Los
Altos, CA, October 21, 2017 — Kathy Sherman has been a professional folk musician
for 44 years and a music teacher for nine. She performs in three different folk
bands and has released five recordings. So for her sixth album, she drew on all
her experiences as a musician and teacher.
“I teach
pre-school music and these are songs I do with my students,” says Sherman about
her sixth and latest release, a children’s singalong album “Let’s Sing!”
recorded with her group the Good Folk Collective. “And they just happen to be
some of my favorites.”
The 18-song
“Let’s Sing!” available at amazon.com
and store.cdbaby.com,
features such all-time favorite sing-alongs such as “The Hokey Pokey,” “She’ll
Be Comin’ ’Round the Mountain,” “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” “How Much
is That Doggie in the Window,” and “Teddy Bear’s Picnic.”
But it also
includes some lesser-known gems such as the silly “echo” songs,“I Am a Pizza,”
and “I Am the Conductor”, “The State Laughs,” which follows a joke and
the response it gets in different states of the country (in
Tennessee, they say hee, hee hee), and “Jenny Jenkins,” an old musical
game where one singer suggests a color and another singer
must come up with a rhyming word.
“Kids and
parents love these songs. Not only are they fun to sing, they all have a
physical component too, clapping, stomping, playing percussion, helping
children make important neural connections and giving parents a chance to get
some exercise, as well!” says Sherman, “and you’ve gotta have some elements of
humor, otherwise it’s not fun.”
The album
also has an accompanying “Let’s Sing!” songbook, which includes all of the
songs on “Let’s Sing!,” as well as selected songs from her group Hey Mom!’s
“Listen to Your Mama” and “Singing on a Star.” Sherman has included simple
chords in the same key as on the albums so even beginning musicians can play
along on guitar, ukulele, autoharp or piano.
The Let’s
Sing! Songbook is available at magcloud.com,
both the CD and songbook can also be purchased at GoodFolkSongs.com. The album
and songbook will make for excellent holiday gifts for children and parents
alike.
“What I’m
trying to do is create a musical community,” says Sherman, who wants to
preserve some of the great folk songs and traditions for the next generation.
“These songs are brand-new to many people, especially if you weren’t born and
raised in the U.S. A lot of people have been trying to define folk music. To me
it’s community music. It’s songs that everybody knows and everybody can sing,
music that has worked it’s way into our DNA.”
In addition
to the Good Folk Collective and Hey Mom!, Sherman is also member of the Greek
folk duo The Plaka Band. She has recorded and released six albums with the
three groups.
Kathy
teaches 17 pre-school music classes a week to approximately 300 children
and parents, with students ranging in age from 2 ½ to
5 ½ years. She also lectures parents’ groups on
pre-intellectual music education and creating a more musical
home environment.
About
Kathy Sherman
Kathy
Sherman started her professional music career at age 15,
playing Greek music in clubs, restaurants, festivals, and
concerts. She put down her bouzouki, the mandolin-like instrument
central to modern Greek music, long enough to earn a BMus in
classical guitar performance from the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music. She was a member of the Electric Guitar Quartet,
a classical / comedy group that opened for such guitar
luminaries as Leo Kottke, Jorma Kaukonen, John Hartford, The
Great Guitars (Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd, and Herb Ellis)
and Free Flight.
Kathy’s
current music experiences include Greek folk music with long-time friend and
fellow musician, Notis Contoplianos in their group, The Plaka Band. Notis and
Kathy have two extraordinary CDs, New Songs of Old Athens (selected for Grammy
consideration for best World Music Album), and A Time to Sing, A Time to Dance,
a rollicking collection of favorite Greek dance music. For more information
about The Plaka Band, please check out their website, ThePlakaBand.com. Kathy
also plays classical mandolin for orchestras who have the occasional need for
one.
On special
occasions, several musician friends get together to perform. One such group is
The Burns Supper Club, where we get together on or around January 25th of each
year to provide Celtic music for the celebration of the life and works of the
great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). According to RobertBurns.org,
“Burns Suppers range from stentoriously formal gatherings of esthetes and
scholars to uproariously informal rave-ups of drunkards and louts.” Our
celebration falls somewhere in between.
Contact:
Marci Bracco
Cain
Chatterbox
PR
Salinas, CA
93901
(831)
747-7455
