Confetti Park Children's Workshop

Category: Podcast

  • Music Medley: Nacho Cheese & Snoballs

    Photo by Lara Cerri via Flickr Creative Commons
    Photo by Lara Cerri via Flickr Creative Commons

    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:

    I Love Nachos – Philip Melancon
    A Tisket-A Tasket – The Swing Setters
    Song of a Creole Slave – Terrance Simien
    Les Tils Yeaux Noirs – Nancy Tabb Marcantel
    Music Memory – Rockin Dopsie Jr
    Joyeaux – Lee Benoit
    The Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog – Don Abney and his Catahoulas
    Snoball Chant – Confetti Park Players
    Snoball – Katy Ray

    The Confetti Park 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!

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  • Storytime: Why the Crawfish Lives in the Mud by Johnette Downing

    Storytime: Why the Crawfish Lives in the Mud by Johnette Downing

    Why the crafish lives in the mudIn this episode of Confetti Park, Johnette Downing narrates her wonderful trickster tale, Why the Crawfish Lives in the Mud.

    Long ago, the Crab and the Crawfish used to be best friends. But one sweltering day, Crawfish is feeling lazy and decides to take advantage of Crab’s generosity. Young readers will enjoy the colorful collage art while they learn a lesson about the consequences of tricking other people.

    This narration, which is available on Johnette’s Reading Rocks CD, is for sale as a book and available from Pelican Publishing on Amazon.com and from Johnette’s website. There is also a fun activity book associated with this story!

    Johnette Downing is an award-winning and internationally recognized singer and songwriter. Her many accolades include Parents’ Choice Awards,  iParenting Media Awards, and National Parenting Publication Awards. She is a favorite guest and contributor to Confetti Park!

  • Music Memory from Angela Russell

    Angela Russell
    Angela Russell

    Angela Russell is a violinist from Shreveport, Louisiana, who trained in NYC and who has played in symphony orchestras and rock bands around the United States. She has also taught hundreds of students a love for stringed instruments. Currently, Angela lives in Los Angeles.

    Angela shares how she first discovered the violin in this childhood music memory.

  • Interview: Jayna Morgan & the Swing Setters swing kids music

    Interview: Jayna Morgan & the Swing Setters swing kids music

    The New Orleans-based jazz band the Swing Setters play kids music!
    The New Orleans-based jazz band the Swing Setters play kids music!

    In this episode of Confetti Park, Katy Ray interviews jazz vocalist Jayna Morgan about her newest New Orleans band, the Swing Setters, a fun, energetic group that plays kids music jazz-style!

    (Is this a great name for a jazz band that plays kids music, or what?!)

    The Swing Setters truly fill a void in the New Orleans live music scene with their polished treatment of classic American songs, folk songs, and Disney favorites that kids love.

    Says Morgan, “There’s not many jazz bands in New Orleans that play children’s music…we were trying to think of names of other people in New Orleans that have a great personality [that aren’t grumpy!], very affable with children, who wouldn’t mind being silly once in a while!”

    The band is comprised of professional jazz musicians including Morgan on the vocals, Alex Owen on trumpet, Greg Agid on clarinet and saxophone, David Phy on trombone, Ted Long on guitar, Joe Kennedy on piano, Alan Broome on bass, and Gerald French on drums. 

    insert-front_swingsettersThe band recently released their first CD, called Swingin’ at the Playground, available for purchase online at http://11thcommandmentrecords.com/store/ This podcast includes several previews of songs from that record, including “Look for the Silver Lining,” “The Glow Worm,” “This Old Man,” and “A-Tisket A-Tasket.”

     

  • Music Medley: Crawfish Time

    Music Medley: Crawfish Time

    Photo of crawfish by Sally Asher
    Photo of crawfish by Sally Asher

    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:

  • Ben Schenck wrote a song about a cockroach

    Panorama Jazz Band photo by Greg Miles
    Panorama Jazz Band photo by Greg Miles

    When facing off with a cockroach in the shower, what would you do?

    Some people would scream. Some people would hurl the shampoo bottle at the little sucker, and then run.

    But Ben Schenck? He wrote a song for the cockroach.

    “I was raised with a strong care module, so I cared deeply about this cockroach, but at the same time I didn’t want to touch it….  I set him free and then wrote him a song at the breakfast table.”

    Here’s Ben on clarinet and vocals, performing with the Panorama Jazz Band of New Orleans on the “Cockroach Song,” which he wrote when he was 17.

    Sing along, everyone: “Ya Ya Ya, Wally Wally Wah!”

  • Music Memory from Tommy Sancton

    Tommy Sancton. Photo by Sébastien Chaillot
    Tommy Sancton. Photo by Sébastien Chaillot

    In this episode of Confetti Park, Tommy Sancton shares one of his earliest music memories from Preservation Hall, a musical venue in the French Quarter founded in 1961 to protect, preserve, and perpetuate traditional New Orleans jazz. There, Tommy heard the sound that would guide the course of his life.

    Tommy Sancton has had an illustrious career as a journalist and musician. After studies at Harvard and Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, he began a 22-year career with Time magazine as writer, editor, and Paris bureau chief. Music has always been part of Tommy’s life. As he traveled the world, he never stopped playing his clarinet.

    He also never stopped feeling the pull of home. In August 2007, Tommy left Paris for New Orleans. He now teaches at Tulane, continues to write, and plays and records frequently with numerous traditional jazz bands. Visit his website to learn more.

    Tommy has a beautiful memoir called Song for My Fathers: A New Orleans Story in Black and White, published in 2006, which recounts his experiences at Preservation Hall and explores his childhood apprenticeship with clarinetist George Lewis and other musicians, as well as his relationship with his own father.

     

     

     

     

  • Interview: How Jeremy Lyons started singing to kids

    In this episode of Confetti Park, Katy Ray interviews Jeremy Lyons about how he started playing for kids and what kinds of songs he plays. Jeremy also discusses how much he enjoys the curiosity and interest of little human beings in music.

    geeseandJeremyJeremy Lyons began his musical career playing in a washboard band on the streets of the French Quarter in the early 1990s. He played in several bands, most notably Jeremy Lyons and the Deltabilly Boys, a group that blended the sounds of rockabilly and New Orleans R&B with Piedmont-style fingerpicking and surf guitar.

    In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Jeremy and his family (who had evacuated to Baton Rouge to be with his grandparents) lost most of their possessions when their house flooded. He has since permanently relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston.

    That’s where Jeremy started playing kids music, using his style he dubs ‘DeltaSilly.’ He now has two CDs for children, Music for Kids and Silly Goose Music.

    As a music buff, Jeremy likes to draw from folk songs and the early popular music of America, and he shares fun music history with his little listeners. Jeremy offers a special in-studio performance for Confetti Park—he plays the Woody Guthrie song “Mail Myself to You.”

     

  • Storytime: Lousy Liver by Melinda Taliancich Falgoust

    Storytime: Lousy Liver by Melinda Taliancich Falgoust

    Lousy Liver coverCharlie is hungry. He simply can’t wait. What will his dear mother put on his plate? Charlie picks up his fork and stops in midair. Oh, no! On his plate! What is THAT sitting there?”

    Lousy Liver is an award-winning, deliciously whimsical tale that follows the imagination of a young boy as he devises one wild plan after another to help him avoid the “lousy liver” being served for dinner. Soon, Charlie discovers that something different isn’t always something bad. Buy on Amazon.com


    This cute story is narrated by the author, Melinda Taliancich Falgoust, of New Orleans. In addition to being a published author of several books for kids and adults, Melinda is a mom, a Navy veteran, a teacher of drama to young children, and an actor who performs on stage and screen. Learn more about her work on her website.

  • Music Medley “Cockroach Dance”

    American-cockroach
    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:

    • Manchac Chicken Shack – Louisiana Pollywogs
    • The Cockroach Song – Ben Schenk and the Panorama Jazz Band
    • Cockroach – Johnette Downing
    • Watermelon Man – Papillon
    • Watermelon Time – Confetti Park Players
    • I’ve Been Working On The Railroad – Buckwheat Zydeco
    • Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track – Confetti Park Players
    • Blue Tailed Fly (Jimmie, Crack Corn) – Leadbelly
    • Aiy-eee – Louisiana Pollywogs

  • Storytime: Why the Possum has a Large Grin by Johnette Downing

    Storytime: Why the Possum has a Large Grin by Johnette Downing

    Why the Possum has a Large Grin
    Why the Possum has a Large Grin

    Award-winning Louisiana children’s musician and author Johnette Downing shares with Confetti Park another marvelous trickster tale—this time about a possum! (Also listen to Why the Oyster Has the Pearl.)

    When hungry Deer asks Possum how he stays so plump during the long dry season, the sly marsupial gets an idea. It wouldn’t take much for Possum to help Deer; he could just climb that ol’ persimmon tree and knock down the fruit. But Possum is just plain lazy and he’d rather trick Deer into doing the work for both of them. Once Possum decides to take advantage of his starving neighbor they both become marked forever.

    This narration of Why the Possum has a Large Grin is available on Johnette Downing’s Reading Rocks CD, and in book form by Pelican Publishing. It is also available for purchase on Amazon.

    Audio used by permission.

  • Change the life of a kid through CASA

    Photo provided by CASA Jefferson
    Photo provided by CASA Jefferson

    This is a special edition of Confetti Park. 

    Katy Ray interviews Rosana Gonzalez, Executive Director of CASA Jefferson, who is looking for volunteers to advocate for foster children in Jefferson Parish. In 2014, CASA Jefferson served 295 kids in Jefferson parish with only 150 volunteers.

    In other words, about 15% of foster care children in Jefferson parish courts are in need of an advocate. There is a definite shortage of volunteers—but on the bright side, it’s definitely an attainable goal!

    Katy Ray asks Rosana questions to try to really understand the role of a CASA volunteer. She asks Rosana to describe a hypothetical situation so that potential volunteers might be able to anticipate what they will be undertaking.

    CASA stands for “Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children.” From the national organization’s website: “Every day in this country, 1,900 children become victims of abuse or neglect, and four of them will die. Every day. Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for Children is a network of 951 community-based programs that recruit, train and support citizen-volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children in courtrooms and communities.”

    Says Rosana, “The advocate is there for that one individual child. They are considered the judge’s witness. They are making sure that child’s time in foster care is limited and is best as it can be.”

    A few quick informational items:

    • An advocate does not need legal expertise or experience.
    • The average foster child spends 22 months in custody. So the CASA volunteer has a required two year commitment.
    • A good advocate is an objective person who can come into a situation and look out for the best interests of a child, who can communicate well and is culturally competent and aware, and most of all, who has genuine concern for the well-being of children.
    • The amount of time spent on a case per month typically ranges between 8-10 hours.

    If you are interested in being a volunteer, or just want more information before you decide, call 504-533-8757 or visit the website www.CASAjefferson.org.