Betsy Stern Kids' Music: Blog

I'm able to get in 6-9 hours a week in at the studio (which, with my schedule, is amazing!), and just finished the roughs for the first song. Recording is very different than live performance, but I love both. I'm excited about the CD and will be back in the studio on Sunday for a long day session. There will be a mix of styles as well as instrumentation. For my mom I'm including (the piece I just finished) an arrangement that's influenced by Early Music for a traditional French piece. I had a lot of fun playing keyboards on it. I'm planning to release the songs in batches of 2 or 3 through iTunes and other distribution channels before releasing the whole CD. I'll post more details here.

I remain stunned at what I observe so often with kids 3 months to 5 years when they are exposed to music from all over the world. I played a song from Zimbabwe a couple weeks ago, a song I learned as a child, and the kids were up and dancing instantly. Grown-ups ask whether foreign language is a problem, [...]

At long last I’m back in the studio on a regular schedule. For the past two years, since recording “Foyo,” I’ve been performing live so much that I haven’t been able to set up a recording schedule. I’m still really busy, but have found a very local studio with a very flexible engineer! I’m really excited, as I think that this will be close to a double CD. I’m working on the arrangements right now. Concurrently, I’m working in the same studio on another recording project with my duo partner, Jerry Gee, who is the most talented chromatic and diatonic harmonica player I’ve ever encountered. He reminds me very much of Toots Thielemans. We do a wide variety of music and some of it will appear on my new children’s CD, as we work with children’s songs as well. Lots of work ahead, but well worth it and very exciting!

Each week I take to my students a different instrument to try. This week I took an agogo, which was a big hit. It thrills me to see such tiny kids learning [...]

Summer is coming to a close and it's sure been busy. I got through it, despite having torn the ligaments and tendons in my left ring finger (oh, and I dislocated it too), but I kept on gigging. I'm out of the splint and the more playing the better!

I'm off next week to LA to play two gigs at The Children's Museum at La Habra, a place I love, and then leave in early September to meet Pierre in Kansas. We'll be in Kansas and Missouri for five days playing several gigs for Betsy & the Frenchman. He's staying on for the Walnut Valley Festival, which I have to miss because I'm booked out here, but I hear it's a fantastic festival! I'm really looking forward to our gigs on the tour, as we are adding a ton of new repertoire.

We're having a pretty foggy summer here in San Francisco, but I don't mind. I'm hearing such awful tales of heat waves elsewhere and hope that those come to an abrupt end for those of you in those areas.

Fall is very busy and I'm booking more gigs into summer 2011 right [...]

I just got back from playing at the spectacular Coyote Hills Regional Park
Butterfly & Bird Festival. The weather was superb and there were a lot of people, as well as many beautiful butterflies. I love this event, the people, and the location. What wonderful day!

I just got back from the Children's Museum at La Habra, where I played at their annual festival. What a great event! The weather was absolutely perfect too. I'll be back there for two shows on August 21st, this time for their new exhibit on space.

I'm not sure when my next day off is, as things are so busy right now. Well, I never really get a whole day off, but when you're doing what you love, that doesn't matter. I never cease to be amazed by how much music draws us together, all ages and all walks of life. It's an absolutely amazing feeling to see people come together at a concert.

I'm not posting all of my gigs on this calendar, as most are private and I'm doing between 40 and 50 events a month. I'll post the public ones.

Well, I have a hundred things I need to do today, so off to get started...