The Laurie Berkner Band Blog

Kindiefest!

Today is the beginning of an awesome weekend for kids' music!

This afternoon in Brooklyn, Kindiefest kicks off with a keynote speech from our fellow kid's musician and friend, Dan Zanes.

The bad news is that the whole band and crew is off to Baltimore tonight (and tomorrow) for our outdoor show at Pier 6 tomorrow afternoon (tix are still available if you're interested)! 

Luckily, Carly the Two Tomatoes Intern will be attending Kindiefest and taking notes (she's also writing her thesis on children's music - very cool!)

Tomorrow, the whole day will be filled with talks, ideas, seminars, etc all about kid's music.  The day will end with performances by some of today's great children's musicians and bands.

On Sunday, a great lineup of even more bands and musicians will cap the event in style.  We're so excited to hear about what Carly has learned and to see how kid's music is evolving.

Lullaby

We get a lot of requests from fans for a lullaby CD.  As of now, we're working on some other great things, so a lullaby CD isn't in the very close future.  However, we thought we would compile a list of lullaby-CD worthy songs that you can make yourself!

See the bottom of this post for info on making your own CD.

If you click on any song, it will link to the song on the iTunes store in case you don't have a CD!

Rocketship Run:

1) My Blue Sailboat

2) Winter Lullaby*

3) Nona*

4) Fly Me To The Moon

Under a Shady Tree: 

5) Mahalo

6) After it Rains*

Victor Vito:

7) Moon Moon Moon*

8) The Story of My Feelings

9) Goodnight*

10) White Coral Bells*

Whaddaya Think of That:

11) What Falls in the Fall?

12) These are my Glasses

13) I Love My Rooster

14) All the Pretty Little Horses

15) The Great Big Dog*

16) 123

Buzz Buzz:

17) In The Clouds

Make a CD using iTunes!

1) Load all the songs you are interested in into iTunes.

2) Create a playlist by clicking the bottom left corner's "+" - name the playlist ("Laurie Berkner Lullaby") by double clicking on it.

3) Click on "Music" and drag all your desired songs onto the playlist name

4) When you've finished dragging, arrange your songs within the playlist (we suggest putting the songs with *'s at the beginning and end)

5) Once you're satisfied with the order (ask your kids for help!), insert a blank CD and click "Burn Disk" at the bottom right of your playlist page.  (See photo above)

6) Burn the CD, label it, and enjoy!  Make sure you recycle old jewel cases for your new CD!

Nona and Goodnight

Some of you may know that the song "Nona" was born when Laurie's daughter, Lucy, was just a little baby girl.  Lucy would shake her head and say "Nona! Nona!"  Laurie wrote the song to calm Lucy down, and it worked!  Lucy still falls asleep many nights while listening to Laurie sing Lucy's special song.

Play "Nona"

That got us thinking - do any of YOU have a special goodnight song that you sing to help lull you to sleep?  A safe, warm, comforting song that feels good inside?

If not, why not make one up?  

All you need to do to write a lullaby is find some special, comforting words and set them to a simple, sleepy tune.  It can be total nonsense or tell a story about sleepy things.  If you have trouble finding a tune, you can always borrow one from another favorite lullaby and simply replace the words.

It feels good to have a song that was created especially for you that can comfort you when you're sleepy, sick, cuddly, lonely, or just need to relax. 

Share your songs with us once you've written them!

Shaky Eggs (win an autographed CD)!

Oh my goodness... we have a bit of a dilemma! 

After months and months of research into the most environmentally-friendly way to create sturdy, great-sounding shaky eggs, we finally (finally) got all the details banged out and found ourselves with an enormous shipment of brand new shaky eggs. 

 

About 2/3 of the eggs (plus some boxes of CD's).  They stack all the way to the ceiling!

We excitedly opened the boxes to discover that the factory had made a big mistake - they forgot to do a final seal on the eggs!  This means that all the logos are peeling off and some of the eggs have a slightly rough texture.

Logos peeling off

We contacted the factory, and we are working on getting the problem fixed.  However, they told us we should keep the damaged eggs.  But (oh my goodness...) what are we going to do with 4,000 shaky eggs!?

  
Two boxes of "rotten" eggs

These eggs are sadly too damaged to donate, and they're taking over our workspace!

So, we're asking for your help!  We want to know the best, most creative way to use these eggs.  They sound great and are in good condition other than the peeling logos.

The person (or people) with the BEST solution to our problem will receive an autographed Laurie Berkner Band CD (Buzz Buzz, Victor Vito, or Rocketship Run). 

Leave a comment with your solution to participate (the more detail, the better), and please be sure to include your e-mail address so we can contact you!

Open Your Heart

Remember when the Laurie Berkner Band asked you for videos of your family dancing in your PJ's to "Open Your Heart"?  Well, the video is finally done!

The Pajama Program's "Open Your Heart" month (February) gathered tons of PJ's for kids who are waiting to be adopted.  Many of the kids in this video are Pajama Program kids!

And for one more special tidbit... drumroll please!

The band is, as we speak, rehearsing for some of the songs that will appear on The Laurie Berkner Band's Greatest Hits Album!!!  We will have more information about the album shortly.  We CAN tell you that a special version of "Open Your Heart" will be on it! 

Lots of very cool things on the horizon.  We're so excited!

Cooper

For the past week, we've been overwhelmed with e-mails, phone calls, and letters about a little boy named Cooper who has been struggling with cancer for nearly his whole 2 years of life.

Cooper's community has informed us that Cooper is "obsessed" with the Laurie Berkner Band, and wishes above all else to see Laurie perform.

We are extremely touched by Cooper's story and his devotion to the band.  We have made initial contact with his family and hope to set up something special for him in the very near future.  Helping make kids like Cooper's dreams come true is an unbelievable feeling.

We'd like to remind our fans (and friends of fans) that we do respond to every situation like Cooper's as best we can, even if we only get one e-mail about it.  We ask that you please refrain from sending further e-mails and other requests about Cooper, as our e-mail has been shut down from the strain of so much response.  We don't want to miss anything from other kids in need!

Thank you to everyone who has pitched in to help Cooper.  He will surely appreciate it.

Spring Cleaning!

The Laurie Berkner office is having a day of spring cleaning and re-vamping to make some room for all our new props and set pieces.

We have an awesome tech guy helping us get our computers to function at their very best!  Shannon, Corinne, and Katie have been rearranging furniture, assembling shelving, and organizing.  Laurie has been busy doing paperwork, helping us get organized with our recycling and "green"ness, and taking care of some business to help everything run nice and smoothly.

Looking better already... and it feels really good, too.

We'll be back tomorrow with more blogging!  Wish us luck!

Gems!

Last week, we talked about the fact that we've been snazzing up some fairly plain dresses and clothing with ribbons. 

Laurie's shoes were nice and comfy and cute, but they lacked that special "something"... so, we covered them in gems!  You can get the equipment for this at any craft store (we have a Michael's next door to the office).  Now, they sparkle like crazy!

Grow Your Own!

You may remember our post about Food and Big Business.  It received a lot of responses suggesting that a way to combat the Big Business takeover of the food industry is to grow your own fruits and veggies. 

Even apartment dwellers with a little sunlight can grow fruits and veggies on their window sills or other apartment spaces.

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner.  Warm weather is the perfect time to start a small garden of your very own!

Remember - when you purchase seeds, you can get organic or non-organic.  We suggest organic - they're not too much more expensive and they are free of chemicals, pesticides, and cultivated in an eco-friendly manner.  Try this site: Seeds of Change

Some good produce to start growing in a small garden:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Snow peas/snap peas (you can snack on them right off the plant!)
• Strawberries
• Herbs (Basil, mint, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc)
• Radishes
• Cucumbers
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Carrots

There are tons of tips online about the best ways to get a good yield in nearly ANY space.  Nurturing a garden is a great activity for kids of all ages, too - it teaches responsibility, the delicacy of ecosystems, and appreciation for the environment.  Plus, veggies go down a lot easier when your own hard work helped them grow!

Happy gardening!  Send us your progress

Click Here to Play "Song In My Tummy"

Princeton Packing #2

Today, the office is packing up all of our new equipment for the Princeton show.  We've got boxes, bags, suitcases, guitars, bows, and road cases galore! We have a bit less time to set up than normal, so we've been working on getting everything together so it's very easy to set up as soon as we arrive.

 

Most of the gear we are bringing, minus the road cases with the presents and some odds and ends!

The band has been busy rehearsing and finding fun party outfits.  This morning, Laurie tried on some dresses and belts.  Then, she took them to be altered so they will fit perfectly on Saturday morning!

We discovered that you can find lots of really affordable plain-colored dresses, and all it takes is a little creativity and some craft supplies to make them really spectacular.

Plain pink and yellow dresses

For the next show, Corinne will be sewing ribbon (which is cheap and comes in an amazing array of shapes and colors) around the trim of the dresses. 

Our ribbon drawer!

We also have been gluing jewels onto Laurie's shoes, and we're looking forward to adding more to the dresses. You can find these at any craft store.

Can't wait for the show this weekend!