Saturday afternoon at the Festival: Puppets, Poe, and the Peterson brothers blues band

Hand to Mouth Puppet Theater

2:15 PM Saturday

For the past 12 years, Hand To Mouth Puppet Theatre has been amazing thousands with the art of puppetry, performing at festivals, museums, clubs, schools, libraries, and in the middle of windy fields.

Robbie Lueth discovered puppetry in 1978 and began pursuing it with a passion.

Her studies of literature, drama and voice, as well as her sense of humor, have served her well in making the magic of puppetry come to life each time the lights go on. Puppeteer, painter, graphic artist, costume designer, and book illustrator Ellen Turner Scott has been an artist all her life. The variety of her experience makes Ellen a performer who amazes and delights audiences wherever she goes.

TexARTS Presents:

Selected works from Edgar Allen Poe

3:00 PM Saturday

In honor of the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth, the 2009 Texas Book Festival, in collaboration with the Harry Ransom Center, features a number of activities and performances that pay tribute to the great American poet, critic and author.

The children’s entertainment tent will feature dramatic readings from Edgar Allan Poe, including The Raven, The Black Cat, Spirits of the Dead, and excerpts from The Pit and the Pendulum and The Fall of the House of Usher. Don’t miss this exciting performance by TexARTS Association for Visual & Performing Arts’ Executive Director/Producer Todd Dellinger and members of TexARTS' Great Shakes Classical Repertory Theater - Spencer Carter, Patrick Mullarkey, and Katie Patterson.

The Peterson Brothers Band and Sean Kindred

4:00 PM Saturday

Trust me -- you’ll be surprised by the performance that this young band delivers. I watched a video of the band playing a Hendrix song at Rutamaya and couldn't believe my eyes and ears. The Peterson brothers (age 13 and younger) and two friends will play instrumental Blues, Jazz, Rock, Christian, Bluegrass and more during their performance - a fitting last act to send blues loving festival-goers off for Halloween festivities downtown.

The Peterson brothers are from Bastrop, Texas, and will perform Saturday as “The Peterson Brothers Band and Sean Kindred.” Their sound is a combination of down home Blues and a little bit of everything else that pleases the crowds.

The Lovely & talented Sara Hickman to play at The Texas Book Festival

Sara's on at 1:00 PM Sunday

(Children's Entertainment Tent)

Sara Hickman likes to write about things that pop into her head, like bowls full of stars and faithful hearts and birdhouses. She likes to sing and play guitar, too.

The lovely and talented artist has contributed a great deal to the world of music, with a repertoire that includes award-winning music and songs for children and adults alike. Whether you've learned about Sara Hickman through her music, her family, her causes, or her films, you know that her originality, creativity, and enthusiasm bring a fresh meaning to the well-worn phrase "living life to the fullest."

Wondering what to do this weekend? Look no further:

Here's the lineup for the Children's Entertainment Tent this weekend (posted again for your convenience) - I'll have more info about the performers later today!

Texas Book Festival draws a star-studded crowd to raise funds for public libraries

PBS TV stars, local celebrities and entertainers will serve up some serious fun in the Children's Entertainment Tent this year

Great causes have a way of bringing out the best in people, don't they? Nowhere is that more apparent than at the Texas Book Festival, where some of the nation's most intriguing authors and popular entertainers turn out year after year to celebrate the joy of books and reading -- and support Texas public libraries.

The festival runs every year around this time, and roughly 35,000 people descend on Austin to attend the two-day event, which raises money for our traditionally under-funded public libraries.

I've been involved with the festival in one way or another since it began, but this year I signed on for my most ambitious effort yet when I agreed to serve as Chair of the Children's Entertainment Tent in late August. I was tasked with finding, recruiting and booking enough talent to fill a two-day schedule of children's entertainment.

With a little luck and a lot of advice and encouragement, I whipped up a baker's dozen of incredible acts: 13 back-to-back performances running from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1...emceed by two celebrity news anchors on Saturday and a nationally acclaimed star from musical theatre on Sunday.

On Saturday our little souffle includes a show by the wildly popular Biscuit Brothers at 1:00 PM (see below for details) and a smorgasbord of singers, songwriters and interactive performances before and after that.

I hope everyone will stop by to catch the last show on Saturday by the Peterson Brothers Blues Band. The brothers are two musicians, both under the age of 13 (one of whom plays no less than 6 instruments), and they will be joined by a couple of friends on bass and drums. I watched about 60 seconds of their performance at a local coffee house and knew they'd be a perfect way to wrap up the day. You won't believe the sound that comes from these kids and their band -- they'll give you a good send-off, especially if you plan on catching some blues entertainment later on downtown.

On another note...There's a fascinating twist in the lineup of this year's festival. In cooperation with The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center, the Book Festival is weaving in an intriguing mix of activities to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allen Poe's birth.

The children's entertainment tent will feature readings from a selection of Poe's works -- presented in child-friendly and dramatic style by Shakespearian actors from the TexARTS Academy for the performing and visual arts (and led by the astonishingly generous and gifted TexARTS Executive Director Todd Dellinger, who will also serve as emcee on Sunday).

I hope you'll come out and catch a few of these awesome acts ... which are FREE all weekend. These generous performers have donated a great deal to help raise money for our state's public libraries (whose already-strapped budgets have taken a beating during the nation's economic crisis). Some of the acts themselves are non-profit organizations, including TexARTS and the Biscuit Brothers, and they work hard to raise money for their own organizations.

Festival-goers can attend performances and support the performers in one simple and rewarding way: Stop by the children's entertainment tent and pick up a few early Christmas gifts for your little friends and loved ones. Many of the performers will have CDs, DVDs and other merchandise for sale during and after their shows.

I could go on and on about the great things you'll find at the Children's Entertainment Tent this year....in fact, I plan to. I'll be updating this blog throughout the week with more information about the incredible lineup this year.

Stars of Wildly Popular PBS Kids TV Show,

The Biscuit Brothers, perform at 1:00 PM Saturday

The Biscuit Brothers star in an EMMY Award-winning PBS kids’ music and education program that airs on KLRU-TV PBS Austin and on a number of other PBS stations across the United States. They also work outside of the studio, venturing off the Musical Farm to entertain live audiences with concerts that are wildly popular with children and draw

an impressive fan base of adults as well.

The Biscuit Brothers program was created by Damon Brown, Allen Robertson, and Jerome Schoolar, whose backgrounds in professional theatre, music and acting led to this successful collaboration. All three write and perform on the show, which is hailed for its originality and distinctly Austin style.

You won’t find much fluff or filler in these Texas Biscuits. With the help of a talented crew and professionals such as Jill Leberknight, who plays “Buttermilk” on camera, the team presents an entire landscape of lessons in the arts. They introduce new ideas to children with original songs, good humor and brilliantly crafted scripts (which cleverly conceal the fact that the show is educational).

The cast and crew are fearless when it comes to presenting complex material. They tackle everything from music theory to geography and tuba repair with aplomb, and they weave it all together into well-delivered, entertaining and memorable programs.

The program’s official mission is to introduce arts-related content to children with ideas that engage creativity and learning. A happy side effect of that work has been the delivery of a splendid repertoire of music that’s distinctly Austin, delightfully entertaining and undeniably worthy of a permanent place in your homes and hearts. The program captures all that’s best about children’s music and entertainment while teaching valuable lessons about life and the many ways we can bring harmony to it.

The Biscuit Brothers have a way with words and music -- and a habit of leaving audiences with the distinct impression that our world is infinitely better when we can Go Make Music together.

PS - be sure to check out the Biscuit Brothers' CDs and DVDs at the show. As the mother of a 4-year-old boy, I can say with some authority that their recordings will quickly become some of YOUR favorite items in your children's media library. Here's one of my favorites - a pure-genius musical interpretation of something South of the Border performed by Biscuits puppet character "Tiny Scarecrow." Cracks me up every time I watch it: Chickens playing bongos. (CAUTION: Addictive melody.)

Texas Book Festival features stars including singer/songwriter Joe McDermott Saturday, October 31

Joe McDermott: Noon

Joe McDermott has been obsessed with music ever since he was a little kid growing up in Chicago, the youngest of eight children.

"It all started out with a coffee can and a couple of drumsticks my dad gave to me. I think he was sorry he got them." His first gig was when he and his brother performed at a Harlem Globetrotters show. Five year old Joe played drums and sang "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" with his older brother. This amazing debut was arranged by their aunt who was organizing a hospital benefit. "We had medallions and everything - I wore the Sagittarius," Joe remembers.

All he wanted to do from that point on was make music and make people smile. His next big show was in the 4th grade, when he played drums in his brother's rock band.

As he grew, Joe's creative endeavors shifted for awhile to fine art and painting. While he learned to play guitar and played in rock bands, he moved to Austin and earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas. Hoping to make it in the art world, he took a job as an art teacher at Athena Montessori. Five years later, he opened his own preschool, The Phoenix School, in Central Austin. Little did he know how this melding of creativity and immersion in early childhood education would lead to his future career as one of the nation’s top children’s music recording artists. "It’s amazing how it all evolved so organically. I’m not sure about fate, but it seemed there has been a guiding hand in this," Joe says.

In a rambling old Austin house, Joe and his wife ran the preschool in the front two rooms, and on the weekends played music in the back room studio with friends. Joe realized that children were an unending source of inspiration for songwriting. One year, he recorded a tape with the school children recorded as a Christmas gift for the parents. It was just a dabble into the world of children’s music, but the response was so positive, and his own experiences as a parent made songwriting for children an irresistible force.

Joe’s first nationally distributed CD, I Am Baby, won a Parents’ Choice Recommended Honor in 1998; and both Great Big World (2001) andEverywhere You Go (2003) won the esteemed Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award. Joe was honored with his first NAPPA Gold Award for Everywhere You Go, which includes the Children’s Music Web Award winning song, "Baby Kangaroo." This song also captured a second place prize in the International Song Writing Contest, Children’s Division in 2005. In 2007, Joe released his fourth family music CD, Everybody Plays Air Guitar, which received a Parents’ Choice Recommended Honor. Many songs from all four releases are in regular rotation on XMKids Radio.

McDermott’s proficient songwriting abilities enabled him to compose music for children’s video games (Zombies Ate My Neighbors) and educational software. One project teamed Joe with Stan and Jan Berenstain, authors of the classic Berenstain Bears books. Impressed by Joe’s work, author Stan Berenstain enlisted him to adapt ten of their books to song. After working with Joe, Stan Berenstain said, "Joe McDermott is not only a magnificent songwriter, he’s also an absolute wizard at communicating with children through music." Many of Joe’s catchy songs have been arranged for orchestral performance, allowing him to perform with the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the Allen Philharmonic Symphony.

Children’s music is a full-time focus for Joe McDermott. "What I love about this genre is how open it is to expression." His artistic training helps him create visually rich songs that evoke emotions in "people of all sizes." He’s been called "The maestro of imagination" for his creative approach and appeal.

Children's Entertainment Stars Rise Early in the Morning to Perform at the Texas Book Festival on Opening Day (Halloween-style)

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Opening act: Mr. Johnny and Sharon: 10:00 a.m.

Mr. Johnny and Sharon are five-year favorites of the Texas Book Festival Children’s Entertainment Tent. This year they bring scarves, bugs, drum sticks, streamers, bubbles and more to the Festival’s opening act, which will inspire children to dance, jump and sing along in the "most interactive music show" in Central Texas. The duo has performed together for more than 10 years at venues such as ACL, Austin Museum of Art, Nutty Brown, Wild Basin, Zilker Hillside and regional schools and libraries. They also publish KidEvents Weekly, a digest of the best kids’ activities in Austin. See www.mrjohnny.com for more details.

Walter T. and the Rated G's: 11:00 a.m.

Austin musician Walter Tragert

Walter Tragert's musical training began in the cradle and involved his rocking to the rhythm of "Gloria" as interpreted by his adolescent brothers' garage band. Since his portentious start, Walter has crafted his own career as an acclaimed songwriter and performer. He's been hailed as Texas' answer to Graham Parker, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello, but he's undeniably unique, with a bona-fide brand all his own.

A veteran of Austin's live music scene, Tragert has recorded and performed with a variety of artists, from Ian McLagan (The Faces, Rolling Stones) to The Tosca String Quartet (David Bryne). In 1988, he joined Grammy nominees Michele Valeri and Ingrid Crepeau as a cast member of their child-oriented show Dinosaur Rock, touring from coast to coast to the delight of thousands of elementary-schoolers.

When it comes to his combined talent and take on music, Tragert is in a class all by himself -- except for those times when he's in a class full of children. Walter is fully in his element as a teacher at the Armstrong Community Music School, which is run by the Austin Lyric Opera. He has 20 years of experience teaching guitar and songwriting, but he says the greatest experience is working with children -- engaging their curiosity and energy and providing an outlet for both through music.

Music journalists have praised Tragert as one of the best of his genre. He has a "soul-man's delivery with a poet's heart," according to Texas Music Magazine.

Tragert recently released his first full-length children's music album, "Rough day in the Sandbox." The artist got together with a few well-known friends to record and produce the album, which was released this month (October 2009). The result is a splendidly creative collection of songs that appeal to a wide range of audiences and age groups. Walter Tragert lives, works and occasionally uses his kitchen to cook gourmet meals in Austin, Texas. He has one cat but considers himself a "dog" person.

Walter T. and the Rated G's (a lineup you won't want to miss) will present "A Rough Day at the Sandbox" at the Texas Book Festival on October 31.

You can LISTEN to sample songs on Tragert's new children's music release HERE.

The Texas Book Festival's Lineup of Children's Music and Performances

Save the boobies! Peace, love & yummy cakes for Ro

Breast cancer is costly: Physically. Financially. Personally. It’s especially hard on women who work for themselves and have limited personal insurance -- women like Rochelle, a 30-something supremely talented massage therapist and deeply spiritual healer/caretaker I know in Austin, Texas.

Rochelle was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer a few weeks ago, and she faces one incredible battle against this wretched disease. It's a battle she is physically and mentally ready to fight. Rochelle's good friend (and my neighbor) Karen, a diva baker who takes the cake for the cakes she bakes, doesn’t think that paying medical bills should be part of that battle.

Karen decided to put her baking talent to good use. For a $50 donation to Rochelle's medical bills, Karen will whip you up one seriously delicious cake - or a batch of her “crack” concoction cake balls (a batch is roughly 6 dozen cake balls). Word on the street is that the chocolate-chocolate cake balls are the best, but you can custom-order your favorite flavors and toppings, too.

If you don’t eat cake but want to help cover the costs of Rochelle’s treatment (which begins this month), you can send a $50 donation instead. All of the proceeds will go directly to Rochelle’s medical expenses. Central Texans can also support Rochelle by scheduling an appointment for a massage. What a relaxing way to help a friend fight cancer.

For more information, e-mail Karen at cakeforthecure@yahoo.com. You can also contact charlie@charliefernink.com.