September 25 at 9a, in conjunction with the channel's fifth anniversary. Noodle and Doodle will then air every Saturday and Sunday morning at 9a and again at 11:30a. The preschool series will air as part of the channel's live morning programming block, The Sunny Side Up Show, which is expanding to include weekends. The Sprout produced series is hosted by Sean, co-hose of The Sunny Side Up Show, and Noodle, a puppet that enjoys working in the kitchen, and Doodle, a virtual electronic pal, and features arts, crafts and healthy cooking step-by-step activities for preschoolers and their families. The series also includes Sean's dog Doggity, who takes viewers into an animated world where a group of cooking dogs team up to solve problems and cooking snacks in the kitchen. The animated Doggity segments were created in conjunction with series creator John McCoy and Ka-chew!, a division of Klasky Csupo (Rugrats, Wild Thornberrys). A corresponding website for the series will debut at SproutOnline.com ( www.sproutonline.com ) after September 25. PBS Kids will premiere Dinosaur Train Under the Sea, a new 1-hour underwater special based on The Jim Henson Company's CGI preschool animated series Dinosaur King ( www.pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain ), on Friday, August 20 (check local listings). The dinosaur friendly and science-focused series was created by Craig Bartlett (Hey Arnold!). Parents, caregivers and educators can find resources and activities based on the series at PBS Parents ( www.pbsparents.org ) and PBS Teachers ( www.pbsteachers.org ). Scholastic Media releases I Spy Universe for the Nintendo DS. The game takes players on interplanetary adventure, including riddles, puzzles and brainteasers, as they work to save the universe. I Spy Universe is distributed by Cokem International. The game is based on the popular I Spy books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick, which are published by Scholastic. The I Spy property will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2011. MGA Entertainment launches Bitty Buttons, its new line of magical rag dolls. Designed to encourage kid's imagination and creativity, the line includes different 13-inch dolls. The mythology tells that each Bitty Buttons doll magically comes to life on its "sewn date" (aka birthday), and is made from a specific unique fabric and has its own personality, all a reflection of its birth date, and each has a pet for example: Crumbs Sugar Cookie Sewn on December 4 (National Cookie Day) she is made from pieces of a baking apron and has a "sweet" personality, good manners and likes to have friends over for tea and snacks she has a mouse; Spot Splatter Splash Sewn on October 25 (Picasso's birthday) she is made form a painter's overalls and is cute and creative and loves bright colors, messes, and eating spaghetti she has a zebra. The doll line also has its own 3D world at bittybuttonsworld.com ( www.bittybuttonsworld.com). Sesame Workshop and Mercy Corps are partnering to bring educational programming to kids in Haiti. Sesame Workshop has dubbed one DVD featuring two Sesame Home Videos into Creole, and produced three short original films shot in Haiti that specifically focus on the country's post-earthquake challenges. The videos underline the importance of physical activity, healthy eating, teamwork and play. The films, created by Sesame Workshop and filmmaker Linda Costigan following the earthquake with local production teams, promote cooperation, self-esteem, creativity and hope. Mercy Corps will distribute at least 1,000 DVDs of the programming to schools, orphanages and other kid-centric facilities in the country.
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