Category: Podcast

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.
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.”
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.‘”
Storytime: Adolpheaux, the Adventurous Dolphin by Tommie Townsley

In this episode of Confetti Park, children’s author Tommie Townsley of Lake Charles, Louisiana narrates the story of Adolpheaux, the Adventurous Dolphin.

In this Cajun animal tale, a small dolphin bravely sets out to discover what human beings are all about. His curiosity leads to an amazing alliance between himself and a sister and brother who will never forget him. This lovely tale teaches children to obey their mothers in order to stay safe in a world fraught with danger. This lively watery adventure is set in The Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

This narration of Amos the Artistic Alligator is shared here with permission from Tommie. The book, illustrated by Anne Dentler, is available for purchase on Amazon and at http://kidscajuntales.com/

Buy on Amazon

Tommie Townsley was born in Sulphur, Louisiana and now lives in Lake Charles. She is Cajun and has written numerous children’s books about Cajun life, many of them about animals. Tommie is the chairperson of the Southwest Louisiana Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Guild and publisher of Ally-Gator BookBites Publishing House in Lake Charles. Learn about Tommie Townsley and check out her books at http://kidscajuntales.com/
A childhood music memory from Ms. Chocolate about spirituals

Ms. Chocolate, also known as Gwen Williams, is a storyteller and a singer who grew up in Louisiana. Many of her favorite stories and songs she shares with children today are the true memories and gathered songs from her own childhood in rural parts of central Louisiana. Church, family, school, and life in the country are recurrent themes.

In this episode Ms. Chocolate shares about the music she sang as a little girl:

“The music I remember as a child were called spirituals. Now you don’t have too much of that today… I do a monologue of Harriet Tubman and spirituals of the Underground Railroad. So I teach children how slaves used music to communicate…….. ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot,’ ‘He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands,’ ‘This Little Light of Mine’—these are spirituals. These are simple songs that have a really big meaning,” says Ms. Chocolate.

Ms. Chocolate lives in Picayune, Mississippi today. She left New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She tells stories all around the Gulf area. http://chocolatestoryteller.blogspot.com/
Music Memory from Daniele Spadavecchia

Daniele Spadavecchia. Photo courtesy of http://www.dsjazz.com/

In this episode of Confetti Park, we hear some memories of a musical childhood from New Orleans-based gypsy guitarist Daniele Spadavecchia, who grew up in Italy.

Daniele loves to play acoustic gypsy jazz guitar, and when he first came to New Orleans (around 2003) he hooked up with Tony Green, another musician who shares sensibility and appreciation of gypsy jazz, swing, Mediterranean Flamenco, and European ethnic music.

Daniele has performed at dozens of festivals and venues in Italy and the United States, especially around New Orleans and San Diego (where he lived after Hurricane Katrina for a time). Today, you can catch him at the Tasting Room on Magazine Street, where he has weekly gigs.

In this interview, Daniele describes his childhood as freewheeling and adventurous, and his parents—”an Italian version of hippies”—shared their musical tastes with Daniele and his brother.

“Of course as kids, we were always traveling with my parents, and we would always have a tape player in the car. We didn’t even have a working stereo in the car so we would carry this predecessor of a boom box. So we would play all these tapes. My mama would play some music, and she would play every kind of thing…. all these fantastic rock ‘n roll or prog rock bands or psychedelic rock. And that thing really twisted my brain, in a good way. It taught me freedom of expression and the beauty of music, the power of music.”

Daniele has recorded various gypsy jazz CDs and also plays on the Confetti Park Player’s children’s CD. he is the featured guitarist on the song “Buttermilk Drop.”

Listen to Daniele’s beautiful music:
Storytime: Her Royal Majesty, the Superhero Bride of Frankenstein by Melinda Taliancich Falgoust

Her Royal Majesty, the Superhero Bride of Frankenstein

It’s storytime from Confetti Park!

In this episode we hear the inimitable Melinda Taliancich Falgoust narrate Her Royal Majesty, the Superhero Bride of Frankenstein.

This is SUCH a fun story about little Lizzie McGillicuddy, a girl who adapts quickly to recover from an embarrassing situation at her school. Talk about making the best of things!

A piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of Lizzie McGillicuddy’s shoe could prove to be the biggest disaster in the entire history of the freckle-faced third-grader’s career until the errant strand of tissue becomes a fantastical queen’s train, then a magical superhero’s cape, and finally a spooky bride’s veil, proving that a little positive thinking can change your whole outlook on life…and save the class costume contest!

BUY IT ON AMAZON

Melinda Taliancich Falgoust

Her Royal Majesty, the Superhero Bride of Frankenstein earned a 5-star review with Reader’s Favorite. We are so delighted that Melinda has shared it with our Confetti Park listeners!

And just wait til you hear her wonderful narration.

You can check out this interview with Melinda to learn more about this accomplished author, actress, photographer and educator.

Also, listen to Melinda narrate her other wonderful books (all so different and original):

Listen to Melinda narrate Lousy Liver

Listen to Melinda narrate Footprints
Music Memory from Randy Guynes

Photo of Randy Guynes by Barbara Beaird Photography

Randy Guynes is a drummer and percussionist from Shreveport, Louisiana. He’s played in bands such as the Killer Bees, the Lightnin’ Bugs, and the Fiddlin’ Tim Trio.

In this episode of Confetti Park, Randy shares a few music memories from his childhood that show how powerful the influence of song can be. In one example, the great fun he shared with his sister while dancing the Twist was probably the first time he started thinking about playing music himself. “I think somehow it was on from there!” says Randy.

Songs shaped Randy and spurred him onward, and also created emotional experiences. In one humorous anecdote, Randy recalls how terrifying the new psychedelic sounds created by the Beatles were to his innocent ears.

Says Randy: “KEEL played some music at night, during the late night hours, that they didn’t play during the daytime. I remember hearing for the first time, ‘A Day in the Life,’ by the Beatles. And it just scared me. It was almost like having a nightmare…..I’d never heard anything like that before, in music. It was mind-blowing.”
Storytime: Lophi Learns to Fly

It’s storytime from Confetti Park! In this episode we hear a tale of dinosaur friendship by award-winning children’s author David Eugene Ray out of New Orleans. This is Lophi Learns to Fly.

Lophi is a small dinosaur who feels invisible in his herd. He lives a fairly contented life, but he’s lonely. He spends most of his afternoons watching the pterodactyls flying in the sky. One day, he meets Weena, and they discover that they both share this fascination with the winged creatures and wish, themselves, to fly. Weena has her own reasons for wanting to leave the herd behind.

The two decide to collaborate to build wings, and they set off on a construction adventure. Each day spent in the forest collecting the right materials brings them closer to launch, and closer together. Even though the two dinosaurs couldn’t be more different, their friendship blossoms as they work through the challenges of learning to fly.

David Eugene Ray works with animals everyday at the Audubon Nature Institute. (Follow him on Twitter at @aquarium_dave.) He is the author of The Little Mouse Santi, which was named a Best Book of 2015 by Kirkus Reviews.