Okay, so I am a music lover. And a festival freak. Much less on the festival side these days, but still and always a music lover, so I have to pick and choose from a very wide and eclectic array of venues and musical talent. Let me tell you- it ain't easy.
Gone are the days of continent hopping for a single concert (Leonard Cohen in Dublin was so very well worth it though), and even driving 2-3 states away has become much more work than it is worth to me (although we did manage 2 concerts in Texas in August- Damien Rice in Austin and Gavin James with a little Sam Smith in Dallas).
However, we do love us some local talent and the field is pretty crammed around here.
To my (and many, many others) delight, there is a little outfit from our neck of the woods and my even smaller circle of friends that holds the connection to a rising star on the musical scene. There name now is "And The Kids," but it has been several other names over the last several short years in my aegis of the band.
For me it started with a sports connection among our kids. Rebecca played hockey with my son. Yup, you heard that right. Title IX baby- girls can play with the boys! That was pre-teen years. By teen years, she had found her way to music and a muse/mentor in the hills outside of our town at a place called the Institute for Musical Arts.http://www.ima.org/playlikeagirl.info/Welcome.html
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| The original three- Rebecca, Zoe, and Hannah |
Not having girl children, it was a lovely vicarious past time to go with my friend, and Rebecca's mom, Joanne, as the often "senior-most" of the ever growing fan base as these young ladies grew into their immense talent.
I followed them into some places and spaces that made me feel like a dinosaur, and this gig at the VFW in Florence (2012) was one of those places:
The group went through changes: name-wise, membership, and such. The root duo of Hannah and Rebecca was the carry through, and here they are in the summer of 2013 at the Green River Festival
They even had a CD release party at the beloved Iron Horse in Northampton on 11/23/13
When they hit Green River again in 2014, they had fans like this:
Those same fans found the band hanging with us this year at Green River (they didn't play there this year b/c they had their own gig later in the summer):
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| Not on top of the bill, but on the bill none-the-less |
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| Hand-made CD's, now how cool is that !?! |
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| And even a set list!!! |
Then 2015 hit and many exciting things happened for And The Kids:
- they signed a record deal with Signature Sounds
- they got a booking agent
- they made their first professional quality CD and had a release party for it at Signature Sounds
- they were featured in an article in the Boston Globe
- they went to Washington DC to record a "tiny desk" concert for NPR
- they were included in the line up for a 5 band end of the summer concert to be held locally at the Pines theater at Look Park
THRILLING, RIGHT??? You betcha! Here are some of the highlights from it all:
Of course we bought the CD (and you to can)
Here is a link to do so: https://andthekidsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/turn-to-each-other
The link to their tiny desk concert on NPR:
And then the end-of-the-summer gig, which was a BLAST!
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| Parent of band member Rebecca |
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| Parent (standing) of band member Hannah |
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| Us (#1.5 Fans) |
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| I gave one of the fans to a younger fan b/c she deserved it (she was really grooving to the music)! |
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| ATK playing the Pines in their hometown- it was so sweeeeeet! |
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| Hannah |
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| Talia (a newly added member that the women met at IMA) sporting an old Student Prince hat. |
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| Rebecca |
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| And a SOLD OUT crowd! https://youtu.be/vCX8f6UfE54 |
and you thought this was the end, but NOOOOOOO....
there's more....
Because when you are a fan, and you move up the fan chain, you get the call. And we got the call! "Hey, who wants to be in a video we (ATK) are making?" "WE DO, WE DO!"
So one hot summer day, in the middle of a seemingly mundane weekday in a lovely old former average Noho mill housing unit (my first ever being inside one too), we showed up for a crazy day of making a video. It went like this:
We arrived in our best clothes we were prepared to get dirty and the table was bare, and our companion humans for the video hadn't arrived yet.
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| As you can see, there was often a lot of down time, some of us ate the food (well actually only the bread and butter), some of us drank the wine (obviously not the young'uns), and most of us played with our food creating masterpieces (mine is on the left). |
Midway thru some video for you:
https://youtu.be/_2YFiC9uOvM
And here is another brief video of behind the scenes:
https://youtu.be/e_zBpRgN1us
and yup, we ate some more bread. However, there were those among us who did the other thing (more than she knew) and by the end here is how the last clip of behind the scenes video came out:
It was a crazy seven hour day, about the craziest I have had in a long, long time. I can't wait to see what the finished product will be!
And a post-script: here are some pictures of what a #1 fan looks like, and a true testament to the beauty of a mother-daughter bond.
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