Monty's Children's Music Blog: Wiggle Out Loud

Monday, September 15, 2014

Wiggle Out Loud

Yesterday was the second "Wiggle Out Loud" children's music festival in Oklahoma City. We are lucky to have this in our state - it's the only major children's music festival that's free to attend, and it includes great local, regional, and national acts! I was privileged to start things off, then Lisa, Evalyn, and I enjoyed the rest of the day taking in all the great music, food and activities. Lisa took a lot of photos, so feast your eyes...

I got to kick things off!

I had a great little crowd - enough kids to have fun, but not so much there wasn't room to run around. During "Big Red Fire Truck" kids went "racing to the rescue."

That's Evalyn in the lower right, overseeing the fire truck races.

Going "Roundy Round!"

The Tyrannosaur Crunch!

Next up were the Doo Dads from Kansas City. Ken here on the keyboard was a childhood friend of mine. Weird we'd both end up performing music at the same festival!

Heidi Swedberg gave a rollicking wacky performance with the Sukey Jump Band. Say, isn't that Susan from Seinfeld? Yes. Yes it is. But she has given up the glamour of TV sitcoms in favor of her true calling - singing for kids!

"The Boogy Man" came out to dance during one of Heidi's songs. That's actually our buddy Brady Shattan, A.K.A. "Mini Elvis," under that ragmop.

The toddlers were drawn to the fountain for some relief from the heat. Actually the weather was quite pleasant, but they were still drawn to the fountain.

Adam & Kizzie from OKC are new to the children's music thing. A highlight of their set for me was their fantastic rendition of "Three Little Pigs" in song form.

Chris "Boom" Wiser, the mastermind behind this festival, and one half of the Sugar Free Allstars.

Rob "Dr. Rock" Martin, the other half, laying down a funky beat.

Boom & Dr. Rock brought several guests up to share the stage, including "Mini Elvis..."

... and one of the Choo Choo dancers from Disney Jr. Later he performed with Genevieve Goings, but we had to head home just as they were getting started. School night for Evalyn and all.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Wiggle Out Loud

Oklahoma's first ever day-long kindie music event, Wiggle Out Loud, was a sensation! I was given the honor of kicking the whole thing off and I had a nice little crowd to sing for. Thanks everyone who came out to see me!!!!

Kudos to Chris Wiser of the Sugar Free Allstars, the driving force behind the event! He introduced me as the "Grandfather of Children's Music in Oklahoma." Later he claimed that he meant to say "Godfather." I'm not sure how much difference there is. Point being, I was doing children's music before any of these other upstarts!

The most amazing meeting occurred just before my program. A dad and daughter whom I had never met before came up to say hi. As it turns out, I had heard the girl Willow's voice calling in a question on a podcast just the day before. The podcast is produced in California, so I never expected to meet anyone connected with it at a show in Oklahoma! But what's more, she was having a similar experience, because my voice was also in that very same podcast episode! I'm talking about Aaron's World Episode 35 - Meridian. Willow asked for her favorite of my songs, "Acrocanthosaurs!" Of course I played it for her and she joined me on stage. Very cool!

Lisa and I spent the rest of the day watching our vocational grandchildren show off their musical prowess. Children's music sure has come a long way! Secret Agent 23 Skidoo and his daughter MC Fireworks blew me away with their smart and meaningful children's rap. And the Verve Pipe were just flat-out awesome!

All the acts did a great job, of course, and the audiences were fantastic. It was amazing to play at a festival where the people came to hear great family music. (As opposed to being an add-on to whatever the main idea is, which is the usual festival situation.)

Lisa took some photos, below - I guess she has a natural bias toward photos of me! Who can blame her? I did take one shot myself of the Verve Pipe drummer. They let kids come up on stage and beat on the drum kit during the last song. When I approached the stage to take a photo I wasn't sure if I'd get a clear shot, there was such a huge crowd of photographers already there. I guess it's just not something you see at every concert!

Oh, and the last photo is me with ten-year-old Elvis impersonator Brady Shattan! Yes, you read right. The kid is a ball of fire! He wants to be a children's musician when he grows up. Ha, ha - me too!