Tag Archives: Baltimore

Going Through a Photo Disc.

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I am always happy when I receive a photo disc in the mail from our good friend Bill Auth. Bill has documented Milkshake’s life since the beginning in 2002, trying to go where we go, whether it’s glamorous (the Grammys, Austin City Limits, SiriusXM) or not (schools, libraries, backyards). Bill has been at the event, taking pictures, and helping when he can. We love him and are so thankful he’s there.

Our friend photographer Bill Auth.

Our friend, photographer Bill Auth.

It’s hard to keep up with all the photos sometimes and inevitably, some discs get misplaced in the train wreck that is my office. But thanks to the long weekend and indoor sports like cleaning, I came across two somewhat recent discs of amazing photos, one from our Annual Midnite Noon New Year’s Eve show at the Maryland Science Center, the other from our somewhat Annual Valentine’s Spectacular.

This was our 6th year performing at Midnite Noon and the Science Center is a great venue for big fun. Bill and new helper Joe hoist the confetti cannon to the top stairs and at noon, (or close to it!), Bill sets it off and yellow bits of confetti drift down on the audience. It’s really quite magical and a great way to start the new year a bit early. The folks at the Science Center are incredibly gung ho and accommodating and said the Earth Ball during “Travel Far” would be fine. I was a bit concerned but thought we were far enough away from the dinosaur exhibit. Still, we cut the song short because the Earth Ball was crashing into the cashiers and going in all kinds of potentially disastrous directions.

Our Valentine’s Spectacular is another favorite of mine, since I love saying “I love you” a lot and this gives me reason to celebrate that fact with rose petals and tulips and chocolate kisses. I always buy too much of these, but the kids love them. This was our fourth Spectacular, and we opened the show with “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.” It took mere seconds for the little girls to take all the tulips I placed on the stage and give them to their moms, but I hoped that would happen anyway. Moo passed out most of the chocolate kisses and took photos with many fans. During “I Love You,” I sat down and tossed rose petals. Mushy? Maybe. But again, the kids love it and we do, too.

I’ve picked a few of my favorite pictures to share with you. Thanks to Heidi Sheppard for snapping some of the Midnite Noon shots while Bill was manning the confetti cannon. Always so much fun!

Chessie Jam – Baltimore’s kid fest

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I always admire people who think big and do something for the love of it. Such was the case with Alexis Jenkins, a Baltimore-area promoter and mother of two who decided to combine both into a music and fun festival for kids. To my knowledge, it’s never been done here in Baltimore. Sure, we’ve had our kid concerts and bands like Milkshake at some family-friendly festivals. But nothing on such a big scale and specifically for kids.

Alexis called her festival Chessie Jam, making her festival logo Chessie, a yellow sea monster. Legend goes that Chessie was/is a sea monster swimming in the Chesapeake Bay. This Chessie was kind and loved kids of course, and Alexis brought Chessie to life for the Jam, hiring a mascot dressed as Chessie to dance and play with the kids. She also hired the Oriole Bird, since all of Baltimore had orange fever at the time, our beloved O’s taking the ALC.

My mom with the Oriole Bird.

My mom with the Oriole Bird.

Lisa, Justin Roberts and Mikel.

Lisa, Justin Roberts and Mikel.

The Jam was set for Saturday, October 4th and besides Milkshake, Alexis booked Justin Roberts, Recess Monkey, Father Goose, and Lalabibi and had Biz Markie spinning tunes in between. There was the usual kid fare of moon bounce, face-painting, balloon art and various kid-centric kiosks set up around the theatre, and the day turned beautiful after morning clouds. I was especially excited to see Father Goose again after all these years, and finally meet Justin Roberts and all of the guys from Recess Monkey, both two kid bands I admire.

Father Goose looked ageless and the only sign of time passing was his little boy, who now joined him on stage. When Milkshake was starting out we had been part of a tour for kids called Jamarama.  We played a few tours, the first in 2005, with Laurie Berkner, the second in 2006 with Dan Zanes. At the time, Father Goose joined Dan on stage and they shared billing. It was great fun and there are many stories to tell, but that’s for another blog.

After doing what we usually do before a show –  set up our green room, blow up baseballs, the earth ball and make sure things are all ready to go – we chatted with Angelique Redmond, a woman starting an online kid radio station here called KINKX KIDS RADIO.  Angelique is really excited about the station and we look forward to watching its progress.

Glenn rocks.

Glenn rocks.

Glenn (barefoot), Shepp, Alan of Sirius, Lisa & Mikel

Glenn (barefoot), Shepp, Alan of Sirius, Lisa & Mikel

For this show, we welcomed back musician extraordinaire Glenn Workman, who would be filling in for Brian on keyboard and accordion. Glenn had played with us years ago and it was fun to work with him again. Glenn has a complete disdain for shoes of any kind, and his feet do look hobbit-like after years of walking the world barefoot. I remember Glenn accompanying Mikel, Shepp and I to a recording session at Sirius Satellite Radio and, yes, he walked NYC shoeless.

The afternoon was a blast, and I loved seeing kids and families enjoying what was a great festival exclusively for them. I’m looking forward to the Second Annual Chessie Jam Festival in 2015.

Special thanks to Lorionna Miller, Bill Auth and Linda Miller for the following pictures from our performance.

Guitars, bass and…tuba!!

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Adrian Cox warms up before tracking “Fish”

On Sunday, June 10th the music got deeper – or should I say lower – as our buddy Adrian Cox came in with his tuba to play on an eclectic little song called “Fish”.  Adrian is a bass player extraordinaire who just happens to play tuba once in a while.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I think the tuba is one of the more unusual horn instruments, and probably one of the most difficult to play.  After watching Adrian blow into that horn with all the air he could muster, reaching these almost off-the-radar (and probably off the staff) notes, I have profound new respect for both instrument and player.

Things were in strumming mode as Shep, Mikel and our good friend Howard Markman laid guitar tracks on June 13th.

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Howard Markman with his acoustic

Howard Markman is one of my favorite acoustic guitarists.  He’s intuitive and brilliant and has released a wonderful bunch of CDs of original music.  Although it’s not categorized as “Kid Music,” my daughter loves his tunes.  Mikel, Cord and I recently performed some of our own original “adult music” with Howard at a songwriter’s show here in Baltimore. Our kids were there and it was great fun. Check out Howard’s music by visiting his site.  We asked Howard to add his great picking to a song called “Workin’ Kid Blues” and two instrumentals Mikel had written that are absolutely beautiful. Although we’ve never included instrumentals on our CDs, in this case I think they’ll be refreshing amuse bouche in between all those songs.

 

photos by good friend and photographer Bill Auth.