Altus and Hollis

Yesterday Lisa and I made the four hour drive to Hollis, OK, leaving home at 5:00 AM. We left Evalyn at her grandma's so she wouldn't have to miss her last swimming lesson.

We had a blast at Hollis and then Altus; both great audiences, both great shows.

This is the Hollis show:

Here's Lisa's favorite shot - me doing the shark grin, with my eyes flashing red. Don't ask me how I do it, I don't know.

Posing with fans:

Westin has my fingers trapped!

Here's the Altus show:

Posing with fans:

McAlester

It's been a busy two weeks! I'm a bit behind in blogging about my gigs, so I'm going to go ahead and do today's and work backwards. That puts things in the wrong order, but oh, well, now you know!

Today we were at McAlester. I've been to the library there many years running, and we always enjoy coming back. Many of the kids hang out between and after the shows, and it's fun to interact with them. My first show was populated mostly by preschoolers, and somehow I actually ended up singing for a full hour!

Anita Ross, the librarian, always goes all out in decorating the room, as you see in these pix:

Dancing "out loud"

"Gimme five!"

Posing with some fans:

Discussing books:

Wellington, KS

Lisa says yesterday's performance at Wellington was my best yet this summer. I'm starting to get all these new songs under my fingers! Here are some photos...

Ballerina mice...

Ready to load the car...

Ada and Coalgate

Today I was at one library that I have visited every summer since we don't remember when, Ada, and one library I've never been to before, Coalgate. The first two pix are from the Ada show, the second two from Coalgate. I'm keeping it short because tomorrow we have another early departure and I need to get to bed!

Hugoton, KS

Lisa and I left Evalyn at her grandma's yesterday so that she could do swimming lessons in the evening, and we drove six hours up through the Oklahoma panhandle to Hugoton, KS. They have a very nice library there, newly renovated with a nice big program room. I had a super audience this morning and Lisa, as always, took some great photos for you. 

"I'm gonna play my ribs like a kalimba!"

Instead of decorating for the "Be Creative" theme, the librarians had covered one wall in the program room in white paper, and after the show, kids were invited to draw something on the wall. I took a turn, as you can see. The finished masterpiece (ha ha) read: "Monty Harper sez READ A BOOK!"

I also got to pose with a few of the kids, next to their creations. A green tornado:

A rockin purple guitar:

Flower, butterfly, turtle, caterpillar, and more.

During the six hour drive home, Lisa helped me write down some notes about the program. We are still trying to figure out the best way to present "Reading Makes Me Want to Dance Out Loud." 

If you don't know the song (from the new CD), each verse asks kids to dance like a character from a picture book. The four books have one thing in common - they are each about a dancing animal. For example, Dumpy LaRue is a dancing pig.

Kids have a part where they shout "me!" and that works really well, but the dancing aspect needs help. Should we suggest specific moves for each animal, or keep it open to the kids' creativity? Should Evalyn maybe demonstrate some dance moves (when available)? What do you think?

Sand Springs - First Summer Shows!

I did my first two summer shows in Sand Springs today, debuting FIVE new songs from the "Let's Get Creative" CD, and it went very well. I had two fantastic groups of kids, and I learned a lot about how to present the new songs.

Here are some photos from the day. Evalyn sang the chorus on "Don't Look, I'm Making a Book," just like on the CD. 

"Silly Song" continues to amaze us in terms of just how well it works to get the kids loosened up and participating. A simple song, but not simplistic. Here I am grinning like a shark.

Here is a shot from the second show of me and Evalyn together on stage.

"Pop Up Sit Down" always makes for fun photos:

Lisa made me pose for this one, so I might as well share it!

After we got home and had some dinner, Evalyn was off to her first swimming lesson of the summer. Here she is in the pool:

And afterwards, here she is feeding a cracker to a water-monster pipe.

Ev's Creative Corner

My eight-year-old daughter, Evalyn, has started her own blog called "Ev's Creative Corner"! We are all very excited about it around here, because she is so excited. She has already posted an introduction, two book reviews, and an original poem. AND she has way more followers than I do, after less than three days! 

We received a comment from a reader about her writing that says, "Wow, Evalyn, if I hadn't known you were eight I would've thought you were twenty five!"

I just want you to know that although I have given Evalyn some help setting things up, the writing is all her own. Sometimes she types for herself, but mostly at this point I have been taking dictation for her. The spelling and punctuation are me, but the wording, vocabulary, sentence structure, thoughts and ideas are all Evalyn. 

So far she has been highly motivated to post something new every day. Please visit Evalyn's blog and post a comment, click the "follow" link, and take her poll about what to do on a rainy day. This kind of feedback will keep her going strong!

Thanks!

Jiggle Jam

We attended Jiggle Jam in Kansas City this weekend and had a great time. Jiggle Jam is the only major festival focussed exclusively on children's music. It's amazing. We saw Recess Monkey (and got an interview for Lisa's podcast), Trout Fishing in America, Justin Roberts, They Might Be Giants, Brady Rymer, Dan Zanes, and many more. 

Lisa captured Dan Zanes in a signature jump in the photo above. (She posted a bunch of photos from the weekend on facebook.) What a showman. He took requests throughout his show, and got everyone dancing. He and his band paraded through the audience, singing, at the end of the last song, then stood in the sun signing autographs by the sales table.

Most of the bands were very accessible this way, and that made it a lot of fun. Jiggle Jam III is already in the works, so make your plans now!  

Letter from Perkins

I used to get letters from kids quite often, but I rarely do these days. Last week I performed at Perkins Elementary, and the other day I received this letter from one of the students. Isn't this great?

Let's Get Creative

Oh, yeah, the other big project I did so far this year was to record a new cd with my buddy, Mr. Billy, a children's musician in Wisconsin. We worked long distance together to write and record 12 new songs for this summer's reading theme, "Be Creative at Your Library." We both think this collaboration represents our best work, and we're very excited about it!

Click the CD cover above to visit our CDBaby page, where you can hear samples of all the songs the songs. Let us know what you think!

Oklahoma School For the Blind

Howdy Dear Reader,

Long time no see. Clearly I lost steam on keeping up with blog posts this school year. Over the past two months I performed at Perkins, six schools in Ft. Worth, TX, Sangre Ridge here in Stillwater, Dale Elementary, Prague Elementary, Central High Elementary, Pioneer-Pleasant Vale, and Hollis. Before that I was doing workshops for librarians throughout Kansas and Oklahoma! The workshops were great fun, but kept me very busy. I will try to post a thing or two from all that activity, to catch you up.

Meanwhile I'm getting ready for a forty-four-show summer tour, plus a week at a camp in New York (with Evalyn)! And, I just posted a major new update to my website.

For now, here are some photos I found from back in October 2008 when I visited the Oklahoma School for the Blind in Muskogee. Many thanks to Barbara Collins for sending them in. Do you have any photos from recent Monty Harper shows? Send em and I'll post em! Thanks!

Smart e Bear!

My Smart-e-Bear arrived today from intellitoys! 

It's a plush bear that plays music and games. You squeeze his paws to tell him what to do. If you ask for "Fun Songs," then my song, "The Cat Came Back" is the second choice. 

I must admit that although I knew my song was on the bear, it didn't really hit home until I had the item in hand and heard my own voice coming out of it. This is very cool! The bear is cute (cuter in person than he is on the website) and very soft. The sound quality is great. Evalyn loves it! She's impressed that her daddy is on the same toy as Trout Fishing in America. (So's her daddy.)

I haven't tried this yet, but the bear is supposed to be computer compatible so that you can plug it in and download new songs and stories from the website. I'm in very good company here. Besides Trout Fishing, we also see Bill Harley, Joe McDermott, Charity and the JAMband, Joanie Bartels, Lou Del Bianco, Marla Lewis, Dianne de Las Casas - I'm just grabbing names that pop out at me here, there are dozens of amazing artists on the list.

You can still order yours from Amazon.com and get it in time for Christmas!

Museum of the Red River

Yesterday I performed at the Museum of the Red River in Idabel, Oklahoma. Evalyn came with me, and so did my mom, who had always been curious to see the museum. They both took photos for me.

Here are my dinosaurs for the "You're a Dinosaur" song. Does the hadrosaur in the middle look familiar? I did that song in honor of the museum's most impressive display, an Acrocanthosaurus, a great big meat-eating dinosaur, similar to a T-Rex, but with three fingers on each hand, and spines down his back. I replaced the "Tyranosaur Crunch" with the "Acrocanthosaur Crunch," which has a nice ring to it I think!

During my first set, Evalyn sang "Oklahoma Annie" with me, and here we are during the second set, doing "Humming Bird Hum." I changed up most of the songs because it turned out that most of the kids who came in for the second show were also at the first.

During "Silly Song" a big ol' grizzly bear joined me onstage!

My mom, Evalyn, and her newest Webkinz buddy, "Waddles," posed here for me.

Evalyn took this shot of me making a funny face during lunch.

Podcasts Galore

I've been working hard on my new podcast for librarians, called "The Program Room." The first four episodes are up already. Some live conversations are scheduled, and other interviews are in the can, including one with Bill Harley, and another with Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. These programs are aimed at children's librarians, but really anybody involved with creativity and kids will get a lot out of them. You can check it out at TheProgramRoom.com, or search for it on iTunes.

Meanwhile, Lisa has posted not one, but TWO brand new Kids Music Planet podcast specials for Halloween! They each feature tons of fun songs to celebrate one of our favorite holidays! You can check them out at KidsMusicPlanet.blogspot.com, or search for them on iTunes.

It Could Have Been Worse

The new Scribblemonster CD is here! I just got to hear it the other day, and it's already one of my favorite CDs for families - very edgy and cool. Nobody comes up with concepts like Scribble Jim (I'm a Utility Pole, for example?!?!), and nobody beats the Scribblemonster band for tight rocking melodic arrangements. It's great, and I would definitely say that, even if my name wasn't on the back cover. 

Yes, I co-wrote one of the songs, track 7, "It Could Have Been Worse," with Scribble Jim himself. 

What was it like writing with the great scribbled one? Well, (you see this coming, don't you! Wait for it... Wait for it....) IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE! Actually, I learned a lot, and I think we are both quite proud of the song. Jim says that most of the songs on this CD either fall into the "kids like it" camp or the "parents like it" camp, but the one we wrote together falls into the "everybody likes it" category!

("Everybody likes it" is a category, not a camp - I just wanted to make sure you caught that; I'm not a big camper. See how just writing about it makes me silly?)

Anyhow, yes I never would have written the "snail" line in a song for myself, but something told me Jim would love it, and he did, and now I do too. That's what's super cool about co-writing. 

This is our second collaboration; in 2007 the Scribble Monster Band recorded backing tracks for my song, "Get a Clue," and it ROCKS! I sure hope we can work together some more in the future.

And, speaking of collaborations, I've been working closely with my friend, Mr. Billy (My other rocking collaborator on the Get a Clue CD). We are working on twelve new songs for the "Be Creative at Your Library" theme this summer. I'm beginning to get very excited about this project because the songs and recordings are coming along very nicely. More about this later, of course. Stay tuned!

Sunnybrook

On Wednesday I visited two 2nd grade classrooms in two different schools, both to honor summer readers (see the previous post). These photos are from Mrs. Frost's second grade class at Sunnybrook Christian School. As you can see, we had a great time!