Karen in Chicago

Time to move! All our kids music info is moving over to http://KidsMusicinChicago.com.

Come join us at the new site.

On Sunday June 10th, from 2:00 - 4:00 pm, musician, artist, and educator Sandy Lucas will celebrate the release of her new CD for children and families, “Keep A Song In Your Heart”, with a party and concert for families at the Byron Roche Gallery, 750 N. Franklin St. in Chicago. The concert will feature Sandy, as well as guest musicians from the recording. The event is free and open to the public.

Prior to the 2PM FREE screening, Chic-A-Go-Go friends (old and new) are invited to join the cast and crew for Schubas/Harmony Grill very affordable, very delicious brunch at noon, followed by a “red carpet” reception hosted by Miss Mia from 1pm-1:30. There will also be a brief, but energetic, dance parties before and after the screening. Immediately preceding the film will be a music video preview of the Goblins’ upcoming children’s video. This is an all ages event. Kids are welcome!

More info on the Schubas Calendar the Chic-A-Go-Go website.

[now includes extremely cute video at end] Yet another terrific event for this weekend:

Jennifer Trowbridge is having a kids concert Sunday, June 10 at 11am on the North Stage of the Andersonville Midsommarfest. The kids (ranging in age from 5 to 13 years old) will be performing on guitar, piano, saxophone and percussion as well as singing and dancing. Their repertoire ranges from Old MacDonald Had a Farm to rock and reggae songs by Chuck Berry, Elvis and Bob Marley.

Check out the cutest video with the kids rehearsing with Jennifer!

This event looks strange and wonderful. Here’s the description from the Notebaert Nature Museum Website:

Join musician and educator Erin Flynn for songs and games all about the 17-year cicadas set to emerge in Chicago this summer. Children will build their own instrument to sing like cicadas and learn about the lives of these fascinating creatures. This program is free for children of all ages and their caregivers.

We’re huge fans of Erin Flynn’s cd and this sounds like a lot of fun.

Even though Schubas is on the same block as our house, my older daughter was exhausted and napped straight through the Terrible Twos show. Eventually I got tired of waiting around for her to wake up and I took my 1 year old with me to the show. I really like their cd and was looking forward to their show, but they were amazing live, even better than I expected. They say that they might be back performing again at Schubas in the Fall, so hopefully I’ll get to see the whole show then.

For Saturday evening we put in more effort and put together a proper picnic and drove downtown to Millennium Park for Gospel Fest at Pritzger Pavillion. This was our third year attending and I had forgotten just how amazing this event is. The music is terrific, the kids have a great time running around on the grass and the environment is spectacular.

What a weekend! Summer festival season in Chicago has officially started. The weather guys predicted thunder storms all weekend, but for the most part the weather was terrific.

On Saturday morning our whole family took the ‘El’ down to Oz park for the Chalk Festival. We had a lazy picnic and picked up lunch at Subway. Both our girls had a fantastic time at the festival and the highlight was Karen Banks-Lubicz’s performance. She rocked. Here are my most recent experiments with video snapshots.

We stopped by the Paul Frank store on the way to the Chalk Festival at Oz Park. Paul Green’s School of Rock was performing, but it was too loud for my little ones and I couldn’t work out how to get the ear plugs they gave us to stay in the girls’ ears. We did get a very cute balloon, a bag of shwag and I picked up up a card with the Kidzapalooza Lineup that says this:

August 3-5
Grant Park
11:00 am - 4:30 pm daily
Kidzapalooza
For Kidz at Lollapalooza

• Paul Green’s School of Rock Allstars
• Perry Farrell
• G Love
• The Hipwaders
• Peter Himmelman
• The Sippy Cups
• The Candy Band
• Wee Hairy Beasties
• Alvin Ailey Dance Camp
• Q Brothers
• The Blisters
• Rock for Kids Jam Band
• John Yost’s Rhythm Revolution
• and (very) special surprise guests

Kids 10 & under are free to Lollapalooza accompanied by a ticket holding adult.

Last friday my two girls and I took a trip to Fantasy Kingdom to play and see the Sharp Cookies. A loyal following of fans of Mr. Singer’s from Wiggleworms were there and everyone had a ton of fun. I’ve posted a couple of video snapshots from the show. It looks like Mr. Singer and Marius Mustard will be performing again at Fantasy Kingdom on Fri., July 27 at 11:30 a.m.

[The videos were moved around on the Old Town School of Folk Music website, so unfortunately my links stopped working. I've updated them and they should work now!]

As part of their 50th anniversary celebration The Old Town School of Folk Music has started a blog where they are posting videos of performances from the School. Included in their wonderful collection are some notable kiddie concerts:

• (March 5th, 2005) Justin Roberts
• (November 19th, 2006) Dan Zanes
• (November 11th, 2006) Wee Hairy Beasties
• (April 7th, 2007) Ella Jenkins
• (January 14th, 2007) Wiggleworms Celebrate Old Town School 50th Starts out with Karen Banks-Lubicz singing the Woodie Guthrie song “Bling Blang.”
• (2005) Wiggleworms 20th Anniversary Reunion

[Updated 5/24. I was able to get a bit more information from the Old Town School of Folk Music (thanks!) This list now also includes the very similar "Toddler Campfire Events."]

I’ve never been to Toddlers, Tunes & Turtles (or the Toddler Campfire) at the Chicago Park District, but it looks terrific. The Chicago Park District says:

Free for children 5 and under (with an adult). An introduction to nature in the parks for the knee-high set. They sing songs with musicians from Old Town School of Folk Music, meet live animals, have toddler-friendly nature activities and healthy refreshments. You’re welcome to bring along a picnic dinner. No registration required.

I found the following scheduled dates on the Park District Website, but it seems there should be more. Last year there were a lot more and they say that this year has an expanded schedule. I’ll keep an eye out for more dates.

• June 13, 5 – 7 pm, Shana Harvey (Wiggleworms)at Kilbourn Park, 3501 N. Kilbourn Avenue
• June 20, 5 – 7 pm, Lenny Marsh (Percussion) at South Shore Cultural Center (follow signs to Nature Sanctuary parking lot), 7059 S. South Shore Drive
• June 21, 5 – 7 pm, Karen Banks-Lubicz (Wiggleworms) at Gompers Park (in “south Gompers”, park in lot at Pulaski & Foster), 4222 W. Foster Avenue
• June 23, 10 – 11:30 am, Karen Banks-Lubicz (Wiggleworms) at Winnemac Park (near playground SW corner of park), 5100 N. Leavitt St
• July 12, 5 – 7 pm, Mr. Singer (Wiggleworms) at Humboldt Park (at the Boathouse, on lawn near lagoon), 1359 N. Sacramento Boulevard
• July 25, 5 – 7pm, Lisa DeRosia (Wiggleworms) at The Notebaert Nature Museum (at the north pond), 2430 N. Cannon Dr.
• September 6th, 5:30 - 6:30pm, Shana Harvey (Wiggleworms) at South Shore Cultural Center
• September 13th, 5:30 - 6:30pm, Lenny Marsh (Percussion) vat Gompers Park
• September 20 6-7pm, Lisa DeRosia (Wiggleworms) at Humboldt Park
• September 26 6-7pm, Mr. Singer (Wiggleworms) at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Celebrate 2007 Kidzapalooza with School of Rock performance at The Paul Frank Store Chicago…plus give aways and special appearances. To celebrate Kidzapalooza’s 2007 line up, The Paul Frank Store Chicago is giving away three pairs of tickets to Lollapalooza August 3rd-6th 2007 and an Epiphone Les Paul Peewee plus a rare chance to see a live in-store performance by School of Rock. This all goes down between 11am and 1pm. The celebration will continue with a Sony Playstation PSP give away, additional playstation prizes and a special announcement from Julius, Paul Frank’s reknowned monkey.

It looks like all sorts of terrific stuff is going on at Millennium Park this summer. I just got a brochure in my newspaper this Sunday and it is overwhelming. You can see complete information at the Millennium Park website, although I would recommend getting the brochure since it is much easier to read.

I’m only going to include information about music events for kids on my event calendar. There are lots of other music events and lots of other activities for families and kids happening. As far as I can tell, you can go to Millennium Park anytime this summer and experience something wonderful. I happened to be there with my daughter on Friday and there was a terrific Gospel group performing. Some notable highlights:

• Ralph’s World is performing Labor Day at the Pritzker Pavillion
• Wiggleworms every day at 10 AM
• Concerts most every day at 2:00 and 4:00 pm
• Open rehearsals during the day at Pritzker Pavillion

Starting June 5th, Old Town School’s Wiggleworm teachers are performing for free at the Chase Promenade from 10:00 AM — 10:45 AM every morning for 90 days! WOW!!! The Old Town School of Music lists who is performing when.

The Ravinia Kid’s Club has a new MySpace page. You can join their list of friends to stay updated on upcoming concerts and Family Space events. You might also want to Ravinia’s Kid’s Club. Your kids will receive an membership letter and button, along with a Kid’s Club card that gets you to a 10% discount at the Gift Shop. To sign up, e-mail kidsclub@ravinia.org with your child(ren)’s name, address, phone number, birth date, gender and a list of instruments they play, if any.

I only found out about this concert at this last minute, so I didn’t have it on my schedule of events (sorry). It was our first outdoor concert of the year and my daughter thought it was amazing. Karen for Kids was terrific. We listen to their CD all the time and love their music. Also, Karen is great at getting the kids involved in the show. The weather was beautiful and the park was filled with ecstatic kids.

I tried to shoot some video, but didn’t do a great job. I used my little still digital camera and it almost immediately ran out of batteries. Hopefully I’ll do better next time. In the meanwhile, here’s a taste of the show.

The Wee Hairy Beasties don’t perform all that often. As far as I know, their only currently scheduled show is this Saturday at 3:00 and 3:30 pm at the Eye Spy Optical at 2130 N. Damen (773-252-8660). I’m not quite sure what to expect. Is it a large store? Do they have a big backyard? Are the wee ones getting paid in cool glasses?

One of the best parts of starting this website is that I get to find out about all sorts of cool things that I probably wouldn’t have found on my own. Gooney Bird Kids is an amazing blog for information about music for kids. All I can say is, “Wow!” They will always have a place in my heart, since they mentioned this site.