Hamlet: The Album is now for sale on my Bandcamp page: lloydmiller.bandcamp.com. The album collects all the original songs I wrote with my wife's second-grade class for a musical version of Hamlet. The kids learned and performed the actual Shakespearean dialogue -- my wife edited the script down to about 30 pages so that the show would run under a hour and tell the basic story but also give her students an opportunity to wrestle with those wonderful original words. I worked with her and the kids to figure out which moments best lent themselves to song and then wrote brand-new tunes with lyrics that are a mixture of what the kids wrote for homework, my additions and polishes, and Shakespeare's own words.
It's the first real cast album I've made with a school class even though I've been writing musicals like this one for years. Every year my wife and I create a brand-new show, usually based on a work of children's or classic literature. I've also gone into public schools in NYC, Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, Massachusetts, and Arkansas to write songs based on what kids are studying. All in all I've written over 200 songs with kids in schools.
Every time I do a new show, parents, teachers, kids -- and other people I've told about the project -- ask me "When is the album coming out?" I usually dodge this question by saying that we might make an album, we might not, it will depend on how much time the teachers can devote in class, etc etc BS BS...
No matter how many times I deliver this lengthy evasion I still believe it on some level-- I still think I might get around to making a real album.
But of course I never have. I have made some home recordings featuring me performing the songs as well as some GarageBand-quality "albums" with the kids singing and me playing some simple accompaniment. But why haven't I ever tried to make something people would actually enjoy playing again and again? (When I say "people" I mean people who are not parents of children in the class and therefore willing to put up with low quality recordings simply because their child is on them).
It's not because I haven't believed in the songs. Although there are certainly songs that were written for a very specific narrative purpose and wouldn't make sense to someone not watching a live performance of a particular play, most of the tunes I've written for these shows are poppy (poppier than the Dees), easy to sing along with (more so than much of the Dees catalog), super catchy, and often tied into movements. They're very much tunes that someone could enjoy whether or not they were familiar with the story that inspired them.
But as someone without a home studio or the skills to make my own recordings that sound professional (I'm a songwriter and performer but definitely not an engineer, mixer, or producer) I have hesitated to spend money on recordings that are unlikely to make that money back. I've written a lot of good songs over the years but people will only buy so much music -- and if I tried to sell an album, for example, called The Silk That Got Away (the title of last year's absolutely wonderful Silk Road musical) many people would be baffled and ask me things like "Is this for children?" "The Silk Road? Why?" "Does this have that honk-honk song on it?" (They ask these things about every Dees record also)
So I've let these songs disappear and exist mainly in my mind and the minds of the kids who wrote and performed these shows (I still have high schoolers coming up to me wanting to tell me that they were just recently singing some song I wrote with them years ago).
It's pained me. I used to go to a therapist (hasn't everyone in New York?) and I used to tell him about this -- how I felt like I nearly killed myself a few times a year writing and leading these shows only to have them mostly forgotten. He said that I was frustrated because I was "spinning my wheels" (his expression) with these shows, putting in a lot of time and creative energy but not seeing any concrete professional or financial rewards as a result. I protested that these shows have offered many rewards of a more difficult-to-measure variety: the satisfaction of seeing kids who struggle in the classroom come to life as they work on a musical project, the thrill of writing and performing a complete story-in-song for an attentive audience... but my therapist, pragmatist that he was, acknowledged these rewards as valid but immediately resumed pushing me to figure out a way to make my schoolwork pay off. He couldn't be dissuaded from the idea that my school musicals and the process of making them could both be commodities that I could sell for a good profit. I agreed, half-heartedly, to investigate the possibility.
Hamlet: The Album is an attempt to make good on what I told my therapist. The songs we wrote for this show are terrific, but there have been many terrific tunes in the many shows I've co-composed. All that's really different with Hamlet is that I'm trying -- for the first time -- to present one of my school shows to the public in a truly palatable way. We recorded these songs quickly -- all the basic rhythm tracks in one day, nearly all the kid vocals one afternoon, all the overdubbing another day -- but we did most of the work in a real studio, the studio where we're recording the new Dees record. Dean Jones, who's producing that album, recorded us, added a bunch of new, bad-ass guitar parts, and mixed the tracks. We didn't have the album really mastered -- Dean just EQ'd the tracks then put them through a nice limiter -- but I do feel like we've presented these songs the best way we possibly could. Obviously I'm super biased but I think the album sounds really great -- and I really want everyone to hear it. I especially want parents, teachers, and other people connected with schools to hear it so they understand what can happen when I go into a school and am given enough time and resources -- so please pass it on to as many of these folks as you can. Despite the involvement of my bandmates and Dean it's still very much a kid album and we tried to leave enough of their quirks and jerks and weird notes and cryptic lyrics in there so that it would sound like it, like something that was created by actual kids in an actual school.Teachers and parents: your real kids in your real school can do make something just as impressive.
So I don't feel too bad about finally using one of my school projects to promote myself publicly -- and so no kids sue me for stealing their ideas -- I'm giving all the proceeds after expenses to earthquake relief in Japan. I do want to help Japan but I also feel like these songs don't belong to me. They're very much the product of our collaboration and even the ones that I played the biggest role in writing wouldn't have been written outside the unique creative environment that a classroom provides. I also don't want this album to be a vanity project in any way -- for me or the kids. I want all our hard creative work to fuel good works elsewhere.
So download the Hamlet album! We've got to pay this thing off. And once we do, we can start making some money for Japan. That would be cool, wouldn't it?
Still spinning my wheels but now hopefully in the right direction...
L
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Mini-tour wrap-up
Booker Dee (Chris Johnson) and I returned from a two-week trip late last Friday night. We played public shows in Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida, and visited friends, school audiences, and a radio show along the way, stopping also in Tennessee and West Virginia.
We made this jaunt primarily to play two public shows at the Glazer Children's Museum in Tampa, FL on May 14th. I grew up in the Tampa area but I've never brought the whole band there so I was very excited -- and nervous. Otto von Dee (Ely Levin) and Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski) were unable to make the two-week trip but flew down special to play these shows.
By anyone's estimation, the shows went well. We had good-sized crowds of kids and parents, most of whom had never seen us before. They got up and down and did all the interactive nonsense that's part of every DDDs show and many many people stayed after to ask us questions, catch up, have us sign stuff, etc. I got to see old friends and was proud to show off our wonderful band. Ultimately, though, these concerts were just two more shows out of the hundred or more I play every year. It wasn't until the next day, Sunday before last, that I really felt that unique thrill that professional live performers like us only get every once and while.
We played as part of the service at Thonotosassa United Methodist Church, a church where my stepfather Dennis is the pastor. Booker Dee / Chris, as you might know, has a day job as a church choir director and has asked the Dees and other musicians we play with regularly to join him on occasion to flesh out the tunes during the services he music directs in Jersey City so it made sense for us to stop by and help Dennis out. To be honest, though, we didn't really think of this church stop as one of the official Gigs (intentional capital "g") of the tour, just a fun, nice thing to do while we happened to be in Thonotosassa (a ruralish suburb of Tampa near the University of South Florida).
As it turned out, this gig / not gig was by far the most meaningful stop on the tour for me. Not for any religious reasons. Although I like church as a place to go, I'm unsure about what I believe and... I don't want to go into that right now. What made this such a powerful event was the unique enthusiasm of the congregation, a mostly elderly group that stood up to dance with us on "Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga;" sang "He's Got the Whole World," "Great is Thy Faithfulness," and other hymns loud enough to drown out the band; and gave a standing ovation to "Shalom Aleichem," an old sacred Jewish tune that Moby / Ari led. I should mention that Ari is the driving force of one of the grown-up incarnations of the Dees, a band specializing in klezmer and swing primarily for synagogue and other Jewish audiences. We wanted to make sure to share who we truly were with this small church: four friends from different religious and cultural backgrounds who have somehow figured out how to create lots of great music together for years.
This trip made me question whether we should even bother playing for the general public anymore. I'm being dramatic -- I'm not saying we're going to stop doing public shows. But on this trip it was the school audiences (in Lexington, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Atlanta) and that one church group that really made me feel like I was doing something worthwhile. I came back resolved once again to figure out a way to bring our music to new audiences, audiences who we we'll never reach via expensive public concerts, television shows, parenting websites, magazines or any of the other outlets that I spend so much of my time (mostly unsuccessfully) pursuing. Ever since I formed the Dees, I've wanted to be a service-based band, one that not only shares our music as widely as possible but also gives voices to people who aren't usually heard. How to do that better I don't know. Ideas?
Blah blah blah
Lloyd (Ulysses S. Dee)
We made this jaunt primarily to play two public shows at the Glazer Children's Museum in Tampa, FL on May 14th. I grew up in the Tampa area but I've never brought the whole band there so I was very excited -- and nervous. Otto von Dee (Ely Levin) and Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski) were unable to make the two-week trip but flew down special to play these shows.
By anyone's estimation, the shows went well. We had good-sized crowds of kids and parents, most of whom had never seen us before. They got up and down and did all the interactive nonsense that's part of every DDDs show and many many people stayed after to ask us questions, catch up, have us sign stuff, etc. I got to see old friends and was proud to show off our wonderful band. Ultimately, though, these concerts were just two more shows out of the hundred or more I play every year. It wasn't until the next day, Sunday before last, that I really felt that unique thrill that professional live performers like us only get every once and while.
We played as part of the service at Thonotosassa United Methodist Church, a church where my stepfather Dennis is the pastor. Booker Dee / Chris, as you might know, has a day job as a church choir director and has asked the Dees and other musicians we play with regularly to join him on occasion to flesh out the tunes during the services he music directs in Jersey City so it made sense for us to stop by and help Dennis out. To be honest, though, we didn't really think of this church stop as one of the official Gigs (intentional capital "g") of the tour, just a fun, nice thing to do while we happened to be in Thonotosassa (a ruralish suburb of Tampa near the University of South Florida).
As it turned out, this gig / not gig was by far the most meaningful stop on the tour for me. Not for any religious reasons. Although I like church as a place to go, I'm unsure about what I believe and... I don't want to go into that right now. What made this such a powerful event was the unique enthusiasm of the congregation, a mostly elderly group that stood up to dance with us on "Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga;" sang "He's Got the Whole World," "Great is Thy Faithfulness," and other hymns loud enough to drown out the band; and gave a standing ovation to "Shalom Aleichem," an old sacred Jewish tune that Moby / Ari led. I should mention that Ari is the driving force of one of the grown-up incarnations of the Dees, a band specializing in klezmer and swing primarily for synagogue and other Jewish audiences. We wanted to make sure to share who we truly were with this small church: four friends from different religious and cultural backgrounds who have somehow figured out how to create lots of great music together for years.
This trip made me question whether we should even bother playing for the general public anymore. I'm being dramatic -- I'm not saying we're going to stop doing public shows. But on this trip it was the school audiences (in Lexington, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Atlanta) and that one church group that really made me feel like I was doing something worthwhile. I came back resolved once again to figure out a way to bring our music to new audiences, audiences who we we'll never reach via expensive public concerts, television shows, parenting websites, magazines or any of the other outlets that I spend so much of my time (mostly unsuccessfully) pursuing. Ever since I formed the Dees, I've wanted to be a service-based band, one that not only shares our music as widely as possible but also gives voices to people who aren't usually heard. How to do that better I don't know. Ideas?
Blah blah blah
Lloyd (Ulysses S. Dee)
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Our mini-tour: (almost) complete itinerary
The Deedle Deedle Dees are hitting the road next week for a mini-tour. I say "mini" because most of the shows we're playing are going to be smaller-scale two-man gigs featuring me and Booker Dee (Chris Johnson). In addition, we're not going to be doing the relentless schedule of gigs we usually do on these trips (18-25 gigs in two weeks...). Instead, we'll be spending much of the trip rehearsing -- and writing -- tunes for the new album we're going to start tracking with Dean Jones on Memorial Day weekend. We'll also be playing several two-man shows -- a handful that are open to the general public, but most of them at schools, day care centers, retirement homes, churches, synagogues, and other spots that have asked us to come.
We'll send videos from most of our stops featuring new tunes, tunes we're working on, and songs we just feel like singing in a particular place. As always, check our YouTube www.youtube.com/user/singalongwithlloyd for the latest.
There will be at least two full-band shows on this trip and these are going to happen in Tampa, FL (my hometown) at the Glazer Children's Museum. Dees Otto von and Moby (Ely Levin and Ari Dolegowski) are flying down special for these. I've never brought the whole band to the place where I spent the first 18 years of my life -- I can't wait.
Here are all our appearances that are open to the public. When we list a city without a venue it's because we'll be there for school shows or other stuff that's not open to the public (radio tapings, etc). But if you see that we're playing in your town or near it -- and you'd like us to play at your kid's school or another venue, send me an e-mail and maybe we can make it happen. My e-mail is thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
Tuesday, May 10
Lexington, KY - Lexington Public Library
Two-man performances by Ulysses S. Dee and Booker Dee
Two shows: 9am, 10am
FREE
www.lexpublib.org
Wednesday, May 11
Knoxville, TN
Friday, May 13
Tampa, FL
Saturday, May 14
Tampa, FL - Glazer Children's Museum
Two FULL BAND shows: 11:45am, 3pm
Free with museum admission
www.glazermuseum.org
Sunday, May 15
Thonotosassa, FL
Monday, May 16
Jacksonville, FL
Tuesday, May 17
Atlanta, GA - Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta
A two-man performance by Ulysses S. Dee and Booker Dee
12noon
Free with museum admission
http://www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org/
Wednesday, May 18
Chattanooga, TN / Athens, GA
Thursday, May 19
Decatur, GA - Little Shop of Stories
7pm
FREE
http://www.littleshopofstories.com/
Saturday, May 21
Virginia / Maryland
see you soon!
Lloyd (Ulysses S. Dee)
We'll send videos from most of our stops featuring new tunes, tunes we're working on, and songs we just feel like singing in a particular place. As always, check our YouTube www.youtube.com/user/singalongwithlloyd for the latest.
There will be at least two full-band shows on this trip and these are going to happen in Tampa, FL (my hometown) at the Glazer Children's Museum. Dees Otto von and Moby (Ely Levin and Ari Dolegowski) are flying down special for these. I've never brought the whole band to the place where I spent the first 18 years of my life -- I can't wait.
Here are all our appearances that are open to the public. When we list a city without a venue it's because we'll be there for school shows or other stuff that's not open to the public (radio tapings, etc). But if you see that we're playing in your town or near it -- and you'd like us to play at your kid's school or another venue, send me an e-mail and maybe we can make it happen. My e-mail is thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
Tuesday, May 10
Lexington, KY - Lexington Public Library
Two-man performances by Ulysses S. Dee and Booker Dee
Two shows: 9am, 10am
FREE
www.lexpublib.org
Wednesday, May 11
Knoxville, TN
Friday, May 13
Tampa, FL
Saturday, May 14
Tampa, FL - Glazer Children's Museum
Two FULL BAND shows: 11:45am, 3pm
Free with museum admission
www.glazermuseum.org
Sunday, May 15
Thonotosassa, FL
Monday, May 16
Jacksonville, FL
Tuesday, May 17
Atlanta, GA - Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta
A two-man performance by Ulysses S. Dee and Booker Dee
12noon
Free with museum admission
http://www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org/
Wednesday, May 18
Chattanooga, TN / Athens, GA
Thursday, May 19
Decatur, GA - Little Shop of Stories
7pm
FREE
http://www.littleshopofstories.com/
Saturday, May 21
Virginia / Maryland
see you soon!
Lloyd (Ulysses S. Dee)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Set list for our Women's History set at the WXPN Kid's Corner Fest (3/19)
Hey. Here's what we played at the World Cafe yesterday. If you want lyrics, lesson plans, or background info for any of these songs, just search for the titles on this blog. For sing-a-long videos, visit www.youtube.com/user/singalongwithlloyd.I talked to a number of people about visiting schools in the Philly area in the near future. Please write soon if you'd like to do something before the end of this school year.
Lloyd
e-mail: thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com
Nellie Bly
Zora
Little Red Airplane
Sojourner Truth
Drum!
Do the Turnout
Baldy
Abbie Abbie Abbie
Put on the Dress
The Brooklyn Bridge Song
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-GA
Set lists for Mass MoCA school shows (3/18)
Hi teachers and parents! Here's a complete list of the songs we played during our two school shows at Mass MoCA on Friday.
Lyrics and background info for most of these songs can be found on this blog. Just search for the song titles. If you'd like to watch sing-a-long videos, go to www.youtube.com/user/singalongwithlloyd and scroll down through the uploads on the right until you find the song you want.
If you can't find what you're looking for, write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
- Lloyd
9:30 am
Nellie Bly
Henry Box Brown
Growl Growl
Do the Turnout
Baldy
Abbie Abbie Abbie
Put on the Dress
¡Sí Se Puede!
Little Red Airplane
Zora
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
12:30 pm
Little Red Airplane
Nellie Bly
Aaron Burr
Henry Hudson
Put on the Dress
Baldy
¡Sí Se Puede!
Henry Box Brown
Growl Growl
Penny Farthing
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
That top photo of me about to go onstage was taken by Chris Johnson.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Set list for Women's History variety show March 12
Here's what we played at our March variety show at the Knitting Factory yesterday. The show was a big Women's History Month party so we sang about famous women -- and women in our everyday lives.
Audra Tsanos and Jen Milich from AudraRox were there to help us out. We backed them up on a couple of AudraRox tunes, the wonderful traditional song "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," and "Sisters Marching Strong," a great women's history anthem written by songwriter / poet Jen Waller (who had to miss the show due to a broken leg! feel better, JW!)
We were also excited to have Atticus (a Brooklyn middle schooler) join us to play his mandolin along with his teacher, Ari Dolegowski (AKA Moby Dee). His classmates Charlie, Sam, and Paris were, as usual, our emcees.
We've posted lyrics and sing-a-long videos for most of the Dees songs here. If you want lyrics, search for the song title on this blog. If you want a sing-a-long video, go to www.youtube.com/user/singalongwithlloyd and scroll down through the uploads on the right until you see the song you want.
If there's anything you can't find, write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com and I'll send you direct links.
March 12, 2011 setlist
at the Knitting Factory, Brooklyn
Just the Dees
Abbie Abbie Abbie
Sojourner Truth
Little Red Airplane
Do the Turnout
Put on the Dress
w/ Audra and Jen of AudraRox
You're a Rock Star, Too (words and music (c)(p) AudraRox)
Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot? (trad)
Sisters Marching Strong (words and melody by Jen Waller)
Girl Power (words and music (c)(p)AudraRox)
Atticus Kaplan and Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski)
great mandolin tune (I gotta ask Ari what it's called)
Dees + Atticus
Nellie Bly
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
until next time,
Lloyd
Audra Tsanos and Jen Milich from AudraRox were there to help us out. We backed them up on a couple of AudraRox tunes, the wonderful traditional song "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," and "Sisters Marching Strong," a great women's history anthem written by songwriter / poet Jen Waller (who had to miss the show due to a broken leg! feel better, JW!)
We were also excited to have Atticus (a Brooklyn middle schooler) join us to play his mandolin along with his teacher, Ari Dolegowski (AKA Moby Dee). His classmates Charlie, Sam, and Paris were, as usual, our emcees.
We've posted lyrics and sing-a-long videos for most of the Dees songs here. If you want lyrics, search for the song title on this blog. If you want a sing-a-long video, go to www.youtube.com/user/singalongwithlloyd and scroll down through the uploads on the right until you see the song you want.
If there's anything you can't find, write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com and I'll send you direct links.
March 12, 2011 setlist
at the Knitting Factory, Brooklyn
Just the Dees
Abbie Abbie Abbie
Sojourner Truth
Little Red Airplane
Do the Turnout
Put on the Dress
w/ Audra and Jen of AudraRox
You're a Rock Star, Too (words and music (c)(p) AudraRox)
Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot? (trad)
Sisters Marching Strong (words and melody by Jen Waller)
Girl Power (words and music (c)(p)AudraRox)
Atticus Kaplan and Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski)
great mandolin tune (I gotta ask Ari what it's called)
Dees + Atticus
Nellie Bly
Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
until next time,
Lloyd
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Hamlet with second-graders: a peek into the songwriting process
Many of you know that I write lots of songs with kids based on what they're studying. Right now I'm involved in three school songwriting projects, one of which is an original musical based on Hamlet with my wife's second-grade class.
I've found that people often don't totally understand the songwriting with kids thing until they actually experience it in person. I thought it would be fun to share one of my projects online so that teachers and parents can see how it's done.
Just now I posted rough drafts of four songs for the Hamlet show. They're currently in "blah blah" form, which means that kids need to write lyrics to replace the nonsense sounds I'm making on these You Tube videos. They're going to do that for homework tonight -- and they have the option of using these videos to help them. Some kids work better when simply asked to "write a poem" and won't use these videos at all. Others will spend a lot of time crafting words to go with these little tunes.
Another option: Try having kids write lyrics to familiar tunes like "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," etc. I do this with many classes. My wife's kids were ready to jump right into the original songs so I skipped ahead.
By the way, these tunes are all original, written by me, and copyrighted. Feel free to use them in your classroom or home for instructional purposes. Please write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com if you'd like to use them in a performance or for any commercial purpose -- I'll say yes or no depending on what you want to do.
These are all working titles:
Tush Tush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmiaA-TrGMs
Nunnery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv_0sPLyNKg
More Than Kin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaWT5HgCMl8
North by Northwest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YWKj6gC4X8
Lloyd
I've found that people often don't totally understand the songwriting with kids thing until they actually experience it in person. I thought it would be fun to share one of my projects online so that teachers and parents can see how it's done.
Just now I posted rough drafts of four songs for the Hamlet show. They're currently in "blah blah" form, which means that kids need to write lyrics to replace the nonsense sounds I'm making on these You Tube videos. They're going to do that for homework tonight -- and they have the option of using these videos to help them. Some kids work better when simply asked to "write a poem" and won't use these videos at all. Others will spend a lot of time crafting words to go with these little tunes.
Another option: Try having kids write lyrics to familiar tunes like "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," etc. I do this with many classes. My wife's kids were ready to jump right into the original songs so I skipped ahead.
By the way, these tunes are all original, written by me, and copyrighted. Feel free to use them in your classroom or home for instructional purposes. Please write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com if you'd like to use them in a performance or for any commercial purpose -- I'll say yes or no depending on what you want to do.
These are all working titles:
Tush Tush: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmiaA-TrGMs
Nunnery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv_0sPLyNKg
More Than Kin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaWT5HgCMl8
North by Northwest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YWKj6gC4X8
Lloyd
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