For those of you who think family music's become edgier over time, the following kids' song, written a half-century ago by Canadian songwriter Lionel Daunais features:
1) a locked-up kid-dog,
2) humans in cages,
3) dustmites who eat the title character, and, perhaps worst of all,
4) pipe smoking.
In spite of all this, The Secret Mountain has put together The Little Blue Doggy, a book lovingly illustrated by Marie Lafrance including a CD with songs by Daunais performed by Canadian musician Michelle Campagne and her family. You can get an idea of what you're in for by watching the video below. (Warning: includes pipe smoking.) The Little Blue Doggy is out in October.
Michelle Campagne and Family - "The Little Blue Doggy" [Vimeo]
(Yay for HTML5!)
Interview: Roland Stringer (The Secret Mountain)
Founded in 200, The Secret Mountain initially focused solely on music CDs for children in Canada and France. It started released book/CD cominbations in 2003; in 2005, it started releasing titles in the U.S. market. Over that time, though they've covered a broad range of musical artists, from longtime Canadian artists to Trout Fishing in America to a collection of Jewish lullabies from around the world, one theme that runs throughout their collections are an attention to detail and quality in their product.
I recently talked with The Secret Mountain's founder, Roland Stringer, about the genesis of his company, how the book/CD combinations come about, and more about the company's latest release, Sunday in Kyoto.
Zooglobble: What were your earliest musical memories?
Roland Stringer: I was born in 1960, so I was part of that whole wave that grew up on the Beatles. I had that cliched scene of my sisters going crazy because they were watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.
I grew up in a small French-speaking town in Western Canada, so I heard a lot of traditional French music on the radio. As I grew up, in pre-teen years and beyond, I listened to Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel -- these North American artists.
What led to the founding of The Secret Mountain?
By the end of the '80s, I was doing artist management, music publishing, touring, a lot of everything. By chance, one of the artists I was working with did their first children's record in 1990. It was a project for freinds and family, but it went over well. So I produced kids records through the '90s.
In 2000, though, vinyl was gone, and the CD is a piece of plastic. I though it'd be nice to give the kids something more imaginative, involving storytelling, pictures, drawings, with music from around the world. I was wanting to work with illustrators on one end, storytellers on the other, and they really were doing the same thing. I was just coming up with the package.
You know, I was always interested in looking at the vinyl -- I remember studying those album covers from the Who or Genesis.
How do you decide on the music?Video: "Sunday in Kyoto" - Gilles Vigneault
Out today, Sunday in Kyoto is the latest collection of songs from The Secret Mountain. It features the songs of well-known Canadian singer-songwriter Gilles Vigneault translated into English and sung by a host of guest musicians. The title track features five singers - Coral Egan, Thomas Hellman, Patrick Watson, Jessica Vigneault, and Ndidi O -- and while the music has been lodged in my head for days, this video will not help get rid of it. It features the drawings of Stephane Jorisch and is wonderful in its execution. This, my friends, is how you promote a book/CD combo.
Gilles Vigneault's "Sunday in Kyoto" [YouTube]
Listen To This: Songs From the Garden of Eden
The Canadian publisher/label The Secret Mountain has made a splash here in the past year or so with a number of book/CD collections. You might be familiar with their Trout Fishing in America book/disk My Name Is Chicken Joe, but they've also released a number of different more globally-themed collections.
Their most recent collection is Songs From the Garden of Eden, featuring 28 Jewish lullabies and nursery rhymes from around the world. Certainly if you're Jewish you'll find lots of interest here, but even those not of the Jewish faith might be intrigued.
At least take a listen to the two songs here made available for streaming with permission of The Secret Mountain. I particularly like "Yome Yome" ("El Parida" is after the jump).
