Old school on the hill. No snow today.

I had a very nice assembly at at small town school in Hampton in western NJ this morning. It was pleasant to only have a 45 minute trip through this beautiful Jersey countryside. The principal greeted me at the door and showed me the gym/auditorium and I set up in good time for my 8:45 am set.

There were only 90 kids, K – 5th grade, and the principal said it was a treat to have such a small population to work with. I even remarked to her that I saw kids walking up the hill from the town to the school. Walking to school ! Damn. One grade looked like it had only seven girls in it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an assembly – things are particularly slim in the school biz these days – but I rolled out the show with the good stuff. There were several very disgruntled 5th grade boys who were not about to show any interest. I prodded them a couple of times and but told myself not to focus on them and play to the students and teachers who were obviously ready to boogie. Good move.

I Like Peanut Butter, Tutti Tah, Cat Came Back, Bear Hunt (we put together one about a Ghost Shark), Baby Shark, Down By the Bay, Giants, All Around the Kitchen. Lots of interaction, humor and movement.

As I’m doing these days, I was able to finish with a session of reflections from the kids and the teachers. The kids had a tough time remembering what we did early in the show, but that’s okay. It’s the process that’s important. The interesting feedback came from the teachers (I had set it up that they would follow the kids’ thoughts). They chimed in with: interaction, using rhyming skills, adjectives (!), movement, getting kids up on stage and involved from their seats and more. They got it.

This conversation with the teachers is proving to be a college-level workshop for them (and me). My whole presentation becomes a model for arts presentation in the schools, and this confirms it. I’m able to add a few comments along the way to let them know why I do what I do, and that I do it on purpose. It’s also a good way to have the kids sit in on the talk, and hear what the staff liked.

I learned something today, as well. As we finished up the reflections, it dawned on me that I should let them know what I also learned. I said that I was glad that I refrained on focusing on the negative energy from parts of the audience and let it slide. I have had some uncomfortable situations in the past and, hopefully, with this admission to these teachers, I may have helped myself. Never too late to change my ways.

I wish I could do this every day.

I was asked to do a full-school event at noon for Holy Infancy, my local parochial school. It was scheduled for lunch time and I was to follow Lety Gutiarrez  who featured Hispanic dance and song. She started at 11:30 just as the kids dove into the food that the parents had cooked for their classrooms. She was a remarkable presenter and she had a very tough time slot.

New school near 5th St.

I set up for a 12 noon start and, thank goodness, the bulk of the kids had finished eating. They were up immediately and got them dancing right away. The energy was great and I think it surprised the new principal. Cat Came Back, I Like Peanut Butter, etc. The high point for us all was the Holy Infancy song we had written several years ago, complete with hand motions and sign language. Thanks to teacher Paula Gabriel, it was a great experience.

Again, I do this pro bono, since the school has been my neighborhood base, and it is extremely gratifying to return here and be supported by these wonderful kids and teachers.

New school near 5th St.

This was my second visit with these kids at the new site of Holy Infancy. I checked back to what I did a month ago so I wouldn’t repeat myself, but also to see what the kids retained from that session. At the beginning of the session, I asked what they remembered and was glad to hear Tutti Tah, Giants, Peanut Butter, Down by the Bay, I Wanna Be a Dog and Spider on the Floor. That was a really good sign of retention.

I started with Water Melon on the Vine to see if they could handle the slurp. They did fine and it was a good, loose way to re-introduce myself to them. I followed with Spider on the Floor and explored some different body parts (hip, shoulder, cheek, ear, hat), trying to keep the focus on rhymes. (The younger kids had tough time through out the session, but that’s why this is valuable work for them – the teachers appreciate it.)

We did Tutti Tah and I brought up two of the quieter kids to do it with me and you could see them take a shine to being up front of their classmates. It’s important to share the lead with songs we’ve done before. I did Peanut Butter and Jelly, a new one for these kids, with getting the boys up, the girls up – really active and fun.

I introduced Names to the Animals and had some fun with that, again, pressing the rhymes in the third and fourth verses. I promised to do some new ones next time: manatee (Mrs.Perez came up with “insanity”!!), mouse, tiger, lion, monkey.

I finished up with my scarf set with Jelly in the Dish – again, new to these kids and these teachers. It’s a really strong exercise as we go through the “disappearing”, facial emotions, letters of the alphabet and finally the dancing, sharing, etc. I noticed that even if the pre-K don’t know how to do the letter-painting, there’s lots of color and movement involved so they have a good time anyway. The first graders get it right away.

I asked the three teachers what they appreciated and they agreed the rhyming skills are important and the scarf set was good as well.

I left energized on a Monday afternoon on the SouthSide. I’ll be back for a Christmas assembly for the whole school and back in January with this group.

I’ve been lucky to have a annual spring assembly at this local Bethlehem school. It pays well, but it gives me an opportunity to use our familiarity to try out new material and performance techniques on the fly. There are favorites that I have to play, but I get to develop new wrinkles in delivering  them.

I decided to do the new Cat Came Back lyrics from the recent Tracy ES residency but also had one side of the group sing the chorus to the other, standing up while working on their ‘stage’ delivery. Once one side did it (with a standing ovation from the other), we reversed the roles. And then, of course, I had the teachers stand and deliver their chorus. I enjoy the shocked look on some of the newer teachers’ faces, but that’s the whole point. The faculty is used to my challenges and I appreciate their cooperation.

I then played Down By the Bay and Tracy’s new words. I used that a springboard to use the two sides again. I put down the guitar and stepped in the middle aisle and got an interesting animal from one side, asked the other side to find a rhyme and then asked one group of teachers to come up with an action word in the middle. It worked really well and bound the whole audience together. I then reversed the process. There were only two verses but it really broke down the performer/audience divide, a good theatrical device. “Did you ever see a crane bungee-jumping, that’s insane!”

From Calypso’s Centennial Birthday in 2017.

I dug out the song we wrote in November of 2016 (finished the day after the election!) called Hey, Ho, Calypso! It was written for the 100th birthday of the school and tried to connect the commonality of kids going to school: school bells, lunch, playground games, classes and going home after school. I had to leaf back through this journal to find the words (thank you, Dave!). I taught the audience the clapping riff and the chorus, and, while going through it, I noticed several of the 5th graders joining in. I immediately asked them up. So, we got to play the song with these two boys and two girls leading their fellow students in the song. Towards the end, I dropped out my vocal and guitar and we heard just the kids and teachers sing it a Capella. It was some powerful juju, indeed.

A live version of the song was recorded in spring of 2017 and the spirit of the song holds up well. (https://youtu.be/_eGd87w_fEE) I was greeted by the big banner from then above me as I walked in the front door.

It was hot in the gym, and I had decided to do the show standing up, something that takes a toll on me in my old-age, so I was a soaking mess. But, as I drove to a close, I needed to get the kids up and dancing so I started with You Keep A’Knockin’ which morphed into getting the kids to Floss, Orange Justice and other current dances. I then asked if anyone could invent The Calypso and several kids came and did some great interpretive dances. As I wrapped up the show, several teachers said, “Where’s Baby Shark?” So I corralled everybody back in and away we went. Now that there’s a viral video, there is an undercurrent of kids trying to correct what I’m doing, but I forged ahead with my version.

All in all, it was an exhausting but wonderful opportunity to explore some creativity on the part of this community and myself as an artist.

The last week of January is a welcome sight on my booking calendar – it’s Catholic Schools Week (!!!), the one week when parochial schools blow their arts’ funding to bring in folks like me to rile up the kids. I have four gigs this week and, weather permitting, a good way to supplement a slow time of the year.

Monday was a return to a small school in nearby Hellertown, St. Theresa’s, a school that I’ve played in the past. I was tickled to be asked to return for an assembly. I set up in the basement’s lunch room/stage, one I can clearly recall from years past. There’s something about a low ceiling, a bingo machine and a cheap sound system that screams Middle America and my place in the process.

It was the beginning of CSW so the kids and teachers were juiced. It was also Donut Day and there was a vast array of spectacular and deadly delights at the other end of the room. As it is with several of these small Catholic schools, it’s a K – 8th grade so I have my work cut out to bridge this vast age gap (and still play to the teachers), but it’s a wonderful artistic challenge. I seem to make it work.

I had an interesting wrinkle in the process. The 8th graders were doing a buddy system with the K’s so they were sitting on the floor up front so I had my most challenging segment right in my face. It did shape my early set. When I get the kids up to do the Tutti Tah, it’s important that everyone does it, to set the bar for community action. And, sure enough, the older boys really don’t like to loosen up, and I have the bad habit of focusing on them. It often works and the rest of the school gets to see these guys in a new light. The teachers do appreciate the effort. One commented that the one I worked on was the “leader” of the group. I got radar, I guess.

I rolled out my current staples: Cat Came Back, Names to the Animals, Bear Hunt, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Giants and All Around the Kitchen, all bonafide assembly tunes. Each has some special moments that link me with the kids, the teachers, the school and my past history with this school. Each gig is a creative enterprise and I feel good when it works like today. And I got a great donut!

I was done on a Monday morning, check in the bank and back home by 11:30. Dis ain’t too shabby.

I returned to Alpha Public School for a morning assembly for about 260 K – 8th grade students and their teachers. When I arrived I was met by the English teacher who told me that I had been here in 1991 with RockRoots and in 2005 as a solo. I knew I’d been here before but it was curious to find out exactly when. Apparently, the RR gig was in our first year as a band, so that’s pretty deep history. Another teacher came up and said she was from Bridgeton ES, a now defunct school in rural PA that I had a great relationship with in the 80’s, while I was still figuring out my solo folk show. We hugged and I said that I’m glad that we’re still in the game. This web goes back pretty far.

I set up in the gym in front of the stage so I could be down among the audience. It meant that the whole school would be on the floor with me. As the kids came in, I goofed around with the first graders and went back to the eighth graders to explain that I may play down to the younger kids, but to relax and have some fun. Eventually, they did.

I did Peanut Butter and Tutti Tah and then several Christmas sing-alongs. I got two seventh grade boys up on Tutti Tah, recognizing that they were having fun with it. It broke the spell for the older kids to have their fellow students up with me. They knocked it out.

I followed with The Cat Came Back and had one side sing to the other on the chorus, repeated the next chorus with the mirror effect (I gave the other side the choice of doing a golf cheer or a standing ovation. It didn’t work like I had hoped.) Then, at the end I had the teachers sing the chorus operatically. I invited some of the older kids to play Thunder Tubes on Giants in order to, again, bring in the older kids into the show. It worked well. Slowly I was gaining the trust of the 6th, 7th and 8th graders, though some remained in their shells.

At the end I did my Rudolph (antlers and noses) routine and finished with All Around the Kitchen. That remains a good dance closer, especially if I bring up kids from across the diversity of ages. Eventually, I brought up three teachers to bring it home.

Seeing how it was a half-day before Christmas break, I went on a little too long, but the energy was great at the end. As they left the gym, the principal came up and said that he remembers learning The Cat Came Back in summer camp and using it when he was a teacher. That was pretty cool.

It was a workout and I found myself soaked with sweat at the end. The PTA lady, Lisa, thanked me for a great show. Somehow I never quite accept the praise, knowing that I could have connected better with some of the kids.

Winter solstice with temperatures in the 60’s. But I was done by 11:15 am and home by noon. Not to bad for the last school gig (the Omega) in Alpha.