Quick Shoutout to Yosi and More on the Imagination Movers

So this blog, while only a few months old, has been YEARS in the making. I go to so many kid's concerts and I love talking to the musicians. In fact last summer in a conversation with Yosi, he complimented me on my insight into kid's music and suggested that I start a kid's music blog. I didn't have faith in my writing ability, my knowledge, or even my opinions so I put it off. Until now. Thank you SOOO much Yosi for the suggestion.

With all of the contacts I have had with kid's musicians (in person and via email). I have not met a single artist who wasn't kind, polite, and eager to talk to their fans. I have been to a few concerts where I wondered if the performers were performing for the wrong group (like adult humor they think kids won't get but I think some of the savvy kids did). Some kid's musicians are such positive role models I want to make sure not just their music is highlighted in this blog.


The perfect example of this is the Imagination Movers. They are from New Orleans and their album Eight Feet (referring to the level the water rose in one of their houses after Katrina destroyed their city) is AMAZING. The song 'We Got Each Other (the Evacuation Song)' talks about what really matters when leaving a city because of a hurricane. We have seen the Movers 2 times and in both cases the guys walk through the crowd shaking hands and saying heart felt "Thank yous" for coming to see them play. Firm hand shakes, posing for photos with kids followed by a show full of so much energy that it just makes you smile. Not only that but they sell their DVD and CDs for $10 at the show. $10... can you believe that? We bought the DVD for our daughter and she watched it every day for about 6 months. When we went on vacation last summer we woke up every morning to requests for the Movers (Lesley couldn't say Imagination). I sent an email at 6:30am one day saying how happy I was that their website had videos and had a response from one of the Movers in a matter of hours. The Imagination Movers have signed with Disney which is a pretty big deal. I do not know what this means for them and their concerts, I would hate to see them go the way of other children's artists who now hock breakfast cereals to our impressionable children. I have a feeling that Rich, Scott, Dave, and Smitty just wouldn't let that happen.

Take Care,
Momma Daria

CD Review: The Hipwaders

This is my second CD review and I have been procrastinating not because of the CD but because I have very little faith in my reviewing abilities. Please bear with me.

Who: The Hipwaders These California guys really bring me back to days of House of Freaks - an awesome band out of Richmond, VA. Totally NOT your average kid's music band! They cover it all from 1920 jazzy percussion, guitar with great leading vocals to 1960s trippy tunes.

What: The self titled CD The Hipwaders. My family loves the 'Messy Room Song' which has had some nice air play on XMKids. When this CD landed in my mail box I was thrilled. It is packed with 18 songs but more than half are under 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Where: You're going to want to dance to most of these songs. Pretend to be a bus, a plane, a green bicycle. I think the songs are a little too short to be car friendly but maybe not.

Additional Positives: Any band that had a mandolin, airsynth, bass and congas on their CD gets a vote from me.

Things to grow on: I really wish more of the songs were longer. 18 tunes are a whole lot for a CD. Pick the best and expand on them - some songs sounded too similar to each other.

So in a nutshell this is a GREAT first album. The Hipwaders have a lot of promise and I wish them a great future.