Archive | 2016

Rox in Sox, Portland’s premiere “Children’s Music and Book Festival,” founded and hosted by the very generous musician and organizer Aaron Nigel Smith, was a stunning success this year, and not just because the main act, OzoKids, roxed our sox off. First of all, there was a llama. Second of all, there was a llama. Third of all, there was some sort of cool Home Depot building project for kids, a cavalcade of cool kindie musicians like Mo Phillips, and, for real, a llama. At the end of the show I played a few songs then hauled out my drums to give kids a last chance to dance.

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Today I brought All Around This World to the Mukilteo Public Library in Everett, Washington, where the kids and I sang together, danced together and brayed like Sicilian donkeys together. In this photo the kids are drumming their hearts out on a “shaabi” song from Egypt.

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At the All Around This World class today at Langley Public Library on Washington’s Whidby Island the kids and I sang songs in languages like Nubian and Uzbek, danced in circles while we reached up to try to grab imaginary North Indian stars, and drummed ourselves into a Surinamese frenzy.

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Goodness gracious, such a rockin’ class today at Coupeville Public Library on Washington’s Whidby Island! There were a half dozen “best songs of the day,” but I think the best of the best was All Around This World’s drum-tastic version of “Wala Wahed,” an Egyptian “shaabi” song by superstar Hakim.

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Greetings from Oak Harbor Public Library on lovely Whidby Island, located north of Seattle, Washington. I taught two classes at the library today, both populated by kids aplenty who sang, danced, and bubbled over with cuteness.

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Welcome to Juanita Park, in Kirkland, Washington, where the Sand Family Band played our hearts out to so many kids as part of the Kirkland Summer Concert Series. Sing along with us in the embedded videos below as we introduce Kirkland kids to “Taralilalalai,” a “Sozanda” from Uzbekistan, and “Ay Di Di Di Dai,” a hand-play kids may be singing in Israel this very day.

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At this afternoon’s show in Kirkland, Washington, All Around This World teacher, Elizabeth Samse of Samse Studios, welcomed us with open arms (and clapping hands) as we rocked out on a set of family-friendly international tunes. The concert took place in front of Metropolitan Music in Totem Square. Apparently two of our four family band members missed the memo that we were all supposed to wear striped shirts so we could look like members of a 1920’s chain gang.

After the band show I slipped around the corner to Northwest Cellars Winery where I played an all-request show of All Around This World songs for grown-ups.

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Today I sang All Around This World’s “Scattered Among the Nations” songs with two dozen delightful families from the Seattle Jewish Community School. Here we’re all enjoying “Taralilalalai,” the All Around This World version of a song from Bukhara in Uzbekistan, which for centuries was home to communities of Jewish merchants (and musicians) who traded goods along the Silk Road.

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This evening in Seattle the Sand Family joined our long-time friend and gracious host, Michal, and families from the Kadima Reconstructionist Community for a family-friendly concert in the park. (Enjoy the embedded video Michal shot of us sang “Ana Latu,” a love song from Tonga in the Pacific Islands.) We sang a few songs for old and new friends, played voraciously on the playground, devoured ice cream sandwiches at the ice cream shop nearby…what could be better than being on tour?

At last night’s show during Family Friendly Friday at the Top Hat Lounge in Missoula, Montana, the Sand Family Band rocked so hard that we were nearly booted us off stage…twice. Toward the end of our first set, as in all our shows, we brought out bags of instruments — drums, shakers, tambourines — for the frenetically dancing families in the audience to use to become our percussion corps for the Indonesian kids’ song, “Gili Gio.” The kids loved the instruments! The grown-ups dining and drinking in other parts of the Top Hat…maybe not as much. The manager kindly told us we were too loud and had to tune down the revelry. ROCK ON SAND FAMILY (strike 1). During the second part of the show, my solo set, I called a few audience members up onto stage and gave them shakers to support me on a tune. The manager returned to kindly say no way Sand Family, keep the kiddos in their place. ROCK ON SAND FAMILY (strike 2). Later the Sand Family committed the greatest sin of all by taking too long to pack up our instruments and move out of the parking spot in the stage load-in zone so the next band could move in, causing no shortage of chagrin. CHAGRIN, I tell you. (Rock on, Sand Family, strike three!)

Note: We met the Dodgy Mountain Men. We don’t want to undermine their carefully crafted persona, but they seemed nice.

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