Museum of the Red River

This Saturday I performed at the Museum of the Red River for "Acrofest," their yearly celebration of Fran the Acrocanthosaurus. The Acro is Oklahoma's state dinosaur!

We had two great shows! We broadcast the morning show via UStream. You can see it online here: The Saturday Show.

See below for photos from the afternoon show, as well as Lisa's great photos of Fran herself!

New Monty Harper / Mr. Billy Video Made by Teachers!

Check out this video of our song, "Reading Makes Me Want to Dance Out Loud!" This is a lot of fun with teachers acting goofy and dancing to our music to inspire their kids to read! What could be better! The ending cracks me up. I think we need a new DWR law (Driving While Reading)!

Say It In a Song!

I was selected by the Oklahoma Arts Council to help pilot a new program called Performing Arts Corps (PAC). The program puts artists into small schools to work with kids in their art form. Three other artists are involved: DWe Williams (storytelling), Perpetual Motion (modern dance), and Sugar Free Allstars (music). Of course I'll be teaching songwriting.

We are booking programs now for April and May. Here's the description of my program:

Songwriting is a great motivational tool to help students process and communicate new ideas!

Overview
This is a new elementary school program on songwriting, developed in cooperation with the Oklahoma Arts Council for their Performing Arts Corps grant. The program includes a performance for the entire school, plus workshops for a small group of 4th and/or 5th graders. After the OAC grant refund, the cost for qualifying small schools is only $125.

Assembly
Monty performs his award-winning "Wacky Witty Way-Out Songs" for your entire school (Prek-6th) in an interactive assembly program. Students will enjoy a live concert experience while learning a few basics of songwriting. Monty encourages students to develop their own creativite talents.

Workshops
Workshop students will create lyrics and music on the spot while exploring the ins and outs of songwriting. Monty will stretch students' creative and cooperative muscles while helping them develop new language and analytical skills.

Teachers
Teachers are provided an extensive guide to help them further develop student skills (no musical ability required!), after Monty's visit. Correlation to relevant PASS standards is included. An original student song adds pizzazz to any school project!

USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C.

I'm scheduled to perform on the National Lawn in Washington, D.C. October 23 and 24 for the first USA Science and Engineering Festival!

Can you find me on the list? It's kind of like playing Where's Waldo, there's so much going on! It'll be a scientastic good time!

Lisa and I are also working on booking a tour on the way out and back. If you know of any science museums or schools who might be interested, please let us know!

My program is called "Songs From the Science Frontier." Here's a description:

Dance like a dinosaur, spin like a planet, sing like an electricity-generating wind rotor blade! Children's singer/songwriter Monty Harper celebrates the wonder and joy of the scientific process with this interactive multimedia show for 1st-5th grade. Monty's lyrics amplify the cool factor in current scientific research, and many of the songs feature specific Oklahoma connections. Whether it's bat taxonomy, phototaxic bacterium, wheat genomics, or x-ray crystallography, Monty's enthusiasm for the topic will have your students itching to explore further on the science frontier!

Roundy Round Video

Check out this amazing fan-made video of my song, "Roundy Round"!

Here's the story behind it, from my friend Laurie: "I've been volunteering at my daughter's school, teaching science lessons. I want to expose her classmates to "Roundy Round," and I mentioned it to my husband, and lamented that I didn't have anything to show them while they are listening to it. So, my talented husband made a video with all sorts of video clips of planets and things going roundy round to the music. It is awesome."

I'll say! Check it out! Pass it on!

Suburban Acres Library, Tulsa

Today I did the first two of four shows for the Tulsa Public libraries in conjunction with the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on the topic of Jason and the Argonauts. This is part of the Imagination series - each program promotes an upcoming event at the TPAC. I did a few of these last year on a different story and really enjoyed it.

Part of the program involves me reading to the kids from the story, so I've spent some time this past week reading different versions of Jason, to find one I wanted to read aloud from.

The photos below were taken by the librarians at the Suburban Acres Library this morning (thanks!!). My audience consisted of two second grade classes, borrowed from the school next door. The kids were fantastic and we had a great time together talking and singing about heroes. They had prepared by reading two different versions of Jason and comparing them. So we had lots of comments about how my version was different.

Two more Jason shows tomorrow!

Halloween Madness!

Originally released in 1992 on cassette, my not so scary Halloween songs are now available on CD, with bonus tracks! This collection includes both versions of my all-time most requested song, "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet." Other titles include "There's a Vampire in Our Basement" and "Weird Things Happen on Halloween Night."

Available from: Kunaki

Click here for lyrics and more!

Songbook Grand Opening - Win a $50 iTunes Gift Card!

I've been working hard on a new project for the past couple of months, and now I'm ready to announce the new interactive online Monty Harper Songbook!

I'm celebrating this "Grand Opening" with a $50 iTunes giveaway!

My songbook features lyrics to 145+ songs that I have written or co-written, including all the songs available on my CDs and just as many that are not.

You'll also find guitar chords, videos, free MP3 downloads, and other extras such as study guides and lesson plans.

But the really cool part is that I've organized and posted my songs in a bulletin board format. This means that anyone who feels so inclined can add their own content.

I've already posted several fan-made videos, podcasts that feature my songs, lesson plans sent to me by teachers who used my songs, and other related items that I've collected over the years.

As a Monty Harper fan, I hope you'll be excited to explore the songbook, see what other people are saying, and post a comment here and there. You might post a related YouTube video, piece of artwork, lesson plan, or just a story about how a particular song drove you nuts all the way to California and back.

The drawing will be held on September 29, 2009 at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time. That's not much time, so enter now before you forget!

How to win the $50 iTunes gift card:

1. Go to http://montysongs.freeforums.org/

2. Register as a member of the forum. It's quick and easy. You won't get any unwanted email as a result. I promise.

3. Find your favorite Monty Harper song and click the title, then click "Post Reply."

4. Type a sentence or two about why the song is your favorite, how you've used it with kids, or what it means to your family. (Optional: You may attach a relevant file, such as artwork, a photo, video, etc.)

5. Click "Submit."

A few details, for those who want to know:

I reserve the right to disqualify an entry that I deem inappropriate. Things NOT to post include ads or self-promotion, anything a child shouldn't see or read, and anything devoid of meaningful content related to a song. Such posts will not appear in the songbook.

Yes, you can post more than once, and yes, each post gives you an extra chance at winning.

You must still be a registered member of this songbook forum on the day of the drawing in order to win.

Your chances of winning are likely to be excellent, compared to your chances of winning the lottery.

The $50 gift card can be used to purchase anything on iTunes. It can also be "gifted" to a friend.

Registering is quick, easy, and safe. You won't receive spam email as a result. I won't share your email with anyone else. When you register you agree not to post material that is copyrighted, and not to hold me legally responsible for anything that happens to the material you post - i.e. only post what you're willing to share with the world.

That's it - have fun!

Retreat

Last weekend Lisa and I took a little retreat to one of the Cedar Falls Cabins near Davis, OK to get some planning done for the year. We worked hard and had a great time just getting away for a day.

Breakfast on the back porch:

There was a beautiful creek out back, with little waterfalls making little waterfall music:

Looking back up at the cabin from the creek:

Our work area - see, we did do some work! We came home with new focus, goals, strategies, schedules - all pumped up to have a great year!

Wisconsin Trip

At the beginning of August Lisa, Evalyn, and I drove to Wisconsin to spend a week with our friends the Grisacks, AKA Mr. Billy and his family, Cathy, Taelor, and Wil. This is the same Mr. Billy I did the Let's Get Creative CD with. We wanted to combine some work with some fun. Mr. Billy and I recorded the instrument tracks for four brand new songs while the girls (Lisa, Evalyn, Cathy, and Taelor) went to the zoo and had other adventures together.

I got to see Mr. Billy perform, which was very cool because I've never seen him perform before. (He still hasn't seen me.) We got to eat dinner at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. We saw a drive-in double feature. We went to a water park resort and spent the night there for Taelor's birthday party - happy birthday Taelor!

And as I mentioned Mr. Billy and I even wrote and got a good start recording four new songs, which we are both very excited about. We are considering releasing them as digital singles as we finish them, rather than waiting until we have a whole CD ready. What do you think - good idea? Watch for that.

Here are Evalyn and Taelor on the swings at the drive-in movie. I know they are hard to tell apart because they went shopping and purchased identical outfits. That's Taelor on the left and Evalyn on the right, I'm pretty sure.

Here I am working hard on the lyrics to a song. I thought I had a good line but Billy says it was a reach.

Here are Billy and I in the basement studio discussing something or other to do with something. Notice the evil grin on Billy's face and see how the light of goodness shines off of mine.

The past week or so Lisa and I have been trying to organize our house and enjoy the last few days of summer (conflicting goals!). We went to back to school night at Evalyn's school tonight, and her first day back is Thursday. Hard to believe she'll be a third grader!

Lots of exciting stuff coming up, so stay tuned...

Weatherford

My last library show of the summer was yesterday morning in Weatherford! The Weatherford library has a sunken program area that's furnished like a living room with lots of cushy chairs. I had a small, quiet, and particularly comfy audience.

Here is one audience member after the show checking out Evalyn's blog. She left a really nice comment.

Yesterday afternoon we visited the SWOSU campus where I sang for the kids at an arts camp and answered a few questions about songwriting. I wish we'd had more time!

Today we are preparing for a trip to Wisconsin for songwriting, recording, and fun with Mr. Billy and his family. After that, the sky's the limit!

Marion, KS

This morning I performed in Marion, KS, in another auditorium, as you can see. Many among the audience were relatives - Lisa's aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, etc. etc.

Evalyn can even sing with her eyes closed!

I did "You're a Dinosaur" and made the mistake of inviting anyone who wanted to to come on stage, thinking there were only a few hands up, but then a flood of kids came up! So we had a herd of each dino type.

After the show we had a nice cookout at Lisa's cousin's house, and we got to know some of our cousins twice removed - those would be Lisa's cousin's grandkids, if I've got it right! Now we get a week "off," during which we will do ALL the things we've been putting off all summer. Haha!

Rose Hill and Emporia, KS

My two shows today were at opposite extremes of the spectrum in terms of audience and venue, and both were great fun.

This morning in Rose Hill we set up in the corner of the library, and had a small audience. One daycare group arrived early so I sat down and read "Prancing Dancing Lily" to them while we waited for showtime.

Here's a photo with most of the audience, after the show.
This evening in Emporia, I performed in a the Granada Theater, restored to it's original 1930s glory. It was their end of summer celebration. Kids had to read a certain number of hours in order to earn tickets to come to the show! We had a huge crowd! Here's a view from the balcony:

There was a "mosh pit" area down in front, where kids came to run around and dance during much of the show. Here they are for "Reading Makes Me Want to Dance Out Loud."

During the same song - Evalyn is doing her patented "Hyper Dyno" dance!

Whew - it's been a fun day. We are ready for bed, and will be up and at it again in the morning, at Marion!

Cherokee & Salt Plains

Today I had a very lively little group at the Cherokee library. These kids weren't shy at all about interacting with me during the program. It's fun to have a group like that!

Don't I look embarrassed? I must have played the wrong guitar chord. Actually this is during - you guessed it - "Silly Song."

On our way home we stopped by the Salt Plains state park to dig selenite crystals. It was really cool. We rounded the top of a hill and saw what looked like a huge lake in front of us - but it's really a dry plain covered with salt.

We dug little holes and found lots of crystals just under the surface.

It was a fun day. Now we are down to our last four library programs for the summer! Two tomorrow and one Wednesday in Kansas, then one next Thursday in Weatherford. Don't worry, we'll find plenty to keep ourselves occupied after that...

Oklahoma City

My show today at the downtown library in OKC kicked off a children's music festival which lasts all week, featuring local performers and musicians from the Kansas City area.

Lisa took a million great shots & as you can see, I had trouble narrowing them down.

Evalyn's friend Hope came with us today. Here they are together:

We sang "Don't Look, I'm Making a Book":

During "Silly Song," not only did kids suggest their own verses, they came up on stage to do it. This kind of happened spontaneously, and it worked really well in that auditorium. Here are shots of the kids who came up to write verses with me. Tail-swishing giraffe:

Being squished by a hippo:

Silenced by a wooly mammoth:

Stuffed into a turtle shell:

Milk-squirting cow:

More kids came on stage to help me out with "You're a Dinosaur":

Signing autographs after the show:

As you can see, we had a great time! I hope you can make it to some of the other festival events this week!