The only other session I managed to see was on the State of Kindie. Even though it was an impressive line-up of knowledgable people, I jumped at the opportunity to go play bass in another video with Ralph. This was the next moment of irony in that as I was listening to Dan Zanes make a valid point about the whiteness of the room, I was going to make another video with some white people.

The rest of Saturday daytime highlights included meeting Nicole Funk of Gabuduck and playing with that cool app they created featuring KBC Kids, and learning how to circular breathe from Miss Amy.  I also got to meet several very cool folks who I’ve only known in the cyber world, including Dave Loftin and Paul Butler, and of course chat some with Neeta Ragoowansi of Sound Exchange.

I’m going to skip giving my impressions of the Saturday performers as I really didn’t watch much of that. Several are well established and I’m sure everyone will give reviews of them, and besides I was more looking forward to the new acts I had never heard of on Sunday- but I will say that Chris Ballew aka Casperbabypants rocked!

I missed most of the performances on Saturday because we had already planned to shoot what I hope is the coolest video of the weekend- a performance of Ralph’s “Name Song” that included as many Kindie acts as possible crammed into a tiny hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express. It was a riot, and so awesome to be packed in a small space with so much talent and energy! I mean, seriously, check out this list of people we had involved in this; Brian Wimer behind the camera, Ralph, Big Bang Boom, Miss Amy, Mindy Thomas (of SiriusXM Kids Place Live), Aaron Nigel Smith, Skidoo, Steve Roslonek (Steve Songs), Bari Koral, the Not-Its, Lee Overtree (Story Pirates…and arrgg I can’t remember name of who he was with- Sorry, help!!!), Alex Otey…and dang I KNOW there were a few others…grrr..please tell me who I left out so I can edit  This was followed by hanging some at Littlefield while having a brew and chatting a bit with Mona Kayhan, one of the producers of the show.

But the BEST part of the weekend for us was the Sunday showcase, not only because Big Bang Boom performed, but also because it was open to the public and included some great performances of acts I had never seen! And I enjoyed them all!

**There aren’t enough O’s in smooth to describe the musical stylings of Jazz at Lincoln Center Webop. Excellent musicianship coupled with clever lyrics equals a fun band for fresh kids and music snobs alike.

**Bari of the Bari Koral Family Rock Band had my favorite voice of the day; ear candy. Musically the instruments and voices blended together so well and you could see the kids really respond to what she was saying.

**Steve Songs showed why he has a TV show on PBS kids- such a great performer and personality. He just has that vibe, not to mention brilliant songs for kids, that kids dig. His band is also so on point and loved their onstage interactions.

**Apple Brains! What a trip! This was like a retro blast from the past not only visually (I’m thinking they could have been guest characters with the Banana Splits) but also the sound was a refreshing throw-back to early 1980s post-punk indie music.

**Moona Luna responded to Dan Zanes diversity challenge (of course she has been doing this long before his comments, but you know what I mean) with a full on bilingual set of entertaining and educational music. Love those latin sounds and I’m just a sucker for an accordion…I just can’t help it, it makes me smile.

**KBC Kids did a great job of interacting with the kids, and putting out some energy. They are actually good rappers and the lyrics are easily relatable for a variety of ages.

And of course Big Bang Boom rocked…of course I’m a bit biased, hehe! But my favorite moment of the Sunday performance was an encore scat performance during one of our song by Tor Hyams. Thank you Tor and Ralph for sitting in with us!!

Then we drove 10 hours back to Greensboro, NC….and now back to work.

The song, which is on the first Big Bang Boom cd and written by Chuck and Steve, has won the children’s category of the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting contest!! Very cool, yes?

Listen to it here…

“Monster Under The Bed”