Author: Confetti Park

Storytime: Ten Little Crawfish by Melinda Falgoust
In this episode of Confetti Park, I am delighted to share the story of the Ten Little Crawfish, marvelously narrated by the author and illustrator, Melinda Taliancich Falgoust.

Ten little crawfish, swimmin’ in da swamp.
One thought he heard some Zydeco and
stopped to dance and stomp….

This is Melinda’s brand-new counting concept board book that someday will be on the shelf of every Louisiana kid. Join the ten little crawfish as they count down through the Crescent City and some of its best-known landmarks.

We are so lucky to have Melinda read it to us!

The New Orleans-based author and illustrator is currently taking pre-orders for this adorable and entertaining book through IndieGoGo. Be among the first to get it. (I think it’s going to be a classic!)
- With its ten, tasty crustaceans, the savory silliness appeals to a young reader’s developing sense of humor and helps them create a positive association with books.
- The patterned text also makes it easy for preschoolers to jump in and participate.
- The sights and sounds of New Orleans encourage young children’s fascinations about the world around them and lets them know the things they love can be found in books!
Regular listeners of Confetti Park know that Melinda is one of our wonderful regular contributors. She is incredibly prolific (she works very hard, kids!) and has a wide-range of books for both children and adults. Visit her website.

Listen to an interview with Melinda Taliancich Falgoust on Confetti Park

Listen to more of her stories:

Her Royal Majesty, the Superhero Bride of Frankenstein

Footprints

Lousy Liver
Music Medley – Up Hill, Down Hill
Confetti Park is a community radio program out of New Orleans. We feature local storytellers and songs that kids love, songs created for kids, or created by kids, right here in Louisiana. This medley of kids music shows the diversity of Louisiana musicians.

Songs featured in this episode, in order:

Wake-Y-Up-O – Kevin Griffin
Birds Birdy, Tweet Tweet – Mr. Christopher
Bullfrog – Louis Ray
Jack & Jill – Confetti Park Players
Skip to My Lou – Swing Setters
Farm – Imagination Movers
Summit of Sound – Renzi Center
When Something is Gnawing You – Hrilina Ramrakhiani
Old Man – Leadbelly
A Rum Sum Sum – Judy Caplan Ginsburgh
Jambalaya (On the Bayou) – Papillon

Also featured in this episode, a Louisiana folk tale called The Little Louisiana Pine Tree, a music memory from Shreveport musician Leonard Service, and a poem from Confetti Park Player Hrilina Ramrakhiani.

The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!

Subscribe on iTunes

The radio program version launched on April 4, 2015 in New Orleans on WHIV FM and is supported by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, OffBeat magazine and Music Rising at Tulane University.

Current broadcast schedule:
- WHIV 102.3 FM in New Orleans every Saturday at 12 p.m. NOON
- KSLU 90.9 FM in Hammond every Sunday at 12 p.m. NOON
- WHYR 96.9 FM in Baton Rouge every Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
Community radio stations, interested in carrying Confetti Park? Contact Katy Ray.
Music Medley – Up Hill, Down Hill
Confetti Park is a community radio program out of New Orleans. We feature local storytellers and songs that kids love, songs created for kids, or created by kids, right here in Louisiana. This medley of kids music shows the diversity of Louisiana musicians.

Songs featured in this episode, in order:

Wake-Y-Up-O – Kevin Griffin
Birds Birdy, Tweet Tweet – Mr. Christopher
Bullfrog – Louis Ray
Jack & Jill – Confetti Park Players
Skip to My Lou – Swing Setters
Farm – Imagination Movers
Summit of Sound – Renzi Center
When Something is Gnawing You – Hrilina Ramrakhiani
Old Man – Leadbelly
A Rum Sum Sum – Judy Caplan Ginsburgh
Jambalaya (On the Bayou) – Papillon

Also featured in this episode, a Louisiana folk tale called The Little Louisiana Pine Tree, a music memory from Shreveport musician Leonard Service, and a poem from Confetti Park Player Hrilina Ramrakhiani.

The Confetti Park podcast and radio program, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!

Subscribe on iTunes

The radio program version launched on April 4, 2015 in New Orleans on WHIV FM and is supported by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, OffBeat magazine and Music Rising at Tulane University.

Current broadcast schedule:
- WHIV 102.3 FM in New Orleans every Saturday at 12 p.m. NOON
- KSLU 90.9 FM in Hammond every Sunday at 12 p.m. NOON
- WHYR 96.9 FM in Baton Rouge every Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
Community radio stations, interested in carrying Confetti Park? Contact Katy Ray.
Thanksgiving playlists make beautiful music memories for Rich Collins

Rich Collins

It’s a childhood music memory from Rich Collins, a founder and front man for one of the most popular children’s music groups in the world, the Imagination Movers. Rich also has a burgeoning solo career, with a new album of songs geared toward adults. (Scroll down for music videos!)

In this music memory, Rich talks about the music he associates with large family gatherings at Thanksgiving:

“My family up in DC was large and we would all gather for all the major holidays, and the holiday that was at our house every year was Thanksgiving. And we had a very fun family, so basically the way every one of these gatherings ended was with all the tables and chairs being pushed aside, and we would put on records and start dancing.”

Rich talks about how his father curated the albums that became the basis for Thanksgiving memories: “The soundtrack to my youth, and to these parties, and to these great family memories, was the Beatles, Creedence, and Otis Redding.”

Today, the tradition lives on for Rich and his family.

“Every other year here in New Orleans (where I’ve been for 25 years), I host Thanksgiving. And I have a Pandora channel with those three artists on it and I put it on and it’s playing the whole time that I’m gathered with my sisters and my mom and the next generation…”

Thanks, Rich, for sharing this wonderful family tradition with Confetti Park. Listen to this extended interview with Rich Collins, all about the music of the Imagination Movers.
Storytime: The Adventures of the Swamp Kids – The Missing Chord by Leif Pedersen

Leif Pedersen, creator of the Swamp Kids series

It’s Confetti Park Storytime! In this episode, we hear Louisiana-born big band leader and children’s author Leif Pedersen narrate The Missing Chord, the very first book of the Swamp Kids series.

The Swamp Kids are friends and bandmates who live in Bayou Bleu near Mamou, Louisiana. Led by Pierre a le Gator on fiddle, the musical swamp kids include Mon Cher the pretty raccoon and TuTu the Turtle on washboard. There’s also a fish who keeps time by splashing his tail in the water.

But they just can’t get their sounds quite right! What’s missing? Will they find it before the big Battle of the Bands contest?

Sachet the Crawfish longs to join in the merry music making, but he wants to bring just the right sound to the group. Maybe he has just what the Swamp Kids need!

Swamp Kids’ creator Leif Pedersen is a fabulous musician in his own right. Leif has been a lead singer for many famous internationally touring Big Bands orchestras, such as Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Al Beletto’s Big Jazz Band, Pete Fountain, and Woody Herman’s Band. Today, the New Orleans native leads his own band.

The Swamp Kids is a growing enterprise, with four books in the series and more coming. All of the books contain “Lagniappe Lessons” by Louisiana celebrities—famous Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw is the guest star in The Lost Chord!
Visit www.theswampkids.com for puzzles, plush toys, activity sheets of teachers, and more!

This podcast features a bit of “Se Pas La Pan” performed by the Hackberry Ramblers.
Katy Hobgood Ray & the Confetti Park Players in Story Monsters Ink

Story Monsters Ink features the Confetti Park Players and Katy Hobgood Ray

What an honor! The August 2016 issue of Story Monsters Ink has a lovely feature story on Katy Hobgood Ray, director of the Confetti Park Players.

The cover story for this issue is on Dav Pilkey, author of the beloved Adventures of Captain Underpants series, one of the most popular series of books written for elementary-school aged children. There is also a profile on children’s author and illustrator Liz Pichon, creator of the popular Tom Gates series, and on Linda Dennis, founder of the Team Backpack Journalists program.

The article on Katy was written by Melissa Fales.

“As the host and producer of the New Orleans-based Confetti Park children’s radio show and director of the Confetti Park Players children’s chorus, Katy Hobgood Ray pays homage to the music and culture of her beloved home state of Louisiana. Both projects allow Ray to share her vast musical knowledge and songwriting talent with children and adults alike.”

Thank you so much for the wonderful support, to writer Melissa and to Editor-in-Chief, Cristy Bertini!

Download the issue

Story Monsters Ink is a free, subscription-based magazine that gives parents and educators the latest news about award-winning and debut books, profiles on both renowned and newly published authors, upcoming book events, author presentations and more.
John Doheny recalls jamming cartoon theme songs as a kid

Saxophonist John Doheny at a Confetti Park recording session with Chuck Bee (L) and Roger Lewis (R).

In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a childhood music memory from New Orleans-based saxophonist John Doheny.

John has a long career as a professional jazz musician, band leader, writer, and educator. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he first started playing clarinet as a child and was part of youth orchestras from an early age.

John switched to saxophone as a teenager, and says he developed his chops playing six nights a week as a college student in Vancouver. He spent his twenties and thirties playing and recording with a slate of well-known pop and rhythm and blues artists such as the Coasters, the Platters, Bobby Curtola, Buddy Knox, the Temptations, Solomon Burke, Michael Buble, and Doug and the Slugs.

In 2003, John moved to New Orleans and enrolled in the graduate school at Tulane University. In addition to earning an MA in Musicology (with a concentration in Early New Orleans Jazz), he served as Professor of Practice in the music department and directed the student jazz band. He also served as band leader of the Professors of Pleasure, and has released several straight-ahead jazz recordings. (We are honored that John appears on a track with the Confetti Park Players—The Clapping Song.)

In this memory, John recalls how his mother made him practice every day, and how it led to a favorite jam.

“My mother said you have to practice for 30 minutes after school or no cartoons. And so I would be sitting there playing with the Klose book, and then the cartoons would come on, and then because I already had the horn in my hand, I taught myself how to play the Bugs Bunny theme song. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was teaching myself how to play what I hear, which is kind of what you want to do.”
Hidden Treasure discovered at C.E. Byrd

This mural was recently discovered while replacing the air conditioning system on the third floor of Byrd High. (Photo: Douglas Collier, The Times)

Here’s a special find! The Shreveport Times just ran a featured article on the uncovering of a “hidden treasure” at C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. A forgotten mural by our very own The Little Mouse Santi author David Eugene Ray!

“When David Ray graduated from C.E. Byrd High School in 1978 he left behind a treasure, a mural full of cartoon characters, hidden from the public eye for more than 35 years.Hamm Mechanical found the mural while replacing the air conditioning system in early June, said President William Hamm.
Read the article

Perhaps it’s time you illustrated your own book, David Ray!
Bumblebee, the animated music video!

The Confetti Park Players are a children’s chorus based here in New Orleans. One of our favorite things to do is to collaborate with other musicians who live in this amazing, creative city! We are SO lucky to be surrounded by and nurtured by so much talent.

Our most recent collaboration was with local folk-pop duo Ginger & the Bee (aka Sherri Montz and Scott Frilot). This duo perform around New Orleans and have other musical projects, including the beloved Vinyl Girls, Slack Adjustor, Skin & Bones, and the Tomatoes.

Ginger & the Bee wrote a song specially for the Confetti Park Players—it’s called “Bumblebee.”

Bumblebee, bumblebee, where is your honey? I want some honey for my honey!

Bumblebee, bumblebee, where is your honey? I want some honey for me.

Choir director Katy Ray taught the song to the kids over a few weeks, and one special Wednesday night, Ginger & the Bee came to our practice at Algiers United Methodist Church to record with the kids.

Scott sets up the recording gear for the session.

Lily and Nola do a sound check with Scott. We think he and Sherri enjoyed this as much as the kids!

The Confetti Park Players sing “Bumblebee” with much gusto!

After the recording was over, the kids went outside to play on the grass with Sherri to shoot some playful scenes with scarves.

Scarf attack!

Move back, kids!

Sherri emerges.

A few weeks later, the Confetti Park Players went to the Mini Art Center, a child-centric community arts center located in our very own Algiers Point, to do stop motion animation for the music video. We had such a great time creating this from drawings and recording footage. Molly and Prescott, who run the Mini Art Center, are great teachers.

Prescott gathers the kids around the stop motion center.

The kids draw characters and backgrounds for the music video.

What a fun process! We moved the characters inch by inch for the stop motion animation.

And, voila! Enjoy the final product!

Confetti Park Players perform Ginger & the Bee from Mini Art Center on Vimeo.
Paul Butler of WFDU’s Kids Crossroads interviews Katy Hobgood Ray

Paul Butler interviews Katy Hobgood Ray on WFDU’s Kids Crossroads

Katy Hobgood Ray spent a lovely hour with Paul Butler of WFDU’s Kids Crossroads and the Imagination Parade (based in the NY/NJ area) talking about the Confetti Park Players, the Confetti Park radio show, and the real park and Louisiana culture which are her inspiration.

Katy loves hosting a radio show for kids down here in Louisiana, which she’s been doing for a year. Paul, meanwhile, has been hosting his shows since 1985!!!!

There is lots of good children’s music to hear in this fun segment, which is archived online. Paul chooses songs from the Confetti Park Players’ CD, We’re Going to Confetti Park!, and pairs them with topical songs by other children’s musicians throughout the United State (and from generations of songwriters). There are songs about watermelons, dancing, peanuts, snoballs, and much more.

LINK TO ARCHIVE (July 18, 2016)
Bruce Sunpie Barnes: The magic of my father’s music

In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear a childhood music memory from Bruce Sunpie Barnes, the talented and multifaceted blues harmonica player and zydeco accordionist from Louisiana.

In addition to leading the zydeco band the Louisiana Sunspots, Bruce has had a long career as a ranger and naturalist at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana. (He also had a career in the world of NFL football, playing with the Kansas City Chiefs!) And he’s the photographer and author of Talk That Music Talk. Read more about his biography at All Music.

Bruce’s music has always been a part of his life, and even as a naturalist, he found music an effective way to communicate about the culture and importance of the Louisiana environment. Bruce was one of the key producers on two-album compilation, the National Park Service: Songs of the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Here Bruce shares a special memory of his father, who was one of his most important influences.

“My earliest memory of anything to do with music was sitting on my father’s knee and listening to him play harmonica. He would work all day, and when he’d come home in the evening, I always wanted to hear him play his harmonica. And he’d play a song called “Coon ‘n the Hound” and make these barks like a dog…. and I was completely fascinated by it.

I would sit on his knee and he would play for all my brothers and sisters (a lot of them), but I would just sit and I would try to figure out where all that sound was coming from.

It was like magic. It was the first thing I ever associated with being magic.

I would always think about that when I would go to bed, ‘I can’t wait till I get old enough so I can make some magic.‘”
WHYR Promo for Confetti Park!

The Confetti Park radio show and podcast, hosted by Katy Hobgood Ray, features music and stories spun in Louisiana. It showcases songs that kids love, songs created for kids, and songs created by kids. Sparkling interviews, in-studio performances, delightful music medleys, jokes, local author storytime, and a little surprise lagniappe make for an entertaining show!

Airing on WHYR 96.9 FM in Baton Rouge every Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Here’s the promo!