Songs

Playmates and Friends

I cobbled this together for my mom in 2010 when she was in the hospital, because she used to sing the song "Playmates" to my sister and me when we were little. I just dragged some images of the internet to make it watchable.

Jacki's Song

I wrote this while driving between NYC and Kentucky in 1996/'97. I asked Sid to arrange it for my wife's 50th birthday in 2010.

ABCs of Animals

Three versions of an ABCs of animals.

Stay on the Rails

This song, I wrote for a show I adapted from a book about a choo-choo train. It's about the most important lesson a choo-choo must learn in order to grow up and become a locomotive. Many thanks to Sid Cherry, who made the whole soundscape of the show--and the instrumentation of this song--sound slick and professional.

I've Been Working on the...

Here are a couple of railroad songs recorded 15 years apart. "I've Been Working...." I used as audience participation in the show about a choo-choo (featuring "Stay on the Rails" immediately above). The other is me being more than ready to leave NYC. Grew up in Kentucky. Been in NYC for 30 years.

I'm Chewing Cud

Yes. It really is a song about chewing cud. Don't click away; you might enjoy the gifs at least!

"Hooves"

Written to be a companion piece for "Cud," above," this one was first called "Behooved." Yike. Fortunately, I changed it.

Woodiddeechoo

A question--partially answered here--I had back in my zoo education days when attempting to explain the wonders of wildlife you young people. Sigh.

I'm a Reptile:I'm an Amphibian

A song I wrote at the NYC zoos about Golden Pheasants was not a hit, so Melanie took the melody, changed the lyrics, and wrote a whole second melody and lyrics to be sung in counterpoint. Wah-lah. Here it is 22/23 years later.

Brush Tongue Bird

This song and the next are from a project that never "lifted off" at the NYC zoos: an attempt to draw folks' attention to bird exhibits they never glanced at. Best laid plans.....

GoldenWeaver

It's not just that this particular Weaver bird can "warp and weft" a nest, it's that depending on the subspecies (or perhaps "culture?") different Weavers build different DESIGNS of nests.

My Ol' Kentucky Home

Just a short tribute to the state I was raised in. When my not-yet-mom and dad moved to Virginia in the late 1950s for him to pursue his Masters Degree, my mom--Kentuckian into the marrow of her bones--cried when she heard them play this over the radio at the Derby. My dad finished his Masters in KY.