I headed up to Kevin’s studio for a couple of tunes, and some creative brainstorming for the Playground CD. I worked up two tunes from an old Pete Seeger album, both with southern, and I assume black, roots: All in the Kitchen and Hey, Jim-a-long Josie. Both have a real nice feel to them, and Kevin knows how to make each sound unique, rhythmically. I enjoy taking some fairly folkie tunes and making them kick as dance tunes. Bringing last century into this century, in a real and honest way.
All in the Kitchen is a dance song, and I imagine it being sung and danced in the kitchen, so we’ll add some kitchen ware as percussion, along with some real drums and some nasty electric guitar and bass. It really cooks and swings, along with getting kids to create some funny and funky body shapes. It’s really nice.
Jim-a-long Josie will be a straight ahead rocker, again encouraging the kids to do some playground dancing (crawl, run, walk, etc.) and hopefully leave room for the kids to make up their own movements. Again, some room for tasty electric and percussion.
I then pulled out my medley of jump-rope rhymes. We set up a beat and I started in laying them down, with spaces in between. Eventually, I will farm them out to Wendi and Lauren, and Rosalie and Jordan. We’ll also make a bed of urban street sounds and kids playing behind it to make it an audio treat. Kevin will try to create jump rope sounds on drums, as well. It could
something really special and unique.
We also started plotting out potential players for both albums, with some really interesting folks in mind on bass and piano, along with friends Ansel and Kris, Wendi and Lauren.
The whole process is tickling my creativity, and soothing my soul. I wish I could do it more often.