AWARDS & REVIEWS:
Toodala front porch
favorites
- Winner of a 2003 Parents'
Choice Award!
Jumpin' Frog Jubilee -
- "Best Song for Younger Children"
by the Children's
Music Web Awards 2003
School Library Journal,
December, 2003:
Music Educator Gayle Schmitt, along with her, "Toodala Ramblers,"
presents 17 lively tunes on this toe-tapping album. Schmitt, who
encourages children to see music as something to be experienced
by everyone, not just by entertainers, packs the album with old
favorites and new twists on classics. Kids and adults alike will
recognize the likes of "Turkey in the Straw," "Ain't No Bugs On
Me," and "Buffalo Gals," but Schmitt also offers verses that may
be less familiar. Many of the songs involve clapping and other actions,
and some, like the "The Doodlebug Song," will be valuable additions
to Librarians' story time tool kits. Schmitt includes two original
songs done in the traditional style: "Katie's Dumplings" is based
on the recipe of Schmitt's great aunt, and "Jumpin' Frog Jubilee,"
draws its inspiration from Mark Twain's short story, "The Celebrated
Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Whether dancing "All Around the
Kitchen," or swaying to the lovely lullaby, "Open the Window," everyone
in the family will enjoy this collection of traditional favorites.
-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia
By Brenda Hough - Northern
California Bluegrass Society
Gayle Schmitt
is a music/movement teacher in San Francisco and this CD features
songs that kids of any age will enjoy. She has gathered some Bay
Area bluegrass musicians to accompany her in this collection of
old-time fun songs and there's lots of hot picking and strumming
on the tunes.
Bluegrass fans will appreciate the banjo licks mixed with fast fiddle
and soaring Dobro.
Your toes
will be tapping along with "Pig in a Pen," "Turkey in the Straw,"
and "Buffalo Gals." Food fans will want to sing along with "Katie's
Dumplings," "How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?" and "Sweet Potatoes."
The old camp favorite "Ain't No Bugs On Me" is full of bouncy mandolin
and banjo.
Gayle has
even written a song in honor of the "Jumping Frog Jubilee." If the
usual bluegrass diet of lovelorn songs, cabins in the mountains
and renegades gets you down, this is great for a change of pace
and a good collection of songs for kids and grownups to sing together.
From Bluegrass
Unlimited Magazine
Gayle Schmitt is a teacher/musician
currently residing in San Francisco and dedicated to sharing her love
of music with children. With the assistance of a multitude of friends
and pickers, she has created "Toodala, Front Porch Favorites," a collection
of mostly traditional songs designed for children of all ages. The
17 selections include titles such as "Cluck Ol' Hen," "Ain't No Bugs
On Me," "Pig in a Pen," "Turkey in the Straw," and "Buffalo Gals."
Also included are a pair of originals, the first of which is
"Jumpin' Frog Jubilee," based on a famous Mark Twain short story.
The second, "Katie's Dumplings," was inspired by the cooking of Gayle's
great aunt. For anyone who knows a young child, "Toodala" is an excellent
means of introducing them to the joys of traditional values. everything
is a song!
everything is a song!
A 1999 Parents Choice Award Recipient:
By Lynne Heffley,
Parents
Choice
Music/Movement educator Gayle Schmitt performs inviting play along,
simple songs about a helicopter, a fire engine, falling leaves,
giving each its own individual style with carefully chosen instruments
from a musical saw and steel drums, to brass, wind and string instruments,
and even just hands clapping. The neat finale is a musical "soup"
of all the instruments.
Purchase Toodala
and everything
is a song! online at CDBaby.
Email
Gayle 
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