Noon Tunes

Today I performed for the Noon Tunes series at the library in downtown OKC. One of the moms was a big fan of my Jungle Junk cassette from when she was a kid! And the daughter of an old friend was there, all grown up! Man, I've been doing this a long time! 

 

Roundy Round

Near the end we were joined by a daycare group. Can you pick them out?

Smiles! :-D

Oooh, Stickers!

Whew - we made it home, and we have successfully completed our longest week of the summer! All the shows went very well this week.

Today we were in Marietta and Wilson.

At Marietta there was a cute little girl, probably not yet two, who must've liked the look of my guitar case with all its stickers. She walked right up front while I was singing. I employed my toddler aversion tactic, which is to say I bent down and sang directly to her. She backed warily away, but after another minute or two she tried again, and this time she was quicker. She grabbed my case by the handle, lifted it, and was attempting to walk off with it by the time her adult caught hold of her! We all had a good laugh over that!

Wilson was a great show - we had a pretty small crowd, but lots of enthusiastic participators, both kids and adults, so it was fun. Poor Evalyn was asleep in her mom's lap, and Lisa had to wake her so that she could sing "Oklahoma Annie."

But Evalyn stayed awake for the three hour drive home. I think we all caught a burst of energy knowing the week is over and the weekend upon us. At home she ran around with the neighborhood gang and got herself soaked in the rain puddles. At one point there were seven kids in a circle bending down with their heads together looking at a slug. I wish I'd had a camera.

Dispatch From the Road - Tahlequah

We are in Tahlequah, and we did two shows today at the library. The crowds were great; the room was full both times and the kids participated and listened very well.

Daddy (me) messed up and left behind the little doohickey that connects Evalyn's microphone into the sound system. So she had to sing her parts in "Oklahoma Annie" without benefit of amplification. That maybe was a good thing, because the room got very quiet for that song in order to hear her well.

Evalyn did a fantastic job singing. She says it was fun and exciting to sing for the crowd. She compared it to going to a birthday party because it was fun and special. What a trooper!

I wanted to post a photo or video clip, but we don't have the doohickey that connects the camcorder to the computer! Have you noticed we are suffering a shortage of doohickeys around here?

Well, we'll get to it soon. See you at the library!

Oklahoma Annie

We've been preparing all day for our first trip out on the summer library tour as a family tomorrow. We'll be heading for Tahlequah early in the morning, then to Ft. Gibson and Checotah the next day, and back home.

Evalyn is wanting to perform the song we wrote together, "Oklahoma Annie," with me on stage. I'm really looking forward to that!

Last year she performed "Hummingbird Hum" with me several times. She was five then, and rather unpredictable on stage. Now that she's six, we've asked for a certain degree of professionalism from her. We just want to know she isn't going to lie down on the floor in the middle of the song, or start swinging the mic around or doing anything distracting to draw kids' attention away from the song.

So we've been rehearsing, and I told her we had to get through it twice with no mistakes before she could perform with me at a program. We managed that today, although she was reluctant to take it seriously. (It did not help that she had a sleep over last night and came home exhausted!) It did help to let her know that it's OK with me if she DOESN'T choose to rehearse and perform.

I think our number together should go really well tomorrow. Evalyn wanted to use the actual "Oklahoma Annie" - a toy - on stage, and once we worked out some choreography for her to do with the horse, that's when she really started getting into it more. It'll be very cute, if we can pull it off!!

Any other performers out there who work with your own kids? Feel free to post some good advice!!

See you at the library!