You can see the award page here:

Dinostory: The Ultimate Dinosaur Rock Opera by Mike Whitla, 2011; Rainbow Songs, $14.99 CD; www.rainbowsongs.com; 4-8.

• Great for: rocking out like a T-Rex.
• Why it deserves a Rising Star award: Whitla has created an impressive child-friendly rock opera about “when dinos ruled the earth.”
• Why parents will like it: It’s a perfect disc for dino-obsessed kids.
• Fun Fact: Whitla’s niece Emma sings the role of Terri the Triceratops.

To read the review please click here.

Get it on iTunes

Over the past year or so I wrote a cd about dinosaurs. One of the things I really enjoyed about the process of writing these songs was that each one had a very different writing process. I’d like to explore these different writing processes in a series of blog posts. One element that seemed to be used over and over again was the dinosaur names themselves. Dinosaur names have lots of syllables (7, 6,  5, 4, and 3) with accents in interesting places. For instance Brachiosaurus has 5 syllables with accents that fall like this (Brach – i – o- saur – us),  4 syllables of Stegosaurus goes (Steg – o – saur – us)   Because of this interesting syllabic structure of the Dinosaur names rhythms are already there all you have to do is plop on some notes and the  melodies come right out.

Before I stated writing songs about dinosaurs I had thinking that there were not really that many good songs written about dinosaurs. Especially good songs for kids about dinosaurs and kids love dinosaurs. There are lots of great songs about lots of other animals like Roosters, dogs, bears, cats even elephants but no great ones about dinosaurs. So great songs about dinosaurs really needed to be written.

So I needed to begin the process. (Always the most important thing in getting anything done!)

I like dinosaurs and one of my favourites is Brachiosaurus. When I was a kid this one was thought to be the biggest of them all. Today we know about at least a few species who might have been as big like Argentinosaurus. So for me this was a fitting first song to have written. At first all I had was a riff that I would play with the word Brachiosaurus. I would play this riff with my kids in the living room with my son Jake playing the bongos and me rocking out with the electric guitar. Since the Brachiosaurus was not probably particularly intelligent a simple song structure seemed to make the most sense to me. Also the Brachiosaurus spent most of its time eating constantly so the chorus of the song wrote itself.

So here is what I ended up with.

Dinostory – The Ultimate Dinosaur Rock Opera is now available on iTunes. To get a copy just click here.

The cd features all of your favourite Dinosaurs like  Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Diplodocus, Pterodactyls, Brachiosaurus and of course Tyrannosaurus Rex as well as great music in the styles of Rock, Jazz, Bluegrass, Reggae, and Metal.

If you want to hear some samples here they are:

Get it on iTunes

Over the past year or so I wrote a cd about dinosaurs. One of the things I really enjoyed about the process of writing these songs was that each one had a very different writing process. I’d like to explore these different writing processes in a series of blog posts. One element that seemed to be used over and over again was the dinosaur names themselves. Dinosaur names have lot

Get it on iTunes

Well I have just released my new cd called Dinostory – The Ultimate Dinosaur Rock Opera. Not only is this my most ambitious cd to date it is also the best rock and roll opera made about Dinosaurs. Ok probably it is the only rock ‘n’ roll opera about Dinosaurs but would also make it the worst!.  Anyway, I wrote and recorded this story album over the past year and it was a real blast.

The story goes like this: baby triceratops who, as an egg, was separated from his siblings and hatched on its own. Little Terri has to go out into the world and find where she belongs. Terri’s challenges include finding food and drink as well as a searching for a community that she can call home. Along her journey, Terri is lucky to find other plant-eaters who help her out. Dinosaurs such as Jenny, the Ankylosaurus, and the peculiar Stegosaurus are some of the dinosaurs Terri encounters along her way. Of course the late cretaceous period also has its share of flesh eating monsters, like T-Rex, who are not as friendly and Terri will need all the help she can get if she is to survive.

The songs pay tribute to many styles including Classic Rock, Metal, Reggae, Jazz, and even Bluegrass and features many top session musicians including: Trichy Sankaran, Ivan Rosenberg, Mark Kelso and Chris Coole. The music and story was intended for kids 4 and up but there are many references to music that people growing up with rock and roll will really appreciate.

To but this cd on iTunes click here.

If you want to order a cd copy please click here.

Samples of the songs:

To give the sessions some focus I thought that people could bring songs to the group. The person who brings in the tune can act as arranger for the song too if they like. This way everyone will have some input into what is being played. I also thought that we could send around the music for proposed songs and then I can post them with links here so that any keeners could practice some of the songs ahead of time.

Next Jam will be Sunday June 26th at 2:00

Songlist
All of Me

All the Things you Are

Barbados

Caravan

Chelsea Bridge

Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Sandu

Take the A Train

If you would like to join the jam send me an email note. As always if you would like to leave a comment please do.

I don’t know if it bugs you but TV in public places really annoys me. You are talking with someone and their eyes are constantly being distracted by the warm glow of the ever present TVs. If you have kids you will really know what I mean as they can’t pry their eyes away for a moment.

Enter TV B gone!! An universal remote that can turn off any and all TVs. I got mine here:

http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

Last night we had dinner at  a nice Vietnamese restaurant that had a few TVs blaring away in front of us. One press of a button later no TV. The staff eventually put it back on but you can just turn it off again.
What a pleasure!

Can’t wait to go to a sports bar!

I’ve been listening to Charlie Parker’s recordings with Dizzy Gillespe over the weekend. Have not done so for a while and it is always great. What was interesting was the effect they had on the kids around our house that were hearing this music for the first time. The music made the kids a bit crazy and definitely increased the conflict in the house. One minute kids are playing together happily crank up the Charlie Parker and they are picking fights with each other. I think there is a certain energy in Bird’s playing that makes the kids (and anyone else) a bit crazy. I’ve noticed the same effect when I play some kinds of heavy metal around the kids like Metallica in particular.  This connection in energy between Bebop and Heavy Metal was one I always have sensed and it seems natural that kids would pick up on this. I know both Jazz and Heavy Metal enthusiasts might have doubts about their musics being connected this way but what I am talking about is mood/emotion in music not the technical aspects.

Other music we have been listening to around  the house lately are the Beatles and Bob Marley. These have produced different reactions from the kids. When I play these less frenetic musics the kids are in more cooperative moods. I would say although there is conflict/anger in these kinds of musics the underlying mood/emotion are ones of cooperation and caring.

Could it be that the listening to certain kind of musics can cause people to be: more or less cooperative, more or less agitated?

If so we won’t be hearing Donna Lee or Master of Puppets in the supermarket soon.

watch?v=5z4PKBNzmuo