Take your kids to hear music.

Today:

10:30am at Mama's Hip, 1559 Bardstown Road. 
Family Music Jam
It's a parent/child class, and it's drop-in (no signup or commitment required). 
We shake eggs, tambourines, beat on drums, wiggle, and dance. I play some stringed instrument (or occasionally the accordion if I'm feeling saucy and I borrowed a car), and I sing a combination of campfire songs and wee-one songs. It's fun. You can come in your pajamas if you want. Sometimes I yodel. Sometimes I sing John Denver. 

6:30pm at Great Flood Brewing Company, 2120 Bardstown Road (next to Twig & Leaf)
Live music. Brigid Kaelin, Dan Canon, and Steve Cooley.
We play all kinds of instruments (seriously, each of us plays at least 10 instruments), so you never know what to expect. But generally, it's lots of things with strings. And we know lots of songs -- sometimes we sing all original, and sometimes we do all requests.

I've made a lot about the fact that this Great Flood gig is kid-friendly. Someone even made a joke asking if we ever do kid-hostile events. I know it was a joke, but seriously, when you think about language and bedtimes and drunks at most live music shows in this town, I'd venture that, yes, most live-music in Louisville is, in fact, kid-hostile. 

Sure, there are festivals and summer shows that you can bring your kids to, but where can you take a child to hear relaxed live music in a less overwhelming setting?

Music is so important to development -- not just memorizing the ABC song, but hearing rhythm, seeing instruments, their different shapes, their different sounds. Playing your iPod at home is wonderful (and super important), but there is nothing like live sound. 

Anyway, I love this gig because it gets me out of the house, but I also love it because I see so many little ones hearing live music for the first time. Or hearing it for the zillionth time (like my kiddo) and still seeing it as a magical show. Last week a young girl asked for "the song from Frozen" or "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," pretty much the coolest request-combo ever from a child. (We played both.)

Let's do more early and kid-friendly shows in this town, please. I want to take my kid out to hear music, not just take him out to hear me.  

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