With jaunty aplomb, independent recording artist Billy Kelly announces the April 5 release of his third family album, The Family Garden (YAY Music, $12.00, run time 37 minutes, for ages 2 and up). Says Billy, “If, from a production standpoint, my last disc was a topiary garden then this one is (as the name suggests) the family garden. It's loose, it's a hodgepodge, it's friendly, comfortable, and just about anything goes. And man, those tomatoes are gonna be delicious.”
Off-the-cuff banter and spontaneous jams pop up throughout The Family Garden, providing a behind-
the-scenes peek at Billy Kelly and his band The Blahblahblahs at work and play. Billy explains, ”My first two albums were produced like most CDs, heavily tracked in the studio — we laid down the drum tracks, then added the bass, then the guitar, then vocals, and so on, one at a time. I wanted The Family Garden to be organic, so we recorded live in the studio, with minimal overdubs. My goal was to capture
not only recordings of the songs, but also the personality of the band by having us sit in a room together,
joke around as we often do, and play the music TOGETHER. The end result is just what I intended: the
album has a relaxed, unaffected, 'family' air to it. My daughters Jane (10) and Lilly (7) even helped out,
each performing on one song.”
The Family Garden leaps spryly from country to ragtime to rock. The music is peppy and fun, featuring
songs for all age groups, from the interactive "I'm Thinking of an Animal" for the preschool set to a tune
for older kids titled "It's Close Enough," which pays tribute to all things ALMOST perfect. Parents will dig
Billy’s cover of the B-52s’ classic "Rock Lobster” — high-spirited rock and roll played with wild abandon.
Molly Ledford from the band Lunch Money co-wrote and joins Billy in singing the sweetly sincere “We
Could Be Pen Pals.” There’s even a patriotic country song written for Billy’s dad. “That Old American
Flag” is based on the true story of a father-and-son project, erecting a 25-foot flagpole outside Billy’s
childhood home. Other highlights include “Coney Island Washboard (a ragtime tune dating back to the
1920s), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (a tribute to Billy’s favorite movie), and the album’s title track, an ode to the
joys of digging in the dirt with the whole family. Particularly noteworthy is “The Invention of the Straw,”
which Billy describes as “a real up-tempo number, chronicling the amazing, albeit factually inaccurate,
story of the invention of the drinking straw. This is a truly strange song, even for me. It’s loaded with
completely false information from beginning to end. This song asserts, among other things, that Nancy
Reagan was Queen of England in 1997. Also, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.”
On January 1st, 2009 Billy Kelly made a New Year's resolution to record a CD of some of the songs he
had written over the years for his two daughters. A few months later Thank You For Joining The Happy
Club was released. Much to Billy’s delight, the album was rapidly embraced by kids’ music bloggers,
kids’ music radio programs, and, most importantly, by kids! His song “People Really Like Milk” went
to #1 on Sirius/XM’s Kids Place Live chart, remaining on the chart for the better part of summer 2009,
and scoring a glowing review on NPR’s All Things Considered. Thank You For Joining The Happy
Club made the Time Out New York Kids and About.com/Children’s Music “Best Kids’ CDs of 2009” lists.
Common Sense Media praised the album’s “School-House-Rock feel that’s super fun … vast appeal for
kids and adults alike.” Warren Truitt of Kids’ Music That Rocks called the CD “a super set of indie rock
songs for kids … Breezy, slyly humorous tunes … Super duper children’s music debut!”
Following the release of Thank You For Joining The Happy Club, Billy jumped feet first into making
quirky animated and live action music videos for kids, writing more songs, and playing shows throughout
the country with his band. In August 2010 he released a 10-song CD, Is This Some Kind of Joke?,
which includes a duet with Davy Jones of The Monkees. This album actually features the longest,
most heavily produced song about a cardboard box in the history of popular music and probably in the
history of cardboard boxes, too. Stefan Shepherd of Zooglobble placed Is This Some Kind of Joke?
on his “Top 10 Kids’ Albums of 2010” list and declared, “No joke – this is a seriously fun album. Highly
recommended.” Jeff Bogle of Out With the Kids enthused, “There isn’t another soul alive making music
for children quite like Billy Kelly. And that is not some kind of joke.”
When not making music, Billy Kelly enjoys spending time with his family, writing poems, drawing
pictures, and working in his garden.
The Family Garden will be available online at amazon.com, cdaby.com, and thebillykellyshow.com.
My Take on the CD
This new CD was so funny! With words that are just downright goofy, my kids thought that the music was simply hilarious. I had never heard of Billy Kelly before but found the above video from Kelly's prior CD and loved the duet between Kelly and Davy Jones. I had not heard Jones sing in a while and found the two of them to be a good match together.
We have come to find that the girls have been asking and asking for us to listen again and again. The girls' favorite songs included lConey Island Washboard and It's Close Enough. I liked Rock Lobster and It's a Wonderful Life. Overall though the whole CD was fun and I found that I, along with my girls humming some of the songs from the CD, and we have been being asked to play this over and over in the car.
I strongly recommend The Family Garden to parents and children alike, you will not be disappointed!
All opinions expressed in this review are my own and not influenced in any way by the company. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Please refer to this site's Disclaimer for more information. I have been compensated or given a product free of charge, but that does not impact my views or opinions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New to the Divadom or to Dad of Divas Reviews?
Please Subscribe to my RSS Feed! Subscribe in a reader
Questions?Drop me a line at dadofdivas@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment