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
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